The Station of the Dead

August 10, 2023

I woke up from a trance-like state. I was sitting on a long wooden bench. I stood up, barefoot, the concrete floor felt like ice beneath my feet. As I came to my senses, I realized that I was not alone. There were hundreds of wooden benches, like the one I was sitting on. I saw the lady sitting next to me, I asked if she knew where we were. She gave no reply. I went to ask others sitting there, but nobody paid attention. I yelled at the top of my breath. I felt like I was invisible. Suddenly there was a crack on the loudspeaker above “Attention passengers the next train will be arriving in eight minutes” I realized where I was. It was a train station!

My head started spinning. As far as I remembered my town had no train station. It was a small town only accessible through the road networks. So how did I end up here? While I was trying to come to terms with the current reality, I heard the whistle of a train. As the train neared, the people sitting in the front row got up and formed a line, awaiting their turn to board the train. But something was off about them. Their movements were too mechanical. As if they were not humans but robots responding only to the voice coming from the loudspeaker. I started walking around, trying to find an exit.

I must've walked for hours before I realized that there was no exit, the rows, and columns of wooden benches never end. I walked back to the place where I was sitting. The lady next to me was gone. It was my turn now to board the train. I had no memory of how I got here. The train station didn't look normal at all. While I sat there guessing what must've happened and how landed in this place, the loudspeaker cracked again “Attention passengers, the next train will be arriving in five minutes” I decided to board given it was my only option to get out of this place.

The train arrived at the station. I lined up amongst the others. The gates of the coaches opened, and everyone started boarding. I was the last one to board. As soon as I set foot on the train, a guard came and pushed me down. I fell. I was shocked, but more than that, I was angry. I got up and yelled at the guard to let me in. But the guard ignored me and started to close the gates. I lunged forward and tried to pull him. The guard moved away briskly as if he knew I was coming at him. I tried it again. But this time the guard pulled me close to his face. I was startled not by his sudden movement, but by something else. Instead of eyes, he had two black holes, black-hollow eyes like an abyss. As I stared at them I started to remember. I was with my friends, cycling down the roads when we caught a glimpse of a classmate, 'sickly Hannah'. She was pale and looked very dull, true to the name we gave her. We parked our cycles and dragged her into the old spooky house and locked her there. She screamed and begged to be let out, but we didn't open it; we cycled away. It was not until midnight that we realized we had forgotten about her and decided to let her out. But as we opened the door, we realized that she wasn't there. We looked around for a bit and then decided to leave thinking she was already gone. But as soon as we turned to leave we saw a message scribbled on the wall with blood “I won't let you die”. Terrified, we ran outside. The last thing I remember was slipping and hitting my head on a stone. As I came back to my senses, I saw the train leaving. I rushed behind the train, but it did not stop. I realized that I was stuck here with no means to get out. Stuck at the station of the dead.