An audible ‘oof’ could be heard as the young adult woman looked at her phone screen after finishing the short conversation with her mother. She had almost forgotten how much she had to actually walk to get to the site of the burial. Thank god her last station was already in sight.
There seemed to be plenty of people left in the cart, especially considering they were heading to a sparsely populated area. A mom and her child sat closest, two seats behind, the lady reading and the child repeatedly bobbing his head trying not to fall asleep.
Suddenly the light outside ceased to exist. Only pitch black darkness filled the window frame from corner to corner.
The lazy C curve her back had rested in for the majority of the train ride straightened as she raised her head, attempting to make something out of the darkness that surrounded her with little help from the light coming from her phone ‘home’ screen. Her first thought was turning on her phone’s flashlight, but seeing as her battery was struggling to hang on to that 25% she abandoned the idea. After all, this wouldn’t last long. Would it?
She turned her head to what she thought was the direction she last saw the mother and son duo. Taking her phone screen and pointing it in their supposed direction she cleared her throat;
“Haha,” she attempted to laugh off the tension that was building up in the air, “I didn't notice we were heading into an underpass. There’s barely any light coming through, haha.”
Nothing. Just silence. Akane waited a couple of seconds with the hopes of hearing at least an attempt at a reply. Only the occasional light screech of the train wheels against the railing could be heard.
“Hello?”
Unbeknownst to the passengers in the train, a mass was growing, pulsing, with a hunger for purity. A nest of squirming parasitic worms fought each other, like a litter of pups struggling to get their mother’s milk, they would do anything to get them closer to what was calling them. Their small bodies swarmed, collided and pushed against one another as they moved, sticking to the outside surface of the train’s metal body. A minuscule crack between the window pane and the frame gave way to the inside of the train…
A deep feeling of concern crept over Akane. She was definitely not liking this. How long was this overpass again? She was tense, her mouth dry, shell bursts in her head. It was that feeling she always knew would come back, but not like this. Now the shadows around her seemed to move, like the whole mass of darkness had life. Suddenly the idea of turning on the flashlight seemed much more reasonable. Akane gripped her phone -probably cracking it even further- and turned it so that the screen would face up. The light revealed part of the roof, her seat, the seat next to her and a pair of beading eyes.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Hello, miss.” A smile appeared just under the deep staring eyes. It seemed to be a bit too wide for the face.
“Oh my god! What the f**k!” She yelled as she dropped her phone and threw herself back as far as the walls of the train allowed her.
Just then, the lights in the train came back on and the sun appeared before the world once again.
The frame of the man (?) standing right in front of her was slowly revealed by the rays of the morning sun permeating through the window. It was brighter than what she remembered. The figure wore a uniform Akane recognized; he must be a train attendant. Knowing this did not put her at ease, on the contrary, his presence was evermore unsettling. The navy blue suit he wore was anything but fitted. It was wrinkled, so loose you could fit another one of him in the same garment and the fabric had a weird glossy texture, like if every fiber were made of wax. He still wore a smile that stretched from ear to ear.
“Hehehe,” He laughed between his teeth, “careful not to hit your head little lady.”
Akane could see the remaining passengers lingering around in her peripheral view. They were not impressed by the scene going on around them. In fact, they hadn’t seemed to move at all.
She focused her gaze on the alleged train attendant’s face. It was pale, his skin waxy and if it weren’t for that smile he kept, his skin looked like it could fall off at any moment.
“How has the ride been thus far?”
“It’s b-been ok I-I g-guess.” Her tense position against the window pane slowly shifted into her just holding her mini backpack in front of her as to protect her small frame from whatever this guy might throw at her. She noticed he had not blinked the whole time.
His lanky right arm jolted up, moving and wiggling, bending and distorting. It then wrapped around his torso reaching for a pocket on the left side of his suit, all in a very awkward and uncoordinated fashion.
“I was just checking up on the passengers ,” the man said, hand still in pocket, “to make sure the passengers were doing fine.”
His head turned to look at the few and far in between passengers. His head continued to turn until it looked like he suddenly remembered to stop himself.
“It looks like they’re all in a good state,” the attendant turned his look back at Akane, “you’re the only one I haven’t spoken to just yet.”
His hand rummaged in his pocket -very aggressively- for a second before it crept out holding a wrinkled piece of paper. Holding it up to Akane’s face allowed her to get a full close up of the white blue-ish toned skin, crooked nails and… was that something moving under the skin? His bones looked almost unstable holding the piece of paper. The coordination just felt wrong.
“I have something I am supposed to hand to you.”
“Wha-?”
“Here, take it.”
The attendant grabbed her hand, forced it open and slapped the paper right on the palm of her hand. Akane was too shocked by his cold touch and wormy texture of his slender fingers to actually pull away.
“I hope you enjoy the rest of the trip, Akane Kamiya.” He bowed and made his way towards the next train car, torso waving and struggling to maintain its balance.
Akane, already relaxed, unfolded the thin paper (looks like it’s some type of cloth actually). On it, written in kanji and thick black ink, it said;
‘Redemption’.