Train Ride

In the dead of night, every night an enigmatic train roars with thunderous might along the abandoned tracks. Its whistle, a mournful sound, pierces through the silence of an unhallowed ground. With wheels of ebony, surging beneath a pitch-black, moonless sky. Inside the carriages, spirits, their forms twisted by the weight of sorrow and dread, embark on an elegant journey to where lost souls are led. The conductor, a reaper with a lantern’s gleam, guides their passage like a shadowy dream. His skeletal hand calls all to come aboard, an invitation to traverse a haunting path into the unknown. The train moves onward, its haunting path unfurling through landscapes of desperation and the perpetual gloom of the eternal night. Venturing through a nightmarish realm. Daggers of regret pin each forsaken soul, as they recount the tragedies of their former lives without ever becoming whole. At the journey's terminus, where darkness meets its end, these souls will vanish into the land of the dead no longer to offend. 

The land of the dead welcomes them, with eerie tranquility replacing the haunting echoes of the ghostly locomotive. But for one passenger, that was not enough. She yearned for more. Her eyes, burned as hot as coals. She had boarded the train at its first stop and hidden herself away in a long forgotten carriage. As the train pulled up to its final destination, she emerged from her hiding place, drifting through the carriages at a rapid pace. The other passengers watched her warily, unable to stop her as she approached the conductor. 

"You promised me something," she hissed quietly, her voice slicing through the silence.

The conductor nodded slowly before reaching inside of his cloak withdrawing a small ornate box. As he handed it to her, the passengers could feel the power radiating from within, looking at the box a cruel smile twisted her lips. 

“Are you sure about this?,” the conductor said, “This is no mere toy you hold in your ha—” 

Oblivious to her surroundings, she remained entranced by the box and its power. Quickly unlocking the box, a swirl of black smoke spilled forth. Inside was a single, glowing gemstone radiating an ethereal glow that banished the darkness of the train with an otherworldly energy. Her sinister eyes widened with delight as it grabbed the pulsating gemstone, feeling the power coursing through its veins. With an abrupt and monstrous brutality, she wrenched open the creaking door of the carriage. Seizing the opportune moment, the creature, a grotesque silhouette against the spectral backdrop, pivoted and fled from the haunted train with a predatory grace that belied its monstrous form.  The remaining passengers watched it go, knowing they would never see that abhorrent apparition again. For it had claimed the prize and with it, it would rule over darkness for all of eternity.