Don't wait at the bus stop if you aren't prepared.

Transcript:

It’s 3:06 am. The 18th of July. I wish the sky did something I was used to. Tonight, the sky is filled with the crumbling parking lot of a Sears department store.

I check my watch to confirm that the bus is now 7 minutes late. My Phone died 18 minutes ago at 58% so I can’t even use that to distract me from the person sitting on the bench next to me.

I’ve never seen them before but I know I remember them.

With no sign of a bus and the silence building up, the stranger turned to me. They were as regular as humanly possible. Mid-length brown hair, chocolate brown eyes, shallow features, a generic band t-shirt and jean shorts.

When they spoke, I swear I could hear their voice coming from every direction. Their words rolled off their tongue like honey, sweet and ensnaring.

“Hey [REDACTED], I couldn’t help but notice, was that a faint look of a memory in your eyes?”

“H-how did you know my name? W-what are you talking about??”

Now they looked longer than before. Limbs stretched out beside them. Their hands didn’t have enough fingers and they were clenched tight. There was no chin that defined them, now their nose took that role.

“That’s not important. Keeping up your end of the deal is.”

If I could’ve responded, I would have. But whatever it was that took up the seat beside me was now holding my mouth. I felt for my face to find nothing below the nose. Not even a hollow space behind the skin. Just one continuous skull bone.

“We can’t have people like you remembering everything. It would be too soon.”

The memories come back in fragments.

This bus stop.

This creature.

Glowing eyes?

A hand shake? But that wasn’t a hand I was grasping, whatever was on the end of that arm was not fing-

“You weren’t supposed to remember who I was. Now look what you’ve done. I almost feel bad about this.”

I check my phone as the bus pulls up. 57% charge, the time read 3:04am.

Finally, only 5 minutes late.

The Bus driver looks past me at the empty bus stop to check for any other passengers only to quickly shut the door behind me as my foot barely makes it past the threshold.

He saw the startled expression on my face and I saw his but he tried to cover it insisting that he only wanted to keep the bugs out.

C02

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