~~~~
She liked to hang out in the old
train station, it was calm and quiet. It had been out of service for almost a
decade now, so nobody went there except for her. Some saw it as weird, but she
asserted that she liked the aesthetic of the old, rusted structures. Nothing
ever happened while she was there, even if she stayed there for hours on end,
at least until one day.
It was a cool, autumn day and she was
seated on a bench on the old platform. There was no sound besides a light
breeze and the rustle of trees. Then she heard a subtle noise in the distance.
It was quiet at first, but it slowly grew in volume. She could tell what it
was, but it sounded like a large vehicle. Almost like a train was in approach.
She laughed that idea off and assumed there was an off -road car nearby.
Yet, the sound continued to approach
and only grew more audible. As it came closer the telltale sound of wheels on
the train tracks began to fill the area. She stood up from her seat, curious as
to where the sound originated from. She finally got her answer as a large,
sleek, white train rolled into the station and came to a stop. Its automatic
doors rolled open and a mechanical voice echoed out, "Now Boarding."
She was bewildered but brushed the
impossible sight before her off as a dream. 'If this is a dream,' she thought,
'then why not go onboard?' With little hesitation, she boarded the train. A
short while later the doors closed and it moved forward again.
She took a seat in the empty train
car and began to take in her surroundings. It was a very clean, sleek and
modern interior, filled with electronic billboards. The train was akin to the
kind one would see on their commute in a large city. She found it amusing that
such a train would be out in the county. She looked out the window to observe
the landscape but saw nothing but black. Confused she looked closer, but still,
only darkness greeted her vision.
'Okay wake up anytime now,' she
thought to herself, suddenly disturbed by her environment. However, as the
train continued to travel onward, she did not wake up. Instead, she finally to
realized she was not in a dream. The situation was so surreal, yet all signs
told her that she was wide awake. "I think I'm on the wrong train,"
she muttered to herself, "not that there was a right train in the first place
but..."
She stood up from her seat and began
to move about the empty car. She looked ahead to see the paths between cars
were easily traversed. With nothing better to do made her way to the next car.
Upon her entry her eyes widened in surprise, the car was not empty and had a
single passenger, but they were not human. It was a large, masculine being,
topped with a pair of red horns. The unknown entity had a newspaper in hand but
still looked up to see her enter.
"Oh, another one," he
commented before he returned to his paper. "Better cross your fingers and
hope the next stop is a good one." Her heart sank, she didn't like the
implication of his words.
She grabbed onto a nearby pole and
tried to support herself. It was then the darkness faded from the windows and a
new landscape was in view. It was a picturesque mountainside, filled with giant
birds who had human faces. The train again rolled to a stop, and she observed
one of the birds fly down and enter the train. With a new passenger onboard the
train fired itself up and rolled away until it was again blanketed by darkness.
This process repeated over and over.
Each time it was a different place and a different creature or person would
board the train. Sometimes the places were natural wonders, sometimes they were
cities and a few times they were beyond reason. Many of the creatures that
boarded the train were humanoid, and many were not.
The only constant was that the train
would only depart when someone either boarded or disembarked. Sometimes the
train would sit for hours if it pulled into a particularly abandoned place. However,
eventually someone would leave or some poor fool would wander inside.
She did not move from her spot in
the car with the horned man. She was paralyzed by the sights she saw, crushed
by the realization of how far from home she was. Most of all she felt stupid
for having boarded the train in the first place. Yet, the train continued
onward, ignorant of the plight of its passengers. Wherever it stopped next was
a matter of chance.
~~~~
This story came out of my fascination with idea of fantastical and otherworldly things disguised as everyday sights. I'll likely return to this idea, but for now I just wanted to write this little piece on it.Until next time, Read, Comment and Enjoy
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