Fare's Fair!

Fare's Fair
His battered Nikes kicked up gravel as he ran alongside the train. When the train turned
the bend after the station he jumped, catching hold of a doorway and hauling himself
inside.
Quickly he found the men's Toilet and locked himself inside and sat down to wait.
Being a regular stowaway he knew the inspector would be along any minute now
checking tickets.
He would wait till the Inspector passed the cubicle on his way to the next car then find a
seat in the car behind before he returned.
He grinned at himself in the grimey mirror, rummaging in his pack for a cigarette then sat
back and lit up. When he heard the Inspector pass by he threw the butt in the toilet and
opened the door, just a crack.
Seeing the Inspector leaving the carriage, he slipped quietly and unobtrusively as possible
into the rearward car. The carriage was dim in the late afternoon light and he saw there
were a few reading lights on at the far end of the car. He found an empty seat in the
darkest corner and sat down.
Settling back in his seat he pulled his jacket collar round his neck and closing his eyes let
the gentle rocking of the train put him to sleep.
Five hours to the city. The sun sank below the horizon and the dark void of the country
night slipped by outside the windows.
"Tickets"- The train shunted and began to move.
He dragged himself to the surface of consciousness
and looked out the window trying to see where he might be, but the last scattered lights
of some small town swept past and were gone.
"Tickets"- The car was in darkness the entire length but for the ruddy glow of a heater at
the far end. The Inspectors torch shone like a spotlight on the face of a man near the
door.
The man began to search his pockets for the ticket he obviously didn't have.
As the boy watched desperately willing himself invisable, the Inspector produced a large
wickedly sharp knife and in one deft motion,opened the mans throat wide! The man
vainly clutched at his throat, blood gushed from between his hands like an obscene red
fountain!
The torch moved away. The boy was almost catatonic with shock and disbelief, too numb
to move. No one had noticed this surreal horror on a crowded train? "Tickets"-
Several ticket holding arms had been spotlit when the torch fell on the sleeping form of a
girl about twenty. "Tickets"-
The girl fumbled in her bag. The torch plays on the scene as she pulls out a Stephen King
novel, a hairbrush and a smaller purse before producing a $50 bill which she holds out to
the figure, unseen behind the glare of the torch.
The boy watches mesmerised as the bill wavers slightly with the motion of the train,
spotlit in a perfect circle including the girls arm,
The spotlight moves to the girls pretty face and she blinks in confusion. There is question
in her eyes.
The knife appears, hovers for a second or two and dives suddenly into the girls right eye,
and deeper still until the hilt hit her brow. A viscous jellylike something mixed with
blood runs down her face as the knife comes free. Her body convulses once, twice and
falls still.
"Tickets"- A few more spotlit arms appear before the boy no longer able to contain it,
vomits into the aisle. The torch swings sharply pinning him like a rabbit. The light burns
into his eyes and his hands clutch the seat so tight his knuckles are white.
His heart isjackhammering in his chest, he can feel the wetness run down his legs a he
lets go. The torch moves and for the first time he can see the face behind the voice.

He began to scream,
and scream and scream.
He sat bolt upright in his seat. He was drenched with sweat and his heart felt ready to
burst. He had wet himself. He was hyperventilating. He sat there in the dark eyes wide as
saucers till his breathing slowed and the pain in his chest subsided. A fucking dream!!!
Now more pained by acute embarressment, he looks at the luminous dial of his watch,
12.55am
He is confused, he should have reached the city at 11.45 He cannot understand how the
train can be so late. He looks out the window but there is nothing to see, the train is far
out in the country and inky dark stretches as far as the eye can see.
He reaches for his bag beneath the seat, his mouth is dry and there's a coke in there. It is
wedged under the seat and he is trying to tug it free when someone enters the carriage.
The sound of the wheels grows louder momentarily, then quieter as they close the door
again.
The bag comes free with something else. Something heavy and clammy. Something
vaguely spherical. Something with hair...!
"Tickets"-
...and the train rattled on through the night!