THE UNTOLD STORY

An eerie winter night, the night of both horror and joy, it almost felt like an illusion. My memories are clouded and I can't understand what went down on the 18th of May. It was past midnight, a spooky hollow night with no soul in sight. It was Alexis' birthday and we had decided to dine out that night but the weather had other plans for us. You could hear her heels tipping down the wooden staircase as she slowly approached the living room looking like the most unbelievable thing a human eye can see, dressed in a cherry red dress, dripping in clear glass. Time stopped! as a sweat drop rolled down my temples after looking at her, she walked; like an old slow-motion movie character and that's when things took an unexpected turn.

As I was opening my eyes I could see the hardened blood all over my hands and my head blood dripping down my neck, by the looks of the blood it seemed like I was passed out for quite some time, my surroundings were not the same it was dark and loud wind in wars against each other, I couldn't identify the cause of all blood wrapped around my body but I had a strong feeling it was her .... the voices echo in my head as she repeats “You can die earlier than you think” I didn't understand what she meant until I realized she might have found out about my Alzheimer's disease.

With strong forces of wind crashing against each other echoing in the wooden cabin, that's when I heard the train whistle I could not process any information. That's when I saw a small hole between the wooden walls, there was light! I could finally see but it wasn't enough to identify my surroundings. I poked and poked and poked trying to make the hole bigger for better vision and light, that's when the light shined through the poked wooden walls into the cabin. I was thrown into the coal carrier where all the coal was kept. No wonder it was so hot. I was concerned about how I got there since I didn't have any sort of train ticket on me. Millions of questions were crawling up in my head “How did I get here?” “Who did this?” “I loved her, why would she do this to me?” and so many more but this wasn't the time for whining about any of this.

Things were starting to get out of my hands as I could feel the train moving faster and faster. There were people on the train, hundreds of kids and women panicking and creating utter chaos. Something wasn't right. They were not planning on slowing down the train, they wanted to kill each and everyone on this train, but why? I thought it was Alexis but surely things are deeper than I thought. There are more people involved in the horrendous act. “Who?” This question remains unanswered ... I screamed at the top of my lungs seeking help but not a soul would answer. I was left hopeless, blank, and numb with no understanding of what I should do to make all this stop.

However, this isn't the solution. I couldn't have just stayed inside and not done anything while hundreds of lives were at risk. I started throwing things around trying to find a way out a door, a window, a hole anything at this point was a jackpot, I started digging down the pile of coal and that's where my nails scratched on a metal rusted doorway on the bottom on the cabin under the pile of all the coal. Finally a sigh of relief. Without wasting another second I tried clearing the coal on top of it to open it but it was so rusted that it was jammed and I couldn't open it, that's when my eyes went on a broken shovel I ran towards it to grab it and started trying to open the gateway, a loud pop sound echoed in the room and smoke and coal dust released in the thin air as the gate finally opened.

Calls and calls but no signals. I tried calling the next upcoming station to inform them about our arrival and to ask them to prepare backup as unknown men may be hijacking the train for train robbery. After several attempts of trying they finally picked it up and immediately requested us to remain calm and guide them through the entire situation, it didn't take us long before we reached our station but the train was impossible to slow down now it had lost all its breaks control and the train had gone into a complete breaks failure, I could hear the kids crying from the back it was traumatizing I still can't forget those cries, the cry of fear, the cry of help and the cry of mercy...

You know how they say never press the big red button well there was one big red button which was clearly labeled as “EMERGENCY!” well sometimes u should and that's when the train went into a complete shutdown mode and instantly stopped leaving us all waved from the shock and pressure. Luckily we managed to stop right outside Westwood station filled with armed police forces and trained dogs waiting for us. The forces barged into the trains and strip-checked each cabin. I could hear them from the very front but I was too afraid to go out just yet so I waited till the temperature dropped, and decided to come out fifteen minutes after the strip check. I'm glad I didn't go out! The scenes were dreadful. I could not believe my eyes at what I was witnessing. It was her, it was Alexis all this time she was planning to hijack the entire train, wanted all the loot, and ended up disguising it as a train crash. It disgusted me to the core knowing that she was the love of my life. The person who was there all this time wasn't there. She remains silent as she refuses to cooperate with the officers regarding her mission.

“They're still going to die...” were the only words she had spoken before she shot herself with the sheriff's guns.

The story remains incomplete...as till today.

-Adan Javed