1- The Night Train

The sound of a single pair of echoing footsteps resounded through the underground terminal. A few others were there besides James. One man sat slumped against the wall, with a syringe lying in his outstretched palm, his eyes were closed and he smiled absently.
A janitor was further down the terminal, indolently pushing a sodden mop against the concrete.

A woman sat nearer to James on one of the benches. She held a small mirror in her hand and wiped away the makeup on her face with the other. As James grew closer, he saw her hand that held the wipe reach into her purse to grab something he couldn’t see, but she went back to wiping away at her face once James passed.

Someone had left a newspaper further down the bench. James read the headline detailing how the hero President Justice had saved yet another, this time it was a man that was being robbed. James wondered to himself what it would be like, having powers such as that, about the villains he would have targeting him, and the fame that would come with it. He envied it.

The rumblings of an oncoming train announced its presence, drawing James back to reality. And within seconds the subway had arrived. James heard the ramblings of the voice inside it over the speaker and then the automated doors slid open.

Both men and women shuffled off, none of them spoke to each other and they moved in an organized single-file line down the station and up the stairs. James and the woman who sat on the bench not far away got on soon after before the doors closed shut behind them.

One of the passengers were drunk- or inebriated through other means, and sat on the furthest end of the subway, rambling incoherently.

A pair of women sat elsewhere, sharing shady glances at James and the woman slightly behind him before continuing to whisper to each other.

James sat on the opposite end, furthest from the other passengers. And soon the subway engine began to stir and the train departed.

The windows outside showed the tan-stained walls of concrete blur as the train reached faster speeds. He stared at his feet, as he usually would when out. And spent most of his time wondering what the deciphered speech of the drunkard would say and the whispers of the women further away.

He didn’t know how long had passed when the train itself began to slow to a halt. No one reacted but James.

“What’s going on?” He asked aloud, and again no one reacted. The automated doors nearby slid open. James cautiously rose to his feet and crept towards the open doors. He shared a glance back at the boarded passengers- who weren’t so much as blinking, let alone reacting at all to the situation- and stepped out onto the concrete platform beside the subway.
The tunnel they were in was eerily silent, cool, and damp and a smell of mold bounced off the walls as much as James' voice had when he called out.

“Hello!” He looked towards the front of the subway which was too long for him to naturally see the car where the conductor would be.

“Apologies for the disturbance. Please board the subway once more, we will be departing immediately.” He heard a voice ring out over the intercom. Once again he boarded the train. James froze in place as the doors shut behind him and he looked up and down the line of empty seats, including the ones that previously hosted other passengers. Before he had too much time to look further, the train once again began to move. James grabbed hold of a pole nearby one of the seats and held on as the train progressed quicker and quicker. So quick, that he was sure to fall over had he released his grip. Minutes again passed, although a shorter duration of such than the time before, and the train came to a halt.
James hadn’t thought hard, or much at all, to get off. He simply did. There was no voice over the intercom, nor passengers on the train. But he still perceived it all as normal. Or if he thought it wasn’t, it was at least an interesting enough mystery for him to not want it to fade away under critical thought.

He vaguely heard the doors shut behind him but he was already looking around the terminal for any signs to indicate where he had gotten off. There were signs, or at least outlines of signs, Rectangular pieces of metal painted green and plastered onto the walls or hanging from the ceiling supported by thin black metal beams, but the signs were completely and utterly blank.

By the time James had turned around, he had noticed the train had disappeared and only saw the opposite side of the terminal across the tracks. If he was cognizant of nothing else in that moment, it was the sound of his breath. In through his nose, out through his mouth. The rate at which he did it- breathing that is- was quick, but not so quick that he couldn’t feel it travel throughout his body, and then hold onto the semblance of the breath as it escaped his mouth and drifted ghastly down the terminal.

He followed it, the idea of a breath already lost. Down the terminal and up the stairs, ignoring the moss and vines that grew up the walls and the blank areas not even touched by graffiti. The light that announced daytime had long begun to shine from the top of the stairwell and the sunlight embraced the parts of his body revealed from his pulled-up sleeves. It was like a utopia that greeted him when he reached the last step and ventured onto the dirt but it was terribly different than anything he had ever seen.

The stairwell behind disappeared just as the train did by the time he had stepped off of it, though James hadn’t realized it himself. He was too busy looking at the rows of trees in front of him, or bushes abound with twigs and leaves. There was a dirt path that seemed to begin directly one step in front of him, it led in between the pillars of towering trees. He looked around more but saw no signs of life that wasn’t green and sprouting from roots in the ground, so naturally, he began on his journey of following the dirt path.
Decrepit leaves and twigs scattered on the ground crunched and cracked beneath his boots, and the sound of his own breathing still stood at the forefront of his focus.

That was until, he was further down the path, and from the bush to his right came an aggressive snapping and shifting of branches.

A figure landed right in front of him, a black hood was brought well over their face to conceal their appearance, but their posture and limbs were so distorted that the hood couldn’t do anything to hide their uniqueness.

The figure's head slowly turned towards James, and the bones in their neck cracked as they did. Moments went by where the figure just stared at him, and James stared back in silence. He only heard the sound of his breath.

Then they moved, the figure first, launching themselves at James who reacted quicker than he would’ve thought he was capable of by turning around and sprinting away.

He hadn’t taken much note of the fact that there was no dirt path behind him, despite the time spent traveling. And instead ran towards and through the heap of foliage in front of him.

Almost immediately his sprint transformed into a dive, which sent him through a bush and into a pile of leaves. He pulled his head up immediately and turned backwards to see the figure leap completely over the bush as if it were a hurdle. But immediately their body was sent flying backwards somewhere James couldn’t see.

“That should do for now.” He heard a man say. He wore a suit and a top hat, with long hair that fell to his shoulders and a thin mustache. The man waved a wand eccentrically after he spoke and stuck it into his pocket, which managed to fit it although seeming impossible.

James stared up at him in confusion as the man bowed as an actor would after a compelling performance in the theater. Something seemed familiar about the man but James couldn’t place it before he spoke again.

“Let’s get going then.” He pranced over to James and lifted him by the shoulder, which James found surprisingly effortless.

“Who are you?” James asked, still being led by the shoulder but this time running along with but also slightly behind the man through the grass. He didn’t say anything in response, but James saw him retrieve the wand from his pocket once again as they neared a tree particularly large in width.

The man didn’t say anything but he waved the wand in a circular motion and almost immediately after, a crevice in the tree began to form. The crack grew larger and larger in seconds, just in time for the man in front of James to reach it and narrowly squeeze himself inside, dragging James along with him.

The burrow inside the tree surprised James, in the fact that despite the width of it from outside the amount of space in the room now seemed impossible.

Before the man could drag him further and before James could marvel more he grabbed hold of the man’s wrist.

“Who are you?”. He asked again, his eyes narrowed at the man.

“You mean you don’t recognize me?” The man feigned exasperation, drawing his hand to his chest where his heart was and slightly slouching over.

“From Everseen? The most phenomenal man that’s known to man.” He paused for a moment, waiting for James to put the pieces together, and continuing when it was clear he didn’t. “Whose magic saves lives. So extraordinary a man that poems were written and tales told?”

James only stared at the man, too much had happened in too short a time to be capable of immediately deducing the mystery in front of him.

“You’re no fun. I’m Leon Alser, here to help.” He looked defeated for only a moment when he realized his introduction wasn’t self-explanatory but flashed a charming smile and extended a hand towards James.