00.00.00

The light in the final carriage is blinding. It takes all of my mind to keep focused on the footprints I’m following.

I stumble around and crawl in the direction I think I’m going until I crash into a man wearing a long jacket. By clutching to its hems, I’m just about able to drag myself back to my feet.

“You’re about to do something selfish again.”

The man says something very Aaron-like. Something that by all measures is correct, but that I cannot care about.

Using his body for leverage, I push myself past him. My strength is starting to return now and I’m able to limp after her. She’s standing at the end of the carriage, giving me every opportunity to close my eyes and find out before I reach the end.

“You’re really going after her?”

This time, the phantom that’s trying to get me to reconsider has an unfamiliar voice, very low but definitely a girl’s. Sitting in one of the seats in front of me to my left is a young woman with hair cut crudely at her neck and the fashion sense of a boy three years younger than she looks.

“I am.”

“You’re never going to meet me. I’m going to die alone and in the dark because of that.”

“You mean nothing to me, I haven’t met you yet.”

“So many things will be left unknown because of your decision to chase a single answer.”

“This is more important than anything else.”

I push on towards the back of the carriage, back at walking pace now. The girl from before has changed appearance once again, looking completely androgynous.

Just as I’m about to reach the apparition, I feel someone hug me from behind. Despite the things insistence that it is different from the emotion reaper in its methods, I’m beginning to feel a real sense of déjà vu.

Turning around I see the face of Trish, her eyes bloodshot and full of tears. Her mouth opens to say something but I cover it with my hand. I’m done wasting time.

“Even if you were real, you couldn’t stop me. Whatever we are, whatever we could be doesn’t matter. Nothing could be more important than this.”

I shove Trish to the ground and ignore her sobs, turning around to finally confront this thing without a name once and for all.

But when I do, they’re gone, replaced with yet another door to a carriage that shouldn’t exist. This is the end of the train, nothing can exist beyond this point.

And yet, when I open the door, there is something. There is everything. I step into a brilliant white circular room with hundreds or thousands of black doors lining its circumference. In the middle, the thing without a name stands alone. Smiling.

“What is your name?!”

“Follow me if you want to find out.”

I take a step towards the thing without a name and it begins sprinting towards one of the doors. I look back towards the carriage, I just came from, the carriage with everything I’ve ever known in it. The door is closing.

The thing without a name has reached the door of its choice and opens it, revealing behind it a room identical to the one we’re currently in as he steps through. The door is closing.

This room is infinite. Without being able to see beyond them, I won’t be able to tell which door the thing has run through and which one leads back to the carriage. Will I ever find out if I chase after it? Should I go back before it’s too late?

I’m so scared.

Resolving myself to my fate, I run through the closing door.