The Last Bus from Newton

The Last Bus from Newton

By PK – Short Horror Story
Set at Newton Bus Exchange, Surrey, BC

It was a little after midnight. The exchange was nearly empty, the streetlights casting long shadows across the cracked pavement. I was waiting for the last bus home, alone. Two people I’d seen earlier had already boarded a different bus and vanished into the night.

Then I saw her.

She was under the far shelter—still, hunched, her back to me. Her soft sobs echoed faintly through the empty platform. It was the kind of crying that made you feel like you shouldn’t interrupt. But something about it felt… unnatural. The sobs repeated, same tone, same rhythm. Like a broken recording.

I took a hesitant step closer.

“Hey… are you okay?” I asked.

She didn’t turn around. The sobbing stopped.

Then I heard it—a cracking sound, like bones twisting into place.

Slowly, she began to rise. Not stand—rise, as if something was pulling her upright from the spine. Her limbs jerked with every sharp crack—knees, elbows, neck.

And then she turned.

Her face was pale and stretched, her eyes wide with something far beyond sadness.

And in the quietest voice, too calm for her contorted body, she whispered:

“Did you miss your bus too?”

I stepped back—nearly tripping over the curb.

Then I saw it—my bus, pulling in at the far end of the platform. Without another thought, I bolted.

I jumped in through the back doors just as they closed behind me. My hands were shaking. I didn’t dare look out the window.

The engine rumbled. The bus pulled away from the stop.

I finally turned to glance back.

She was standing exactly where I’d left her…
smiling.

Waving.

And then—poof.

She was gone.