The Night Bus

FORTUNE

"I went to a fortune teller once."

"Pretty ridiculous for a guy who doesn't believe in supernatural beings," Manila laughed.

"I just wanted to see if it was a scam or not," Alec clarified.

"They're all scams!" She huffed.

"Pretty ridiculous for a girl who believes in supernatural beings."

"It's not ridiculous. Humans don't have the power to play God," Manila explained, "anyway, tell me what happened."

"Two years ago, I went to Vegas for a weekend with my friends, Ashton and Charlie.

It was exactly like everyone and every movie had described it. The fluorescent lights were blinding, most of the girls that I came across were in the entertainment industry and the streets were awake at all times. Also, the clubs and casinos were pretty damn amazing.

Since we were young and naive, we thought of ways cool ways to waste our money and guess what?"

"You thought visiting a fortune teller was a good idea?"

"Yep," he simpered, "we drove to a place called 'Meet Celeste'. I didn't know what to expect. It looked very..normal- maroon drapes, a wooden table and a woman who wasn't wearing a turban. The only thing unusual was the fortune teller's eyes. One of them was grey and another was green.

She, Celeste, asked me dull and typical questions, which I suppose was part of the 'fortune telling'.

I wanted to find out if she was a phoney or not so I asked her to tell me anything she knew about my past that I wanted to hide."

"And did she?" Manila interrupted.

"No, but I played along. I didn't have anything to hide. According to her, my biggest secret was that I stole money from my mum and that's when I knew she was a fake. I stopped believing anything she said after that."

"Of course, she was a fake," Manila smiled, "What did she say about your future though?"

"She said that I was grave danger yet nothing remotely dangerous has happened to me in the past 2 years."

"Do you think she was referring to this? Getting stuck in a bus in a foreign country sounds like bad luck."

"Maybe," Alec glanced at his watch, "I don't think we're ever going to leave this place. It's 3.15 a.m."

Manila sighed and stared out the window, memorising the atmosphere. It was a clement night and the sky was clear but she was certain it would start raining.

"The calm before the storm," she whispered.