The bus doors whooshed open. A young man in camouflage military gear stumbled his way up the stairs, already well into the Halloween festivities. He blinked owlishly at the wizened old bus driver. Man, everyone gets into the act these days...the half-rotten zombie look of his face was _perfect_! "Duuude," Jimmie slurred. "I didn't know buses came around here but I'm glad you showed. That party was _too_ much for me. How much?"
The bus driver creaked as he looked at the kid in disbelief. "Son, I don't think..."
"It's okay, Charlie," a bright voice called from the still-open doorway. "I'll pay!"
Jimmie turned carefully so as not to upset his stomach and goggled at the girl standing on the steps behind him. She was dressed as a hippy flower-child, from the tip of her sashed-hair and peace-sign painted face to the bell bottoms that dragged through the dust on the steps. She flashed the driver a girl-next-door grin and Jimmie a slightly more earthy one. "Going AWOL, soldier boy?"
"Only before my stomach does, miss," Jimmie replied back. He was amazed that his brain had tried to be witty. He was even more amazed that his stomach contents had stayed within him. And she was still smiling! Man, was he lucky or _what_!
She pressed up against him as she moved up the steps. Smiling at the driver, she grabbed Jimmie's hand and dragged him back into the seats. Weird bus. Hardly any single seats, they all seemed long enough for four people on a side. What looked like a cooler all along the back wall. _Has_ to be a party bus. And the entire bus was empty except for them. His mind tried to clear as the hippy girl pulled him toward the back seat of the bus, pushing him all the way over next to the window before sitting down primly herself.
"Alright, miss," the driver grumbled, closing the doors and putting the bus into gear. The engine coughed and the bus rattled into motion, heading down the road.
"So, uh, what's your name?" Jimmie asked. "And don't you have to pay?"
She grinned at him. "My name's Cecilia. And you pay when you get off, private. This isn't an ordinary bus. It's a special bus, only goes to the best parties, from your choice of leaving point right to the party. Halloween special." She looked him up and down. "Looks like you've already hit a couple."
Jimmie smoothed his hair back in an effort to hide pulling himself together. "Not enough to cause _me_ trouble. And I'm not a private. I'm a captain." He missed only once when pointing to his insignia. "What about you? Are you a," he dropped his voice into an authoritative tone, "tree-hugging vegetarian, miss Cecilia the hippy?"
She smiled at him, all teeth. "Oh, no. I'm definitely a carnivore. I like..meat." Something flickered behind her eyes as her tongue darted out and wet her lips. She grinned and swung her body around, sprawling out along the bus seat, resting her head in his lap. She winked up at him as her sandal-clad feet playfully kicked into the aisle.
Jimmie glanced nervously up at the oblivious bus driver and stammered, "Uh, so...what's a girl like you doing on a bus like this?"
Cecilia shrugged, moving her head a slight bit. "Oh, getting a little bite to eat, heading out to a party. Same as anyone out tonight." She closed her eyes for a moment. "Just looking for some.." She glanced up at him through half-opened eyes and rose-tinted Lennon glasses. "Fun?"
For a moment, he just blinked down at her. Cute girl with her head in his lap looking for fun. Had he crossed over into someone else's life for a moment? His brain voted to check for hidden cameras. Then she moved her head to the side a bit and the rest of his body voted to let her do whatever she wanted. "What...kind of fun?" he asked, mouth suddenly dry.
She sat up, his lap suddenly complaining about the lack. She cuddled close, one hand on his knee, and whispered in his ear, "Ever make out in a bus with a girl you just met?"
Jimmie nodded toward the elderly bus driver. "What about him?" He could feel a sandaled foot slowly starting to rub against his shin...
Cecilia softly smiled. "Charlie? Oh, he won't notice. And even if he does, I can give him a tip later for having to ignore the two necking in the back.." She started to trace abstract designs over and through the forests of green hues on his pants with a forefinger.
"Well, then, shouldn't waste your money..." Jimmie cupped her cheek, turning her face toward him. He captured her lips firmly with his own, sucking and nibbling at her bottom lip. They kissed deeply, their movements near silent, unheard over the pass of rubber wheels over pavement.
He could feel the smile of her lips as she started to move her hand from his knee. Tracing circles around the kneecap, then a road up his outer thigh. He could feel the skin she wasn't touching become more sensitive in anticipation. He couldn't control the twitch his muscles made as she reversed course, back toward his knee.
She giggled deep in her throat. "Disappointed?" she murmured, kissing her way to the corner of his mouth. She moved her hand up to his ear and traced the curve of the outer cartilage to the lobe. Her nails pressed down and Jimmie yelped in surprise.
"Hey! What..what'd you do? Am I bleeding?" Jimmie craned his neck in a futile effort at trying to look at his own earlobe. He could feel something heavy and liquid sliding down his ear, dangling just about ready to drop to his lap. Then he could feel Cecilia's tongue licking the blood drop up and her lips sucking on lobe. Her teeth nibbled and tugged, sending shivers down his spine. Then her hand back down on thigh..make that on his inner thigh and moving higher... He placed one hand on her shoulder to steady himself.
"What's the matter, soldier? Afraid? Of a little girl like me? Of a little pain?" She ran a line of kisses down the line of his jaw and back. She laughed, the sound bright and silvery like a shattered mirror. As one hand moved higher up his thigh, she traced a heart on his neck with a sharp fingernail, filling it with an X like a map to buried treasure. "Or maaaybe...you're afraid of getting a hickey..." She placed her lips to the area and sucked hard, rasping the area occasionally with her tongue.
The sensations caused Jimmie to moan and as her hand on his thigh hit pay-dirt, his hand on her shoulder clenched down. He closed his eyes in pleasure, his breath caught in his throat as her jaw worked with the suction. His eyes rolled to the back of his head as she continued her work, making happy noises around his carotid artery.
His eyelids rolled open. Minutes later, Cecilia pried her lips from his throat, licking absentmindedly at the blood still on her lips. The heart she had traced on his throat with her sharp nail was now a ragged gap in his flesh, the same resemblance to the heart-shape as a real heart had to a valentine. A dribble of oxygen-rich fluid dripped down from one side of her mouth as the bus came to a complete stop.
Voices drifted in from an open bus window. "But where has all the rum _gone_?" a voice plaintively wailed. A deep voice murmured, "Come on, moonbeam. Let's go cause some mayhem." as screams of laughter echoed through the streets and into the silent bus cabin. The bus driver put the bus into park and slowly made his way back to the two as Cecilia pulled out a compact from a pocket. "Miss?"
She smiled brightly up at him, fingertips almost to the stain upon her face. "There you go, Charlie. Payment in full."
Charlie slowly shook his head, his smile cracking the dead skin on his cheeks. "Oh, miss Cecilia, this is too _much_. Really, shouldn't you take some of this nice boy home with you? I couldn't take all of this."
She shook her head. "Nonsense. I can't take any of him _with_ me, and Lizzie will have a _fit_ if I don't nibble on anything at her party. She always has been a drama queen and I feel no need to feed that for her tonight. Please, Charlie, you can have him. Consider him a Halloween present." She grinned at him and wiped the clotting blood from her face with two fingertips.
"Cecilia, are you sure? A few fingers, maybe a toe or two as change? An earlobe or two to chew on while you walk to the party? You're getting too thin, dear, you need to eat something. My dear Margaret would yell at me if you didn't eat something..."
"Alright, Charlie, alright..." She sighed and bent down over the corpse. She gave the body a quick once-over and then took a bite out of the pad of flesh beneath Jimmie's right thumb. She stood back up, chewing on the meat, and moved to a different row of seats of the bus.
Charlie smiled at her, saying, "That's a good girl. Make sure you chew it forty-two times, no need to choke on one such as him." He hefted the corpse and deposited Jimmie into the cooler in the back of the bus. "There we go, good as gold and twice as helpful, you are. Margaret was hoping for a taste of some young thing just last Thursday and here we have a nicely marinated young man. The good Lord will provide, I always say." He made shooing motions her way. "Now go off to your party, miss. I have other passengers to pick up and even Halloween night doesn't last forever."
Cecilia flashed him a grin and bloodstain-tipped peace sign. "Of course, Charlie. Have fun tonight and say hello to Margaret for me!" She licked her fingertips and waved at him as she opened up the bus doors and skipped out into the night.
One should always be careful of the rides on Halloween night..you never know when you will step aboard the Bus of the Dead....
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