June 25 | DAY 1
09 : 49 pm

Seokjin suddenly woke up from his slumber, when the bus took a sharp turn and he accidentally fell onto Yoongi's lap. He quickly got up and looked at Yoongi, only to find him sleeping too.

He looked outside the window. It was dark now, the red hues in the sky had given in for the dark blue shades to take over. He could see the bright stars in the sky, but couldn't find the moon.

He looked back inside the bus. It was awfully dark, the lights were off. Everybody seemed to be sleeping. On his side, Yoongi slept silently while on the other, Namjoon snored so loudly, like he was sawing logs. He couldn't really see what Jimin was up to, but he knew that Jimin wasn't asleep.

That's when he heard the familiar sobs from the back and he turned around. He saw Taehyung and Jungkook, both looking into the phone, their faces lit up by the light from the screen. The movie wasn't over yet and Jungkook was still snivelling. Seokjin didn't say anything. He turned back around and glanced at his phone to see what the time was.

June 25 | DAY 1
10 : 01 pm

Seokjin couldn't go back to sleep. He looked outside and tried to understand whether they were near Busan or not, but it was way too dark.

"Whatever happened to all those street lights...?", Seokjin said to himself as he looked outside, but all he saw was darkness.

That's when the crying intensified in the background. Yoongi suddenly woke up hearing this and turned back, so did Seokjin and Jimin. Even Namjoon, who was in his deepest sleep, woke up, wondering what was going on. They all looked at Taehyung, who was grinning stupidly at them like a clueless monkey.

"Did Iron man die?", Seokjin asked Taehyung.

"Yeah", Taehyung nodded but Jungkook didn't notice them staring at him. Even the woman in red, sitting next to Jimin, turned around to see what was happening.

They all burst out laughing and Jungkook, still crying, suddenly looked up from the phone and saw a crowd of people laughing at him.

His already red cheeks flushed more red as he kept the phone down and wiped his nose. Then he smiled a weird smile which made everybody laugh even more loudly. Somebody from the front suddenly said something, probably an old lady who was trying to get some sleep, and everybody turned back and continued doing whatever they were doing.

June 25 | DAY 1
10 : 14 pm

Seokjin looked at his phone again, restlessly, and decided to give his mother a call.

His mother was a nice lady who loved to gossip. She wanted him to call her every day, since the day he left his home in Gwacheon and moved to Seoul. He would forget most of the days but now seemed like a good time to give her a quick call.

He tried to call her but he couldn't.

"No cell service? What the hell?!"

Seokjin said this out a bit too loudly that Yoongi slowly lifted his head, stared at Seokjin for a solid ten seconds and went back to sleep.

Seokjin threw his phone into his backpack, crossed his arms and leaned back into his seat, wondering when they'll reach their destination.

Suddenly, the bus stopped abruptly, throwing Yoongi off from his seat. The peaceful atmosphere inside the bus started disappearing slowly into a loud one. Seokjin lifted his head and looked to the front but he couldn't see anything. He looked outside, they were in the middle of nowhere.

They were all waiting for the bus to start moving again when the driver suddenly opened the door on his side and got out. Seokjin stood up and saw the driver slowly walking to the front, gradually disappearing into the darkness.

"The driver just got out of the bus.", Seokjin said turning to Namjoon.

"What?", Jungkook and Taehyung suddenly popped out from the backseat. Jimin leaned in and Yoongi seemed to be shocked.

"Why would he get out here? This is literally the middle of nowhere.", Yoongi whined.

He really wanted to get to Busan. He just wanted to get to a bed.

"Maybe he wanted to take a bathroom break.", Namjoon said, being the realistic one.

"Here? I can't find any buildings here. Looks like we're in the middle of a forest.", Jimin added, looking outside into the darkness.

"When you gotta go, you gotta go. I mean, you can't really ignore when nature calls.", Taehyung said with an ugly grin plastered onto his face which soon disappeared when he saw that nobody was laughing.

June 25 | DAY 1
10 : 43 pm

Its been almost 15 minutes since the driver got out and the passengers were getting agitated. The driver was nowhere to be seen and everybody was running out of patience.

"This is a rather long bathroom break.", Yoongi murmured, eyeing at Namjoon.

Namjoon suddenly stood up and went past the angry passengers to the driver's seat. Seokjin was curious too, so he followed Namjoon.

There were a few people standing nearby the driver's seat just staring into the darkness through the windshield. The bus' headlights could only light up a few metres ahead and there was no sign of the bus driver anywhere.

"Where the hell did he go?", asked a man from the crowd, "I have to get to Busan. It's late already.", he slurred.

"Well, we all have our own emergencies.", Namjoon interrupted him while looking at his watch to see what the time was.

It was still dark inside the bus and they didn't know where the switch to the lights was.

Seokjin suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder, making him jump. He turned around and it was Jungkook.

"We saw something in the bushes over there, something moving.", Jungkook spoke quietly so that no one would hear him. He didn't want to start a panic attack among the passengers.

"It's probably a dog or something.", Namjoon said.

"Calm down Jungkook, you look like you've seen a ghost.", Seokjin added.

Jungkook still looked petrified and that's when they saw it.

It was the driver, walking up to the bus, slowly. They couldn't see him clearly, but as he got closer, the headlights of the bus showed that he was in bad shape.

He looked badly hurt, his whole body seemed to be bleeding. His once white shirt and pants were red now, soaked with blood. He stirred towards the bus, slowly, dragging one foot on the ground. His one arm was supporting the bleeding leg and his other was waving at the bus as if he was signalling something.

Suddenly, he collapsed onto the ground, right in front of the bus. He was not moving anymore, he looked dead.

Nobody spoke, they just stared. Seokjin felt as if his tongue had gone numb. The sudden silence sent a chill down his spine, he could feel his hair standing up on the back of his neck.

"We should help him.", Jungkook said, his voice barely coming out.

He pushed everybody aside and went to the door. He tried to open it but it was stuck. He looked around and noticed that the door on the driver's side was open.

He was about to jump out through it when someone suddenly got in the driver's seat and closed the door. It was the man with the purple highlights.

"Dude, what the fuck are you doing?!", Jungkook yelled at the man, tearing through the silence, so loud that almost everybody in the bus heard it.

He went towards that man and tried to pull him back from the seat but, he wouldn't budge. He was trying to say something but no matter what, Jungkook wouldn't listen. Jungkook was about to throw hands at him when Namjoon suddenly shouted.

"Guys look!", Namjoon pointed towards the front, at the driver.

Jungkook stopped and looked, so did the man with the purple highlights. Everybody turned their heads towards the driver, along with Seokjin and also Taehyung who had come up to the front, hearing Jungkook yelling.

The bus driver was standing up, looking straight at them.

A minute ago, he seemed to be dead, but now he was not. His whole body was shaking, he was twitching. His jaw looked dislocated and wide open, showing his bloodstained teeth and torn tongue. His eyeballs, bloodshot, rolled in their sockets and his skin looked pale grey, coated with blood.

"Fuck!"

~~~

Sheesh, shit's about to go down... Please don't stop reading and I hope you're not bored.

Love,
PAPRIKA 💜