The Lonely Bus does have a second level. It was a bit cramped at first and I had to wiggle my way through the wires and the insulation and it got down my shirt and itched. But eventually it opened up and I found myself in the cab.

Since the Lonely Bus was infinitely long, with no beginning or end, I had wondered where the driver sat. Here it was. Looking out the windshield, the sections of the Lonely Bus stretched out into the ever-lasting night. It was quiet, and the controls on the dashboard were clean and modern, with touch screen readouts and shiny metal knobs.

But there was no Lonely Bus Driver to be seen.

"Breaker one-nine, you got your ears on Great Deceiver? Over."

A little red light blinked near a digital CB radio.

"Because you gotta check this out. Sending you a link now."

A screen on the dash lit up and started playing a local TV news story. The sound was turned down, but the banner at the bottom read "LOCAL YOUTHS TERRORIZED BY WITCHES."

"They don't know how right they are, do they G.D.? Yee-haw! We got enough of those damn GPS apps out there to start messin' with them good I figure. That was just two groups goin' at it. Wait till we get three or four all out at the same place at the same time. You should take a spin on it."

Another piece of the dashboard lit up, this time with a map, covered with many small green dots.

"You got your Haunting License renewed, right G.D.? Har har har!"

I looked around the cab. There was no one else there. Down the hall would be the W.C., but I knew no one was in there either. And the tall black conical hat hanging on the wall? I knew it fit me perfectly.

Things were starting to look familiar. Again.

Witches 4 Life, right?

I won't lie--there were a tense few moments as I held up the lost ticket and everyone raised their hand to claim it. Who knew how long any of us had been on the Lonely Bus? No one else could have ever gotten on because the bus had never made a stop. Ever. And everybody wanted off.

After fending off the first few lurchers with my sword cane (where did that come from?), calmer minds prevailed. There was no way I was walking off with it now, nor anyone else, so it was decided that we'd split the ticket with as many of us as we could. I tore off tiny pieces and handed them out one by one, until there was nothing left but a single tiny speck of a ticket for me.

The most eager of us--a kind of deer woman in a cloak--pulled the STOP cord and waited. Shortly after, the bus came to a halt and a door appeared. The doors wheezed open and Deer Woman took a step out.

Well, part of her took a step out. A very tiny part.

The effect was horrible. She shuddered and fell back as a tiny bit of her essence left the bus, leaving the rest, broken, torn, inside. But that didn't deter the next dozen or so passengers, each so eager to leave they neglected to examine the effects.

As everyone in this particular section was gathered near the door, I noticed a maintenance closet near the back of the compartment. I opened it and discovered a small escalator, rolling up into to the crawlspace above the cabin. Without a second thought, I boarded the escalator.

Did you know the Lonely Bus had a second level?

Time moves weird on the Lonely Bus. On one hand it doesn't move at all. We'll call that the Lonely Hand. Outside, the landscape is in continual twilight. No sun rises or sets. I know this because since losing my ticket I've been unable to get off the bus, or find a door, and the bus has made no stops. It's always dark out, and it's been a long time.

Time doesn't move inside the bus either. I don't get tired, I don't get hungry, and (thankfully) I don't have to go to the bathroom. Which makes it hard to tell how long I've been here.

But there's movement. The desolate wastes roll by, the bus keeps rolling. And inside, if there was no time, how could I put one thought after another? Or one word after another? Aren't time and motion supposed to be related? We'll call that the Moving Hand.

And no I don't have my student I.D. or I could use it to get off this bus, like @Big Jim announced. I lost it a few months ago.

After somehow navigating and negotiating my way through @GROTTO G.S.M. INC.'s demoralizing log in procedure, I was able to pull up the Psyhigh Student Handbook online. Scrolling through... scrolling through... ah:

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

-BUS

--LONELY BUS

---TICKETS

----LOSING YOUR TICKET

-----LOOK DOWN ON THE FLOOR

------TO THE RIGHT! BY THAT GUM! SEE THAT?

Ah! A lonely ticket! Someone else must have lost theirs too.

"Did anyone lose a ticket?" (why do I ask these things?!)

Everyone on the bus turns and raises their hand.

Misplacing your ticket while riding the Lonely Bus is a serious infraction. Suddenly there is no front of the bus. Or back of the bus. Or doors of any kind. You can walk the aisle and walk and walk and occasionally get to the accordion bellows separating one section from another, but it just goes on, and on, and on, filled with lonely bus riders of increasingly alien species while the landscape of terror rolls by outside, never-ending.

I am lucky I can still get music on my phone.

Checking the Psyhigh Student Handbook for what to do when you lose your ticket on the Lonely Bus.

Yes the X23 can be a lonely route, @Gregrethica Wallis. It's supposed to be a shortcut, skirting the edges of the Myrornas Krig and and the Semut Bertengkar, but those desolate wastes are enough to drive anyone to the brink. And then watches don't work so there's no way to see if it really saves time.

Just don't sit by Mr. Fiddlesticks.