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Printed from https://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1926803-A-Train-Ride-To-Death
Rated: 13+ · Short Story · Contest · #1926803
contest for Horrors Inc Presents: The Daily Slice - 990 words
It was quiet. Too quiet, I thought. I sat there alone in one of the more private train cars. Normally I would never travel without my husband, but our daughter was close to delivering our first grandchild and I wanted to be there to welcome in our newest addition.

The lights started to flicker on and off giving the room an eerie glow to it. They flickered on and off that way for about ten minutes or so before everything went dark. I half expected the lights to be back within a few minutes but there was nothing but the deafening sound of silence, and then a shrill scream of a woman somewhere in a car down the hall.

I gripped my hand to my heart wondering what happened and imagining the worst. My heart now pounding in my chest began to beat so wildly all I could hear or feel was the sound of my beating heart echoing in my ears.

I was afraid to stay, yet I was afraid to go. After all, where did I really have to go on a train? It wasn’t like I could just stop it and get off. I debated on which would be the safest route to take.  Eventually I decided it would be more comforting to be in a crowd of people than alone here left with my imagination running away from me...

The scream was probably nothing more than someone getting freaked out when the lights went out. I decided to venture out of my private car hoping to find something to give me peace of mind. I slowly and quietly opened the sliding door and cautiously looked in both directions before heading to the right. As I headed farther down the hall I saw a small glowing light coming from one of the other private rooms. 

I sighed in relief at the sight of a small light in the darkness of the train and started walking at a faster pace towards it. Hoping to discover what had caused the power outage. Unfortunately, when I got there what I saw horrified me. I nearly choked on the bile that rose to my throat as I threw my hands over my mouth to stifle a scream

Lying on the floor was a dark haired woman that looked to be in about her mid twenties at most. The glow I had seen from the hallway was from the glow of candles that had been placed around the body. Her once lively green eyes stared lifeless into the night. She had the most horrified look on her face, unlike anything I’d ever seen. It was purely one of those looks you’d see in a horror movie, only this one was real.

Her throat had been sliced open, blood still spilling out from the large gash. Well explains why I never heard more than the one scream, I thought.  Her chest had been cut open and her heart removed from her body, and as I looked further down her body I noticed a pentagram carved into her body, probably with the same instrument that had killed her. I had to get out of here before I lost it completely.

I left the room feeling more sickened and horrified than I had ever been in my life. I only hoped I’d live long enough to make it off this train. I always knew I’d die someday we all do, but this isn’t how I’d always imagined my death happening. I suppose none of us do, yet we have no control over when or how our life will end.

As I moved farther down the hall I found myself searching for any sign of life, and hoped that it wouldn't end in mine. I opened a door that led to the next area and slowly walked through it. I tried desperately not to make a sound. I managed to make it through that section and then two more with no sign of life.

I had no clue where everyone had gone. There was no sign of life, yet no more sign of death. How this train appeared to be abandoned was beyond me. The train was still moving at great speeds and there had been no stops as of yet, so there wouldn't be anywhere that they could have gone.

I reached the end of the corridor and found yet another door. This one led to the dining area. Just as I was about to open the glass door what I saw horrified me even more. Splayed across the floor were several more bodies. I didn't mean just a few bodies. I meant enough to fill the entire dining room. They were all in the same condition as the girl I'd found earlier.

In the middle of the room that was kept clean of the dead bodies, was a larger pentagram drawn in blood. The candles that surrounded it were much larger than the ones I had found around the woman earlier. I saw what looked like an altar, or alter like table in the middle of the pentagram.

There was a man kneeling at the altar doing what looked like a ritual, yet there seemed to be the absence of a victim. Minus the man amongst the dead bodies and myself I saw no sign of life. I started to back away having felt the need to run or hide. Although I really had nowhere to run to. After all, there would be no safe place on a moving train to run to. Would there?

I turned to run, but I Slammed into something or someone and let out a blood curling scream. The man in front of me put his hand over my mouth and smiled the most evil and wicked smile I had ever seen in my life and said, “I’ve been expecting you…”
© Copyright 2013 Alila Bryans (alila at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
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Printed from https://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1926803-A-Train-Ride-To-Death