Tales To Tell In The Dark

It Doesn't Make Sense

First

I always take the bus to go to school. One day, on the bus I usually take, something odd happened. Because the usual old lady was there, it went until the end. Because it's painful.

And it was alright until then, but a huge thing which was like a paper bag but not made of paper was there, and something like a ball was there, and so many people wearing top hats were there too. Isn't that strange? Because it was just driving on a normal road. Still, the bus was driving normally for a long time until it rounded a corner on the left and suddenly he slammed on the brakes. And because it literally screeched to a halt without warning, the people inside lost their balance and they nearly all fell. I was OK because I was seated.

But the strangest thing happened just before I got to the school. The bus usually drove past a large park, but they were doing some work on the road so the bus had to make a detour and go to the one with a tunnel on the way.

And just when the bus reached the middle of the tunnel, suddenly it rattled and stopped. Of course I thought that was strange.

And before I knew it, the bus had already arrived at the bus stop in front of the school.I was thinking; Oh? That was strange. But I just got off the bus anyway and went to the school as usual. Everyone who was on the bus is dead, though.

Second

This is what my friend told me. He used to take a bus to go to a school in Kanagawa, and often saw this strange old woman on it. He couldn't put a finger on what it was that made him think she was strange; she didn't seem crazy or had a particularly unusual appearance . He could only say that she had a sinister air about her.

Outwardly, the old woman might have been a widow from a respectable family. She looked stoic and aloof, and at the same time seemed like a person not of this world, said my friend. He wasn't the type to believe in the sixth sense, nor had he ever had any supernatural experience before, but every-time he saw this old woman on the bus he had an ominous feeling that 'Something is going to happen,' and he was overcome by inexplicable fear.

One winter day he caught the bus to the school as usual. Soon the old woman got on board too; and as soon as she was there another passenger, who had already been on the bus, went over to speak to her. The person who spoke to the old woman was a man wearing a top hat, who would be best described as an 'elderly gentleman'. He sat in a priority seat. Near to him stood two other men in their forties, wearing outfits similar to the old man and each carrying a large bag.

The elderly gentleman and the old woman exchanged a few words, although my friend couldn't hear what they talked about. And then all of a sudden the elderly gentleman yelled, 'I will not allow you to do that!!' His voice was so loud that not only my friend but everyone around them turned around their heads to see what was going on. At the same time the two companions of the gentleman were taking out something that looked like orbs out of their bags. My friend had no idea what these spheres were but for a brief moment an image of a suicide bombing flashed through his mind and he was terrified, wondering what might happen next. But for some time nothing happened, and the gentleman and the old woman kept glaring at each other without words.

An awkward silence followed. My friend didn't remember for how many seconds or minutes the glaring continued, but it all ended when suddenly the driver hit on the brakes and the bus came to a halt. The driver announced; 'I'm sorry about the sudden stop. There is road work ahead so we will have to make a detour,' and the bus went into a different road from the usual one. A while later, it went suddenly dark outside the window and my friend wondered, 'oh, are we in a tunnel?' and that was where his memory ended. When he knew it he was lying on a bed in a hospital.

Actually what happened was that someone found my friend lying unconscious on a road and called an ambulance, and my friend was carried to the hospital. We don't know what happened to the other passengers. I looked through the next day's newspaper and tried to find out if there were any articles about the bus, but there were none. And that was the end of the whole matter.

The reason I gave up my search so easily was that my friend, once he recovered his consciousness, seemed to have been left with slight brain damage, and it was hard to make sense of what he was saying. This episode too is a result of what I managed to piece together after listening to him patiently over two days. His words alone were just pure gibberish.

My friend was released from the hospital soon after and, in his own way, he tried to find out what happened, but he told me that no one took him seriously, even on the internet. After that his condition got worse and worse, and finally he passed away last summer.

I talked about this with a friend at uni who is into occult stuff, and his guess was that the old woman was some kind of evil spirit, and the elderly gentleman a sort of exorcist, but I think that's thinking too much.

Replying after a reader's comment:

Sure, I did try talking to his family. But it wasn't like we had been friends from birth, we became friends only after we got into high school. I met his parents for the first time in the hospital, you know? And his mum was like so small and weak and crying all the time; I couldn't interrogate her like that. All they told me was they have already called the police and a report will be sent to the school.

The school didn't have a visit from the police and it looks like the police made a conclusion that ' my friend fell down unconscious → his mind became deranged/what he says is all nonsense.' Well, I'd think the same if I were the police.