01 ~ 2nd of February, 1921

The loud shriek of noise of the train stopping woke her up abruptly. It was like hearing a scream of agony.

Mary-Esther regained consciousness in a jolt, a bit anxious and uncertain in that hurry.

She only found darkness around her, surprisingly.

Had she found herself in her own bed, she would have thought that noise had only been in her dream. That noise, and even that train.

But she found herself still on her seat, on that couch as she last recalled. But there was nothing she could see or hear anymore.

She called for her parents in vain for a few anxious times. When she tried to reach for them in front of her, she only found a cold and empty bench.

She searched blindly for anything that might be left around, but even her book seemed to be gone. By luck, she ended up catching the sight of a fragile light outside. Getting closer to the window, she saw the moonlight breaking through a cloud. The sky was starless, and she could feel the cold air from outside just by being there, close to the clear window.

Mary-Esther unintentionally brought mist on the window’s glass by breathing so close to it, while looking at the moon. She was a little clueless.

She began to get truly worried. She now was feeling an urge to get free from that cramped place and look where her parents went.

She had to leave rapidly, feeling that growing anxiety. She began to look for her way out, feeling uneasy. She had now the impression that the train was becoming smaller and smaller around her. She was going to suffocate soon if she didn’t leave. Soon she would be stuck in a cramped coffin, and then crushed.

Her rapidly growing claustrophobia helped her to move quickly amidst the silhouettes of things on her way out. She was trembling, but managed to reach a door by the end of the still wagon. It was already open to the cold air of the night and prairies outside. She could slightly guess the ground below.

Since her parents had obviously already left the train for some reason, she climbed off without a second thought. She jumped the remaining height after the few allowed steps.

She landed correctly on her feet. Somehow succeeding in this small athletic fit, she felt a little proud, and even a little surprised. She didn’t get her clothes dirty for once and she had not even fallen.

She began to walk, now focusing again on her foremost priority. She walked as fast as she could toward the huge and only building she could see close by.

~

There was absolutely no one around, and no city street light either unfortunately.

She couldn’t be sure of where she was, but guessed that the train had stopped short of the next train station she could guess in the distance.

A huge wall in the distance, with a symmetrical roof stood a little bit farther. The building was large and tall, obscuring almost half the horizon and sky to her.

Feeling a little impressed and uneasy, but even more spooked by the obscurity behind, she trotted toward that resting giant. She was crossing a large and empty square with more solid ground, but all was silent and dead empty.

The only sounds she could hear so far were of her own footsteps on the dirt and then hard ground.

She finally reached the wall, not yet reassured. She was scared for many reasons now, and that world of emptiness was unfriendly to her.

Following the brick wall with the tip of a hand, she found a heavy door leading inside. Above the metal frame, she noticed the hanging shape of a lamp missing its bulb. She couldn’t see any colour currently, but tried to imagine how vivid they must be during daytime around this place. She wished to find them quickly, and morning to return also rapidly.

She pushed the heavy door open, with all her meagre strength. It creaked so loudly along its rust, it was painful even to hear it. Mary-Esther headed inside still a little shyly.

The door could shut itself back behind her without making a single noise, she would never realise it even did.

She felt she had entered a sleeping giant, and still found herself clueless.

A corridor. Stones going dusty along the walls. Empty spaces everywhere, creeping onto her. Scattered papers and rubbish lying here and there, along with dry leaves.

She walked cautiously toward the end of it.

The wall on her left kept going straight, but the right one was ending with a corner, leading to a great hall.

A hand reaching the corner of the wall, she discovered a strange sight that she had not expected.

It didn’t look like a station anymore.

A little more moonlight was drawing the shapes of that wide hall, flowing through a missing quarter of the otherwise immense roof.

She discovered agape how the roof had been broken, and how a hill of wreck was now piled beneath. Slightly illuminated by the light, the debris and rubbles reached almost as high as the walls themselves they lied against.

Beside that mountain of bricks, tiles and wasted steel beams, she could see the lines of chairs and benches from the station’s waiting area. Everything was gathering dust and dirt. As if it had been abandoned for years.

She walked cautiously inside the great hall, still lost and puzzled.

She could see that even some girders and beams above had broken, sometimes bent and torn.

Through the hole in the ceiling, she could see the clear sky and hear a bit of wind.

She felt growingly uncomfortable seeing the distorted and broken steelwork around that hole to the sky. They looked like giant claws or distorted teeth to her vivid imagination, far above her but still quite threatening.
She noticed that parts of the walls of the entire building had also partially collapsed or fissured here and there.

She was in a ruin. A modern and huge ruin. It was eerie and so odd. The main doors of this place, leading probably to once a busy city street, they were out of reach and surely impossible to open. It was already buried under rocks, bricks and fallen pieces from the roof. If she could still see a corner of them, she would never manage to open them. She also realised from before she would probably only find a deserted corner of town behind. There was probably no point going outside that way anyway.

It was unlikely anyone from her train went that way, nor anyone at all for quite some time. More than a way out, she was looking for the whereabouts of someone she knew. She only wanted to find them.

After a moment of ponder, in the middle of the long since abandoned waiting area, she turned around. She headed for the other main corridor, leading to another set of boarding platforms.

She went around the few obstacles scattered on the dusty ground, and reached a rusty barrier. She could see the door opening to the platforms behind, on the other side of that greater obstacle that might have fallen before her.

She could now hear some noise coming from outside, from the other side of that door in front of her. Hearing these faint sounds made her hopes rise, which gave her a little more courage.

Without truly thinking about it, she climbed the fence, and went that improper way on the other side.

Perhaps the barrier meant that she wasn’t supposed to go there, but she hadn’t found any other way.

Moreover, she felt deeper the need to reach a place where there would be more living people.

She reached the door at the end of the corridor, which had been partly open. She didn’t stop on that detail, since she was almost running. Though outside was quite as dark as before, this time a set of artificial light caught easily her attention.

She walked a bit toward it, still unsure of what they belonged to. A long series of horizontal lines of dot glows. She could also begin to hear the various mechanical noises of a train set for departure grow louder, as the approached them.

Mary-Esther thought at first that she was facing a four or five stories high building starting there.

Looking to her right, she couldn’t see an end to it. And yet she understood quickly her mistake facing this monster. It was another train. Though not as tall as she guessed, the series of lamps and windows reflecting glows were unlike this old station.

Looking back to the abandoned station she had thought of being a sleeping troll or stone giant, she was now facing what she could only described as a gigantic ghostly train dragon. A long Chinese dragon, of painted wood and metals, alive in front of her.

She could see the shining of scales along the lines of windows as she stood closer. She could not quite see the distant head over there, but she heard its engine growl. The beast was awakening and beginning to stretch and move away.

That now crawling building seemed unrealistically huge to her, and witnessing such a wonder stopped her for a moment of surprise.

Looking closer, she saw a ladder climbing quite high on the side of the wagon still facing her. She looked upward but couldn’t clearly see where it led. She couldn’t otherwise see any door at all on the sides of this huge train, so she felt a bit uncertain. Maybe people were meant to get aboard from somewhere else.

But no matter how doubtful she was, there was nothing and no one else around she could have found.

Nothing but that ornamented ladder.

When she grabbed it, she heard again the distant noise of an explosion. A shiver went from the metal and through her hands. This time the growl was for real. And the song of heavy metallic things rattling and pushing each other began growing closer at a quick pace. The train was starting.

~

As Mary-Esther was taking her feet off from the dark ground, it seemed to disappear entirely below her. She held her insecure squeal, realising how much she could then begin to feel the air coming up against her as the train built up speed.

Looking back, she could have a last glance at the partially destroyed and fully abandoned building. It was vanishing under the slightly cloudy moon.

Without other choice left and growing fear of falling, she began to climb up the ladder. She was nervous, but couldn’t do anything else regardless.

Luckily an open door welcomed her at the end of her ascension, albeit still too far above her head for her taste.

She climbed slowly and carefully. The sounds of the train were finding their harmony as she did. It seemed to take forever, and was sweating scared to fall reaching the end. Three times she had seen a row of windows on her side.

Finally, she reached the open airlock door on the last floor of this train, to let her get inside. It was the end of her climb. Exhausted and freezing cold, she fell on the crimson carpet once she had finished crawling inside. Just that floor was a relief already. She would discover later that kind of carpet was covering nearly each floor of the train.

For that moment she lied exhausted, trying to catch her breath and warm her tired fingers.

~

When she managed to stand up again, a few minutes of rest later, she first went to shut the heavy door that had been left open to the outside cold night and train ruckus.

The wind seemed to shriek its refusal until it was finally shut. The air inside seemed to feel a little warmer already to her.

She let go of the metallic handle slowly, and turned around. She was now about to discover a place stranger to her. She could already guess it would be warmer than the night outside, but still possibly unkind to her.

Though it was calm now, and cosy looking around her, she had her mixed feelings settling as well.

Nevertheless she began to look around, to discover the place where she was now locked in.

In front of her, a wide corridor was leading to a window on the left side of the wagon and train. On her right, an ever longer corridor was running to the end of the wagon. The windows were along the right, and many room doors on the left. They were leading to small compartment rooms, with their numbers and a little light above each of them.

It looked somewhat like a luxurious hotel to her, the way she pictured them when reading of them. If only the rooms corridor had been a little bit larger maybe.

She started walking toward the other side of the train, counting her steps.

Eighteen counted for. She found it odd, despite what she had done to get there, since that meant this train was absurdly large for common British rails.

Running along that left side too there was a long corridor along the windows. Other doors and numbers could be seen. She looked around, still unsure of what to think from all this.

She looked away and sighed, tired. She could feel her feet about to betray her.

There still was no one around and felt sadly convinced she would need to go further.

Trying to step into that corridor, she couldn’t.

The crimson carpet and hard brown wood of the walls were refined to her tastes and stylishly ornamented, but still looked a little uneasy and spooky to her. She expected ghosts to wander barefoot there, holding sheets and candles.

She walked a few steps backward, toward that small lunge between the two sides of the wagon’s floor.

More than a corridor between left and right, it was a small boudoir, with a few leathered benches and large chairs gathered along the walls. This felt already like a transatlantic vessel more than a train.

A door there was leading to a place further back, the next wagon or possibly the rear end of the train, but that one door was locked. She could hear the wind behind, meaning it was open to the scenery. There probably was a balcony?

On either side of that door and beside the chairs, paintings of sailing boats were hanging. And on small tables below the paintings, she noticed something that gave her the creeps.

It was only empty vases, but that sight made a chill of unease run along her back. She stepped back before she could realise it. It was happening again. She had known it for years.

Most children and girls her age might not stand spiders or rats, but to her the unmanageable fear came from empty things and holes around her. Not that she was fond of every critter, but the sight of empty vases still scared her. The emptiness of things, their holes to darkness or fall were scarier than every hidden monsters the shades of forests could hold.

She couldn’t well explain it, nor quite control it. Whether it was boxes, bottles, glasses, she just feared them when they were empty. At best it was less pronounced when she could see through them entirely.

Even if she wanted now to gaze at the paintings above, she couldn’t get closer anymore. The two empty objects were silently keeping her at bay, making her feel as if snakes were rattling and menacing there.

She stepped back feeling even more drained, to sit on a chair enough distance away from these two plain vases.

She was still alone, and now a good scare brought her further down.

Mary-Esther held a sob away, from exhaustion and a little of confused despair.

She breathed somewhat hardly, but managed not to cry. It might have washed away a little of her anxiety, but she tried to remain strong.

Still she was too exhausted to feel like moving anyway now.

Even if the lights were always on, she began to doze off. It was still the middle of the night, no matter the fright.

The rumble of the train discreetly felt lower and softer, as her thoughts meandered by. Sleep softly caught her off guard, and she didn’t fight against it. It was gently embracing her with a hopeful promise that on morning all would be better.

Mary-Esther fell asleep in that chair.

~