The man with the Sign

I walked down the stone steps, my heels clicking against it. My paste pink dress swung gently back and forth because of the cool September wind. I stood at the bottom of the steps waiting for my little sister. She came jumping down the stairs. I held out my hand for hers and she smiled up at me. 

    “Are we ready?” She asked excitedly.

    “Yes,” I replied, smiling down at her. 

    This was her first circus and I couldn’t wait to take her! Mom had made me wait until she was four. And the circus only comes twice a year. We strolled down the side of the street making our way through thick crowds of people that were in tents selling things to us. We just kept walking. Our goal was to get to the giant tent in the center of town. Eventually, we made it there. By now the sun was setting, casting a golden glow over everything. We stepped inside the tent and looked above us. It was huge and filled with hundreds of people. 

    The show was amazing. There were clowns with creepy masks performing tricks no one could think of. By the time the show was over it was just past nine. We followed all of the people out and just as we were leaving we saw a bus with a man holding a sign. The sign was saying free rides home. The air was chilly and I was tired. Anything sounded better than walking home in the dark. I pulled my sisters hand and tugged her to the bus. I smiled at the man and climbed on. The bus was dark and there were only a few people on the bus. Most of them were younger than me. The only adults really was the man holding the sign and the bus driver. I sat down and my sister sat with me. A few seconds later the man with the sign got on the bus and we were off. The low sound of the bus and my quiet humming soon put my sister to sleep. 

    I looked out the window and realized something was wrong.We had turned onto a dirt road. I frowned. That was strange. The only dirt roads were miles out of town. I lifted my sister off of me and walked up to the front of the bus. The man with the sign was sitting in the front seat. 

    “Excuse me sir?” I whispered as I tapped his shoulder. 

    He turned around to face me and I gasped. The man had long stringy hair that was pulled back into a loose knot. His teeth were crooked and many of the teeth had chips in them. The bottom of his lip was bloody and his eyes were different colors. One was completely black with crooked lines of red and the other was pure white. 

    I turned and ran to the bus doors and pushed. Nothing happened. We were locked in! I turned around and my blood ran cold. My sister was gone. And so was everyone else on the bus. There was just me and the man with the sign and the bus driver.