Faith felt herself being pulled by Heidi's hand as they rushed away from the carnage, the ground under them shaking. A sickening crack rang out through the air, as a tree fell, and Kiera cried out, but her pleas were deafened by the roar of the crashing train. Heidi ran toward the great stone building that was the church, and she and Faith jumped through a broken window in the nick of time as a carriage crashed against the structure's back wall. Once again, they were showered in gss, causing them both to cry out in pain.A moment passed. The small room they found themselves in was pitch-bck, with the roof of the carriage covering the only window. The rumbling stopped."F-Faith?" Heidi asked, "Are you...?"Faith coughed, "I'm here."Heidi felt a hand squeeze hers."I'm here. In a lot of pain, but... I'm definitely here."The air smelled of dirt, and Heidi reached out, feeling something that felt fleshy in front of her."Um... Faith?" She whispered, "Is that you I'm touching?"Faith shook her head, but realised Heidi couldn't see it, "Uh, no?"The fleshy thing moved. A low groan was heard in the dark. Heidi squealed and reeled back. Faith pulled her phone out of her pocket and turned the torch feature on, revealing a long-dead corpse sitting propped against a bookshelf covered in gss.And then the corpse moved.
"Is this a bad idea?" Eliza would soon ask, carrying a table and staring out the open door.The booth seats that had lined the train carriage were bolted to the floor, and Alicia had even doubted whether or not they could be removed in the first pce, but something strange happened when Trevor went to remove the bolts. Initially, he tried unscrewing it with his fingers, but found they were on too tight."Not to worry," He said, reaching for his waist, "I carry a drill on my tool belt."Before Eliza could point out that he was not, in fact, wearing a tool belt, he reached his hand down to grab something, and out of the ether a drill appeared in his hand. He reached down again into a pocket that again, did not exist, and found the drill bit he needed."This is weird, right?" Eliza whispered to Alicia.Alicia tilted her head, "Uh, everything about this situation is weird, we're dead.""Yeah, but... he can summon drills out of thin air.""Done!" Trevor announced, "Table's unbolted.""Cool, thanks!" Alicia said."How'd you summon the drill?" Eliza quickly spilled out.Trevor looked at the drill in his hand, then down at his belt."Huh. I don't know. Always have it on me, so I guess I just... knew it'd be there. Anyway, let me know if you need any more help!"They brought the tables to the door, peering out to where the wheels were."So, we're going to throw these tables out, and then... crash the train?" Eliza asked.Alicia nodded, "Or at least try to.""Right... Is this a bad idea? What if the train doesn't crash?""Then... we'll be stuck here, dead."Eliza took a deep breath, "Nothing to lose then."The pair angled the table's top out of the door frame, carefully sliding it and rotating it so that the entire thing would slip out. The ptform between cars was small and for utility only, with no guard rails and a slight gap between them, hitched together with a rge coupling. Alicia pushed the table a little, and it fell through the gap, whacking Eliza in the face on the way out. After a loud bong from the metal pole hitting her and a moment of silence, she started to ugh."That didn't hurt at all!" She said, giggling, "That's weird."That's about when the wheels screeched and the train turned sideways.
Kiera's human form was not as fit as she'd have liked it to be. As Faith and Heidi had run, Kiera felt the grass drag beneath her, pulling her back closer to the train. Her eye caught a glimpse of the moon's white effigy in the darkening sky torn by the setting of the sun, and she gained a temporary burst of strength, pushing her body off the ground with muscles that were, by all means, inhuman. But as she ran, a thick wire snapped from the oncoming train, smashing into a tree beside her, and pinning her to the ground as the dirt slowly settled into pce. One of the train cars hit the wall of the church with a deafening smash. Gaining her bearings, Kiera wiped the dust from her eyes with her one free hand and looked around. Her phone had nded on the ground in front of her, and she only just had the reach to drag it toward her and call her dad."Dad..." She breathed, "I'm trapped...""What's that, air bud?" Her dad replied, "You're a bit quiet.""I'm trapped... under a tree... at the old cemetery..."A pause."Is that all? You'll be out of there in no time, kiddo, it's a full moon tonight, remember? Tim and I are just getting ready for the hunt, it'll be good for you to get some of that energy out, you know? It's really not that different to all those other times you got out.""But- but-""Anyway, you have fun tonight kiddo. I'll see you in the morning at home! Love you!"He hung up on her. A still silence filled the air, and then... shuffling. Banging. Against wood. The coffins had been unearthed, and their rotted and decayed wood was moving. A hand shot from the ground beside Kiera's face, and she cried out in fear as she inched away from it.
***
Alicia found herself lying down on a train track. Her feet were stuck, buried under the ties. Slowly, she picked herself up, using her hands to drag herself along the rail. She stood, slowly, gently, knowing that losing her bance could mean she'd topple over and she'd have to pick herself right back up again. The grey gravel reflected the gold of the sun, and she found herself facing a tunnel in the hillside. It was almost a scene reminiscent of Thomas the Tank Engine... until the train whistle blew. She saw the bright yellow lights appear out of the shadows, and began to panic, cwing at her feet desperately to try to escape. The pressure behind her ears began to build as the panic set in, and the train seemed to charge toward her both incredibly fast and in slow motion, its bck engine and gothic metal frame both incredibly far away and dangerously close, and she raised her hands to try to stop it, but there was no engineer."No, no, no no no..." She muttered, "No! Stop! Please!"The train hit her.But she was already dead. And the train passed through her body like it was air. She felt her body split into a cloud of smoke, before eventually reappearing once it had run through her. For a moment, her feet were free, and she turned around to see the train, only to see her own corpse on the ground before her, its neck broken. And instead of the tail end of a train, there was another tunnel opening in the other direction. And another train whistle sounded. This time, she thought, she would be able to run, so she tried to move her feet, but-They were stuck again. And the lights shone through the tunnel just as her panic set in once more.He sat on the side of the cliff, watching, one leg resting on the dirt while the other arched, to keep him firm in pce. How many times had she done this? How many times had she died, over and over and over again, never once learning her lesson? It was embarrassing. Was this what they had become? A handful of ghosts, a dead body, and whatever he was? Was this the cost of the freedom he'd brought them? Forced to haunt her, forced to hate her, forced to watch her suffer? Less and less of her came back from each hit, leaving in its pce a hole in her gaseous form. And then she was gone, and he was still there, somehow, and her corpse picked itself up and started taking each hit instead.
***
"Are you alright, Alicia?"Alicia's head hurt like hell. She tasted blood. Eliza was holding her hand out toward her, the night sky behind her. The train carriage had split open, and Alicia was resting against the wall beside the door. Eliza helped her up, and they surveyed the ndscape. It was dark and cloudy, but the full moon shined through somewhat, illuminating an old graveyard, the site of their now-wrecked train. Trees and earth had been dispced and torn up to make way for the wreckage. A wolf howled at the moon, and Alicia heard screams coming from the church. She looked at Eliza."Did that... sound like Faith and Heidi?"
