It was a long day of work, and I was ready to collapse at almost any moment. I dragged myself into the subway station and managed to get myself on the train. The time was around 9:15pm, so the station wasn’t as crowded as it was during the day. I took a seat and let out a sigh of relief before looking around the train car. In this car, there were three people: me, some old guy sitting around four seats away from me to my right, smoking a big cigar. The smoke from this guy kinda interrupted my moment of respite, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it. As for the third one, he was sitting across from me and the old guy, around five seats away from us. He had a red hoodie on and was looking down at something before he looked up at me to return my gaze. He had a tired expression on his face, and one of his eyes looked bloodshot. Guess he was just another tired person taking the train home. 

I felt the train as it started to move - finally, I was on my last stretch home. I took out my nearly finished water bottle and took a swig to keep me awake so I didn't miss my stop. All of the sudden, the car went dark as we were passing through a tunnel. Normally, the lights would be on in such a situation, but they were off for some reason. Then, as if it were just a quick moment, the lights came back on.

“Sorry folks, lights have been bugging out for the past couple of days, but don’t worry. It won’t stop us from bringing you home,” a calm and collected voice said over the loudspeaker - must’ve been the conductor. I looked at the old man, who continued to smoke from his cigar; it must be nice to be able to relax like that. My gaze moved over to check on the other guy, the one with the red hood. To my surprise, he was staring at me, this time, from only two seats away. I almost jumped in my seat, a bit shocked by this phenomenon. I looked back to the old man, who simply took another puff from his cigar, as if nothing happened. Maybe I was hallucinating, maybe I was too tired from work.

And then the lights flickered and went out again. I held my breath as I felt the train rumble down the tracks. The lights flashed back on, as I let out a sigh of relief. I turned to look at the old man again.

But all I saw was the red hooded man’s face. I let out a frightened cry. His bloodshot eyes were staring directly at me, as if not looking at me, but into my soul. 

“AH! What the hell is your problem, man?!” I screamed at the guy. There was no response.

“Jeez, kid, if you wanted me to put out my cigar, you could’ve just told me…” The old man said, looking at me.

“I’m not talking about you, talking about this dude right here!” I pointed directly at the red hooded man in front of me.

“You okay kid? It’s only me and you in this car.” The old man stared at me along with the hooded figure. Their eyes did not move, they were locked onto me. 

The lights started to flicker once more.