There was only one other person in the carriage, an old man wearing a mask. The carriages on either side were empty but he didn't feel threatened or worried. It was broad daylight and he was on his way to meet a childhood friend a few cities over, what danger could there possibly be?
He'd never taken this route before, never had a reason to visit until last week when a random message asked him if he remembered a child who used to sit with him every lunch and share ghost stories. The child had moved away and they'd lost each other but now they were found and they would soon sit and share ghost stories once again.
He didn't know that the train was not supposed to take a right turn at the junction by an old hanging tree, heading for mountains and tunnels instead of open country fiends and soon after, his destination. As the train entered the first tunnel, his eyes were immediately drawn to the old man in the mask, finding that he'd moved a couple of seats closer.
The tunnel ended and they were back in the sunshine again, the old man somehow in his original seat.
The next tunnel came all too quickly and he found his eyes drawn back to the old man, now closer than before, one hand on his mask as if he meant to pull it off. Again, the tunnel ended abruptly and the old man was back in his original seat. Our dear protagonist was too scared to stay put and moved to the next carriage just as they entered a third tunnel.
Feeling eyes digging into his back he turned around to see the old man right at the door, maskin hand and hand on the glass of the carriage door. where his face should have been there was only a dark void that matched the tunnel outside.
A voice growled the name of the next stop into the tannoy, starling both of them as the train reached a platform within the mountain. The old man grudgingly muttered "shouldn't be here, too alive" before departing onto the empty platform.
The train pulled away, taking the confused and terrified young man with it, never to be found again.
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