Chapter 3The Anchor Point

I was too exhausted to deal with their psychotic delusions again, so I just ignored them and stared out the window.

The bus cruised smoothly down the highway.

Suddenly, the old man who claimed to be Mr. Miller's father stood up and slowly walked down the aisle toward me.

He stopped right next to my seat, looking down at me with an intense, interrogating stare.

"I wanted to ask you this the other day. What family do you belong to? I've lived in this county my entire life, and I have never seen your face before."

I frowned, deeply annoyed, but gave him my name anyway.

"My last name is Quinn. Maya Quinn."

The moment those words left my mouth, an old woman sitting across the aisle shot up from her seat, pointing a shaking finger directly at my nose.

"You malicious, evil little girl!"

"You could have chosen to impersonate literally anyone else in the world, and you chose the Quinn family's daughter?!"

I stared at her, completely bewildered.

"Impersonate who? I am Maya Quinn!"

The old woman was trembling with absolute rage.

"Liar! I live right next door to the Quinn family! They only had one child, a daughter named Maya, and she burned to death in that fire ten years ago!"

"First you claim David Miller isn't dead, and now you're trying to impersonate a dead girl! What the hell is wrong with you?!"

I was officially pushed past my breaking point.

These people were absolutely, clinically insane!

I violently stood up and yanked my phone out of my pocket.

"I am so done arguing with you crazy people!"

"I literally saw Mr. Miller three days ago at our high school reunion! He is alive and perfectly fine! I literally saved his phone number!"

I opened my contacts and pulled up David Miller's name.

"I am calling him right now! I'm going to put it on speaker so you can hear his voice and realize how psychotic you sound!"

I hit the call button and activated the speakerphone.

Everyone on the bus held their breath.

The phone rang. Beep... Beep...

The call connected.

I shot a triumphant, vindicated glare at the old people surrounding me.

But the very next second, a sudden, jarring cell phone ringtone began blaring from right in front of me.

The ringing was coming from the pocket of the old man claiming to be Mr. Miller's father.

He shakily reached into his pocket and pulled out an ancient, outdated flip phone.

The screen was glowing brightly, displaying:

[Incoming Call: Unknown Number]

And the number displayed on his screen... was my exact cell phone number.

How is this physically possible?!

This was the exact number Mr. Miller had personally given me three days ago! I typed it into my phone myself!

Why the hell was it ringing this crazy old man's flip phone?!

The second his phone rang, the bus erupted into absolute chaos.

"Scammer! She's a professional scammer! How else would she have David's old phone number?!"

"Impersonating dead kids to extort grieving parents! Scammers these days are pure, unadulterated evil!"

"Driver! Lock the doors and drive this bus directly to the police precinct! We are handing her over to the cops!"

The group of elderly passengers aggressively swarmed me, physically blocking me into my seat.

My brain was a chaotic, swirling mess of static. I was completely incapable of processing what was happening.

I literally just saw Mr. Miller. Why did his phone number dial his 'father'?!

I looked at the number on my screen, and then at the ringing flip phone in the old man's trembling hand. A horrifying, profoundly absurd thought crept into my mind.

Could it be... were the last three days... fake?

Was the reunion a hallucination?

Was the Mr. Miller I saw not real?

I violently shook my head, desperately trying to physically throw the insane thoughts out of my brain.

"I'm not a scammer! You have to listen to me!"

But no one was listening.

Yielding to the screaming demands of the passengers, the bus driver actually engaged his turn signal, took the next exit, and headed straight for the county police precinct.