Short horror stories

Unknown passenger

I rode the bus to school every morning just like any other high school student. I never thought that anything was strange about the bus ride at first. It was just a school bus, after all. But as time went on, I started to notice something...strange.
The bus driver began to stop at a strange house that appeared to have no one living there. No one even waited outside of the house for the bus, but the bus driver stopped anyway. She'd open the door as if someone was getting on the bus. She'd even say "good morning" and waited as if someone was going into their seat. The bus ride would go on as normal after that, but she did this every day. It honestly weirded me out a lot.
The bus driver wouldn't even let anyone sit in seat 10, where the non existing student apparently sat. For the longest time I didn't say anything. None of the other students ever talked about it. But with each day, it creeped me out more and more. That's when I decided to ask a student sitting in front of me what was going on.
They simply turned around and said: "What are you talking about? That's where Alex sits,"
"Who's Alex?" I asked. "Nobody sits there. Don't you think it's weird that the bus driver just stops for no one?"
"Dude, that's not really nice to call Alex a nobody. He's a really nice guy,"
"I don't know who you're taking about. There's no one in that seat," I replied as I pointed at seat 10.
"Alex is the one sitting in that seat," he responded.
"No one is in that seat though," I said as I felt myself growing more frustrated. There was clearly no one sitting in the empty seat. I never even heard of anyone at our school named Alex in the first place.
"Okay, you're really starting to annoy me. Just stop," the student said as he turned back around in his seat.
I felt very uneasy after the hostile conversation. I was even more confused and creeped out at this point. I knew I wasn't crazy. There was obviously no body at that house and no body in that seat. My curiosity was getting the best of me. I figured I'd just ask the bus driver why she stopped there everyday. It was the best way I'd get an actual answer.
I waited until he finally arrived at school. I let everyone else on the bus get off first so I could talk to the bus driver alone. I approached her as everyone got off the bus.
"Can I ask you a question?" I asked once everyone was gone.
"Oh sure," she said.
"I've noticed that you've been stopping at this house with no one there every day. You even leave seat 10 empty for no reason. Why do you do that?" I explained.
She gave me a blank stare at first. It was like I had asked some kind of complicated question she didn't understand.
"What do you mean by 'there's no student'? That's Alex's stop. He gets on every day and sits by himself in seat 10. He asked me if he could sit by himself since he gets nervous when people invade his space. So I let him," she explained.
"But that's what I don't understand. There's no one in our school named Alex, and there's clearly no body in that seat everyday. It's always empty for no reason,"
"Look, I don't know why you keep saying that the seat is empty, but it's not. In fact, Alex is sitting there right now. He always likes waiting until everyone else gets off, but you're still here,"
I turned around and no one was in the seat. I felt my heart start to race.
"B-but I'm telling you no one is there!" I shouted. I felt my head pounding from all of the confused thoughts in my head.
"Just get off the bus," she sighed. "You both need to get to class,"
"But I'm the only one here!"
"That's enough! Alex has been waiting patiently and you're just acting like he doesn't exist! It's not fair that he'll be late to his class because of you! Now get going!" She snapped.
I stormed off of the bus. I was so confused and frustrated, I just couldn't handle it. My brain felt so overwhelmed with thoughts. As I walked off to go into the school, I felt a tug on my backpack. I turned my head around to see a teenaged boy with bleeding eyes and wrists staring at me as he clutched onto my backpack.
"I'm just no one?" He asked with a twisted smile.
I darted into the school as quickly as I could. None of this felt real. I couldn't believe what I had seen with my own eyes. From that day on, I saw Alex everyday just like everyone else. His eyes were constantly gushing out blood. It didn't seem to bother anyone else. I guess they were use to it. I regretted ever saying anything. I would've much rather never seen Alex. He seems to follow me to every class. Not only that, but he always turns his head around while we're sitting on the bus just to stare at me with that sickening smile.