Train to No-Where Station

It was the best sleep I have ever had, ready to wake up I begin to open my eyes. There is so much noise all around and it feels like an earthquake is moving my bed.

“What is going on?” I thought to myself. I finally was able to open my eyes, and I could not believe what I was seeing, I was in a moving train!

“How did I get here?” I asked as I looked around to see that the cabin was empty, and right at that moment the noise of the train went completely silent. There was no sound whatsoever, but the train was still moving.

“Am I still dreaming?” I thought to myself, as I pinched my arm, “Ouch! Seems I’m awake.”

As I start walking towards what I believe it’s a door to the next cabin, the door opened.

“Ticket please?” asked the person that came through the door. I begin to look for one, but I am unable to find one.

“I’m sorry I don’t have one, I don’t know how I got on this train,” I began to explain, “Where is the train going?”

“Ticket please?” asked the person again with an annoyed face.

“I don’t have one.” I replied, and he turned around and left through the door he came through.

“Wait!” I said as I followed.

I went through the door and once again I found myself in an empty cabin, and the noise of the running train started to get loud and louder. My anxiety kicked in and instead of walking I started running cabin to cabin. I started to breathe heavily, scared, and anxious to what was going on. I could not take this, there was no end, how big is this trained and was I the only one here?

I looked at my watch and three hours had passed. I sat on the floor of one of the cabins and started crying with anger, “Let me out of here! Stop the Train!”

“STOP THE TRAIN! HELP!!!” I screamed, and after a minute or two I heard a voice, it was a sweet young girl’s voice.

“Are you okay?” asked the little girl. It was so calming I decided to look up and see if it was real, but there was no one there. My tears just could not stop coming out of my eyes.

“Are you okay?” asked the little girl again, this time I kept my head down and decided to ignore it. Then I felt a hand touch my shoulder and warmth as if there really was someone there. I looked up once again and to my surprise there was this little girl hugging me with a worried look in her face.

“It will all be okay” she said, “I am also stuck in this train, now we are not alone.”

Boom! A big bang coming from the cabin next door shook our souls and scared us forcing us to stand up.

“That’s the twentieth explosion so far,” said the girl.

“The twentieth? how long have you been here for?” I asked the girl.

“Twenty years now,” said the girl.

Looking a bit surprised since she seemed to only be 10-years-old, I don’t believe it and just assumed she meant something else, maybe she does not know how to calculate time.

“I know you don not believe me, but I have been stuck as a 10-year-old girl since I first woke up on this train. I also have been alone here the whole time,” said the girl.

"Now I know I must be dreaming," I thought to myself with disbelief.

“You are not dreaming,” the girl said looking straight into my eyes.

“How did you know I was thinking that?” I asked with confusion.

“Not important, what is important is that you are here, and with you here we can both leave this train,” said the girl.

Then she started explaining; she said that this train will never stop not even for when we scape. We cannot just jump out of the train as its traveling on a never-ending bridge with no bottom in sight. The only way out is with a ticket, which we don’t have. Alone we are stuck but with two we can play the game and if we win, we can meet the conductor who will test us and if we pass, he will give us a ticket. She was never able to play the game before because it requires two people.

“This really does sound like a dream, well a nightmare if you ask me,” I commented to the girl after she explained.

“I can assure you it’s not,” said the girl.

I agreed to play the game, and the next time I blinked she disappeared.

“Where did you go?” I asked as I looked around the cabin for her. I then decided to go to the next cabin. As I entered the cabin I noticed it was designed different than the previous train cabins I've been to before.

I looked around and it finally hit me, the cabin was decorated and designed like my old childhood bedroom. The wallpaper was the same, the color of the seats where the same as my bed sheets, and the accessories where some of my old toys. This was very weird. Then I noticed someone was siting in one of the seats facing away from me.

As I approached, he stood up, so I stopped as he begun to turn around slowly. My eyes opened wide when I noticed it was my grandpa that died many years ago.

“Grandpa?” I asked with confusion and happiness at the same time; I decided to hug him. Then he melted in my arms like if he was made of goo with a disappointed look in his eyes.

A few minutes passed and these words appeared above the door to the next cabin. The words read, “Clue 1: A forgotten lesson, you must remember.”

After I read the words aloud the door opened, and I walked to the next cabin. It was dark, I could not see anything, but I was able to hear laughter. Out of a sudden the moon light gave the cabin light exposing a few people. I could not make out how they looked but one thing was certain, they were drunk. One of them starts to walk towards me, I stay silent, and whisper into my ear.

“I remember you,” whispered the person. The voice seemed familiar, but I couldn’t remember whose it was. Then the moon light disappeared again, and it was completely dark again. The train then started to increase in speed. I had to hold on to something as it was going so fast I thought it was going to come off the rail and crash. I was so scared then it slowed down and I began to calm down a bit and once again it was silent.

Immediately after I had regained my breath there was a scream followed by lightning and a screech throughout the cabin. I jumped backwards frighten as I held the hand railing hard. Then the moon light lightened the cabin again and words appeared above the door to the next cabin.

The words read, “Clue 2: It was fun until it was not.”

I started to reflect on these clues and what I had seen so far. I knew what was going on here, but I did not want to admit it. I had suppressed so many memories that I had forgotten and wished not to remember. I decided to move to the next cabin after the door unlocked when I read the words aloud.

As I walked through the door to head to the next cabin I stopped in the gangway as I hesitated to enter the next cabin. I stared into the empty abyss below and contemplated jumping into it. I was not ready to see what the next cabin held. What other messages and memories will I see.

Then I heard the voice of the little girl in my head, and it said, “Stay strong, don’t give up! The game is almost over, and I am doing my part, you must do yours too.”

“I must finish this game no matter what at least for her sake,” I thought to myself. As I reached the door handle, I felt heat coming from it, then smoke came out of the cracks of the doorway.

“A Fire?” I thought to myself. I should not open this door, I resisted but I knew I must continue, or I will be stuck in this train not to mention I will condemn the little girl to be stuck here for even more years.

I grabbed the doorknob and with a scream I opened the door and ran through it. The whole cabin was on fire, it was destroyed, and I just kept running towards the next door. Once I reached the other door, it was locked, I tried opening it as I rammed my body at it.

No matter what I tried I could not open the door, and the fire just kept spreading. Then there was some turbulence and I fell. As I got up, I noticed that words had appeared above the door. I did not have time to figure out what it says I decided to just read them aloud.

The words said, “Clue 3: Let her go, Survive!”

The door opened and I quickly started to go through it when I heard a cry for help that froze me on the spot.

“Please help me, don’t go!” the voice said.

I thought to myself, “I must survive, for me and the little girl, I cannot turn around is too late.”

“Please,” said the voice followed by a cough, “help me.”

“The door clue said to let her go,” I once again thought to myself.

“Don’t leave me here again,” said the voice.

“Again?” I asked and thought to myself confused by her words I turned around to see her. It was the little girl stuck under a pile of luggage and surrounded by fire. I went ahead and ran towards her, to save her. I quickly grabbed her out of there and ran to the next cabin.

It was quiet, and as we looked up; we noticed a man adding coal to the engine, you would think that being so closed to the engine it would be filled with so much noise. Then the man pulled a cord that triggered a whistle. Then we heard the engine of the train and the man turned around and said, “I am the conductor of this train, Ah Puch.”

Ah Puch then signaled us to sit and started to say, “You have won the game and made it this far, I will now test you and hope that the clues you found in the train will help you. I will give you one task and ask you two questions.”

I nodded with agreement as the little girl held my hand and nodded as well.

“First question, what advise did your grandpa give you as a lesson after you broke your brothers bike?” asked Ah Puch.

“My brothers bike. That was so long ago,” I thought to myself. After a few seconds of reflection, I remembered that Grandpa scolded me for lying to my parents and blaming the neighbor for when I broke my brother’s bike.

“He said that I should always be accountable for my actions and take responsibility for what I do, the good and the bad, otherwise I will live a life full of regret and suffering,” I answered.

“Second question, what happened to your 3 friends that were with you on your twenty-first birthday?” asked Ah Puch.

My twenty-first birthday was a day I had forgotten about, more like I forced myself to forget, but I had to dig deep and remember it again no matter how painful it is for the sake of this little girl and myself.

“They died in a car accident,” I answered.

“Your task, if you do this you will receive a ticket, ask that little girl her name,” said Ah Puch as if it were an order I could not refuse. So, while holding her hand I faced the little girl and I asked her what her name was.

“Alicia Montereal,” she responded.

Ah Puch pulled a ticket from his pocket and hand it to me. He then turned around to add more coal to the engine.

“Where is my ticket?” asked the little girl.

“Yes, where is her ticket?” I asked with a hint of dismay, but Ah Puch ignored us and kept on adding coal to the engine. We kept asking and asking until the door behind us opened, it was the ticket collector.

“Ticket Please?” asked the ticket collector.

I looked down at my right hand, I was holding the ticket ready to give him, but on my left hand the little girl, Alicia, was still holding on to me. “Ticket Please?” asked the ticket collector again.

I then decided to save her instead, she had been in the train longer than me and I can just wait for the next person if there ever was to be another. She looked up at me and with a tear dropping from one of her eyes she says, “Thank you.”

She gave the ticket collector the ticket and he held his hand out towards her. She gave me a hug and said, “I forgive you,” then she left with the Ticket collector. The train started to speed up reaching speeds that I was unable to comprehend eventually I fainted.

When I woke up, I was in my bedroom back at home, I looked around and pinched myself, realizing I wasn’t dreaming I decided to jump into my computer.

I started searching the train, the experience, and the dream to see if I can find anything to explain what just happened. Nothing was coming up. Then I decided to search the conductors name, Ah Puch.

Only one thing kept coming up over and over, Ah Puch a Mayan God of Death.

“Was I dead?” I thought to myself, no I couldn’t have been. As I read more about Ah Puch I found out that he was also the God of Childbirth and New Beginnings, but that still didn’t explain what happened. So, I decided to search the girls name, Alicia Montereal.

To my surprise I found an article on a newspaper, It read, “10-year-old girl in a comma after a car accident involving drunk drivers, the parents of the girl and 3 other drivers were pronounced dead at the scene,” As I kept reading my heart started pounding faster and faster. When I saw the date, the location, and the name of the dead I stood up and fell to the floor as I kept starring into the computer with tears coming down my face. I dropped the computer mouse, its sound brought me back from my shock.

I ran to the hospital where this 10-year-old girl in a comma was, and I found myself face to face with her. There she was now 30 years old still in a comma plugged in to all this tubes and machines. My heart still pounding I notice that even though they had the same name they also looked alike, her and the little girl from the train. I fell to my knees, and I gave out a big scream and started to cry.

A minute later, the nurses escorted me out of the hospital. I started thinking about what happened in the train and I remembered the lesson my grandpa told me. I remember my friends that were drunk with me on my twenty-first birthday, there were five of us including my brother.

That night we crashed and there was fire everywhere. My brother and I managed to get out of the car after the crash, and we were so shocked we didn’t know what to do. We heard the sirens of the police and ambulance approaching so we decided to leave the area.

As we started to run, we heard this voice ask for help, it was a little girl’s voice coming from the other car’s wreckage.

“Leave her, we must survive and not get caught the police will save her,” said my brother. So, we ignored her and just ran away. A few seconds later after we had put on some distance there was a small explosion, it was the car that the girl was in. My brother grabbed me and pulled me, “lets go,” he said. So, we left.

It turns out that little girl from that accident 20 years ago was Alicia Montereal. I then decided to go to the local police and take responsibility for what happened, what should had happened many years ago.

I turned myself and my brother in for drunk driving that night.

After three months in jail, I saw in the news that Alicia Montreal had awaken from her comma. I was so happy to hear that, that I didn’t care I was in jail. I was genuinely happy she was alive. A few days later I received a letter from Alicia and inside it was a railroad ticket to Nowhere Station.

The letter read, “hold on to this ticket for when you need it again, thank you for coming forward and letting me live once again, to a new beginning!”