Ave Satanas, something wicked this way comes. It’s time for the reckoning to begin.
If you enter the Devil’s Playground be wary where you tread, for demons are lurking with trickery up their sleeves. Here good and bad cease to exist, and not all will make it to the end.
The price of freedom will be revealed only after bloodshed and rapture. A claiming of one and purging of others.
The voice stopped short, and the song resumed. I shared a look with the girls. That didn’t seem like regular station interference.
There was no mistaking what was said. Each word had been precise and clear as crystal.
“What’s going on?” someone yelled at the driver.
The radio cut off entirely just as we entered the tunnel. A loud bang erupted, the sound carrying inside. A scream tore through the air as the bus rocked from side to side, swerving through the fog.
I’m pretty sure we bumped the side wall, sending us careening to the left. Someone was flung into the aisle, crying out as they hit the floor. I dug my nails into the back of the seat in front of me, holding on as tightly as I could.
There was another bang, lodging my heart in my throat as we began to zigzag aggressively, brakes screeching as the driver tried to stop.
Everything thereafter seemed to happen in the longest seconds of my life.
The shuttle emerged from the tunnel.
We tilted.
I lost my hold, ripping a nail clean off as I fell from my seat.
And then there was nothing but screams, grating metal, and darkness.