Desi Horror Stories

Death Bus

Raj finished logging in his details for the month by 10:30 p.m. just as the last of the cleaning staff was vacating the premises. With a skip in his step, he exited the office, bidding a cheerful goodbye to the night watchman. He had reason to be happy. For the sixth month in a row, he had met the quota for selling insurance policies. He would surely win Employee of the Year. But right now, it was time to go home to his family and relax with a drink.

The road outside was nearly empty. This was Colaba, the busy office hub of South Mumbai. There were all offices here, which was why this part of the town bore a deserted look after sundown. Raj didn't mind, though. He often worked late. All he needed now was to take the bus that went directly to his home in Prabhadevi. He waited at the bus stop. He'd have had a bite to eat but the vendors had long gone for the day. Their empty stalls lined up the sidewalk like the skeletons of a dead day.

Twenty minutes passed but no bus arrived. Three other men had been waiting at the bus stop, but they left one by one, looking for an alternative mode of transport. The last man, as he left, told Raj, "No use waiting. Seems like the buses have gone on a sudden strike." But Raj hadn't heard about any strike, and how could it start in the middle of the day? His job had also taught him to be persistent, and so he waited.

His patience was rewarded. Twenty more minutes later, a bus arrived.

Raj smiled as he saw the vehicle approaching from the distance, but his smile vanished soon. This was not one of those red BEST buses. Instead, this was a bus painted all black. He had never seen such a kind of bus. But, there were people sitting inside, and it did look like a public transport bus. The bus stopped next to him, and while he deliberated, the conductor shouted out of habit, "Don't you want to enter?"

"Will this bus go to Prabhadevi?" Raj asked.

"This is your father's bus. It will go everywhere," the conductor said irately.

Any person living in Mumbai is used to such foul-mouthed talk, and Raj took no offense. It is, in fact, part of the therapy that keeps public workers sane under their huge work pressure. He didn't waste another moment and got in from the front door.

The bus started as soon as he stepped in. Still looking for the best seat among the already occupied ones, Raj lost his footing sharply and fell on the front seat. "Hey, easy, easy!" he yelled at the driver, who just spat out of the window in response. Raj sat on the seat where he had fallen. He was glad to be inside at least, and he stretched his feet and yawned. Then he plugged in his ear-pods and immersed himself in the latest hits.

It was about half an hour later that Raj began to feel something was amiss. The bus was going along fine, and he was on the correct route, but the strange thing (which he just realized) was that he hadn't seen a single person get off the bus or get on it. Come to think of it, the bus hadn't even stopped anywhere. It hadn't stopped! As if to confirm it, they approached a bus stop at that very moment, a busy one with people waiting in an orderly queue, but the bus simply passed by, zipping precariously close to the first man in the queue. Raj wanted to say something to the driver, but then another thought entered his mind and he froze. As if to confirm something, he leaned out of the window and looked back at the fast-receding bus stop. What he realized then made his blood run quicker—no one at the bus stop had noticed the bus.

Why did they not see the bus?

Uneasy now, he stuffed his ear-pods into his bag and looked behind. The passengers were still there, all right, engrossed in whatever it was they were doing. Raj tried to catch the attention of at least one of them. A smile would have reassured him. They were of all kinds—an old couple, officegoers, a pregnant lady, and a snotty-nosed child. But none of them as much as turned to look at him. There was something they were looking at outside, obstinately so, but it was odd because the passengers were looking out on both sides of the bus like that, out of their nearest windows.