“So…we just get on when it comes, and that’s it?” Seri asked again for the fifth time.
“Pretty much. Get on when we want, get off when we want. Simple and easy.”
“What if…someone sits down where we are sitting?”
“While weird, it’s not like it will hurt us. If anything, it will likely bother the person on the other side more than it does us. Kind of like a ghost passing through them. The spot will feel oddly cold. And before you ask, no, I can’t explain why.”
“Yes, but ghosts aren’t real, and we are. Besides, the idea of having to sit for hours with someone right there on top of me is horrifying,” Seri snapped, voice sounding a touch high.
“I wouldn’t worry too much. We can just move seats if that happens. These public statewide travel buses are rarely ever full.”
Seri glared. “You probably just jinxed us.”
“Superstitious, are we?” he chuckled.
The Nymph rolled his eyes, and then his gaze trailed off to the right. “The bus is coming,” Seri announced.
Severo glanced over, following the bus with his eyes as it approached and then came to a stop in front of them. The bus, like all vehicles now, hovered. It was a large rectangle with smooth curved edges. Dark blue, with writing on the side in a pale indigo color that read:Public Statewide Transit Bus of Kansas.
In the same color as the words, there were stripes going around the bus, above and under the individually rounded square windows. He was going to guess the pale indigo was probably yellow, to match the Kansas state flag.
“Follow me,” Severo said, when the doors opened and the steps unfolded to the ground. Walking up the steps, he entered the bus and snagged a route tablet from the stack nearest the driver’s seat. The thing was thin, clear, and had a complete list of stops in shiny dark indigo…
Severo eyed inside. The bus was set up with an aisle in the middle to walk in, with seats on each side. The rows contained four seats, two facing the back, two facing the front, with a table between the seat sets. The table was a rounded square, and instead of being flat in front of each seat, there was a drink holder and a sunken compartment where you could set your stuff and have it not fly everywhere if the bus were to suddenly stop—or crash.
Severo walked back a bit, picking a row near the middle to the right. Pulling his backpack off, he stepped into the side of the row facing the driver and sat in the window seat. Setting his backpack on the seat next to him, he placed the baby bag in the dipped compartment in front of him on the table.
Seri, who had followed him on, took the seat across from Severo, dragged the baby bag to his side of the table, before setting his book bag on the other seat.
The Nymph then…stared at him, nervously gnawing at his bottom lip as he clutched the bottle around his neck. The bottle looked similar enough to the one that had been lost in the car crash. Luckily for Seri, dysea was a common antacid for some Cryptids, which meant you could buy it over the counter. It had been almost too easy to replace the necklace.
Severo gave Seri what he thought was an encouraging smile, but based on the way the Nymph’s face twisted, perhaps it hadn’t been. He cleared his throat. “Right, I got the route list, so let’s see where we want to go.” He held up the tablet before looking down at it. “It appears the last stop before the bus’ return route is in a town called Sotherton, near the border of Colorado. It’s about five hours from where we are. We could either pick up a car then, or see if there is another bus into Colorado that takes us further.”
“Since I don’t know where we are going, you can decide.”
Something dark flickering out of the corner of his eye drew his attention. He glared at the Nystra creeping closer to Seri. Looks wise, the creatures were similar to the Draye. But then they were counterparts, so looking similar was to be expected.
Unlike the Draye, Nystra were black and gray. On their faces, permanently etched, was a smile. The smile looked nice at first, but the longer you stared, the more it twisted. Normal teeth shifted to points, gums black dripping saliva the same color, as the nice smile fell away to one of nightmares. For that is what they were all about…nightmares…fear. Its body, instead flickering like a flame as the Drayes did, shifted like a computer glitch, pieces of it popping in and out of sight.
Severo wasn’t that surprised to see a Nystra.
Draye were drawn to places and people full of positivity. It was their very life force. Which was why it made sense that they kept coming near Skya—a child, innocent, full of light, not yet dimmed by the world.
The Nystra, on the other hand…negative energy was what they fed on. With what Seri had likely been through, those negative, dark emotions and thoughts would attract Nystra like honey.
He narrowed his eyes at the thing as it floated closer, and sent out a tendril of energy in warning. It froze, the Nystra’s large, empty white gaze meeting his. But it didn’t move away.
Severo gritted his teeth and sent another tendril towards it, filling it with positive energy. The Nystra twitched, letting out a silent scream the minute he touched it, before scurrying off and disappearing through the side of the bus. Fucking nasty things…
“Uh…Severo?”
He shook his head, plastering a smile on his face as he faced Seri. “Yes?”
“You…sort of zoned out there…” The Nymph frowned, glancing back, no doubt looking for what he had been staring at. Like Drayes, only Shadow Dwellers could see Nystras.
“Ah, sorry, I thought I recognized someone. What were we talking about… Right! The routes. Well, we are going to Nevada. I do know if we head to Denver, Colorado, there is an expedient train there that will cut twelve hours from our trip. We should be able to find a bus to get us there once in Colorado.”
“First to Sotherton, and then Denver, I guess.”
