School Bus Graveyard | Aiden x Fem! Reader

PART ONE

S

H

I

F

T

I flew into a sitting position, and looked over at my buzzing phone. With a sigh, I finger combed my annoying bangs out of my face, sweat keeping it up, and then grabbed my phone.

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12:01

Phantolphas 😎🫵

Star Flower

Everyone okay?

Bannerina
👍

T-Rex

Ankle hurts

Medic4Life

I'll wrap it tomorrow to keep it in place

T-Rex

Sounds good 😁

Sp👀derman

Replying to Star Flower:

Lol that was close

T-Rex

Word

Taylor Swift

Physically yes

Ares

Mentally no

Medic4Life

Did anyone finish the homework?

Bannerina

Screw it.

Taylor Swift

^

Ares

^

T-Rex

^

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I set my phone back onto my bedside table and got comfortable under my thick [favorite color] sheets.

We had school tomorrow. Fun.

☽⇄☾

I'm sitting behind Taylor at my desk, when the rest of the group walks in, exhausted. I chuckled under my breath at Mr. Thomas's worried face.

Everyone had been more awake on the first day, that's for sure.

"Everyone get your homework out please..." Mr. Thomas says, silently crying on the inside.

☽⇄☾

White eyes stared into mine; a piercing grin that made me freeze. Freeze as an icy cold hand gripped my lungs, restricting air.

I couldn't breathe.

I couldn't breathe.

I couldn't...

I...

R

I

N

G

I jerked awake.

Crap, I slept through class again.

I glanced at everyone else.

Looks like the others did too.

I fixed my brown pony tail and grabbed my stuff, sighing as I took a swing of my water.

At this rate we're going to fail.

I put on my backpack and stood up, wincing as I put pressure on my right ankle, making me trip and crash into Aiden's arms. An odd warmth spread through my body. He helped me back up. "Try not to put pressure on the ankle."

"Ah, did Ben tell you to say that?" I asked, eyebrows raised as my dark brown eyes met his red ones.

Aiden grinned. "Yep."

"Thanks," I said to Aiden and Ben, and then walked to my triplets and wrapped an arm around Taylor, giving her a reassuring smile. She looked exhausted.

"Ashlyn," Aiden said from across the class to Ashlyn, making my stomach twist a bit. "We're all eating lunch together. Y'know, to talk about" -he leaned forward and whispered the last word like it was a forbidden secret- "'stuff'."

Ashlyn dropped her books into her bag. "Alright."

☽⇄☾

Sat between Logan and Taylor, I poked at my food as Aiden built a tower of fries in front of me, deeply concentrated. Taylor is watching it, ready for it to fall. Nobody spoke as Ben napped in the corner.

The lunch room was pretty loud, though.

I was about to put in my earbuds, when Tyler suddenly spoke.

"I think we should go back to Savannah."

Everybody looked at Tyler, surprised.

"I thought everyone agreed it was too dangerous...?" Logan spoke up from my left.

"So what?" Tyler snapped. "We're just supposed to let things stay like they are?"

I mean, he has a point...

"I'd rather be semi-stuck than permanently stuck," Ashlyn pointed out, looking away.

"Well maybe if you had told the truth from the beginning, we wouldn't be stuck at all! That includes you too, Thay!" Tyler yelled, making Taylor wince and a small chuckle to slip out from my lips. Aiden glanced at me, my eyes on my plate. I didn't notice his glance, but by the time I looked up, his eyes were fixed on his plate.

Ashlyn looked at Tyler, annoyed. "I already explained why I didn't-"

"Aren't you one to talk," Aiden said, looking up from his tower of fries on his plate. "You're the one who brushed it off as a prank and walked off. If they would have said anything, would you have even believed them?" he smiled menacingly. "With your personality, I seriously doubt it."

I gave Aiden a warning look (I could have standed up by myself perfectly fine, thank you), as angry as Tyler, but gave Tyler a look as he stood up and slammed his hands onto the lunch table. "Whether I would have said something or not, they should have said something! Now we're stuck in some demonic dimension, running away from flesh-eating, deadly creatures, I've lost count of how many near death experiences I've made, none of us have slept in days, we can't tell our parents or any---"

BAM

The loud noise of Ben banging his fist against the lunch table made me jump, Taylor gripping my hand while Ben silenced Tyler. Tyler sat back down, visibly still shaking with anger.

I swallowed a weight in my throat. "If we don't go back to Savannah where this cycle began..." I looked at everyone. "What else are we supposed to do? Because as annoying as Tyler's outburst was, you guys have to understand, if we go back then we may be able to figure out what's happening. And how to escape."

Or we could make things much worse...

Should we risk it?

☽⇄☾

(1160 words)