Leslie didn't know what to expect when his vision suddenly changed, and he found himself shorter than he remembered. Looking around, he found himself on the roof of a school, and in front of him was a group of girls.
"C'mon, stop being so pathetic, we're not going to do anything to you." The girl in the middle scoffs.
"P-please leave me alone." A trembling voice begs. He can feel himself shaking and notices the iron grip of fear curling in his chest. That's all it takes for him to realize he's in the body of the teenage girl from the bus.
"Aw, look, she's trembling." The words send the group of girls into a mad cackle.
"Hahahaha, serves you right, next time you should think before snitching on us." The girl in the middle takes a menacing step forward. The body he's in steps backward at the same time.
"You were bullying someone, it wasn't right." The teenage girl tries to justify herself.
"I don't know where you got your values from, but here, when you see something like that you look away." The girl takes another step closer.
"Please stop. I promise I won't tell the teacher again." The teenage girl squeaks, inching another step back.
"Not good enough~" The girl chirps, rushing forward. The teenage girl scoots back until she hits the small fence, and then she keeps going, the force sending her careening backward off the roof. She falls and falls until feels something go through her stomach. It's the pole of a broken sign. She glances up and spots the bullies looking down at her with fear in their eyes, she reaches a hand up for help.
I wish I could've been braver
When Leslie is pulled out of the vision he gets disorientated for a second, before quickly pulling down a window and throwing up. The lines between real and fake had blurred and seeing his stomach with a hole in it was not the most pleasant thing.
"Woah, are you okay?" Belle asks, rubbing his back.
"Yeah, I think so." Leslie groans, wiping his mouth before bringing his head back inside and closing the window.
"Did you get their last regret or whatever?" Avery questions. She's leaning back in her seat casually but Leslie can see the spark of worry in her eyes.
"Yeah, it was that she wanted to be braver." He repeats what her last thought was.
"Oh yeah, I guess it was something like that." The teenage girl mumbles, making her way back to her seat.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Belle asks worriedly.
"Don't worry, just seeing the blood made me a little squeamish." Leslie comforts his friend. While they wait for the next stop Leslie grabs out his phone to text Lou. He had left him home with Luna tonight in exchange for buying her some cookies the next time he went to the store. He wanted to check that the house was still fine but there was no service. He was still feeling a bit queasy from before so when the bus halted it made his stomach do concerning flips.
The bus pulls out again, and a new passenger approaches. This time, it's an old man who is fiddling with his fingers nervously. He doesn't have any obvious wounds that Leslie can notice as he asks for help.
"I'll do it this time, there's something I want to confirm," Belle states, a serious look on his face.
"Is there something wrong?" Leslie asks.
"Maybe, I'm not sure yet, if I don't wake up until right before the bus stops, shake me awake." He tells them, and then he goes unconscious.
"Is that something we should be worried about?" Leslie frets.
"Probably not?" Avery replies, though her answer sounds more like a question. There's an awkward silence between the two for a bit until Avery begins to speak.
"Sooo, how did you meet the bast-ahem, Belle?" She asks. Leslie squints his eyes, he's sure she was about to say something, but noticing the cold sweat on her face he ignores it.
"He saved my brother and then invited me to be his assistant, I get paid and he's a good person so I'm happy." Leslie smiles as he remembers.
"So you two do this often?" She questions.
"Yep, the ghosts are a bit scary sometimes, but it's fun to play around with them," Leslie responds.
"I see." She says, then she goes quiet, leaving them in awkward silence once again. That is, until Belle wakes up with a gasp, his face pale.
"Aw, shit." He curses, and Leslie rushes to support him.
"What happened?!" Leslie exclaims.
"It seems that this ability is more mentally draining as you carry on using it. The more empathetic you are the more you'll synchronize with what they're feeling." He explains.
"Uhm, that doesn't sound very good." Leslie points out.
"It's probably not, there's a potential that if you synchronize too much you could go crazy," Belle states lightly. Both Avery and Leslie go pale at the thought and subconsciously back away from Belle.
"Ah, don't worry, it's not an instant thing. I would say I could do it about two more times, same with Avery, but I don't think you can pull it off much more Leslie." Belle says logically.
"Right." Leslie pales even more.
"Before that, your last regret was that you didn't get to feed your dog," Belle says, turning to the old man. He thanks them profusely and then leaves them sitting there in a worried silence.
"What happens if we don't figure out their regrets?" Avery asks eventually.
"They would attack us, I don't know how strong they are so it might be a bit inconvenient," Belle answers.
"Worst comes to worst I could exorcise them all," Avery states.
"Potentially, it's not the passengers I'm most worried about though…" Belle trails off, subtly turning his head toward the bus driver.
"I guess we should just get on with it." Avery sighs. The old man has already left the bus and the next passenger is standing before them, a young man with weird burn marks running through his body.
"One more thing, their last regrets might become less obvious so look around for any clues," Belle warns Avery.
"Wait, wha-!" Before she can finish her sentence she's passed out against the seat.