Horror revival: I Own a Ghost Bus

"Gong Yue Village?" Jiang Yan's heart skipped a beat as he heard the name.

Just moments earlier, when he'd seized control of the ghostly bus, he'd heard that eerie ghost ask if they were headed to Hong Yue Village. Now, Zhang Tiantian had mentioned Gong Yue Village. Could there be a connection between these two places?

Suspicious, Jiang Yan cast a cautious glance at Zhang Tiantian. She was standing close by, focused intently on the map, her familiar side profile bathed in the dim glow of his phone screen. Her soft hair cascaded over her shoulders, and her light, floral scent filled the air—a picture-perfect resemblance to the Zhang Tiantian he knew.

But Jiang Yan couldn't shake off his wariness. He subtly pulled back his phone and took a small step away from her.

Zhang Tiantian didn't seem to notice his reaction. She shivered slightly, wrapping her arms around herself. "Can we go already? It's freezing out here," she murmured with a slight pout.

"Right away," Jiang Yan replied, pulling up the ride-hailing app and zooming in on the map near their current location. Soon enough, he found the listing for Gong Yue Village.

"So there really is a village with that name…" he muttered, sneaking a sideways glance at Zhang Tiantian. Then he looked back at his phone and added, "I've requested a ride, but I doubt we'll get a driver out here at this hour."

He wasn't wrong—it was past two in the morning, and they were in the remote depths of Mount Lugang. Finding a driver willing to pick them up here seemed nearly impossible.

After waiting ten minutes with no response, Jiang Yan sighed. "Looks like hailing a ride isn't going to work. Gong Yue Village is still about ten kilometers away, and walking there isn't realistic either."

"So what now?" Zhang Tiantian complained, visibly annoyed. "Are we supposed to stay out here in the middle of nowhere all night? It's cold, it's dark, and the bugs are everywhere—I'm not spending the night out here."

At that, the man in the black hat let out a derisive chuckle. "And here I thought you were smart," he said, smirking. "You're overcomplicating things."

"What do you mean?" Jiang Yan shot him a sharp look.

"It's simple," the man replied. "Didn't you just take control of the ghost bus? You could drive us there in no time. It's only a few minutes' ride."

Jiang Yan hesitated, thinking it over. "You have a point… but it seems like overkill to use supernatural powers for something this minor. Besides, frequent use might trigger the ghost's reawakening."

"That just shows how little you understand about ghostly power," the man retorted. "Driving the ghost bus in the real world barely uses any of its energy. It's a fraction of what it takes to drive it in the mist realm. If you're too afraid to use it for this, you're not fit to be a ghost-tamer."

The man's reasoning was sound, and Jiang Yan nodded in agreement. His experience in handling supernatural power was limited, which explained his hesitation.

With that, he summoned the ghost bus.

In the pale moonlight, the bus materialized, shrouded in a faint, spectral mist that made it look eerie and otherworldly. Rusted and grime-covered, the bus seemed ancient, yet its windows and doors were intact.

"Open the doors."

At his mental command, a grating screech echoed through the still night, as though nails were scraping against a chalkboard, and the front doors swung open. As they did, a gust of icy wind, heavy with the smell of decay, wafted out.

"Let's go," Jiang Yan said, stepping aboard.

The man in the black hat and Zhang Tiantian exchanged uneasy glances but followed him onto the bus. It was a strange feeling to willingly re-enter this haunted vehicle. Their first time here, they'd been trapped, barely escaping with their lives. Now, they were treating it like a personal ride. The irony wasn't lost on them.

Inside, the bus was dark, with only faint moonlight filtering through the windows, casting long shadows across the seats.

The corpses of the tour group still sat neatly arranged in the rear, their hollow, dark eyes staring blankly ahead. Jiang Yan had arranged it this way, moving all the corpses to the back rows and clearing the seats near the driver's area.

Even so, an intense chill seeped through the seats. Both Zhang Tiantian and the man in the black hat felt it the moment they sat down, their bodies instinctively tensing against the cold.

"This is ridiculous—it's pitch dark in here!" Zhang Tiantian muttered, shivering. "Why can't we turn on the lights? It's freezing."

The man in the black hat's eyes widened in realization. The bus's "kill rule" was triggered when the lights went off. But here they were, sitting in a parked, darkened bus, and nothing was happening. Why hadn't the rule activated?

Sensing their confusion, Jiang Yan explained, "Now that I've taken control, I understand the bus's rules completely. There are rules you haven't encountered yet—like the truth behind the lights. Believe it or not, it's actually more dangerous with the lights on."

The man in the black hat looked puzzled. "What do you mean? From what we experienced, it's the darkness that's the real threat."

Jiang Yan gave him a knowing look. "It's natural that you wouldn't understand. If I hadn't taken control of the bus, I wouldn't have either. Before, I also thought the lights protected us from supernatural attacks. But in reality, the lights are simply a signal."

"Signal?" The man seemed more confused.

"Earlier, you mentioned the fog outside and referred to it as the 'mist realm.' What exactly did you mean by that?" Jiang Yan asked, sidestepping the question.

The man sighed, his expression hardening. "That information is classified. But since you're now a ghost-tamer, I suppose there's no harm in telling you."

He leaned forward, his gaze piercing. "The mist realm isn't part of our reality—it's a supernatural zone. Over the past few decades, paranormal events have been escalating worldwide. Every country's ghost-handling organizations have launched numerous clean-up operations, but they've never been able to eradicate the root of these phenomena."

"You're saying this 'mist realm' is where it all originates?"

"Exactly," he nodded. "But our ability to explore the mist realm is limited, and the knowledge we've gained is top secret. People like me don't have full access to the details. What I've told you is all I know."

Jiang Yan nodded. "So, when the bus lights are on, it's traveling within the mist realm. When they're off, the bus returns to the real world."

The man's eyes widened. "So that's it…"

He realized now that, paradoxically, the bus became safest in the darkness, when it was grounded in the real world. In hindsight, this had always been their way out.

"If the lights go out, that's your chance to escape," Jiang Yan continued, his tone confident. "When I took control of the bus, I could see even when you couldn't. The doors were open, and the road outside was just a regular mountain road."

"So, all we had to do was wait by the door and jump out the moment the lights went off?" the man said, his voice tinged with regret.

"Exactly," Jiang Yan replied. "Parking and opening the doors would have been completely in line with the bus's rules."

The man's face fell. He'd missed his chance to escape by following a far riskier plan. It was so painfully simple in retrospect.

"Regret won't help us now," Jiang Yan added. "We're lucky we made it out, even if we took a more dangerous path."

Jiang Yan's new life as a ghost-tamer would mean constantly facing the risk of the ghost bus reawakening.

"Enough talk. Let's get going," Zhang Tiantian urged, shivering in her seat. "I just want to get home."

Jiang Yan chuckled lightly. "Alright, I know you miss home." As he reached to start the bus, he paused, his brow furrowing as a chilling realization struck him.