On a weekend night, with the city’s pulse shifting into a darker rhythm, one passenger’s frantic journey was a race against more than just time. His curfew, a fragile line between freedom and a world of consequences, was at risk of snapping. As the minutes ticked down and delays mounted, the pressure grew unbearable. What was he running from? What would happen if he didn’t make it in time? This wasn’t just another late-night ride; this was a life on the edge.
Racing the Devil: A Passenger on the Brink
The city at night has a different pulse. A darker one. The weekend crowd slouches in doorways, spilling laughter and smoke, while others slip through the cracks, moving with a different kind of urgency. I’d seen them all before, the night owls, the restless, the ones with too much time and the ones with none at all.
Then there was him.
Sat near the front, shifting in his seat like he had ants in his veins. A walking red flag, the kind you clock early. Sharp jaw, darting eyes, that restless energy of a man living on borrowed time. His tracksuit was zipped high, hood low, but he wasn’t hiding. He was calculating. Watching the road. Watching the clock.
Then we hit the delay.
A routine pause, a slow change at the lights, a diversion up ahead, but for him, it was the trap closing in. His leg started bouncing. His fingers drummed a nervous rhythm on the metal pole. Then, like a fuse finally reaching the charge, he exploded.
“Move! MOVE!” His voice cut through the stale bus air like a knife. His breath was jagged, knuckles white as he gripped the seat in front of him. “I need to be THERE. NOW.”
The other passengers shrank back. You don’t engage with that kind of energy. Not at this hour. Not when the air thickens like that, heavy with the scent of bad decisions.
I kept my eyes on the road. “We’re moving as fast as we can, mate.”
Wrong answer.
He let out a low, bitter laugh, humourless, sharp. “Fast as you can? That’s a f***ing joke. If I don’t make it, I’m done. You get that? Done.” He spat the word out, and suddenly, it wasn’t just a curfew he was up against. It was something deeper. Something waiting for him at the other end.
Maybe it was a probation officer. Maybe it was a crew that didn’t tolerate excuses. Either way, he was pushing it, cutting the margins fine. Too fine.
The bus groaned forward, sluggish in the city’s late-night grip. He was seething, muttering to himself, a caged animal pacing the limits of his patience.
Then, finally, his stop.
Before the doors even sighed open, he was gone. A blur of black and adrenaline, sprinting into the shadows. I watched him go, disappearing down some unlit path, his fate sealed by whatever waited at the other end.
And as I pulled away, I exhaled slow. Because some passengers pay with their fare. And some pay with whatever’s left of their soul.
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