Tsai and the old man started yelling at once, carrying on as if neither Kali nor Mack were there. Once or twice a finger was jabbed in their general direction. The shouting war ended when Tsai slapped the old man across the face. Mr. Ma’s jaw hung open. Tsai’s expression was calm.
The old man’s mouth snapped shut. He bowed deeply, and hobbled away to disappear inside the bus.
Tsai turned to Mack. “Mr. Ma will escort you to the Mongolian border.” He inclined his head toward Kali. “But for the woman you will pay double.”
Mack agreed without flinching, “Deal.”
Kali discreetly lifted her right arm and sniffed. A light floral scent floated up in greeting.
OK. Maybe he just doesn’t like flowers…or women.
Getting an explanation for the price hike would have been nice, but Shannon had finally managed to arrive.
“
Holy crap
…Is that the bus?” She stopped several feet away with two very large suitcases on either side of her. Her eyes went from the bus to Kali and back to the bus again. Her mouth went slack. “Oh my gosh. Tell me that isn’t the driver.”
Mr. Ma had emerged from the hulk of scrap metal tasked to carry them over a thousand miles into the wilderness. With an air of absolute scorn, he limped over to inspect the newest arrival. Kali wondered if the price was about to go up again. She hoped Mack’s usual frugality would kick in. He would refuse to pay the higher price. And then they could all turn around and go home.
Fat chance.
Throwing one final glare at Tsai, the old man grabbed Kali’s bags and lifted them with strength that belied his appearance. Hobbling even more awkwardly beneath the burden and without his cane, he retreated into the bus. A few seconds later, the engine roared to life, hailed by a cloud of thick black smoke ejected violently from the tailpipe.
Tsai smiled. “You should get going.”
Mack inclined his head. He went to board the bus, dragging Shannon along behind him with some difficulty because she dug her heels in against every step.
Kali couldn’t help noticing how Tsai watched her.
He dropped the rest of his accent and spoke in perfect western English. “Do not be afraid, Darkesong.”
“What did you call me?”
Tsai hesitated, glancing toward the bus. “Your presence is meant to summon them.”
An uneasy feeling stirred in her belly. “Do you mean the people you mentioned earlier…the ones who walk in shadows, the Neuri?”
He nodded. “You were always meant to have the strongest.”
“Huh?”
“Kali!” Mack called, waving for her to come aboard.
She held up a hand to signal she had heard, and turned back to Tsai. He was gone. She looked around. Not another soul was anywhere in sight. Perplexed, Kali boarded the bus, choosing a seat next to one of the few windows not painted black. Gazing through the copious film of dust, she spotted a yellow jersey. It was Tsai, standing about a hundred feet from the bus. His eyes met hers. After a long moment, he bowed deeply and turned away.
The old driver said several words no one understood. The bus doors clattered shut. Mr. Ma shoved a tattered sandal onto the accelerator, practically pinning the pedal to the floor. The bus lurched forward like a giant awakened from a long slumber. Metal and rubber parts creaked and groaned. And when the tires rolled over the edge of a jagged drop-off, the bus jolted, throwing everyone sideways. Kali kept her skull from slamming into the window by grabbing hold of the adjacent seat. Shannon wasn’t so lucky.
It didn’t take long to understand why the vehicle was called a sleeping bus. There were a total of eight seats in four rows of two. The rearmost seats had been removed, replaced by simple wooden shelves built into the sides of the bus. Spaced a mere sixteen inches apart, they reached the ceiling in stacks of three and four. Each shelf was filled with straw lining——undoubtedly home to various six and eight-legged creatures—to offer an illusion of comfort.
Resting her head against the back of the seat, Kali closed her eyes and sighed. It was
going to be the worst trip ever.
Chapter 39
The ride never got easier. Protesting every mile, the bus raced along a dirt path that hardly qualified as a road. They all bounced around with bone jarring force as Mr. Ma aimed for every stone, pothole and drop-off the terrain had to offer, and wrenched the vehicle around ninety degree turns at hellacious speeds. It felt like death could come at any moment.
Shannon held onto Mack with one white knuckled hand while the other gripped the side of the seat. Head down and eyes shut, their boss had apparently decided it was better not to look. His entire body was rigid. Only his lips moved as he repeatedly shouted four letter words, openly cursing Mr. Ma and his mother (who had certainly already died some time ago, considering the old man’s age).
A wicked smile played across Mr. Ma’s lips. His dark beady eyes watched the rearview mirror more than the road ahead. With every moan and whimper, his smile grew bigger until he erupted into a gleeful fit of giggles.
At one point, Mr. Ma slammed on the brakes and the bus slid to a screeching halt. He spoke to them in Chinese, brusquely issuing several commands to his frightened human cargo. Flinging the doors open, he jumped off, quickly departing into a patch of nearby brush.
Kali was exhausted. She was hungry. But most of all, she was frightened. Mack and Shannon’s faces were drained of color. No one moved. They were rooted in place, too traumatized to do anything else.
Mack spoke first. “He’s insane!”
“He hates us,” Kali added.
“I want to go home!” Shannon wailed.
Kali looked to where the driver had vanished. “Do you think he’s coming back?”
“I don’t know,” Mack said. “Just nobody move.”
Small and wrinkly Mr. Ma reappeared as if summoned. He spoke rapidly, gesturing with both arms. Kali looked at Mack. “Does he want us to get off the bus?”
“And let him leave us here?!” Shannon was on the verge of hyperventilating.
Kali really saw Shannon then. Tears had run together with mascara and stained large rings around both her eyes. Her ashen face was crowded by a mess of disheveled blonde hair. The intern looked a bit like a raccoon in a wig. Kali might have laughed had not their situation been so uncertain.
Mack tried to reassure everyone. “He won’t leave us. They haven’t received full payment yet.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Kali muttered.
“M-a-ck,” Shannon whined the name in three syllables, sucking in choppy breaths between.
“Kali, please,” Mack said angrily. “Shannon is frightened enough.”
While they chattered, Mr. Ma had grown increasingly irritated. His arms flapped harder. His words came out faster and louder. But no one moved a muscle.
“I don’t understand,” Mack kept repeating in Chinese. “Speak slower please.”
To their surprise, Mr. Ma said several words in broken English. “Pee…crap now…go!”
It was hard to tell who moved first. Three bodies were suddenly plowing toward the open door. Kali darted behind a nearby tree and undid the zipper of her jeans. Leaning against the smooth bark, she released the well of water that’d been pressing against her bladder walls for sixty miles. It was the happiest she had been since the godforsaken trip began.
Shannon ruined the moment, startling Kali by poking her head around the tree. Kali jumped in surprise and nearly wet her shoes. Yanking her jeans up, she glared at the intern. “What is it?”
“I don’t want to go back to the bus alone.”
Understanding melted Kali’s annoyance. “Hold on a second.” She kicked up enough dirt to cover her business and then led the way back to the bus.
Mack climbed aboard not long after the girls. Mr. Ma stood on the step, watching them. He frowned at Kali. Then his dark eyes moved on to Shannon. They fixed on the intern as he stalked over to the seat she shared with Mack. In one fluid motion, the old man pulled a skinny bough of leaves from behind his small form and whacked Shannon on the shoulder.
“Hey!” both Shannon and Mack exclaimed in unison.
Mr. Ma flung a small object into Shannon’s lap. Shaking his head, he spoke harshly, punctuating each word with another blow to Shannon’s shoulder. When Mack rose from his seat yelling for him to stop, Mr. Ma held up his hand and switched to English.
“If you want live…leave nothing behind.”
He shuffled to the driver’s seat, grinded the gears until the right one caught. The bus roared back to life.
Shannon’s frightened whisper was barely audible. “Did he just threaten us?”
Kali leaned across the aisle to get a better look at the shiny little item the driver had returned to Shannon. “What did he give you?”
The intern held up an earring. “I don’t even know how he could have found this.” She slipped it into her earlobe and rubbed her shoulder. “Imagine being brutally murdered and left in the middle of nowhere because you lost a cheap earring.” With a shudder, she turned to Mack. He was staring into the black square of what used to be a window.
Shannon nudged him. “What did he say?”
He looked at her but turned away again without answering.
Shannon sobbed, clamping her hand over her mouth to smother the sound. Her whole body shook as she struggled to collect herself.
A huge tug of sympathy pulled at Kali’s heart. She searched for something comforting to say. “It’s okay, Shannon. Maybe he was just trying to warn us.”
Shannon seemed to accept that simple explanation, becoming visibly calmer. “May I sit with you?”
When Kali nodded, Shannon quietly slid off her seat, leaving their boss alone with his thoughts. Kali moved closer to the window to make room. On the inside, she was as panicked as Shannon but couldn’t let it show. Her falling apart would not help the situation, especially since Mack was so mysteriously detached. Where was the savvy, ready for anything businessman everyone counted on to make the right, if not the popular, decision?
The troubled feeling that followed Kali since their first night in Beijing grew tremendously. Sweat tickled down her armpits. An ominous blanket of darkness folded around her, constricting with every mile. The further they traveled, the closer danger…and death came. And there was no one to offer her the reassurance she had given Shannon.
“Breathe,” she said. Exhaling softly, she rested her forehead against the dusty window. “It’s going to be okay,” she whispered.
#
Kalista jerked her eyes open, startled she had fallen asleep. It was pitch dark. Her heart was racing. Her breath came harshly, each inhale sharper and shallower than the last. She strained to see, strained to hear. There was only emptiness. Panic clutched at the thresholds of her mind, threatening to take hold and send her into a tailspin of terror.
She slowly understood that she was not alone. Something not of her world was approaching from a soundless void. A chilling stream of hatred flowed from it like ice water, seeping into her veins. The creature wanted her. She could sense the hunger as it came closer.
Her mind screamed
Run
! But she couldn’t move. She was paralyzed and directly in its path.
An empty moan replaced the quiet. The horrible sound resonated everywhere, never changing in pitch or tone. It echoed against nothing, rebounding and multiplying, piercing into the very essence of her awareness. Air departed from her lungs in a hot rush as visions of suffering and death hammered into her mind, provoked by an evil so powerful, it breathed a life of its own. This monster craved pain to feed an insatiable appetite. And it wanted Kalista.
Then something changed. The sound transformed to become a voice. At first only grating hisses, three simple words formed: “You are mine.”
Kali willed herself to leave the darkness. She abandoned every thought of the evil thing, and the presence began to fade. Then the monster rushed forward, narrowing missing her as she escaped its den. “I am coming.”
The void was gone, but Kali remembered those words long after she awoke.
Chapter 40
Kali sat up. Cold sweat soaked her shirt, sticking it to the tattered leather seat. She was afraid she had returned to her nightmare. Things were so dark. But the rocking and jarring bus grounded reality. She was awake. They were still traveling, and it was nighttime.
Shannon was staring at her. “Kali?” she whispered urgently. “Are you awake? The bus is slowing down.”
“We’re stopping,” Mack confirmed.
Every fiber of Kali’s body came to full attention. “We can’t stop. Not tonight. Not here.” She couldn’t explain to them the sudden anxiety she felt. The darkness was rushing up, wanting to pull her back into the void. She couldn’t go there. Nothing would stop creature from finding her if she did.
Mack gave her a curious look. “What’s going on, Kali?”
She ignored him and called out to the driver, “Please keep moving, a little longer…at least until daylight.” She stood up, grabbing the back of the seat to maintain her balance as the bus crawled over rough terrain.