At the end of a shadowy, cobblestone-paved road on the outskirts of a city completely covered in fog, there exists a bus stop. The stop only appears at 3:33 AM, and it's impossible to find unless you are invited there.
The bus itself is very plain. Rows of plush seats, sturdy poles, and worn handles to hold onto seem to go on forever. A sight so uninteresting that most would ignore it without a second thought.
But voices whisper here and there that the bus is much more than it appears. Above the tin roof, there exists an abnormality in the space-time: a gathering place for dead children.
The children there are tied to a bargain; in exchange for being able to remain in the human world, each of them must prove their worth by repeating their ends over and over again, searching for a way that could have saved them from their endless fate of deathless death.
But dying is said to be only one of the grim parts of the Ride. Betrayal, despair, hopelessness...
They all go around and around, like the Wheels on the Bus.
When Jane Madarang's neighbor Natalie kills herself and leaves behind cryptic instructions, it's up to Jane and her classmates to unearth deadly secrets.
*****
Natalie Driscoll is dead.
She threw herself out a window and left her neighbor Jane to unravel their town's darkest secrets. Following Natalie's instructions leads Jane to three other high school students who all have something to hide. The four of them must carry out Natalie's final errand while solving the mysteries written in her diary. But the secrets they unearth may be far more dangerous than what they ever imagined.
Content and/or trigger warning: This story contains scenes of suicide, violence and murder that may be triggering for some readers.
[[word count: 100,000-150,000 words]]