Sarah’s alarm screamed in the dark, slicing through the thin wall between sleep and survival. By the time the bus doors hissed open, seven-year-old Emily was swallowing tears like they might drown her if she let them spill. Her first ride alone, her mother’s last, desperate option. “Do not move, no matter what,” Sarah had said, voice tight. But when the old man in the aisle swayed, knuckles white on the pole, eyes glazed with a pain no one else seemed willing to see, the world narrowed to the thud of Emily’s heart. She slid from the cracked vinyl seat, knees shaking, and offered it with a small, stubborn smile that made his lined face soften before she even knew his na… Continues…
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