Exploding light bulbs

Chapter Ten

ANOTHER bulb suddenly exploded, then another, until one after another the bulbs exploded around the deck like a chain reaction. I waited until I heard the last tingle of falling glass before I uncurled to look around.

"Fares please."

He blocked my seat. I looked up at him in disbelief. A trickle of blood passed over his hairline and down his forehead. 'He must have hurt himself too'; I thought and felt a pang of sympathy for him.

"You cut too?" I said stating the obvious.

"No.", he replied with the shadow of a grin on his thin lips.

"But the blood?"

He held out his fingers. They glistened with blood. Then he pointed to my head. At first I was puzzled; then I realised what he had done.

"You touched me! That's my blood on your fingers!" the thought made me feel sick, "How dare you!"

Once again I became enraged at his audacity. I had not felt him touch me, and somehow that made things worse.

By the look of contempt on his face he was not at all concerned. I sat aghast as he raised his blooded fingers to his lips and began licking the blood. I squeezed away, repelled by the act. Suddenly he reached for me and grabbed my lapel.

"Get off me!" I screamed kicking at him. He grabbed my ankle and sharply twisted it. I cried out in pain and tried to kick him with my other foot. He was too quick. He struck my thigh with his foot and trapped my leg.

"Stop it!" I pleaded, "You're hurting me".

He took no notice of my plea and twisted my ankle to the horizontal rail on the back of the seat. Then he tried to push my foot through the four-inch gap between the rail and the seat.

I redoubled my efforts to pull free, but he was too strong and continued to push my foot between the gap.

In panic I grabbed the ticket dispenser at his waist and yanked, trying to pull him off balance but the strap snapped. The dispenser slipped from my grasp and fell clattering under the seats.

A loud thud came from the upper deck. The conductor's head snapped up. His eyes lit like a man who had suddenly remembered something delightful.

"Fare!"

He said the word as would a ravenous man say the word 'food' at the smell of it. Letting go of me he swiftly turned, ran down the aisle and bounded up the stairs.

My ankle throbbed. I was shocked and afraid to move. The bus vibrated and shook as it pounded through the mist.

Breath broke from my mouth in short bursts of vapour. The freezing night had entrenched itself within the bus.

Loud banging came from above as if a terrible fight had broken out, or furniture was being thrown about.

I listened intently.

I could hear something else, something that sounded like the agonised grunts of a beast - or a man! I looked around at the gap in the blind. It was black and, to my relief, empty.

I closed my eyes and tried to slow the thumping of my heart. The mist outside lent the interior an eerie glow as if the deck were lit by dim green neon. I looked at my watch.

Surely we must have reached a town by now? We must have been travelling for an hour at least. I could hardly see my watch in the awful gloom. I could just about make out the hands.

Twelve thirty! That was impossible! Then I noticed that the glass on my watch was broken. I must have smashed it when I fell. In that case, what was the time? Something slid along the floor.

I looked under the seat and saw the ticket dispenser. I reached under and pick it up. The ticket was still attached to it. The ticket looked strange. The material was too thick to be paper.

I rolled the ticket between my fingers. Curious. It had a pliable feel, limber, and it did not crease when I folded it. Beneath the surface of my consciousness a blurred image slithered.

As I tried to resolve the image I gazed absently at the gap in the blind.

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