Old Lady on the Bus

*Do not read beyond **this point** if you want to avoid being **spoiled!***

Little is known about the **Old Lady on the Bus**, but many theories exist. She has appeared repeatedly throughout the Layla series, but has never actually done anything. She has often occured when the characters are close to people or demons dying, or about to initiate combat against demons. She is also often observed knitting.

It is implied that the Old Lady on the Bus is in fact one of the Three Fates, or Moirai, potentially the oldest one, Atropos, the Inflexible One, the cutter of threads. This offers an explanation for her knitting, as the Fates are typically portrayed as kntiting.

When Imogen Parker was cornered by Barnaby's Demon sire, Imogen encountered the Old Lady on the bus who saw through her illusion disguise. When Imogen confronted the Old Lady on why they constantly met her, she realised that the Old Lady was one of the Fates, with the Old Lady acting generally quite amicably towards the young witch. Asking for some advice from her on how to defeat the Drox lord, the Old Lady indicated that Drox's cane was a magical item.

She has two sisters, one of which goes by the name "The Child", who resides in and presides over a realm where demons trade which can be accessed by The Alley. Unlike The Child, the Old Lady could see Robert Davidson in Greater Rosewater Royal Infirmary after his book had been removed from the Library of Fates Told due to the Old Lady being associated with death and because Robert was close to death then.

In her manifestation as death, the Old Lady was observed on Friday 13th 1998 by Layla and her friends after Robert touched a hexed Valentine's card. The Old Lady stared at Robert, who was sitting in the common room, via a window; when Robert and Layla saw her, she matched eyes with Robert and smirked amusedly. When the others tried to catch up to her, she disappeared.

En route to the Valentine's Day Card Office, the group surrounded Robert to attempt to protect him, yet he constantly saw the Old Lady appearing and disappearing. After confronting Horus Grant, a prefect who had hexed all of the Valentine's Day Cards the school had sold with a lethal misfortune hex, they managed to drive him out of the office, whereupon the Old Lady appeared and made a cutting motion with a pair of serrated scissors. This caused Horus to spin around, hit his shoulder on the door and impale himself on an iron nail on Robert's science fair project.

When the students looked over Horus, the Old Lady informed them that the hex he cast would dissipate on his death, and that they had been helpful, as she had been bound by Horus' spell, which she did not appreciate. She could not see Robert, however. She advised them that "they", referring had spells regarding resurrection, and questioned whether the nail imbedded in Horus' eye was iron. It was, and the Old Lady stated that injuries affected by iron are hard to cure by resurrection with the dark arts.

On saying this she manifested herself as Death, a black wood handle then a curved blade appearing; as the Reaper's scythe appeared Robert could see her flicker. She advised Imogen that she had largely been on the "straight and narrow" thus far, and advised her not to follow Horus' example and to not employ the dark arts. She then stated that they had done her a favour, and gave them (with the exception of Robert) some good fortune (in the form of 2 drama points).