by Shannon Cook
“Good work!” Detective Hugo complemented Kate.
“Just doing my job,” Kate replied. “Now, if you'll pardon me, I have a long drive back home!” The two detectives shook hands and Kate headed to Luke's bus garage.
A few hours later, Kate arrived at the bus garage and went into Luke's office. She could see he was exhausted. Bags under his eyes. “You should go home and get some rest, sir!” Kate instructed.
“I can't,” Luke replied. “I won't! Not until all this is done!”
Kate sat down and showed Luke all the photos she had taken from Dick's auto shop. “The bus you had purchased should not be on the road! It isn't safe!” She told him that once his missing bus is recovered, he should immediately get rid of it and cut his losses.
She also mentioned that she was able to find out that Robin and Jayme were not in any danger, that she was aware of! However, she didn't mention that bus 340 was just at her house the other day!
“I'm glad they aren't in any danger!” Luke said relived. “How do you know?”
“Sightings,” she responded. “I'll keep you updated if I have any more information.” Kate gathered up her evidence folder and left.
Later that evening, on bus 340, Jayme was still trying to comprehend everything that occurred at Frank's house. “My birth mother wanted to have sex with me?!” she asked Robin.
Robin shrugged. “She said she didn't recognize you as her daughter,” she replied.
“How?” Jayme asked. “I sincerely don't believe that! She was dead too! She had to have recognized me!”
Robin knew her wife had a good point! There was something a little odd about Jayme's biological mother! “I don't think money problems were the only reason you were given up,” Robin softly stated to her wife.
“I think you're right,” Jayme replied. She pulled out her cell phone and the battery was dead! “Great," she sighed. “Can I use your phone?”
“Nope,” Robin replied. “My battery died the second we stepped onto this bus, and I had a full charge!”
Jayme wanted to try to contact her old foster parents to try to figure out the real reason her parents gave her up. “She gave me the creeps,” Jayme stated.
“She was a bit, odd,” Robin admitted. “Horrible kisser!”
Jayme glared at Robin, “I thought you two were only kissing on the cheek!"
“We were,” Robin stated. “Honestly, I wasn't feeling anything during it! Nothing, her face was chilly, which was strange!" She looked Jayme in the eyes, and said, “imagine my horror when she vanished and I realized I was pretending to make out with a ghost!”
Jayme laughed a little. “The look on your face was priceless!”
Later that evening, Kate, Mandy, Lee, and Barb sat around the table and played cards together. It was evident that Kate was disturbed by something. “What's on your mind, my dear?” Lee asked.
Kate was having a difficult time trying to get the photos of the bus's accident scene and the photos of the victim's dead bodies out of her mind! It was the most gruesome thing she has ever seen in her years of being in law enforcement! “I wish I could talk about it, but I can't,” she replied.
“Don't be so down,” Lee said. “You are brave, strong, and one of the best people I know!” He smiled trying to cheer his daughter-in-law up,
“Thank you," Kate replied. “it's just I seen something today that will probably traumatize me for the rest of my life!” She took a deep breath and told them that she has seen the photos from the accident scene that involved the missing bus she was in search of. “It was sickening!”
Kate described the photos in great detail as everyone sat in horror! “The driver's body was strapped in the driver's seat, but his head was in the rear of the bus!” she panicked! “That bus was drenched in blood!”
“Kate,” Mandy interrupted, “I think you need some rest, you had a difficult day.”
Kate agreed and left the table and went to Mandy and her bedroom. She didn't bother to change into her nightclothes. Instead, she laid in bed in her uniform and stared at the ceiling with the light on. When she was assigned to this case, she wasn't expecting it to have such a personal connection with her.
She flashed back to that night Veronica and she had that argument and Veronica took her car and crashed it! Oh how she wished her brother, James was still alive so she could call him and talk to him officer to officer for advice!
Kate took a deep sigh, leaned over, and turned off the light on her nightstand. She closed her eyes and was awoken by a man's voice in her room. “Talk to me, sis,” the man said.
Kate opened her eyes to see her brother, James sitting on the side of her bed! She sat up quickly and asked, “Is that really you?!”
James' spirit nodded and smiled. “Yes, sis, it's really me!” He told her that he has been protecting her during this entire case and that everything will turn out okay in the end!
“Are you sure?” Kate asked.
“Have I ever steered you wrong?” James asked his sister.
Kate shrugged, “Well, there was this one-”
James cut her off, “besides that time I told you the rose bush was edible! We were kids!”
“Then, no,” Kate replied.
“When this case is over,” James continued, “you will endure a much more difficult case," he warned. “But I know you can handle it!” Suddenly, James vanished.
Kate quickly turned on the light and began to hyperventilate! What did her brother mean she was going to endure a much more difficult case?! She wondered! Wasn't going up against a bunch of ghosts hard enough? You can't arrest ghosts!
For the rest of that night, Kate was unable to sleep!
XVI
Early the next morning, before dawn, Irwin had the look of guilt on his face. He stared straight ahead at the road in silence as Casey made his way to the accident scene.
As they got closer, a massive storm brewed in the sky above! Just like the one on that fateful morning. Robin and Jayme were awoken by a loud clap of thunder, that echoed within the bus!
They looked out their window and large rain dropped pounded against the bus! The wind slammed against the side of the bus pushing it towards the side of the mountain! Robin and Jayme pulled their seat belts tighter until they were almost cutting off their circulation!
Casey sped up bus 340 as he got closer to where the bus had crashed! “HOLD ON!” He instructed!
Robin and Jayme were in a panic! “FATHER! SLOW DOWN!” Robin screamed! She and Jayme turned and held each other tightly in their arms and closed their eyes tightly!
Eva could tell at the rate of speed Casey was driving, they were undoubtedly going to plunge down the side of the mountain, again! “CASEY!" Eva snapped! “SLOW DOWN!”
“I got this!” Casey smiled!
While their eyes were shut tightly, Robin and Jayme had flash images play out in their minds! They were experiencing the accident occurring! They heard the screams of the passengers, as the rain battered against the fiberglass roof!
Then they could feel the force of the bus rolling down the mountainside! The sound of crunching bones and the eerie sound of steel being twisted, which sounded like a loud squeaky door opening!
Robin and Jayme held other in fear as their bodies got tossed around! They felt their bodies lift from the seat they were sitting in! They began choking on the taste of blood that filled their mouths! It all seemed too real to them! They thought for sure the bus was rolling down the mountainside, again!
Suddenly, when Casey got within an inch of the guardrail, the bus came to a screeching halt!
Robin and Jayme's bodies kept moving forward from the momentum of the sudden halt of the bus. The seat belt tightened and pushed them back into their seats! In disbelief, they opened their eyes, and let go of each other.
“See, this bus was more than capable of stopping and avoiding going over the edge!” Casey stated. “That is, of course, if the breaks were working!” He turned around and glared at Irwin.
“Irwin,” Eva said. “Is there something you need to tell us all?”
Irwin looked around at everyone. Their suspicious eyes were glued onto him. “ I didn't do anything!” he lied. He looked out his window and tried to ignore the blame Casey was putting upon him.
Casey got up out of his driver's seat and walked back to Irwin. “I don't believe you!” he responded with anger! “This was a brand new bus that morning! How did the breaks suddenly fail?”
Eva sat back in her seat and thought for a moment. She recalled that strange male spirit that came onto the bus moments after the crash! What did that man mean by an evil thing was done? She wondered. Nobody seemed to know who that man was. “I think you had something to do with the crash, Irwin!” Eva accused. “I'm sure that ghostly man in those old clothing knew you had something to do with it!”
Robin began to recall the mysterious man she encountered standing behind the reception desk at the bed and breakfast, then later on somewhere else. She flashed back to the man saying, “My six-time great-grandson is a piece of shit!” She unbuckled and jumped to her feet! “I know who that man was!” She shouted!
“You do?” Casey asked. “You weren't here when that man came to us!”
Robin pointed at Irwin. “It was his six-time great grandfather!” She went on and told them that he had come to her as well! She explained how she encountered that same mysterious man a couple of times while she, and Burke, her grandfather were in the town where the crash occurred trying to get more information about the crash!
She glared at Irwin, “he was right, you are a piece of shit!”
Irwin took a deep sigh. “Alright!” he yelled! “I tampered with the breaks!” He looked at Eva and Casey who were furious with him!
“Why would you do such a thing?!” Casey asked.
Irwin explained that on the morning of the crash, something made him angry and made him want to seek revenge! He didn't tell them what it was that made him angry, but Eva knew. He mentioned how he purposely dropped his pocket knife under the bus so he had an excuse to crawl under the bus.
“You should never crawl under a bus!” Casey snapped.
“Shut up!” Irwin snapped. “I never liked you!”
Irwin told them that his main goal was just to kill Casey, he never meant for anyone else, let alone himself become a victim too! “That's why I panicked when I awoke to find us driving through the mountains!” he stated. “I knew the breaks wouldn't withstand the stress of the downgrade!”
Robin was appalled! “Why would you want to kill my father?" she asked.
Irwin looked over at Robin. “Jealousy,” he stated. “jealousy is an ugly monster!” He told them that he fully regrets doing what he did, however, everyone could see right through Irwin! They all knew he wasn't truly sorry for what he did. He was only sorry that he lost his life as a result of his actions as well! However, he didn't mention why he was jealous of Casey.
He then confessed that he had summoned the thorny vines that wrapped around Jayme and Robin back at the cemetery!
“Don't you realize how much pain you put us through?” Robin asked. “Emotionally and physical?”
Irwin chuckled a bit. “The looks on your faces were priceless!”
Casey's ghostly face turned red with fury! He quickly slammed open the passenger door and shouted demanded, “get off my bus!”
“Don't lose your head over this!” Irwin laughed. “Oh, wait…you did!"
“Irwin, go away!” Eva snapped as she reached her hand up and tossed Irwin out of the bus!
Irwin's spirit landed halfway down the mountainside. Casey walked over to the door and glared down at him. "Hope you enjoy the view from down there!" he shouted.
“Why?” Irwin yelled back.
“I secretly placed a curse on this land, as I approached it just now! You will spend all eternity there now! Nobody can save your soul now!” Casey laughed as he got back into the driver's seat, closed the door, and continued down the mountain.
“WAIT!” Irwin shouted as he tried to chase after the bus! He got as far as the guard rail and his spirit was tossed back down the mountain! “This is bullshit,” he sighed. He took a seat on the ground and looked at the tiny fragments of the bus that was still scattered around him.
Then, he heard a grunting sound coming from the road above. He carefully approached the road, keeping his distance from the guard rail. He noticed his corpse was staggering down the road trying to catch up with the bus!
An evil grin came across Irwin's face. “This isn't over yet,” he laughed.
He turned back around and looked at the debris that the people cleaning up the accident scene missed. “What a mess!” he complained!
Just then, Irwin's six-time great grandfather manifested nearby. He was sitting on an old stump with his legs crossed. “Why should you complain about the mess?” he asked his descendant. “You're the one who made it!”
“What do you want from me?!" He shouted!
Irwin's ancestor chucked and shook his head. “How ironic, my six-time great-grandson finally comes and visits me,” he stated. He pointed over to an old damaged tombstone that laid right where the bus landed after the crash. “Take a look,” he instructed Irwin.
Irwin got up and walked over to the old tombstone. It read, “Eli Irwin Gibbs, Born 1756, Died 1776.” Irwin looked up at the man. “Are you Eli?” he asked.
Eli nodded. “I am,” he stated
“Why were you buried on the side of a mountain?”
Eli shrugged, “beats me,” he responded. It was evident that Eli didn't know the reason why he was buried in an odd spot! Although, he did have one minor explanation. “I wasn't liked too well when I was alive,” he stated. “I was a drifter, and I fell in love with a young woman whose father despised me!"
Eli went onto telling Irwin that he got called up to fight in the revolution, just after he and his girlfriend found out she was pregnant! “I never got to meet my children, I died an hour before they were born,” he said. “Two boys and a girl!”
“How do you know it was two boys and a girl?” Irwin asked.
Eli chuckled, “oh Irwin, you've been a spirit for how long now and you ask such an absurd question?”
Irwin's spirit was speechless as he stood in disbelief as his six-time great grandfather stood and talked with him for the next few minutes.
“Well,” Eli said, “I'm going off again!” He turned and began walking down the mountainside.
“Wait!” Irwin yelled after him! “Where are you going?”
Eli stopped and turned around. “I'm going down to scare people in the town just at the base of this mountain," he replied. “It's quite entertaining!” He chuckled and continued down the mountainside.
Meanwhile, back on bus 340, Casey could sense Irwin's corpse was following them! He sped up the bus to try to keep their distance from Irwin's corpse!
“What's the hurry?” Eva asked.
Casey looked in his side-view mirror. He could see Irwin's corpse closing in on them, but he didn't want to startle anyone! “Nothing,” he said. He focused back onto the road.
Suddenly, Robin's cell phone began ringing! Robin pulled her phone out of her pocket, she stared at it in shock! “The battery was dead!” she stated. “How is it ringing?!” She looked at the number and it was her grandfather, Burke.
“Hello?” Robin answered.
“Where are you?” Burke asked. “You were supposed to get me from the airport an hour ago!”
“Oh crap!” Robin panicked. “I'm sorry grandpa! It's just been a crazy few days!” She told him that it was a long story and that she's on her way to the airport!
“Alright, dear, see you shortly!” Burke replied as he hung up the phone.
“Father, I need to go to the -"
Before Robin could finish saying what she was saying, Bus 340 was suddenly sitting in the passenger pickup lane at the airport. Right in front of Burke. Leaving Irwin's corpse in despondency behind!
>
Burke was in shock! So was everyone else! No one was expecting a bus to just magically appear right in front of their eyes!
Casey opened the bus's passenger door and yelled, “father!”
Burke was taken aback! He could have sworn he just heard his son, Casey! That's impossible! He thought. His son was dead! He cautiously approached the bus and looked inside.
Casey looked over and gave a big smile at his father. “I've missed you!” he stated.
Burke began to hyperventilate and ended up collapsing!
“Grandpa!” Robin yelled as she rushed off the bus to attend to her grandfather. Jayme rushed off the bus as well to assist!
“Someone get security!” Jayme shouted!
A man who was standing nearby witnessed Burke collapsing and came rushing over. “I'm a doctor!” The man stated. He knelt and began giving Burke CPR. After a few seconds, Burke came to. He tried sitting up but the doctor told him to remain laying down for a few minutes. “What is going on?” Burke asked Robin.
“Don't worry,” Robin stated. “Everything is going to be alright."
Burke glanced up and stared at the bus in front of him. “That's impossible!" He panicked!
The doctor looked over to the bus, he couldn't see Casey sitting in the driver's seat because Casey picked and choose who could see him! “What's impossible?”
“My son is driving that bus!” Burke stated. “He's dead!”
“Sir, I think you need to go to the hospital," the doctor suggested.
“NO!” Burke snapped! He got to his feet, grabbed his bag, and got onto the bus.
Robin and Jayme looked at each other and shrugged. They gave their sincere thanks to the doctor, gave him a fifty-dollar bill as a thank you gift, and got back on the bus.
The second they were back on, the passenger door shut and the bus vanished! Leaving the helpful doctor in utter shock!
Moments later, the bus was in Burke's driveway. “Okay, father, you're home!”
“Son,” Burke said. “What is going on?”
Robin and Jayme pulled Burke aside and told him what they were doing. They explained that after the accident occurred, all the victim's spirits were trapped on the bus and how they were helping them all move on, or at least be able to leave the bus!