Warning: references to death, sexual references, and unsettling imagery
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Strange.
I was thankful for whatever this was, but it sure was strange.
A bus stop. Only, it wasn't supposed to be here.
I walked this route everyday back from work. Too poor to own a car, not blessed enough to ride a bike.
There was no way I was getting my thirty-five year old self on a bike when walking hurt me.
But, this. It was a blessing, but where had it come from?
I squinted up at the blank white sign, then looked around the curved green pole for answers.
It was so overgrown in moss, it looked like it had always been here.
It wasn't here yesterday. I had dragged myself past here in my constant state of exhaustion.
Feeling it now, I spotted a seat buried beneath the growth behind me.
Eagerly swatting the leaves away, I dumped my body into the seat with a grateful sigh.
It was also covered in spongy moss and a find film of dirt, but I wasnt going to leave this bliss right now.
I still had several kilometers to walk. Maybe a new bus stop wasn't such a bad idea.
Looking back towards the tunnel I had wandered through, I saw two headlights approaching slowly.
Turning to the road ahead, I was thankful I wasn't currently trekking up the almost vertical hill for home.
Realisation hit me in the gut when the bus huffed as it pulled over for me.
Right. Money. Did I have some on me?
Fumbling in my bag as the door folded open, I snapped open my purse to an old crumpled receipt and ten cents.
"Ah" I started to find my excuse "I..."
The blacked-out booth the driver sat in pinged. A gloved hand held out a blank ticket that glittered with a golden edge.
I took it, flipping it over for the information that was missing.
The hand only jerked a thumb behind it to the seats.
Was it letting me on?
"Thank you!" I gasped happily as I shuffled past it towards the seats that I dumped my bag on "I'll pay you back, I promise! I get paid on Wednesday, honest!"
Slumping down thankfully, I smiled to myself and my luck at not having to tackle the dreaded hill.
The ticket sure was something else. I'd never seen anything like it.
Turning it over and seeing the golden glitter sparkle, I decided to put it away so I didn't lose my free ride.
This wasn't so bad after all. Maybe my luck was turning around?
Grinning, I saw darkness catch the corner of my eye. I noticed the whites of eyes staring at me that I turned towards before freezing up.
A massive black wolf sat there in the seat opposite me. It had the shape of a human, but was covered in wirey black fur. It's bottom jaw was so elongated that it easily brushed its colarbones.
There was a collar there too; just a simple blue fabric with some paper on the front. It was scrawled in another language. The characters looked like smiley faces when I peeked at it.
The jaw of the wolf had baby chicks nestled behind the teeth. Drool dripped as the face turned toward me slowly.
Immediantly, I faced the front to avoid being caught out. The wolf stared, then also faced forward.
What on earth was something like that doing here?
I hunched over to rub my cheeks and slap them a few times.
I must be hallucinating. Maybe exhaustion had turned into delerium after all? Maybe I was back at the bus stop, fried out of my mind on an imaginary seat?
Plucking up the courage, I hesitantly glanced over to see the wolf and its jaw of chicks. The blue eyes slid to the corner to spy me staring.
Straightening, I kept my face forward as the bus veered to the side of the road again.
There was another bus stop, identical to the one I had found. No-one waited at this one, but I heard shuffling as someone prepared to get off.
I'd ask them. They'd know if what I was seeing was real.
The feet shuffled closer, and I saw a suitcase swing into view.
I leant over, tapping the arm closest to me.
"Excuse me" I piped up to the person shuffling backwards "can you....?"
The person turned, a smile splitting across its entire face from ear to ear. Sharp teeth glistened back, black eyes focusing on me.
"Yes?"
The person had four arms. The three others stretched to the compartments above to retrieve more luggage. Wild orange hair spilled out either side of it like a massive electrified mane.
"Uh, never mind."
Shrinking back down, I watched the frizzy haired person hunch down the aisle, thank the unseen driver, then exit.
I pressed to the window to see the person haul thier luggage to the curve of the bus stop that shimmered like an archway.
The person dropped a bag, kicking it into the shimmers that swallowed it up.
I blinked, rubbing my eyes to make sure I had seen right.
The person sidestepped into the arch, disappearing completely.
What the....?
"Did...?" i looked around for someone to confirm what I was pointing to, finding the wolf again.
I took a deep breath as it faced me.
"Did you see that or am I going crazy?" I blurted to it.
It gurgled laughter, more drool spilling over the soaking chicks.
I grimmaced at them just resting there so unknowingly.
It shrugged, refusing to speak.
I guess it couldn't, like that.
"Um..." i held up a hand to catch its attention "I'd hate to be rude, but...."
I opened my mouth and pointed. It's eyes slid down and it huffed at me before ignoring me again.
"Oh! I was only curious! I'm not making fun!" I insisted "I can hold them if you can't...."
The eyes narrowed at me and it's ears flattened immediately.
Feeling nervousness prickle over my skin, I gave a weak smile and turned for the window.
I could see the reflection of the wolf behind me. It sat there, lifting a claw to gently nudge the bathing chicks now starting to pipe up.
I noticed the smile around them. It enjoyed having them all there.
I smiled too, lifting my head when I saw my house approaching at the top of the hill.
Well, it's been a wild ride, whatever this was.
Getting up, I marched for the driver's booth to wait beside it.
The driver kept up the steady pace, approaching and speeding past my home.
"Uh, I think you missed my stop" I looked back at at getting further away.
I'd be walking more just to backtrack to where I started. I'd be even more exhausted.
I could feel the bags under my eyes weighing them down already.
"Excuse me!" I banged on the booth now "my stop is back there! You need to let me off!"
The bus kept going. I couldn't even tell if the driver had even heard me.
"Hello?" I bent down to try and peer through the darkened slot that snapped shut.
"Hey!"
"It's not going to listen to you like that" a voice sniggered from the bus.
I turned, glaring in my search for whoever found it funny.
The wolf was down the front. Two seats behind it was a person with a bulging bag for a head that it was trying to hold up on the seat. Further back stood a little boy slapping his stomach that had a snapping mouth melted into it. The stomach was so twisted above the growling mouth that it looked like it was being wrung out.
A father slumped beside the wild boy standing on the seat, his fingers made of sharp knives. His eyelids were held open with thumbtacks. I saw that his entrails looped around his own neck like a noose.
Panning past the couple, I spied someone resting against the glass. Hundreds of arms worked around them as they just laid there lifelessly. One eye was open while the other was closed. They looked half asleep, yet awake at the same time.
The hands kept the gears of the exposed brain turning through the crank on the side. More squeezed the lungs so that they breathed, while others generally guarded the person in the vulnerable state.
Another was just covered in oozing holes. The face was the biggest one that squished uncomfortably whenever it breathed. It even had layers of lipstick caked around it. Blackness cried out of every hole like running mascara. The stench of cheap perfume glittered around them.
Then, I saw the owner of the voice, hand up, waving to me.
The skin was so loose that it hung in bands off the raised arm. I huffed at it, then to the driver, before walking down the aisle towards them.
"Come! Sit!" it patted the seat, plucking at one of the skin bands to snap it.
The person was covered in them. It looked just like elastic bands smothering every feature that peeked through at me.
The tongue was so long that it drooped over thier knees. Unlike the wolf's, this one was dried out. It swallowed when I sat, making the gross tongue bobble.
Hands frantically snapped the bands as I sat there, dumping my bag between us.
"What the hell is going on?" I complained to it, eyeing the annoying noise "how come everyone is so...."
"Weird?" it snapped more.
I nodded, frowning.
"Will you stop that?"
"Oh, I can't" it chuckled back, moving up its arms as the bands began to welt "it helps keep me distracted."
From what?
"What even are you?" I looked it over. It didn't even look like it was wearing clothes. It was just a human form of wierd, banded skin.
Politeness was gone. I needed answers, and I needed them before this damn bus ran me out to the other side of town!
"I'm Desire" it's voice dragged breathlessly.
It made me uncomfortable. I smiled, looking elsewhere.
"What's the wolf then? And the kid?" I snorted as I looked around at everyone again before settling on the snapping arms "Desire? Give me a break."
"That's Temptation" Desire nodded its head to the wolf keeping its eyes on me "Starvation" it jerked to the kid happily jumping.
My gut fell when I saw how joyful it was.
"Depression" it pointed to the father "Lust" it smiled at the holes still leaking.
There was no other explanation for all of this. Maybe this 'Desire' was telling the truth of these occupants?
"Multitasking" it pulled my attention to the figure of arms "Greed" it snickered at the bagged head slumping over the seat.
"Hang on" I stopped it when it went to list another "how about the person that got off? The one with the big hair and all the bags?"
Desire chuckled again, snapping on the other arm.
"Over encumbered" its voice rasped out with a smile as it forgot the others to look me over "and what are you?"
My nervous smile came back.
"Me? I'm Ruby. I work down at..."
"Nooooo" it grinned, flicking harder as it rasped out "you are Exhaustion."
I snorted, denying it immediently.
Sure, I felt like death, but I wasn't one of these.... things.
Desire was creeping me out. I wasn't like it at all.
I turned to leave, almost hitting the body of the wolf standing there.
Its claws gently pushed into my back as it pulled me towards it. I got up, letting it guide me past it so it could growl at Desire as it leant down to grab my bag.
"Oh, uh, I'm OK with one of the empty seats" I tried to tell the wolf herding me back to the front. It held my bag in one hand, pointing with the other.
I slid into the seat, lifting over the puddle on the ground from its side.
The wolf placed my bag in my lap, it's ears lowering again when the bus veered over and Desire got up.
"Nice meeting you, Exhaustion" it breathed, still snapping away as it thanked the driver and left in its own glittering stop.
I wasn't going to try and get off here. Anywhere near that thing would be running straight back into danger.
I'd stay with the wolf. At least it wasn't too creepy.
"You're Temptation?" I eyed the mouth again.
It sighed, nodding.
Weirdly, it made sense. The mouth of chicks would be rather tempting to the wolf determined on not harming them.
I dragged out my phone from my bag, handing it over.
"Where is the driver taking me?"
It cradled the phone, staring at it, before it started to tap in letters one at a time.
Ticket.
"Oh, this?"
I fished it out of my pocket, holding it out.
"It's blank.... I don't know wh...."
Seeing black print now across it, I pulled the ticket back to read it.
Jerome. Block 15, Palms road, Sunsland.
That wasn't me. What kind of address was this?
I squinted at it as it began to blur. Yawning, I strained my eyes to read.
The wolf plucked it from me and held up its own to compare them.
Its eyes widened when it saw they matched. I looked up to it, and it blinked back with a smile, leaning over to pull open my drooping eyes.
I traded my ticket for the phone it poked its response into again.
Holding my eye open with one hand, I ignored the bus stopping again so I could focus on the writing.
"We're assigned?" I frowned, looking to the wolf again "to a person?"
It nodded, smiling when the chicks picked at the teeth and bathed again.
"But, I'm a person...."
I've got work. I've got to walk those k's to the diner and serve people tommorow morning.
They'd notice if be gone. I'd lose my job.
The wolf took back the phone, tapping as the bus started again and more creatures found thier seats.
Dead.
I snorted, laughing.
"Noooo" I dragged out uncertainty "no. I'm not..."
Dead. I wasn't....
No.
No. I walked that same path every day. I cut through the dark tunnel day in and day out.
My gut clenched at the memory of the tunnel. How I had brushed aside the danger of wandering through darkness alone because I had done it so many times before.
No. I wasn't..... dead?
"No" I chuckled, shaking my head "no, I'm just exhausted. I'm just tired."
The wolf pulled me over so I could use its shoulder as a rest. Tears ran down my cheeks, dragging down my bags with thier weight.
Some rest wouldn't hurt. We were going to the same place anyway. It'd let me know when it was time to get off.
This was all just some bad dream.
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Gentle nudging woke me and my eyes could barely see the wolf as it spread them open again to make sure I was awake.
Looking around, I deflated at the realization I was still stuck with these weird creatures.
The bus had finally stopped though. It waited for me, as did the wolf who held out a hand for me to take.
I felt like I was being weighed down with lead. My skin hung over my eyes and flowed down my hunched, aching back.
I grabbed my bag to hang over my shoulder before realising I could barely lift my arms. They were pierced with chains that dragged along the ground. The skin dragged like blankets behind me, almost smothering the dead battery I saw clipped into where my chest was.
"Huh, now that's funny" I smirked at it before tapping the dull surface "clever."
The wolf helped me down the stairs of the bus and carried my bag. I dragged myself behind it, hoisting up my skin to haul over my shoulders like warm blankets.
What I would give for another rest.
We waited at the bus stop together. The bus peeled from us to take off again through the darkness.
"Well...." I yawned, slumping past the wolf "it's been great... but I've got to get home. It'll.... take me all night.... to get back."
The wolf tapped a claw on the bus stop post, rushing over to take my hand and lead me back to the archway of glittering air.
It held up the ticket, rummaging for my phone to poke out its speach.
"We have to?" I wavoured on the spot as it wrote more "if he overcomes his Temptation and Exhaustion, we can go back?"
It nodded, smiling.
"That won't be long?" I groaned out "I need to get ready for work."
It shook its head, leading me towards the gateway gently that we both passed through.
Picking ourselves out of a window overlooking the massive bed of a child, the wolf patted the side of it for me to sink into gratefully.
"He's not.... going to wake up?" I yawned to the wolf circling the other side to make the floor more inviting.
It passed a hand over its eyes to indicate that we wouldn't be seen. I saw it sink to the floor and curl up like an animal, keeping its jaw open for the sleepy chicks to nestle in.
"Okay" I nodded, letting my eyes close "goodnight, Temptation."
I heard it's tail thud on the floor a few times and smiled at the sound of happiness.
Goodnight, Exhaustion.
Tommorow, it will all be better.
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