The group quickly shoved themselves behind the seats of the schoolbus, breathing quietly with alarmed looks on their faces.
"Are they still there?" Ty asked, his voice low and hushed as he gestured to his ears. Ashlyn and Dominique nodded in sync, their eyes glancing back at the door.
"What's our plan?" Taylor asked, her voice wavering slightly as she clutched onto Tyler's hand.
"We'll have to kill it. Dom?" Ashlyn stated, then looked towards Dom. Dom was the only one on the group that killed one of the things. She knew how to kill it and had the highest chance out of anyone in the group of taking it down.
Dom released a heavy breath, her hand reaching down to her waist and grabbing her Bo-staff. She nodded at ash.
"Why don't we just shoot it? We can't keep putting Dom on the front lines!" Tyler argued to Ashlyn, whisper yelling.
"The gun is for emergency's, Tyler." Ash stated, looking between the group to make sure everyone was ready for what about to go down.
"This is an emergency!" He shouted at Ashlyn, losing his temper. Everyone glanced to him in alert as he quickly covered his mouth, not realising that he had yelled.
Dom held up a hand to the group, her ear perking slightly at the sound of footsteps getting closer to the bus.
"Under the seats. Now!" Ash ordered, everyone quickly sliding under the seats in the bus.
Everyone collectively held their breath, Dominique under the seat in front of Ashlyn. Ashlyn crawled forward slightly, her knee scraping against the metal ground of the bus. She grimaced, and Dom looked back in alarm.
As ash raised her head in front of her, her eyes blew wide at the sight of a phantom bent at an unnatural angle infront of Dominique, who had her attention on Ashlyn.
"DOM!" Ash shouted in alarm, raising a finger and pointing in front of her. Confused, Dom turned her attention back infront of her, her eyes going wide at the sight of the phantom.
Her hand reached into her back pocket, grabbing the phantom tooth and stabbing it in the eye, quickly rolling out from under the seat.
"Grab the weapons, Ty-!" She was interrupted at she let out a cry, feeling the phantom grab the back of her plait, yanking her back down.
She let out a frustrated yell, ripping the handle of her staff off and sliding it out her belt loop and swiping behind her blindly, not able to see the phantom behind her.
It let out a roar of pain, and Dom managed to tug her head forward, hard enough to get out of the phantoms grasp.
She got up, spinning her staff in her hand, building up enough speed in her hand to slice its head off. The rest of the group were gathered at the back of the bus, the phantom in between the rest of the group and Dominique.
It turned behind it, reaching for Logan, who was standing the closest toward it. Logan's eyes widened in horror as it reached for him, squeezing his eyes shut and putting his hand up in front of him in defence.
But, at the sound of a thud, Logan quickly opened his eyes, landing on the sight of the phantoms body flaking to the floor.
Logan felt something roll against his foot, his pupils dilating in fear as he looked down, met with the phantoms soulless, dead smile and one blank eye, the other impaled by Dom.. He screamed, jumping onto Ben who was next to him and burying himself in his side, not wanting to take in the sight.
Behind the deceased phantom, Dominique stood, wiping her brow and panting lightly.
Aiden wolf-whistled, walking forward and placing an arm over Dominique, cheering a fist up in the air.
"God, Dom! You're so fucking badass, it makes me jealous." He grinned, shaking her back and forth by her shoulders, blushing lightly at her show of strength. The rest of the group just stood with their jaws agape, looking between the phantoms head and a dizzy Dominique.
Dom just smiled in thanks, before looking at Logan.
"Are you okay? Did it get you?" She asked carefully, not wanting to frighten him even more. He rose his face from Ben's arm, before sobbing, running toward Dominique and enveloping her in a hug.
"Thank you." He whispered out shakily, squeezing her tightly. Dom just smiled at him, wrapping her hands around him back.
"I'm gonna patrol outside. We need to check if anymore are inside." Dominique spoke up, the group looking down at the deceased phantom with green faces, the sight making majority of them sick.
"I'll come!" Aiden spoke up happily, running over to Dom who just deadpanned at him. Ash nodded.
"Good idea. This is the first time we have a dead one we can actually investigate. We will wait for you guys to get back and try and find some weaknesses together." She spoke, nodded to the entry way of the bus. Aiden just nodded, walking merrily toward the box of weapons, picking out one to prepare himself in case they encountered anymore.
Meanwhile, Dominique walked closer to the head of the deceased phantom, her eyes cold.
"Dom? What are you-" Taylor started, only to be interrupted by a yell as Dom leaned down, twisting the tooth around in its eye, before pulling it out, wiping it against her shirt.
Logan and Ben physically gagged, and ash, Taylor and Tyler all looked at her like she was crazy. But there was one through in all their minds.
"Why was that actually kinda..." Tyler started, but was smacked in the back of the head by Taylor. Dom just glanced back, pushing Aiden out the door of the bus and saluting them as she nudged the door closer behind her.
After clearing the perimeter, Dom and Aiden walked back into the bus, blood lightly colouring both their clothes as they smiled at the group. Dom had her staff over her shoulder, the handle back on it. While Aiden had is weapon dragging lightly behind him.
"How many were there?" Logan asked timidly, almost not wanting to know. Dom just looked to Aiden, who replied happily.
"Two! They got in through a crack in the wall. But me and Dom stacked some metal brackets up against it and tied it down. They can't get through there anymore." Aiden spoke, raising a rust toward Dominique who nodded, smiling at Aiden and giving him a fist bump.
Ash just rolled her eyes. But, ultimately, was happy the two were okay and had located the source of their problem.
"Get over here. Let's figure out what we can find." Dom just nodded. Aiden walked over to the weapons box, before being interrupted by Dominique.
"To avoid our situation form before, from now on, you will all keep a weapon on you at all times." Dominique ordered, leaving no room for argument. Everyone just nodded quickly, not used to seeing so much of her more serious side.
"We can't lug around big weapons like that all the time, Dom." Tyler spoke, gesturing to the box of weapons, which were all pretty oversized and inconvenient. Dom nodded.
"I agree." She stated, walking over to the drivers seat of the bus as everyone started at her questioningly. She cane back to the group with a small bag furled in her hand, dropping it down in a chair. She opened it, picking up a couple of small-ish daggers. The group marvelled at the sight, each of them gathering walking towards her as she handed them all their own.
"Where did you get these?" Ashlyn spoke up, playing with hers lightly in her grasp. Dom shrugged.
"I've collected them over a couple of years. I practise with daggers quite often." She replied, pulling the tooth out of her back pocket and fiddling around in her bag, pulling out a small kitchen knife.
Nodding, Ash raised the knife to her hair, everyone exclaiming as she ran the knife through her plaits, making a soft thud as they hit the floor. They just stared at her questioningly as she ran her hand through her now chopped hair.
"I saw the phantom grab Dom by her hair. I don't want that to happen to me, you know?" She said to the group as she put the blade into her pocket, getting used to the feeling of not having to lug around heavy plaits on the back of her hair. She smiled.
Dominique just looked toward Ash with a wide smile. She wrapped an arm around Ashlyn's shoulders, rubbing her fist against her scalp.
"It suits you, Ash!" She smiled, letting go of her and making her way back to where she had dumped her staff.
She tore off the handle of her staff, and placed it down on the seat in front of her, along with the tooth. The group looked at her with curious eyes.
She took the kitchen knife in her hand, placing against the spear-point blade on her staff. She put the knife under a knot in the blade before pressing down, pulling the dagger out.
She tossed it toward the group, Ben catching it and marvelling at it lightly and carefully, before glancing back at Dominique.
Dom took the tooth, fitting it against where the old blade of her staff used to be, before pushing it in, using her kitchen knife to align the knots before smiling at it happily.
She picked it up, dropping the kitchen knife to the ground and spinning the staff in her hand, doing a couple of tricks and brandishing it proudly to the group.
"I had this idea a while ago. The tooth is sharper and way more durable, and it glows!" She smiled happily, taking the handle of her staff and sliding it back over the blade, swinging it over her shoulder.
The group just deadpanned, save for Aiden, who shared Dominique's excitement.
Ash coughed into her palm, interrupting Aiden and Dominique's chatter with a slightly jealous look in her eye. She gestured toward the dead phantom.
"Oh ya!" Dominique explained, dragging Aiden over to the phantom. Dom walked over to the phantom's head, kicking it lightly as it rolled back toward where the rest of the body was, propped up against the wall of the bus. Logan gagged, looking away.
Aiden pulled his phone out of his pocket, turning it on and shining his flashlight at the phantom.
Only for it to start sizzling loudly, melting.
"Turn it off!" Taylor and Tyler shouted in sync. Surprised, Aiden fiddled with his phone, turning his flashlight off as everyone collectively let out a sight on relief.
Dom stepped toward the body, her hand swinging her staff back over her shoulder and gently sliding the handle off.
"Dom?" Ash questioned lightly, and Dom just held her hand in her direction. She stepped forward, lightly gliding the blade of the glowing tooth against the phantoms arm, watching at it sizzled and basically cut like butter.
Dominique smirked.
fin.
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