Chapter Text
“Won't start? What do you mean?” Marina said, her tone a mix of exasperation and inquisitiveness.
“I don't know!” The red haired woman said, frustration clear on her face. She stuck her free hand in the pocket of her yellow overalls. “I did everything I could, I really did, but nothing worked! It might not be a problem with the engine itself? Maybe if I had some spare parts I could try a thing or two…” The woman began mumbling to herself thoughtfully, forgetting that she was in the middle of a conversation. Understandable, given the pressure she seemed to be under.
Then, she saw you, and her worried face lit up into a friendly grin.
“Oh! You're awake too. You were the last one off the train, ja? What's your name?” She asked as she hopped down from the metal platform of the steam engine. You fumbled to answer for a moment.
“P-Persephone.” You croaked out, fiddling with the cloth of your cloak. The woman seemed to take note of your anxiety and the cheerfulness of her voice lowered to a more caressing timbre.
“Well… I'm Abella. Nice to meet you, and good morning.” She said with a comforting smile, to which you returned with your own hesitant one. Her gentleness reminded you of your mother. Nothing else did though. Where mother was lithe, the red headed woman in front of you had the frame of someone who’d seen years worth of physical labor. The sleeveless overalls and tank top she wore certainly didn’t leave much of her build to the imagination. Her muscles almost rivaled the man in the green jacket below her.
The man in the eyepatch dropped his cigarette butt on the ground and squashed it underneath his weathered dress shoe. You started to become concerned for the man's poor lungs with how quickly he seemed to burn through cigarettes.
“I guess that means we're stuck here until help comes, then.” He said, “It's Daan, by the way. My name. Almost forgot to mention that.” Daan chuckles, but there's not any real humor in it. Just noise to fill the unbearable silence.
“Damn. I was ready to just call you ‘patches’ in my head. I liked that better.” Marina said, but the snicker that follows is far more genuine and lighthearted than Daan's low chuckle.
“Sorry to disappoint.” He responded blandly. The group once again fell silent. Except for O’saa, who had begun humming in addition to his lotus pose, presumably as a part of his meditation. The air was still tense, but now more so from stress, the lack of certainty, and a sense of foreboding. You were worried, admittedly. The mysterious fog was thick and impossible to see through, everyone except you had some strange dream- minus your frequent nightmares- and now the train had broken down without a discernible cause. Maybe you should just head to Prehevil on foot. If the tower was anything to go by, it wasn't too far away.
The sound of the train door swinging open broke the silence before it could settle in. It was Tanaka, the man in the suit.
“Oh, it's the businessman! Hello!” Olivia said with a wave. Tanaka seemed shocked that someone had noticed his arrival, but quickly composed himself. He tipped his hat to the lady in the grass, giving her a polite smile.
“Hello there. Has any progress been made?” He directed the question towards Abella, who frowned and shook her head.
“Nej. Still completely in the dark about what's wrong with this thing.” Abella sighed, and Tanaka held back one of his own.
“Ah... How unfortunate,” He said, checking his watch before mumbling to himself, “I suppose there's no point now…” Tanaka stepped off the final stair and adjusted his tie.
“Since there's nothing that can be done, my recommendation would be to just stay here at the train and wait for help. But if you want to go to the city on foot, I won't stop you.” He said. Mostly everyone nodded or otherwise vocalized their agreement, with the exception of the quiet, muscular man who had yet be introduced, O'saa who seemed to not care about what was happening, and August who looked to be lost in thought.
“I'm going to head there myself to see if I can buy some parts from the locals. You know, for the train.” Abella said, latching her wrench to a ring on her overalls and putting her hands in its pockets. Daan nodded at her. With that, the conversation seemed to come to an end. The group dispersed, and a few of the passengers started to talk to one another, but most just kept to themselves. Abella had clambered back onto the metal platform and began gathering her things and neatly organizing them in a red toolbox. Glancing over, you noticed Henryk’s eyes lingering on Abella in a place far from appropriate… You would hit him yourself for Abella’s sake were you not so avoidant of confrontation.
“Would you look at that behind…” He said a bit too loud for someone trying to be subtle. Abella threw her head in his direction and scoffed, and you noticed how she almost instinctively reached for her wrench, but stopped herself.
“Are you dead serious!?” She yelled, causing Henryk to flinch at the realization that he'd been caught, “Morrapuler! If you keep that up, I’ll come up with a better use for this wrench!” This time she actually unhooked the wrench from her overalls, pointing at Henryk with it. “How about you go make yourself useful instead of lazing about? Far away from me, preferably.” Henryk made a half-scoff, half-laugh at her statement.
“Maybe I’ll do just that,” He said with an insecure smirk thinly-veiled as confidence, “Just wait and see, Ginger. If you’ll excuse me.” Henryk suddenly began stomping off away from the train, presumably towards the city. To do what, only the Gods knew.
“Ja, ja, go make me proud.” Abella said, watching him march away into the tree line, “... Fitte. ” She added under her breath. Abella made her own way towards Prehevil not long after her altercation with Henryk. Over the next half hour, a few departed to make the trek to Prehevil while others stayed in or around the train. You didn't even see O'saa leave, he simply disappeared. He was there one moment and gone the next. You elected to stay at the train yourself, though you pondered on eventually seeing if you could make it to the city as well.
It must have been around noon now. You sat in the leather seat with your legs pulled close to your chest, your arms wrapped around them. Tanaka sat next to you with his legs primly crossed while Marina was in front of you carving... something... on the wooden floor of the train. It looked to be a ritual circle, but it was too early to tell, and you didn't have the courage to ask. You watched Tanaka fill out the squares of his crossword puzzle with impressive speed, and he didn’t seem to mind letting you watch. Half of it was already finished, reading ‘morning has gold... ’ It looked to be torn from some old newspaper, but it didn’t appear to be a local one.
In the car to your left, Olivia and the man in the green jacket, who curtly introduced himself as Marcoh, sat in an uncomfortable silence. You had to awkwardly watch Marcoh bridal carry Olivia into the train after she reluctantly revealed to you that she was paraplegic and that someone had stolen her wheelchair, which thoroughly perplexed you. What could someone possibly have to gain from stealing some poor paraplegic woman’s wheelchair? Why? You’d be angry for her if the reasons for doing such a thing weren’t so confusing. In any case, Olivia attempted to strike up a conversation with Marcoh, but was met only with one word answers and forced sentences. Eventually she got the hint that he wasn’t interested in talking.
Eventually your suspicions on Marina’s carving were confirmed when she proudly announced her completion of the ritual circle.
“And that’s that. Now all I need is a piece of chalk… which- damn it- I forgot! Do either of you have any chalk?” Her question was asked with notable insecurity. She was well aware of how unlikely it was that either of you would say yes. You stared blankly at her while Tanaka shook his head.
“I do not. My apologies…” He said sympathetically. Marina huffed as she got up from the floor.
“Well great, that was all for nothing.” She said plainly, “It was mostly just to kill time anyways, I guess. Oh well…” Marina began to pace around the room. “I knew I should’ve brought a book to read.” You were both of the same mind on that. Ignoring the inexplicable feeling of dread that ate away at you from the inside, the boredom you felt was almost painful.
“Hey,” Marina said, and you took a moment to realize it was you she was speaking to, “You really didn’t have that weird moon dream, huh?” She asked. You shook your head in response. Marina hummed and sat on the floor next to you. “I can’t stop thinking about it, or what it means I guess.” Marina began talking about her thoughts on the dream. She recounted how she was almost killed by a ugly naked man, followed a girl in a pink dress into some strange wooden labyrinth, and spoke to a man in a weird pointy hat. Personally, that just sounded like a normal dream so far. Or... maybe that's just you. Who knows. She recounted her interaction with the man in the pointy hat, who introduced himself as "Per'kele" and said that all 15 of the train's passengers were now part of some kind of festival. Not only that, but we all had to kill each other until only one remained.
"That... sounds insane." You said. Marina just laughed and tiredly rubbed her eyes with her thumb and pointer finger.
"Yeah, it does. At first I thought it was bullshit, but... everyone had it, y'know? Well, except you, I guess." She was right. Whether or not the dream was important was a dumb question to ask at this point. 14 people having the exact same dream at the exact same time would be an impossible coincidence. Something was absolutely going on, but for some reason you were... excluded. You certainly had strange nightmares of your own, and they always felt like they had some kind of meaning. Was this dream everyone had tied to your own nightmares? If not, then why didn't you have that dream too?
Movement from beside you jolted you from your thoughts. Tanaka slid the crossword puzzle into his briefcase before standing up from his seat.
“I don’t see much reason in staying here any longer,” He said, “I have some business in the city to attend to.”
“Really? We might see each other there. I got some stuff I need to do too, but…” Marina said, scratching the side of her head, “It'll probably be a while before then.” She seemed almost… sad. A little bit afraid too. What kind of "stuff” did she need to do? Nonetheless, Tanaka nodded before making his way to the door.
As you watched him, you wondered if now would be the time for you to get going as well. It didn't seem like help was coming any time soon, and although you didn't like company, traveling alone was even less favorable. Making up your mind, you spoke up and got Tanaka's attention.
“W-wait, uh…” You were already a stuttering mess, “Could I… come with you?” Tanaka seemed surprised at your request, as well as the fact that you spoke. For a moment he studied you cautiously with a blank face. Maybe he wasn't one for company either. He was polite and kind, sure, but he didn't seem like the social type.
“I… suppose I don't see why not,” He said, tugging at his tie, “Having a traveling companion to sightsee the local fauna with on the way could be nice.” Tanaka beckoned you to him with a thin, polite smile. You rose from your seat and walked towards him.
“See ya! I'll tell Olivia and Marcoh that you left.” Marina said. You turned and waved at her shyly as you followed Tanaka out the door, once again hit with the smell of wet grass.
The fog hadn't cleared even a bit. If anything, it may have gotten thicker. Tanaka observed the surrounding trees as he stepped down from the stairs and onto the ground. His fingers twisting anxiously around the handle of his briefcase. You couldn't hold it against him, doing so would make you a hypocrite with the strange sense of dread that continued to grow within your own chest.
You turned to watch the train disappear into the mist as you walked further and further away from it, and eventually you were far away enough that you could no longer see it. The forest around you was imposing. Even though you knew the trees weren't sentient, you felt a malicious aura around them.
“Ah, buildings!” Tanaka suddenly said. Focusing your gaze to see what he was looking at, you realized that he was right. There were buildings… Well if you could call them that. As you got closer, the structures in question appeared to be more along the lines of abandoned shacks. Observing your surroundings, you saw that the wood was rotting, and half of the roof on one of them was caved in. Grass was invading the ground where a dirt path once seemed to be. A few barrels, some knocked over, were scattered around the area.
“Hm… I don't think we'll find anyone here.” Tanaka said uncomfortably, adjusting his tie, which you now recognize as a gesture for calming his nerves. It didn't take a genius to put together that the only things living in these rundown shacks were ghosts and rodents. As you and Tanaka began to walk away and further along the path, you thought that it was strange that they hadn't been demolished yet. Why would the city just leave them here to rot?
Shaking those thoughts from your head, you continued following Tanaka. You looked up at the tower that rose above the fog and into the sky. Without a map, this was your only guide. Though there had been maps on the train, everyone took them for their own journeys before you could. The tower would do for now, though.
“All of this fog… I can hardly see where I'm going.” Tanaka mumbled. He kept at an even, measured pace, cautious but calculated in every step he took. You were seeing a lot of things in people that reminded you of your mother lately… but maybe that was just your grief flaring, forcing you to remember that she's gone at every turn. You stopped that line of thought when you noticed that you'd fallen behind Tanaka, and lightly jogged to catch up to him.
Tanaka glanced at you with slightly furrowed brows every now and then, like he wanted to say something but wasn't sure what. You avoided his gaze every time.
“So,” He finally said, attempting to break the ice, “What brings a young lady like yourself to Prehevil? Visiting family?” Family… If you had any in Prehevil, however unlikely that would be, you wouldn't know them. You hummed in thought, trying to come up with an answer that didn't relay too much information.
“No. Just… looking for something, I guess. I'm from here.” You said, not knowing if you were even loud enough to be heard. Tanaka gave an uncertain ‘ah’ at your ambiguous answer, recognizing your hesitation to elaborate further.
“I wouldn't have taken you for a local. You don't look very… Bohemian, to be frank.” He said, choosing his words carefully as to avoid offending you in any way. You couldn't say he didn't have a point. Although you were born here, you clearly weren't Bohemian by blood, and nor was your mother. She never told you where exactly she was from, so ‘not Bohemian’ was all you could say in terms of your ethnicity. Some of your physical features were predominantly Rondonian, while others were Bremen. All those years of living in Voroniya also had affected your accent and behaviors. You felt like some strange, mysterious concoction of everything.
Your identity was confusing and hard to decipher. Some sleepless nights you would wonder if you even had an identity at all, or if you were just a shell of a person that was never supposed to exist in the first place. You felt so disconnected from the world around you and the people within it, like an extra puzzle piece that mistakenly found its way into the box and had no place in the finished product. The concept of “belonging” was foreign to you, it always had been. When your mother was there, she filled the void and gave you all the love she could give in spite of the circumstances. But your mother was all you had, and now she was gone.
You felt a hand on your shoulder. Startled, you almost leapt into the air.
“Ah- sorry, sorry!” It was Tanaka, who quickly pulled his hand away, “I didn't mean to frighten you. It's just… are you alright? You seem perturbed.” He said. Rubbing the shoulder where his hand had been, you curtly nodded and looked down at the ground.
“I'm fine.” You weren't, but you didn't want to spill all of your existential woes out in front of a stranger you barely knew. Tanaka's concern didn't seem to dissipate, clearly not buying your attempt to shrug him off.
“If it was my comment, I apologize. It wasn't my intention to upset you.” Tanaka looked like he was trying to refrain from putting his hand on your shoulder again, so it instead just hovered awkwardly in the air. You were quiet, mind blank as you tried to force out words.
“It… wasn't you. Don't worry about me. Please.” The last thing you wanted was somebody doting on you, especially when there are more important things to be worrying about. “...Let's just go.” You marched away from Tanaka and further down the path. You weren't looking at him, but you could feel his worried eyes on you as he watched you walk away. Eventually you heard Tanaka's footsteps following behind you.
And so, your journey continued.
Soon after, you came across a forked path in the road, the right leading further towards the city, and the other leading to the outline of a small building in the mist. Although you thought the right path was the obvious one, Tanaka stopped you before you began to the right.
“Wait. Do you see that?” He asked, his voice a low, shaky whisper as he pointed to the silhouette of the building ahead. You raised an eyebrow at him.
“Yeah… the building.” You said simply. Tanaka shook his head and beckoned you to follow him, and you did so cautiously. As you both approached the building, which now looked to be a shack not too dissimilar from the ones before, you noticed what looked to be a man sloped against the wall.
“W-What is that…?” Mumbled Tanaka.
No. Not a man. A corpse.
“What on earth is going on!?”
Two corpses. A man and a woman.
The man's leg and arm were hacked off. Splatters of dark red littered the wooden wall of the shack and the grass around him. The woman was pinned to the side of the shack by two sharp metal bars impaled into her torso, blood staining her white dress and dripping to the ground.
You wanted to scream, throw up, run away, and faint all once. But you didn't. You did nothing. You couldn't move.
“They're d-dead…” Tanaka whispered. At least you think he did. You were completely disassociated from reality. Your senses of sound, sight, and smell were all blocked off. Their blood, gore, and lifeless eyes were all you could see.
Eyes.
Their eyes were wrong. Their faces were all wrong. Deformed.
The man barely had a left eye while the right was practically at a vertical angle, his oversized nose took up most of the space on the front of his head, and his mouth was on his chin. The woman was no better. Her jaw hung open unnaturally wide, and her eyes were absurdly asymmetrical. It looked like the wrapped cloth around her head was grafted onto it, stuck there.
Were these people even human...?