Horror Stories • Volume 1 •

Blank Expression

I'm a person who typically believes in supernatural forces. Almost every person I admitted this to tell me that I'm a delusional mess who needs to get a better grip on what is real and what isn't.

Those types of people don't have an understanding of what could be out there. At least that's my honest and brutal opinion.

I must admit, in my early teen years, I wasn't one to believe in these things. My opinion about the paranormal was rather neutral. I wouldn't attack anyone who believed in ghosts and whatnot unless they harassed me and forced me to share the same view, plain and simple.

However, one particular experience shifted my whole view on the subject, permanently.

I was 18 at the time. I had just finished post secondary school and was heading off into college. As one final goodbye to my parents, I decided to visit them so we could have our last face-to-face family time before having none for the next 5 years of our lives.

Now I had already moved into an apartment comfortably sat just a few minutes away from the college I was going to, but the catch was that it was at least 3 hours away from my parent's home. 5 hours if I had to catch the bus.

Unfortunately for me, I still didn't have a license so I had to resort to the second option.

I was quietly sat down on a rather uncomfortable spot, looking out the window. It was snowing a little and so I was in a sort of trance looking at the snowflakes. The bus stopped momentarily and from the corner of my eye, I saw someone get on the bus. That same person took a seat next to me. It was a young lady with brown hair. She had brown eyes and was wearing a cozy looking outfit.

No small talk happened between us. Knowing my anti-social tendencies and high chance of making conversations awkward, I didn't attempt an exchange.

Strangely enough, that lady stopped at the same stop I got off on. At the time, I thought it was a coincidence and made nothing of it. I remember the weird look she gave me when she passed by. She practically sped-walked off the bus so she was in front of me. She looked back at me with an unsettling blank expression on her face before, out of the blue, saying:

"Hi Victor."

That caught me off guard quite a lot and I abruptly stopped. Before I could give a response, she walked off. I just shook it off and kept walking forward.

Eventually I arrived at my parent's house and was warmly greeted with a cup of coffee by my family. We went inside, had a 30 minute long conversation about growing up before a certain topic arose. If I can recall it correctly, it went something along the lines of this:

Mom: "I'm so proud of you Victor, you are finally becoming a man!"

Dad: "That's my boy. I remember so many memories of you as a little child."

Me: "I surely do as well. Like when I used to be a little coward when I got my own room."

Dad: "Oh yes! You always had me check for monsters in your room every night. But you always had me check for what you called the 'lady with a scary face'.

What my father said caught my attention rather quickly. That's when my mind went to the lady I had seen when getting off the bus. I had a sudden thought in my head which seemed rather irrational, so I went on to ask my father about it.

Me: "How exactly did I describe her?"

Dad: "Well, I expected it to be very imaginative but to my surprise, it wasn't. You told me she had a constant blank expression on her face and that she had brown hair, brown eyes and was wearing winter clothes. You said she was always next to your bedside table, staring at you with no expression. I must admit that at one point we got a bit worried about it since you said she frequently visited you. So we got a priest to drive her out of the house to calm ourselves down. After that, you told us that you never saw her again."

When my father said that, I remember freezing in place. I specifically remember my hands shaking, causing some of the coffee in the cup to spill on the floor.

My parents asked me what was wrong and I explained that I saw her come off the bus with me. They were as confused and creeped out as I was.

Its been a few years since that happened, approximately 10 to be exact. I graduated college and university. I now have a job as a car mechanic. My father unfortunately passed away and my mother is now in a home due to difficult circumstances and personal reasons.

Now, why am I re-telling a tale that happened over a decade ago? To be honest, I wouldn't have. What drove me to do so is the fact that I saw that lady again a few days ago. In the same place, on the same bus, on the way to visit my mother with the same, blank expression on her face...