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Doink!
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Brisbane, Australia
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Adult - Old Story Draft *Horror-ishy*
This is really old, and I dug it up out of my two-year old Myspaz blog to improve on it. Here is the original, slightly crappy version, and i'll post the updated version when I get round to it.
Ahh! Sorry about it being all choppy and gappy, I suppose thats what i get for ctrl+v'ing it directly from myspaz.
John woke up to the sound of screeching metal wheels.
Groggily he looked around at his surroundings. Embarrassed, he realised he was
on the train home. Outside lights flitted past the window, adding to the effects
of the flickering lights inside the empty cabin. He was relieved to know that
his station was at the end of the line, and the train was still running. It was
curious that the train should be empty at peak hour, but John took no heed and
patiently waited for the train to reach East Kingswood Station.
After ten or so minutes, and almost falling asleep a few times, John felt the
train slowing. As it pulled into the station, John became worried. East
Kingswood was a well lit, bustling station. This... Was not. A single bench
stood in the middle of a raised concrete platform, lit by a single dingy lamp.
The edges of the platform seemed to give way to nothingness, as if this
platform was all there ever was. Suddenly static blasted over the train's
speakers. John gritted his teeth against the offensive sound, and managed to
discern a few words from the white noise.
"Beyon...th...end....of... th.... line..."
A few instants later, the hydraulic doors opened with a hiss. John stood up and
hurried out onto the platform. He looked up and down the station and realised
that outside of the little lamps radius, the darkness was total. The doors
noisily hissed closed behind him, and the train whined into movement and
gathered speed into the night. He watched the flickering lights fade off into
the distance and noted that it stopped a few times, perhaps at other stations.
John walked the perimeter of the platform looking for some stairs. He had
formed a plan in his head to go to a local police station or shop and figure out
what suburb he was in, and navigate his way back to East Kingswood. But as he
circumnavigated the station, he did not find any stairs, only darkness that
seemed a liquid, lapping at the edges of the cement. He knew it was just a
trick of the light, but he could swear that there was actually nothing beyond
the edges. Deciding to test his theory out, he moved to the crumbling corner of
the platform and dislodged a piece of rock into his hand. Breaking it in two,
he dropped one piece off the edge and waited for the sound of impact. One
second, two seconds, three seconds... Nothing. He threw the second piece off
into the darkness. Nothing again. He stood confused, unable to comprehend his
surroundings. He turned and faced the tiny lamp illuminating the dilapidated
bench. A new plan formed in his mind. Rather than risk the God-knows-how-long
drop off the platform, he would sit and wait for the next train.
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After twenty minutes of sitting on the bench, John became
restless and scared. More then once he could have sworn he saw the darkness
snake out a wispy tendril onto the platforms surface, before hastily
withdrawing it a second later. Rubbing his eyes and talking sense into himself,
he lay back on the bench, staring into the sky. It took a few seconds of staring
for him to realise that the darkness there, too, was absolute. It was a crisp,
cloudless night, and yet there were no stars and no moon. Before he had time to
take in the impossible sight, he heard another train come thundering down the
line. John jumped to his feet and waved like a madman, praying that it would
stop. The train seemed to slow for a second, but then sped up and raced past
the station. He glimpsed at the driver through the window as it went by, who
stared blankly ahead, seemingly unaware of the existence of John's little
platform. John watched the train disappear into the distance, making its stops
as the last one had.
Making his way back to the bench, John froze. This time his eyes weren’t
playing tricks on him. A gnarled black hand surrounded by tendrils, seemingly
made of the darkness, was clawing it's was onto the platform. Smoky clouds of
black erupted from the impact of it touching the concrete, and from that new
tendrils came forth, edging their way towards John. His eyes followed the arm
upwards into the dark and was startled when he saw two glowing yellow eyes
staring back at him with very malicious intent. Below them a jagged red mouth
opened into a twisted smile as a second hand reached up onto the platform. John
took a few steps backwards, and felt something forcefully grab his ankle.
Looking down, he saw another clawed hand and kicked his leg out of its grip. As
he ran to the lamp in the middle of the station, more creatures crept out of
the black, some less human than others, all surrounding John. They stood,
snarling and slashing at the air, but did not come into the circle of light
created by the lamp. As more and more climbed onto the platform, John huddled
against the lamp post and closed his eyes.
John clutched the lamp post hard. Every time he opened his
eyes a crack he saw the ever increasing mass of darkness coalescing and into
more of the creatures, skirting the boundary of his island of light. After what
felt like an age he opened one eye to take a proper look around. The dark
monsters were no longer slashing and tearing at the air. They merely stood
there staring, a non-violent yet malicious force biding its time. Somehow they
looked even more menacing in their stillness. John shakily rose to his feet,
using the pole as balance on unstable legs. He looked around at the creatures,
even daring to stare into their glowing yellow eyes once or twice. Around the
creature's feet, the smoky tendrils pressed hard up against the light, unable
to penetrate into its luminescence.
John watched as more and more of the wispy smoke tried to pass into the light,
and a plan formed in his mind. He looked up at the lamp and saw it was dangling
by a chain and its power cord. Reaching up, he moved it slightly. The island of
light shifted, and the smoke hastily withdrew from the newly lit area while the
creatures around it recoiled as if in pain. Gripping it harder, John swung the
lamp around in a wide arc and watched as the creatures scrambled off the
platform to get away. The creatures that were hit by the light collapsed into
the smoke at their feet and were absorbed into it, sending up motes that hung
in the air. Within seconds the space created by burning monsters was filled
again by replacements, hungry to get to John. Again he gripped it and
this time shone it directly at the creatures, turning in a circle. As he did
so, he saw the light glint off something a few feet from the platform.
Completing another circle to clear the already repopulating mass, he shone it
directly at the glinting object. It seemed to be a metal beam suspending in the
nothing about four feet below the platform. It took him a few seconds to
realise what it was.
John stood for a few seconds in his light island while the darkness reformed around
him. Taking a deep breath he shone the light around until he found the glint
again and ran towards it. The second he left the light he felt the creatures
around him scrambling to grab ahold of him and drag him off the platform. He
wrestled free, losing his jacket in the process, and reached the edge of the
platform. Standing for as long as he dared on the precipice he judged where he
had seen the glint and leapt.
He hit the metal beam of the train tracks chest first and clasped hard with his
arms when the rest of his body dangled into nothingness below him. The tracks
were two metal beams hovering in darkness with no supports and no wooden
crossbeams. He frantically clambered up onto the beam and gritted his eyes
against the oncoming assault of slashing claws and gnashing teeth made of
darkness.
John clung to the tracks, his heart hammering in his chest.
Below him the darkness plunged on forever. Looking back at the platform, he saw
the creatures silhouetted against the lamp light, staring down at him. None of
them made a move to jump to his metal beam. Relieved, John started pulling
himself along the tracks in the same direction as the trains had gone before
him. He planned to make it to the next platform and find a way out of wherever
he was.
After a long while of sliding along the rail, he looked up and saw the
lamplight of the next station. The newfound hope urged him on even faster and
he drew level with the station in minutes. Shakily getting to his feet he
gripped the edge of the platform and jumped up, rolling over onto his back. The
sky here, too, was silky black and starless. Twisting his head around to get a
better look at the station, he felt his heart sink. Confused despair gripped
him as his eyes fell upon the crumbling bench and grimy lamp. After an hour of
pulling himself in a straight line, John had arrived at the same station he
left. He got to his feet and staggered over to the lamp post to rest against
it. The darkness sent out its smoke again, forming an army of monsters around
him. Hopelessness instead of fear this time took ahold, and he hung his head,
waiting for them to brave the light and take him.
Hours later, John had curled into a ball, huddled against the lamp post. Above
him, the lamp flickered. As it gave a few desperate last attempts at staying
alive, he could have sworn he saw the creatures red mouths curl into smiles
like scrolled gashes. After one last tiny surge, the lamp gave up and he
instantly felt freezing smoke against his legs. Hands clawed at him, scratching
through his clothes and into his skin. As they dragged him towards the far end
of the platform, a loud screeching noise pierced the air. The noise grew louder
and drew nearer and then stopped. The monsters fled from the platform as a
hissing noise sounded behind John. He turned his head and gazed incredulously
at the train, standing still with its doors open. He clambered to the entrance
and pulled himself in as the doors hissed closed behind him. The train rolled
into life and started thundering along the tracks. Still stinging from the
scratches and bites, John lay on the floor with his eyes closed until a voice
spoke from down the carriage.
“Excuse me… Are you ok?” Came the voice. John groaned and
looked up. A teenaged girl wearing a white dress was perched on the edge of her
seat, staring down at him and looking concerned.
“Monsters…” John began, but the girl cut him off.
“Don’t let them worry you. They can’t do anything except
look scary.”
John started complaining, but looked down at his body. All
the scratches, all the blood, had vanished. His torn clothes were perfect again
and his lost jacket was in his hand. He got to his feet and sat next to the
girl. Outside the train was absolute darkness.
“The things you see here are all part of you. In your mind,
if you will. The creatures,” She explained, “are your despair. Scary, but
relatively harmless. They will only hurt you if you believe they are hurting
you.”
John took it all in, still staring in disbelief at his
tear-free clothes.
“What’s worse than despair… Is hope.” She gestured outside
the window and John pressed his face against the glass. Happiness coursed
through him as he saw the bustling Kingswood Street Station approaching. Never
before had he been so excited to see the boring suits and school children
waiting in crowds for the next service. Feeling the train slow as it pulled
into the station, John got to his feet and walked towards the door. The train
stopped and the doors hissed open, ready for the incoming mass of commuters. He
was about to step off onto the platform when he realized that no one on the
platform moved to get on the train. No one on the platform was moving at all.
He looked over to the girl. She stared back at him with a blank expression.
Without looking, John stepped out of the train. His foot hit nothing and he
fell out of the train, grabbing hold of the door handle before he descended
into the darkness. The station, along with all the people, had vanished.
Once again John collapsed to the floor of the train as the
doors hissed shut.
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