The Train Ride From Hell – PART 2

Hello my friends and welcome to my blog. Last week I posted Part 1 of my short series The Train Ride From Hell. As promised I have posted Part 2 today. Remember there’s a warning attached to this series: do not read at night . . . or by yourself. 😉 Enjoy!

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by Vashti Quiroz-Vega

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Limbo? Where is this place? I’d never heard of Limbo. My mind was reeling. I continued to stare. The place didn’t look too bad. There were green fields and flower bushes. In the distance there was a large mansion surrounded by gates.

 

 

Perhaps I could speak to someone there. Maybe they had the answers I sought and could help me get back home.

 

 

I made an attempt to flee the train, but I couldn’t get past the round opening. An invisible energy prevented me from exiting the train. Suddenly, I felt an ice-cold hand on my shoulder.  It was the conductor.

 

 

“I told you this wasn’t your stop,” he hollered. “Take your seat!” His eyes turned into red coals. I flinched and hurried to sit by the girl again. I stared at her, shivering, still feeling the cold on my shoulder transferred by the conductor’s eerily frigid hand. She glanced at me with sad, moist verdant eyes, then she turned to look ahead.

 

 

“Who are you?” I asked, but she gazed forward. I grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. “Who are you? What is this place? Why am I here? Why are you here?”  She screamed and pushed me with such force that I slid off my seat and onto the worm infested floor. Rats came running toward me the moment I landed. They began to bite any exposed skin. I howled and grimaced. I grabbed onto a seat and holding it, I clambered to get on my feet. I sat next to the girl again. I put my feet up on the chair wailing and trembling with fear and pain. She glowered at me. Her chest heaved in rhythm with her breathing.

 

 

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell at you or hurt you. Please tell me what is happening––why are we on this train?” I waited for her answer.

 

 

“This is no ordinary train, it doesn’t take you to places you want to go.  It takes you to places where you deserve to go.” Tears streamed over her rosy cheeks.

 

 

I stared at her for a long time, trying to understand what she was saying. A drop of slobber on my hand indicated I had my mouth open the whole time. I wiped my hand on my blouse and wiped the dribble around my mouth with the back of my hand.

 

 

“I understand now that I’m not traveling in an ordinary train, and I realize that some of the people on the train are not people at all, but why am I here and how did I get here?”

 

 

“Why do you assume I know these things?” She scrunched her eyes and nose.

 

 

“I just a feeling that I have and you look familiar to me somehow. Please, tell me everything.” If I could have gotten on my knees to beg her I would have.

 

 

“I’m not sure you want to know everything.” She lowered her head.

 

 

I shifted in my seat and faced her. “I do! I do want to know. Please! How much more do I need to beg before you will answer my questions?”

 

 

“Alright. I will tell you everything.” She tossed her long, sooty black hair back.

 

The train came to a screeching halt again. My heart galloped in my chest. Once more the opening appeared. I was overwhelmed with the desire to look out again. I rose from my seat and watched the people getting off at this stop. Some were demons and some were regular folk like me. They looked frightened and sobbed as they trudged to their destiny. Some had to be forced out by the fiends.

 

 

I rushed and joined them. They stepped out of the train with ease, but I hit a wall and couldn’t traverse the opening. I looked out, and what I saw terrified me. There was a frightful storm. The people were blown to and fro by terrible winds. The winds came from different directions and violently tore off their clothes. It smashed them against walls, the ground and each other without rest. Lightning and thunder moved through the area with loud booms and flashes so bright, they caused temporary blindness! The passengers’ faces warped and twisted in horror and pain. The doorway began to close. Before the circle closed completely, I caught a glimpse of a sign, which read Lust.

 

 

A cold wave of realization began to overtake my body. Artic liquid circulated through my veins. I needed to know what the girl with the vivid green eyes knew and I needed to know now! I rushed to her. I grabbed her by the arms and yanked her to her feet.

 

 

“Tell me! Tell me!” I yelled in her face. “Where is this train taking me?”

 

 

“Hell!” she screamed.  “You are going to hell.”  I released her.  Everything spun around me.  My legs were weak and couldn’t sustain me any longer.  I plopped down in my seat.

 

 

My heart was in my throat. “How did I get here? Who brought me here?” My voice was thick and hoarse and didn’t sound like my own.

 

 

“The question you should be asking is why you are here.”  There was resentment in her voice, in her eyes.

 

 

“Why am I here?” I was not eager to know the answer but I had to hear it.

 

 

“You are an evil woman. You hurt people.” She scowled.

 

 

I shook my head. “No! I never hurt anyone!”

 

 

She narrowed her eyes. “You never stopped to think how your sleeping with married men to use them and take their money affected their wives and children!”

 

 

I was speechless as I gawped at her. Her doleful green eyes turned dark as she continued to say terrible undisputed things about me.

 

 

“Like a witch, you enticed my father and put him under your spell. You ensnarled him with your wiles. He became obsessed with you. He stopped trying to hide his affair. He didn’t care who knew about you. Well, my mother knew of you and so did I!” Her face was etched with sorrow.

 

 

Her withering expression made my heart grow heavy. She hung her head.

 

 

“My father became more and more distant from my mother and his children. We no longer mattered. You were all he cared about. My mother could not bear the pain any longer. So she took her own life.” She lifted her eyes from the ground and glared at me. I gasped.

 

 

“You drove my mother to suicide! You killed her and now you are going to hell for it!”

Don’t miss PART 3!

The Train Ride From Hell – PART 1

Hello everyone! Today I’ve posted PART 1 of my short Horror Series:

The Train Ride From Hell.

The inspiration for this story comes from an account I read on my friend Ashwin Kumar’s Blog (My World… My Words) about a terrible train ride he had taken not long ago–Sunrise Shots From Train. I hope you enjoy it. Let me know your thoughts.

WARNING: Do Not Attempt To Read This Series At Night!

 

The Train Ride From Hell – PART 1

The piercing note of a horn woke me. I sat upright in my seat, then started when I heard the roar of an engine. I checked my surroundings. My pulse raced as I realized I was aboard a train. I shook my head trying to shake away the fog in my brain. Why am I on this train? Where am I going? I sprung to my feet and searched for a sign or map––anything that would indicate where I was. I saw nothing. There were no advertising billboards or maps, no neon signs telling me what the next stop would be.

 

I looked out of the grimy window nearest me. Smoke. Maybe fog? I could hardly see anything at all. I noticed the train’s walls. This train was not like the ones I’ve taken many times. The walls on this train were black like wrought iron, covered with a slimy film. Ugh! I looked at my seat. I screamed and recoiled. The seat was covered in grime, and there were roaches crawling all over it!

 

I stared at the people quietly sitting in their seats. My stomach churned painfully. The walls of the train seemed to shift up and down. I became dizzy and nauseated as I witnessed cockroaches crawling over some passengers’ laps, chests and even heads! Rats fiddled around their feet. Certain areas of the train’s floor moved. No––there were hundreds of slimy worms wriggling about. I retched repeatedly. I couldn’t understand why these people remained calm in their seats while insects and vermin crawled all over them. Who were these people? Where was this train going? How did I get here?

 

I scuttled down the aisle glancing at the different faces. Some were in a trance––they seemed to be in some sort of stupor. A large worm slithered halfway into a man’s ear while he sat motionless and stared ahead, his eyes glazed. With unsteady hands I pulled the worm out of his ear, slammed it on the ground and stomped on it. The man turned his head and smiled at me. It was not a grateful smile. The smile was evil and grotesque. Right before my eyes, his face shifted into a demonic form, then back to that of a man. Disconcerted, I tottered away.

 

There was a whirling sensation in my head and my breathing became shallow. I saw a woman with cockroaches crawling in and out of her hat. I pulled the hat off her head and threw it to the ground. Dozens of roaches spilled out and crawled all over her face. Her head whisked in my direction and she cackled as insects crawled into her mouth! I was overcome with feelings of queasiness. My heart was pounding loudly in my ears. My eyes jumped from passenger to passenger. Suddenly, they all stared at me at once, some grinning, others laughing, and yet others sobbing. Some faces flickered from human faces to that of demons. I clutched my hair and screamed again and again. I ran up and down the aisle. I couldn’t find a way out. Besides, the train was moving at an alarming speed. I couldn’t escape.

 

“Where am I?” I sobbed into my hands.

 

“You’re on a train,” a young voice responded.

 

“I know I’m on a train, but where am I . . . ” My voice trailed off when I saw her. She was a girl––no more than sixteen. She appeared almost angelic. There were no bugs crawling over her pretty face. She looked as out of place here as I did.

 

“Do you know where this train is going?” I stared still in disbelief.

 

“I’m not sure, but I have an idea.” She had an agonized expression. I continued to look at her for a while. She was definitely not like some of the others.

 

“Do you know how you got aboard this train? Because I have no idea how I got here!” My body trembled. She looked at me askance.

 

“Take your seats the train will make its first stop shortly!” A conductor showed up out of nowhere. I ran to him.

 

“How did I get on this train? Did you see when and how I got on? Someone must have brought me onboard. Do you know whom? Where is this train stopping?” The conductor only stared at me with a look of revulsion on his face.

 

“Sit.  Down.  You will see soon enough. You won’t be getting off here.” He laughed. He had a malevolent, doom-laden laugh that sent chills up and down my spine. I glanced at the girl; her face was pale––her eyes wide. When I turned to speak to the conductor again, he was gone. Having no choice, I sat by the girl’s side. Her hands trembled and she gazed at me with doleful eyes. I sobbed quietly.

 

The train was about to stop. I heard the squeal of steel wheels on steel rail. I tried to look out the window, but the glass was too dirty, and a thick wall of fog blocked my view. I glanced behind us. There was a gap between our row of seats and the row behind us. That’s usually where doors would be located, but there were no doors.

 

The train stopped with a jolt. The black, slimy wall between the two rows began to open. A round opening appeared, growing larger as if a flame were eating away at it. Passengers began to get out of their seats and file out of the train. I was not sure I wanted to go anywhere these people went, but I was compelled to see what was out there. I stood. The young girl gasped and held onto my arm.

 

“Don’t!” Her eyes were large with fear.

 

“I need to see.” I wrested my arm from her hold.

 

I rushed to the round opening and stared out. There was a sign right outside the train on the platform that read Limbo. 

 

SAD – Illustration by Sebastian Ruhs

Be sure to read PART 2