TAXI

It was a dark night when Julie and Chris are walking by the Bayside Road. It has been a cold night and having only a few vehicles passing through this road made it even colder.

"Sabi ko na sayo! Dapat hinintay natin si Gary doon sa party para may masakyan tayo pauwi. Eh nahihirapan tuloy tayong makahanap ng taxi sa lugar na 'to. Wala atang dumadaan na taxi dito eh!" complains Julie to his boyfriend. Chris then replies "Jul, it's getting late na and the party was getting a little boring already. Tapos parang ayaw pa umalis ni Gary eh. Hintay ka lang, may taxi din jan maya-maya."

Chris then notices a light from afar behind him. He thought to himself that it could finally be a taxi and that they can finally go home. And as he thought, it appeared to be a taxi after all. Chris then hurriedly waves his hand to signal the vehicle to stop and give them a ride. As the taxi was a few feet away from them, Julie cries out "Ngek! May pasahero na Chris! Puno pa nga ang sasakyan eh."

As Chris heard this from his girlfriend, he took a close look to make sure that the public vehicle is indeed occupied and sure enough, what he saw was exactly what Julie told him; the taxi is packed with its passengers. But to the couple's surprise, the taxi stopped a few meters away from them.

"Grabe naman tong driver na to. Puno na nga, magpapasakay pa." Julie exclaimed. Chris then started to walk towards the vehicle and as he was doing so, he says to his girlfriend, "Baka dito na bababa ang mga pasahero niya."

Julie then responds, "Ano? Eh wala namang bahay dito sa paligid ah. Tingnan mo nga. We're practically in the middle of nowhere." As Chris heard this, he looked around and only saw an empty field on one side and a gloomy forest on the other.

Right then and there, Chris thought that things started to get suspicious. He slowly approached the taxi. When he was near enough, he leaned down to take a look inside. To his shock, he saw no one on the passenger seat or on the backseat. There are no passengers in sight. He couldn't believe it. There was no way both he and his girlfriend were just seeing things. His girlfriend confirmed it twice already. Even though he started to feel light-headed, he struggled to walk further forward to talk to the driver and possibly shed some light on what they've seen earlier.

As he was about to open the passenger door to speak to the driver, he took a look inside and to his horror, neither driver could be seen inside the vehicle. At this point, Chris already felt like his head had already swollen. It was like he is in a trance due to what he is experiencing at that moment. "Ano daw Chris?! Bababa na ba ang mga pasahero niya?" screamed Julie.

Somehow, his girlfriend's voice snapped Chris out of his shock for a while and he was able to give Julie a look. Yet, Chris couldn't gather enough strength to speak up. He could only take a deep breath and gulp through his throat. He is already thinking that this is too much for him to handle. Trying to convince himself that all of this are just illusions, he slowly took another look inside the taxi. This time, what he saw was even more horrific. The vehicle is once again filled with people. What's more bizarre about is that all of them are just looking blankly forward and seemingly oblivious to Chris' presence. Chris' eyes started to bulge out in disbelief and as he started to walk backwards, all the people inside the vehicle slowly turned their heads toward Chris. Their eyes are so white; they look like they are glowing. That's the moment when Chris started to walk anxiously towards his girlfriend. He then grabbed her by the hand and hurriedly walked away from the taxi.

Chris and Julie were only meters away from where the taxi was parked when he decided to look back. The vehicle was no longer there. Now he feels even less safe and all he wants to do is run away but as he turned back to look forward, a very familiar set of headlights pulled over right in front of them. Chris is terrified over the fact that the taxi might have followed them and now he has to confront it again. He can't bear to see more of those horrific images he has seen earlier.