The Ghost Train

It was a perfectly normal day until I got to the train station. Well, I keep calling it that
but it is actually a subway. As usual, I went to the bathroom, had a smoke break and
bought a soda. The train arrived and I got on, searched for my favorite seat, said “hi”
to the old lady I see every day in the same cabin as me and took a nap. I woke up by
the tickle and unpleasant sound of a cicada that was sitting ON MY FACE!!!
I then realized we had passed my destination and decided to speak with the
conductor. The company gave me enough money for a taxi ride home and
apologized but the weird stuff was only now beginning.
As usual, next day, did my routine and got on the train. The lady was gone…the only
constant I loved in my life wasn’t there anymore… I hope she was ok. This time
though the train wouldn’t stop. The conductor was gone and the train was gaining
speed. When I turned back from the cabin, to seat back down, there was an old man
on my seat. He was mister Yomoshi, my history teacher. He told me that there are
three more stops until his stop and I HAVE to get off before his stop, that I didn’t want
to end up there. I had to get down when I recognized the sound of the station at the
trains’ arrival. I didn’t remember any of them… I was terrified …As twilight dimmed,
fear clawed at my chest, settling like lead in my bones. Lost in unfamiliar alleys, my
heart raced with dread, each shadow a specter of danger. Desperation mingled with
the chill of the night, my thoughts echoing with the possibility of never making it
home. Alone and vulnerable, I braced for the looming threat of a place where survival
seemed uncertain, where death lurked in every corner.
Mister Yomoshi told me there, down the tracks, was a phone and gave me 50 cents
to call home, no other place but home and warned me not to wonder too much off the
tracks or I’ll get lost. This was my last chance… I took the money and ran to the
public phone as fast as I could. I called home and the kind, loving, warm voice of my
wife Corlaine answered. I never thought I would hear her again after the accident…
not just hear but I told her where I was and she came to pick me and got me home…
she said “so soon…no, its not your time, not now…” She took me home and when I
turned around to invite her in, she was gone… “you shouldn’t be here, you don’t
belong here, yet… just not yet” and with that I never saw or heard her again…