10 Paranormal Stories

by Lamees Alhassar

  “I am sure you can see that even the odds are no longer in your favour, Father. Right now, all I want to do is to deal with you. I am going to deal with you as mercilessly as you tried to deal with me!” Gabriel roared as the car sped away.

  THE END

  The Assignment

  CHAPTER 1 The bus was driving up the hill. Inside there were about thirteen passengers, all of them dressed in different styles of suits. There were men and women, and most of them were chatting excitedly amongst themselves.

  The driver was the only person not dressed in any corporate outfit. Already in his sixties, he was much older than the lot behind him. He had a baseball cap on his balding head and was dressed in a blue and brown uniform.

  For a brief moment, he took his eyes off the road ahead of him to glance at the people behind through his rearview mirror. His eye caught sight of one of the women. She was standing very close to him. Alarmed, he turned around to look at her.

  The woman smiled and sat down in the empty seat by his side. “I’m sorry. I hope I did not startle you.”

  “You almost did, miss. Why are you here instead of being seated at the back?”

  “I am tired of being seated behind. Do you mind if I join you?” she asked.

  The driver shook his head. “No, of course not. You can sit down with me if you’d like. Though I must warn you that I think I might be a bit boring for you, unlike your colleagues back there.”

  The woman nodded. “Never mind. I would not want to disturb your concentration on your driving. I just want to get a better view from up front here. I always love to be in the front of any moving vehicle.”

  The driver looked at her. She was dressed in a darkblue trouser suit and had very long hair which almost reached her waist. “Really? That means you are a good driver?”

  “Not really. I should be taking my driving test by next week. It should have been this week, but I had to postpone it because of this retreat that my office suddenly fixed for some staff of our branch.”

  “Is that so? So you all attended a retreat? What is it like? Lots of singing and dancing or what?” the driver asked.

  Her laughter was warm and sincere. “You are quite funny, do you know that? Anyway, I work in a bank. Now, every once in a while, the regional office decides to organize some training sessions for staff in that region. Every branch is expected to nominate those who would attend such training sessions. This time around, the nomination fell on me and a couple of others.”

  “I see. And couldn’t you have opted not to go this time around, so that someone else could take your place?”

  The woman shook her head. “It is not easy to get taken off the list once your name has been submitted by the branch. Besides, it really can be quite insightful and educational, you know? You get to learn so many new things that you would ordinarily never have known if you did not attend.”

  “So in that case you should not have any regrets about missing your driving test. I mean, what you did was for the good and growth of your career.”

  “Yes, you are right about that. And I got to meet with some new friends and others as well. It was interesting all through,” the woman said.

  “And yet you don’t want to sit with your colleagues in the back?”

  The woman shook her head. “No, my own colleagues decided to return by train. I am the only staff that decided to take a bus back.”

  “I see. But why would you decide to take a bus back and not go with your friends?”

  “You mean take the trains or fly? No. I rather love to watch the road and see the moving traffic. Besides, I had an assignment that I needed to carry out. And I can only carry it out when I am on the road, either driving or being driven.”

  “An assignment? What kind of assignment would that be?”

  The woman looked at the driver and smiled broadly. “Don’t worry. You’ll soon see.”

  By now, the bus had already gotten to the top of the hill and was about to begin its descent. As the driver engaged another gear, he turned to look at the woman seated by his side. She had opened her handbag and brought out two bottles of water.

  “You must be thirsty. Care for some water?” she asked, offering him one bottle.

  “My, that is mighty thoughtful of you. I was already beginning to feel thirsty before we began the climb. I was even thinking of getting a bottle or two whenever we arrived at the next gas station. Thank you for saving me the stress,” the driver said.

  “No problem. I am glad to be of service to you in my own way.”

  “So, the bank you work for. Is it like a savings bank or something different?” the driver asked, after he had taken a gulp.

  “What do you know about banks?”

  “Well, I know some of you save money for folks like us. And others give money out as loans,” the driver remarked as he took another sip from the bottle.

  “That is basically it. You can save and borrow from banks,” the woman said.

  “Then in that case, maybe I will open an account with your bank so that you could loan me some money.”

  “Really? What would you need to borrow money for?”

  “Does one need to ask or think about it? Of course, there are several things that a man of my age would need additional money for.”

  The woman looked at him as he took another sip from his bottle of water. “Is that so? Like what and what?”

  “Are you serious? No, you cannot seriously be asking me what an elderly man like me would need additional money for.”

  “But I am, sir. Tell me, what would you need additional money for?”

  “For crying out loud. There are a million things I could do with the additional money. I mean, I could start my own transport business instead of driving for this company. I could finally take a vacation with my wife, go and see the Bahamas.”

  “So you want to start your own business and go on a vacation?” the woman asked.

  The driver nodded and took another sip. “Who wouldn’t want to? Especially the vacation. I hear that the Bahamas is a very lovely place to visit at this time of the year.”

  “Is it? And what makes you think that you are ever going to visit it in this lifetime?”

  The woman’s last remark sounded like a bombshell. At that same moment, the driver felt the steering wheel slip away from his hands. He struggled to steady the bus, and in the process the bus slipped off from the road, its tyres picking up dust and gravel.

  The driver blinked and shook his head. He turned to look at the woman by his side. “I’m sorry about that. That is strange. I must have lost my focus back there. But what was that you said about my vacation?”

  The woman was watching him through eyes that seemed unusually and suddenly cold. “I asked you, whatever made you think that you were ever going to visit the Bahamas in this lifetime?”

  The driver was dumbfounded. And the expression on his face displayed his surprise at her remark. “But, but, but why would you say such a thing? Why do you think I am not going to visit the Bahamas?”

  “That is very easy to answer, old man. Because I know you will not even make it out of this bus alive.”

  The words fell on the driver’s eardrums like rocks falling from a cliff high above. At that same moment, the driver observed that he was feeling extremely tired and dizzy. His vision of the road ahead was seriously beginning to blur and he could barely make out the objects ahead of him.

  He felt sweat break out on his forehead and struggled to loosen his shirt. Instinctively, he glanced at the bottle of water in his hands. It was still half-full. As he watched the liquid contents, he observed that there were small bubbles rising from inside the bottom of the bottle. The bubbles were coming from a small white tablet that was still dissolving.

  And then it hit him. He had been drugged.

  He turned to look at the woman by his side. He was not bothered by the cold expression that was still on her face. He just observed that even though she had already opened her own bottle
of water, she had not yet taken a drink from it. How could she? he wondered to himself. After all, he could observe the same small bubbles inside her own bottle of water.

  “What did you give to me?” the driver asked, in a voice that sounded like a slur to him.

  The woman patted his hand. “Something to make my assignment much easier, old man.”

  “Why? Why are you doing this? What are you doing?” the man gasped.

  “Shhh. We don’t want to alert or alarm the passengers seated behind, do we? And besides, you really don’t need to find out the answers to your many questions. Just relax. In a matter of seconds or minutes, everything will be over,” the woman whispered.

  The bottle of water slipped from his hand and fell to the floor, just as his leg slipped off from the accelerator pedal. The woman stood up from her seat and pushed the drugged driver off from his driving seat. His body fell down in a heap on the floor, while his hand still held onto the steering wheel.

  The woman expertly slid into the driver’s seat and grabbed the steering wheel. She shoved aside the unconscious driver’s hand and then engaged another gear. She then rammed her foot down on the accelerator, forcing the bus to lurch forward and begin to pick up tremendous speed.

  By now, the other passengers had begun to express alarm.

  “Hey, what is going on?” one of them asked.

  “Why is the driver on the floor?” someone else demanded.

  “Hey, lady. What are you doing?” another asked.

  “Why is the bus moving so fast?” another one asked.

  The woman glanced at them over her shoulder. “Don’t worry, folks. Just relax. The driver is not feeling too well so I am taking control of the bus for the next couple of seconds.”

  “Is this a joke or what? What do you mean a couple of seconds?” someone shouted back.

  “Because it is just a couple of seconds that I need before I will have completed my assignment,” the woman replied, holding her foot down on the accelerator.

  “Are you insane? What assignment? Would you stop the bus right now?” someone shouted.

  By now the bus had picked up so much speed and was racing down the hill. Everyone on the bus was shouting and screaming. Some had fallen off their seats, while others were clutching onto each other, too scared to make a move.

  “That woman is insane!” another person said.

  “We have got to stop her before she crashes us!” another suggested.

  “Quick. Let’s get her off the steering wheel!” another said.

  The woman looked through the rearview mirror and saw the three men advancing towards her. She did not need a seer to tell her that they were going to try to wrestle the steering wheel out of her hands.

  She smiled and began to twist and swerve the steering wheel to and fro. As she did, the speeding bus began to rock back and forth, in the process destabilizing the three advancing men. They were forced to grab onto the nearest seats to prevent from being tossed aside.

  But the bus was already rocking too much. And its speed was already too excessive.

  Already, the bus was approaching the base of the hill. The woman could see some of the men struggling to get up. Others had been able to stabilize themselves and were slowly coming towards her in the front.

  She glanced at the floor beside her. The elderly driver was shaking his head, trying to sit up. He was already beginning to stir.

  The woman knew that the odds were no longer going to be in her favour. She had to do something quickly.

  CHAPTER 2 The driver on the floor had now fully recovered his consciousness and was able to sit upright. As his memory became clearer and he became more familiar with his environment, he looked behind and saw the men who were advancing towards him.

  “Driver! Stop that madwoman before she kills us all!” one of them shouted.

  The driver turned to look at the person in his driver’s seat. He recognized the woman. She was the one who had been talking to him a while ago, the one who had given him the bottle of water to drink.

  But she was no longer driving the bus. Rather, she had left the steering wheel and had folded her hands across her chest. Her eyes were closed and her head was lifted upwards. It was as if she was in a trance and was completely oblivious of the impending danger.

  But how could she let go of the steering wheel and allow them to be moving so fast? the driver wondered.

  The driver cursed and struggled to get to her. As he did, the most bizarre thing happened.

  The other men were just a couple of seats from where the woman was when all of a sudden, the woman seemed to become engulfed in thick, black smoke. Everyone’s visibility was temporarily obscured in the speeding bus.

  When the smoke cleared, the driver’s seat was completely empty, and the woman was nowhere to be found.

  One of the men shouted and pointed. Everyone’s attention focused on the road ahead.

  Another person shouted.

  The driver, who had previously been feeling groggy and dizzy, was now wide awake and alert. He jumped into his driving seat and struggled to steer the bus. But his efforts proved futile.

  The bus ran off the road at a very high speed. It seemed like it was propelled from a launch pad as it shot through the air and began to summersault several times. The screams of the passengers were drowned by the continuous flipping and crashing of the bus.

  By the time the bus had stopped somersaulting, it ended up upside down way off the road, deep inside the rocky plains that surrounded the main road. There was a lot of smoke emitting from the wreckage.

  The driver tumbled off his seat and landed hard on the roof of the upturned bus. He turned and as he did, he winced in pain.

  He looked behind but could not make out much in the smoke that was all around. Neither could he hear any sound. He turned and looked in front of him. He could see the shattered windscreen. He had to get out of the bus through there, he thought to himself.

  He began to crawl towards the shattered windscreen. There were several cuts and bruises all over his face, hands, and other parts of his body. He coughed and struggled to push through the space in the shattered windscreen. But it was difficult. His right leg was numb, and it felt as if he was dragging a piece of heavy dead weight. It must be broken, the driver thought. But he was determined to get out of the wreckage. He pulled himself again.

  As he continued to struggle to get out, his eyes caught sight of the environment outside. It was still very bright, and he could clearly see the rocky plain outside. And that was when he saw her again.

  He could not be mistaken. It was the same woman who had been on the bus a while ago. She was standing afar, watching the upturned bus, watching him struggle to get through the windscreen.

  She was not moving. She just sat on a piece of rock, watching him. Watching and waiting.

  But what could she be waiting for? the driver wondered. He knew that she was not normal. Something was just not right about her. After all, she had caused this accident, drugged him, and then disappeared in the most bizarre of ways. And now she was simply watching him, without bothering to help.

  And then it hit him.

  The driver first heard the crackles before he saw the hungry flames begin to leap from the back towards where he was at the front. Now he could understand why there had been so much smoke earlier. The fire had already been festering. Now it had become a burning inferno.

  Alarmed at his impending demise, the driver made a last effort to pull himself through the shattered windscreen. But his lifeless leg was pulling him backwards, working against his efforts to crawl out to safety.

  If only he could get rid of this damned leg, the driver thought. But it was hopeless to think such. And time was running out. By now, he had managed to get to the windscreen. He had even succeeded to push it out and pull himself halfway through the wreckage.

  But he was too late.

  Momentarily he could feel the wind blowing on his face. And then he could clearly see the
mysterious woman looking at him from the rock on which she was comfortably seated. He reached out his hand, as if to beckon to her for help, help which he knew she was not going to render to him or any of the passengers.

  And then he screamed as the hungry flames engulfed the lower part of his body and began to crawl up his chest, and to his neck. As the flames began to eat up his hair, he caught one more glimpse of the woman and a thought occurred to him: that she had made mention of an assignment.

  But the driver never got to find out what that assignment was supposed to have been. The bus suddenly exploded and was engulfed in a blazing inferno of fire, smoke, and heat.

  From afar, the woman nodded and stood up. She watched the bus continue to burn some more. There was a coldness in her expressionless face as she watched the blazing inferno.

  It was not long before she heard the approaching sound of sirens, as emergency services hurried towards the scene of the accident.

  The woman calmly folded her hands across her chest and looked upwards to the skies. Black smoke from nowhere suddenly engulfed her and she disappeared.

  CHAPTER 3 There were three women inside the room. Each of them was wearing a black coat. They were seated around a circular table in separate chairs. There was one empty seat.

  The only illumination in the room was provided by some sconces on the wall.

  There was a sound of something popping, and black smoke filled the room suddenly. By the time it had cleared, a fourth person was in their midst. It was the woman from the bus.

  She walked up to the table and sat down on the fourth seat that had been empty. “I greet you all, my sisters,” she said, with her head bowed down.

  “Greetings, Sister Lucy. Why are you so late for our meeting?” one of the other women asked.

  “I apologise, Sister Leader. I just completed my assignment for the week. I came right from the scene,” Lucy replied.

  The sister leader nodded. “I see. So what were you able to accomplish, Sister Lucy?”