When I was a kid, my parents would both go to work super early in the morning so me and my brother had to take the bus to school, our busdriver was sweet, he would always play these cool games with us, like giving candy and knick knacks to the kids who were the best behaved, or whoever could sit in there seat the whole time without standing would get a piece of candy, simple things that made kids happy and also kept them on good behavior. Everyone loved Mr. Jensen the busdriver, but one day me and my brother were waiting for the bus at the stop like normal and when the bus got there, Mr. Jensen wasn’t the driver, It was this old woman instead. When she pulled up to the stop she opened the door, and as we climbed the stairs onto the bus, she turned her head and gave us the weirdest smile. Didn’t even say good morning or anything, just gave a weird smile, but not a comforting warm one like Mr. Jensen. Mr. Jensen always had this jovial mood that made you feel safe, this new old lady busdriver just made you feel cold, and she had these beady little empty eyes that sent shivers down your spine when you made eye contact with her. I never even found out her name, even though Mr. Jensen never came back and she ended up being the busdriver the rest of the year. I remember one time I asked her.
“Miss, where did Mr. Jensen go?” but she didn’t really even reply, she shrugged her shoulders and smiled at me and gave me a little wink. The wink with the smile always freaked me out, it was as if she knew and just wouldn’t tell us. Now I know, he more than likely retired, or got sick or had some family thing or moved, or any reasonable or logical reason. But my little kid brain, fraught with imagination, just went wild. What if the smiling old lady wanted this specific route and the only way to get it was to kill Mr. Jensen and take his job!! What if the smiling old lady wanted to kill and eat all the kids?? For the rest of that school year everytime I got on that bus with my brother, I was always scared that it wasn’t the school she was taking us to. I was sure she would end up driving the bus off a bridge, with that stupid smile on her face the whole time, I was just waiting for us to be delivered to some creepy warehouse full of demons or vampires or something, I could picture it. We would get there, and she would be smiling and some monster would walk up and she would be like “ Here are those tasty kids I promised ya, now wheres my money? HA HA HA HA HA” She just gave off that kinda vibe I guess, I can’t quite put my finger on it, but to this day I can still see her smile when I close my eyes.