The Bus At the Park

2nd Place, 7th Grade

by Maribeth Stephens, Robert Toombs Christian Academy

Every night after soccer practice, Amity saw a rundown and abandoned bus parked at her neighborhood park. The strangest thing about the bus was that it only appeared when it was dark outside. Every time Amity passed the park on the way to school, she felt a chill run down her spine. As the days passed, the bus continued to appear and disappear as night turned into day. Daily, Amity would see reports on the news about missing children. Amity became terrified when she learned all the missing children were from her neighborhood. 

Despite these perplexing circumstances Amity asked a neighbor, in the house across the street from the park, if she could come in and look out her front window. Amity wanted to observe the bus. When the bus didn’t appear; she asked if she could spend the night. The later it got, Amity found it hard to stay awake. Soon Amity dozed off. EEAE! Amity woke up after hearing the strange noise. She checked her phone. It was 5:50am. Amity saw bright lights shining from something. As she peered out the window, Amity saw the bus! Then she saw her best friend, Willow, waiting at the sign for the bus stop. Amity wondered why Willow was up so early. Amity watched in horror as her best friend started walking closer and closer to the bus. Amity yelled at her friend to stop, but Willow didn’t hear her and continued as if she was Sleeping Beauty drawn to the spinning wheel. Once Willow cleared the doors of the bus, it made this terrible noise like a lion devouring a zebra. The bus and Willow vanished in a sudden fog. 

Amity ran to her neighbor who was just waking up. Shaking, Amity told her neighbor what she had just seen outside. The neighbor said that Amity had let her imagination run wild. Amity walked back home horrified and saddened that her best friend was lost with the bus. She tried to tell everyone what had happened that morning, but no one believed her. Slowly all of the rest of the kids in the neighborhood disappeared. Scared that she would be next, Amity barely slept each night, but she remained safe. 

Soon the kids at her school were reported missing. Amity noticed that the halls were less crowded and the noise level decreased with each passing day. Every single day, she grew sadder as her other friends disappeared. One night, Amity heard the same EEAE sound that she had heard when her best friend disappeared. She tried to ignore it, but her eyes were drawn to the bright lights of the bus that appeared and she couldn’t look away. Amity walked closer and closer to the bus as her fear slowly vanished. She crossed the bus doorway and the doors slammed shut! 

No one ever saw or heard from Amity again. Legend says the bus still shows up at neighborhood parks waiting to lure its next child.