The Mysterious passenger

Chapter 2:The Underground Door

He chose to RUN.

The rain was still falling when Daniel looked back.

The bus was gone.

Just tire marks in the wet concrete, and a faint smell of diesel mixing with the cold night air. The abandoned Kaneshie terminal felt bigger now, and emptier. The sign above the door blinked: *ROUTE CLOSED - NO SERVICE*.

His trotro mates would be asleep by now. His mom would be calling him soon. But his legs wouldn't move back to the road.

Because the door was open.

Daniel pulled his hoodie tighter and stepped inside. The floor was cracked tile. Posters from 2018 peeled off the walls. A bench with broken wood. A ticket booth with spiderwebs. And in the far corner, behind a rusted iron gate, a staircase going down.

The air coming up from it was warm. And it smelled like dust, old metal, and something else. Something sweet. Like his auntie's perfume from church.

He pulled out his phone. 2:01AM. No network. No light from the road.

His phone buzzed.

Unknown Number: `You shouldn't have gotten off.`

Daniel froze. He looked around. Nobody. Just the echo of dripping water from a leaking pipe.

He typed: `Who is this?`

No reply. Just 3 dots. Then nothing.

From down the staircase came a sound. A soft _thump_. Like dress shoes on concrete. Slow. Deliberate. Coming up.

Daniel's heart was in his throat. He should run. He should get out. But that voice in his head... the same voice that made him take the night bus instead of sleeping at his friend's place... told him to look.

He took one step toward the stairs. The gate creaked. It wasn't locked.

The light at the bottom flickered. Yellow. Dim. And for half a second, he saw them.

Silhouettes. Standing at the bottom of the stairs. Eleven of them. All wearing long black coats. All holding identical black briefcases. None of them moved. All facing upward. Like they were waiting for the twelfth.

One of them turned its head. Even from here, Daniel could see there was no face. Just shadow. Where a face should be, there was only darkness.

The thumping stopped.

Silence. So deep he could hear his own breathing.

Then a voice, from everywhere and nowhere. It wasn't loud. It was calm. Like a conductor announcing a stop.

`Seat 12 is open, Daniel.`

His name.

How did it know his name?

Daniel dropped his phone. It clattered on the tile. The screen cracked, but the last message was still glowing:

Unknown Number: `Run.`

The lights above him buzzed and went out. Darkness swallowed the terminal.

And the big metal door behind him slammed shut. _BANG._

He spun around. Pulled the handle. Locked.

Footsteps again. But this time, they weren't coming up the stairs.They were coming from behind the ticket booth.

_Thump. Thump. Thump._

A shadow moved across the wall. Tall. Wearing a long coat. Holding a briefcase.

Daniel backed toward the staircase. His only way out was down.

He took the first step. The air got warmer. The sweet perfume smell got stronger.

At the bottom, the eleven figures were still there. Waiting. And in the middle of them was an empty chair. Seat 12.

A voice whispered in his ear, though nobody was close:

You're late. We've been waiting since 11:59pm.`

The gate above him closed on its own.

Daniel was no longer alone in the terminal.