THE LAST BUS 🚐

Every evening at exactly 6:30 p.m., Nora took the same bus home.

And every evening, there was a girl sitting alone at the very back.

Nora had never spoken to her. She didn't even know her name. But after seeing her there for weeks, the girl had become a familiar part of her journey.

Until one rainy evening.

Nora had just taken her usual seat when the girl suddenly moved forward and sat beside her.

Her face was pale.

“Get off at the next stop,” she whispered.

Nora frowned. “What?”

“Please. Just get off.”

Before Nora could ask anything else, the girl returned to the back of the bus.

Something about her voice made Nora listen.

At the next stop, Nora stepped off.

The bus disappeared into the rain.

The following morning, Nora woke to terrible news.

The bus she had taken every evening had crashed shortly after leaving the stop.

Nora stared at the screen in disbelief.

She had been supposed to be on that bus.

The first thing she thought about was the girl.

She had to find her.

That afternoon, Nora went to the bus station and asked the driver about her.

“The girl who always sits at the back?” Nora asked.

The driver's expression changed.

“There isn't any girl like that.”

Nora laughed nervously. “Of course there is. I've seen her every day.”

The driver shook his head.

Then he showed Nora the passenger records.

There was something written beside the date of the accident.

No passengers survived.

Nora's hands went cold.

She looked again at the driver's photograph of the bus from that morning.

And there she was.

The girl was sitting at the very back.

Nora whispered her name.

Lily.

The driver looked at her strangely.

“You know her?”

Nora shook her head.

“No. But she saved me.”

The driver stared at the photograph for a long moment.

Then he quietly said,

“Lily was my daughter.”

Nora's heart stopped.

“She died three years ago.”

That evening, Nora returned to the bus stop.

Rain tapped softly against the shelter.

For a while, nothing happened.

Then the last bus arrived.

The doors opened.

Nora didn't move.

At the very back, behind the fogged-up window, sat Lily.

She smiled.

Nora smiled back through her tears.

Then the doors closed.

The bus disappeared down the road.

And Nora never saw Lily again.

But every evening at 6:30, she still looked toward the back of the bus.

Just in case.