"The Train"
I could barely breathe as I sprinted down the station platform. My newly-bought ticket was stuffed in my back pocket unceremoniously, and I knew if I didn't get on that train fast enough I would be out of a job.
Yesterday, it had seemed like a great idea to head over to New York City for a bit and visit with my parents. After weeks and weeks of nonstop work, it was a nice time to cut loose and have some fun. The only thing I had to worry about was getting up at 8 am to catch my 9:11 train.
I woke up at 8:50.
Apparently I had been too tired to set my alarm correctly. So now, here I was, running and running and huffing and puffing my way to the train. I saw the cabin doors about to close and I took a breath and hopped on.
In the cabin, the doors closed behind me and almost snagged my hair. Combing my hand through it, I glanced around to find a good seat when it occurred to me that, besides me, there were only three people in the cabin. Coincidence, the logical part of my brain said.
Looking around, I saw a lot of garbage and debris on many of the seats and spills and water on the others. The spills did have a slightly pinkish tint to them, but I'm sure I was just imagining it. Noticing that the only seat uncluttered was, of course, in front of the girls, I decided to abandon any shyness I had and sit there. As I sat down, and asked the one on the far left, "Is this seat taken?"
No response. I realized she had headphones on.
"Well I guess I'll sit here then," I mumbled to myself awkwardly. A couple minutes passed before I tried to make conversation again. I turned to the red-haired girl on the right and questioned, "So where are you getting off?"
Again, no response. And that girl didn't even have headphones on! I murmured a quick, inaudible, "Rude..."
As the cabin door opened and the ticket checker let himself in, I finally turned to the girl in the middle. She stared at me with wide, bloodshot eyes and was sort of slouched in her seat. What was her problem?
The ticket man asked for our ticket, as was his job. However, I was surprised to hear him tell me that my ticket was invalid. Exhausted and exasperated, I said to him in the calmest tone I could muster (which wasn't very calm), "What the f*** are you saying?"
"Miss, this is not a legitimate ticket. Please, come with me."
"What the hell?" I said, not believing my ears. "It's a real ticket! I just bought it, like, five minutes ago!"
"If you don't come with me, miss, you'll be in for a whole lot more than a fine."
"Great! Just great!" I threw my hands up and jumped from my seat. "I'm going to f****** lose my job and now I'm going to f****** jail! I'm done. I'm just so done with this crap. You want me to go with you? Fine! I don't care! I don't f****** care!"
He led me to the next cabin, which was actually emptier than the previous - as in, there was nobody in there.
As soon as he closed the door I saw his entire demeanor change. Shifting his eyes back and forth, he seemingly developed every nervous habit ever. I stared at him and asked, "Are you okay?"
He took a shuddering breath before returning his gaze to me. "I've been in here for the past ten minutes."
"Okay...?"
"And your ticket is real."
"So why the hell did you bring me out here? Oh wait crap you're gonna rape me aren't you. Isn't this a lovely way to start my day? Absolutely fabulous -"
"No! No, I'm not going to rape you," he replied in disgust. His face suddenly changed into worry again before he continued. "Those girls - I just... I can't believe what I saw."
"What, is one of them a vampire or something?"
"...no."
"Okay, then spit it out! I have somewhere to be!"
"I saved your life, just then. You don't realize that, do you?"
This wasn't the time for kidding around, I noted with a soft "oh". This was pretty darn serious.
"So... what I saw was that dem girls took some be-be guns and shot dat place up" dem guy said.
"Darn" I frowned. dem girls were pretty dern serious.
"and den dey killed dat girl and dey woulda killed ya too but yah i dunno why dey didn't i wish dey did"
"hey"
"and on dat second thought hmmm maybe i am gonna rape ya"
Meena Reine Community Member 
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