The Edge of Forever

Thunder blasted out by Theresa’s head, causing her to bolt awake with a scream. She had gone to bed when the storm had just started, hoping for a soothing rest for a change, but she wasn’t expecting the storm to move right overhead. Something flickered in the darkness to her left. She looked over in confusion to find a window and a strange storm of coloured clouds of purple, blue, pink, and green beyond it.

That wasn’t normal. Nor was the window by her…

The vibrations that ran through her body felt oddly familiar to that of a train and not her bed. She looked down and saw that she was sitting across blue subway seats. She frowned; the seats didn’t match the passenger train window beside her. The flickering and flashing lights from the outside briefly illuminated the car, details becoming barely visible. She was in an enclosed compartment with the door closed. The poor lighting from the hall barely came through the glass. Between the window and the seat, she didn’t think it would be a compartment car.

Where the hell was she?

Had she been kidnapped?

What the hell should she do?

She could continue looking outside, to get a sense of where the speeding train was going. But she also didn’t want to be sitting in some strange mix-and-match locomotive, not knowing who was around.

She turned to the compartment door and listened, trying to hear voices beneath the rumbling thunder outside. Not even steps came from beyond her compartment. Perhaps it was best to get a sense of where the train was. Maybe see if it would cross a street or in sight of a familiar building in the distance. Her gaze shifted from the door to the window, and she was left confused, perplexed, and wondering if she had been doped.

The foggy clouds had cleared enough to see beyond them. It was a void with nothing below or above her. In the void ahead, isles floated, some large, others small with weird gangly trees dripping off goo where leaves should be. Farther in the distance was a land that mirrored in the sky. Streams of stars and a glow of a moon reflected off a pyramid that came down from the sky and rose from the blue sands, but no moon was there. Lightning flashed followed by thunder. She jumped and turned to the closer wastes of nebulous clouds. A storm raged within them. The flashes of lightning cast shadows of long, gangly vines and bodies of colossal beings as they clashed against each other in some violent, unending battle.

She turned away from the frightening sight to the distant realm. A warm yearning called her. She wanted to be over there, under the sea of stars, and the welcoming desert that was mirrored above.

How the hell was she going to get over there?

The fog rolled back in, taking away the only thing she could call a sanctuary. A golden-yellow, cat eye the size of the window suddenly opened in front of her. She screamed and backed away. It followed her actions, watching her stare back as her back smashed against the door. She couldn’t look away, too scared of it getting out of sight. It blinked, disappearing for a moment, but when it opened its eye, a dozen smaller ones appeared, seemingly delighted at her terror. Mouths opened with strange, sharp teeth.

Her hand went behind her, struggling to find the latch. A chorus of strange voices and pitches vibrated over the train’s clunks. Her hand found the latch and it opened. She had never left a space so fast in her life and slammed the door shut. Theresa ran down the aisle, barely noticing the empty compartments that went by. The haunting song faded as she reached the end of the car and opened the door, heading into a second train car.

She didn’t know where the hell to go, but that compartment and that car were not where she wanted to be. The next car was the same design, but she did not stop to smell the roses. The train had to come to an end, the caboose, or the engine, she didn’t care which. Someone else had to be on the train. Someone to explain what the hell she saw back there. Someone driving this thing…

A dawning thought trailed in, slowing her steps to a stop at the door at the end of the car.

What if no one was driving it? What if it had no end and looped on itself?

Was it real? Or was this just a dream?

She had lucid dreams before, and she often knew when she was dreaming. A gift many had said, it told her when it was time to escape a nightmare or just wake up and try a new dream. And a gift it remained. Because if she had been dreaming, she would have known.

This was not a dream.

She looked at the car door, wanting to know what was beyond. If it was not a dream, she still had the problem of not knowing if there was someone on the train. Not knowing where she was. Not knowing if this was some endless hell.

What would happen then? Would she be stuck forever? How did she get there at all?

Did… she die? She… could cut herself. But if she bled, would that even tell her if she was alive? Yes, in most instances if the stories about the afterlife were true. However she just saw giant beings fighting in nebulas, a literal void, and massive eyes and teeth.

Who even knew what was real and what wasn’t anymore?

She grabbed the latch. Regardless of the outcome, she did have to try and figure it out. She owed herself that at least.

She opened the door and went into the next car, finding more of the same compartments to jog past. At the next door and through however, ended the idea that the train looped on itself. But at the sight, she both found what she was looking for and what she hoped she wouldn’t find.

It was the engine room, or what she guessed it to be with the furnace that should have taken coal. But there was no coal despite the glass sharing something was on fire inside the rectangular machine. Along with no fuel to the endlessly running train, there was no one manning it.

To top it off, the engine room felt bare. Like it was someone’s idea of an engine room but didn’t know what it actually looked like. She had only seen a coal driven locomotive in a museum and that was a long time ago so she could have been wrong. But whatever the case was, the engine seemed very off.

Thunder blasted, louder than before. She looked to where the noise came from and found an open window where a conductor might stand to see outside. It was up and behind her. There was a little staircase that went up to the window, something that reminded her of a children’s playground version of a train. She climbed up the stairs and out the window, being incredibly careful as she did so. Keeping knelt, the wind whipped past her, and she wasn’t sure how action movies did scenes on trains with the chaotic nature of being on top of a train.

Why was it so windy in a void?

She peered out and instead of finding the chimney she expected, she saw the smooth, round frame of what looked like a bullet train with modern windows that reflected the void. It made no sense. This wasn’t an engine for a coal train. She looked back to see the three other cars matched the head, but definitely not what it should have looked like from the inside.

None of it made any sense. Well… none of anything was making sense, but this thing really bothered her. It was like the train was made of memories, of different experiences. Different people.

Had other people come here? Even if they did, how was the train moving?

Theresa looked ahead. There was a disappearing and reappearing track, only there for the train to travel on and then gone once the train had gone over it. The train was on a path that only it knew. It didn’t fall, it went straight with minor turns, avoiding the floating isles just far enough that she couldn’t jump to them.

She looked down to see if there was anything below besides the void. A chill ran down her spine. Below was a sea of dark fog, not cloudy but wispy, and much easier to see outside. It moved like clouds over a mountain but reminded her of a rainforest canopy. It should have been pretty, but everything inside her was repulsed by it. It was wrong. Something was in it, and it made her skin crawl. She didn’t want to be anywhere near it. A cold feeling came from behind her, but nothing was there in the corner of her eye.

She turned to the floating landmass in the distance. She wasn’t sure if it was an island or a continent. Whatever it was, she didn’t care. Everything was begging for her to get over there. That was her way out. But the train refused to get any closer, like it was orbiting it.

Next to the sands on the distant land, a forest sat despite being impossible in real life. In its greenery and fields stood a strange castle overlooking a body of water she couldn’t see the end of. How did any of it exist? Was it similar to the train and made of other people’s memories all mixed together?

Something moved behind her, brushing at the back of her neck. She snapped to it. The sea of fog below wasn’t so isolated in the void. It crept like the things in the nebula that continued to clash at the outskirts of the realm. It was rising like the tide, but instead of one big wave, it was like claws wanting to grip at the train.

A hand of flesh and exposed bone with long claws escaped from it, swiping at her. She yelped, pulling back. Something feral growled within and something in her chest writhed at the idea of being touched by it. She had to get as far away as possible.

She scrambled back into the coal engine room and slammed the window shut, locking it. The hand came with friends, all clawing at the glass. Their nails scratched across its surface, making horrible scrapping sounds over the thunder.

A horrifying realization dawned on her. That window was opened. Were there others on the train open as well?!

She started cursing left and right, leaving the engine room to the rest of the train to check each compartment. She didn’t know if she needed any other part of the train, what was around, or what was worth saving, but she couldn’t risk losing even a single car. She wasn’t going to die until there was nothing else she could do to keep that from happening.

The awful, awful fog crept quickly on the right side of the train, threatening to get in. She closed a window just as something tried to slip in. It banged, threatening to shatter the glass. She left, looking for the next window. She didn’t know what she would do if one broke in, or if it was even possible. Unfortunately, she didn’t have the time to worry about it. She had to focus on the current task. Close all the windows.

She entered the next car. The storm on the left had drawn closer, creating a horrifically loud scene on one side, and a terrifying momentary silence on the other. A tension of what she could only understand as power or energy, like lightning about to strike, started to put a pressure against her and the train. The lights started to flicker, and the train groaned.

She reached a window just as some thorn covered vines tried to grab at her. She screamed in surprise, moving around them, and slammed the window shut. Something screeched in agony outside as the vines were cut off, dropping to the floor. She took a breather, watching the vines writhe for a moment like snakes before going limp.

From the side with the great storm, something smashed against the train, tilting it up off its wheels and knocking her over. The train came crashing back onto the tracks, not even slowing for a moment. She staggered to a stand, getting into the aisle when all the lights went off. The only light being the lightning that was distorted through the strange clouds, suffocating the left side of the train.

The shadows that appeared became unsettling by the second, growing more and more like they were alive. Then they moved.

She stepped backwards, away from the shadows that formed in front of her. The grey shades turned to purple-pink flesh, glistening in the lightning. Eyes opened along its lanky form, and tendrils formed out behind it like wings, dripping with a dark, thicker consistency. The eyes all hungering turned from her to something behind her. She spun around, accidentally moving out of the way of a four-armed creature that looked like a woman with no clothes. Its skin was so pale it glowed in the darkness slightly, but not as bright as the blood red eyes that glared at her and the other monster. It growled, showing off vampiric fangs. The melded flesh abomination hissed back, sharing back larger, and far more teeth from too many mouths compared to the vampiric one. The flesh thing charged.

Theresa screamed, getting the hell out of the way of the brawl and into a compartment, locking the door. She backed into the farthest part of the space, crouching to keep herself as small as possible. The hissing and growling, yowls, and screams from both of them clashing were almost as loud as the thunder that grew more intense. The energy in the air made it impossible to breathe which didn’t help as her mind came to the realization that no matter what happened, she wasn’t getting out. One monster or another, she was dead regardless.

The window was hit above her, snapping her attention upwards. Screeching and chittering were beyond the glass pane that was smashed against. It cracked.

The train was tilted on its side again, causing her to hit the wall behind her then fall onto her hands and knees when it landed again. The frame of the train bent above like a kraken trying to snap it in two. Across the aisle in the other compartment beyond the fight, a large thing of skinless flesh was spreading across the window.

The noises grew louder, with the chorus from before adding itself, causing her head to pound. Her heart raced in her compressed chest. She wanted the noises to stop. For the monsters to go away. She wanted to go home. For everything to make sense.

Somebody, make the insanity stop!

“Is someone here?” a voice of a boy called over the chaos and she looked up from her cowering. In an instant the monsters and the fighting were gone, the thundering had moved into the distance, and the air felt lighter. “Hello?”

“I’m… here…” she muttered out, not knowing what else to say.

The horrible feeling lifted even more, making her feel almost safe, despite the terrifying experience that happened only a moment prior. The train continued chugging like nothing happened.

A presence entered the compartment, but the door didn’t open, nor could she see anything around her. However she knew something was there. The voice confirmed it as it was clearer and present within the room, apologetic. “I’m so sorry for not coming to play with you.”

“Play with me?” What the hell did that mean?

“Mhmm! Lots of people come to play with me… But I didn’t know anyone was over here.” The voice sighed, shamefully. “I saw this thing moving around, but I didn’t want to come see what it was… This place scares me.”

“Scares me too…” Theresa agreed. “What was… all of that?”

“I don’t know,” the boyish voice said. “It happens at the edges of this place, and I don’t like coming over here because of it. It’s too much. Makes me feel… weird and bad…”

“I… see…” Theresa didn’t get anything about what was happening. But as far as she was concerned, a disembodied voice of a boy that seemed no older than seven having a civil conversation was the least of her worries, considering what had happened since she arrived.

“Whatever, the things are gone now. Hi!”

“Um… hi…”

“What’s your name?”

There was no sense in making up a name, and she shared. “Theresa.”

“Theresa! I’ve never played with anyone who had that name before! It’s so pretty!”

“Thanks… What’s your name?”

“I don’t know,” it answered nonchalantly.

“You don’t know?”

“Nope! But I don’t want one. I just know all the friends that come to play with me have one and like to be called by their name.”

“People do like their names typically…” She frowned. “You keep saying play and friends. I don’t know what you mean by that.”

“Oh! Right, so… people come and play with me over in my play place. You can see it on the other side of this… thing. What is this thing?”

“It’s a train, kind of,” she said and looked at the door in front of her. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to even go out there.

“There isn’t anything out there if you’re wondering. Come on! I want to show you!”

She swallowed and stood up, following the enthusiastic voice. She stopped at the door, pausing before she unlocked it. With a great deal of courage, she unlocked it and poked her head out. The train was lit up brightly in the hall and not a single scratch was present in the pristine aisle. She cautiously took a step out then rushed into the compartment on the other side, closing, and subconsciously locking it. She wandered to the window where the island and sky mirrored each other. “Is that your play place?”

“Yeah! It’s so cool! It gets new stuff with every new friend! I love learning about each thing everyone brings!”

“It’s pretty cool…” She was never very good with kids, but she knew enough to just go along with one when they were enthusiastic about something, be dramatic even when it was needed. The last thing she wanted to do was piss off the only thing that was keeping whatever those things were at bay. Though, in this case, she wasn’t exactly lying either. It was interesting to see, even if none of it made sense. “What is this place?”

“It’s my play place!”

That was not helpful. “How did I get here?”

“I don’t know… None of my friends know really other than they are doing this thing called sleeping and then they come here to play with me!”

“And they wake up over there?”

“Yeah!” The voice went somber again. “Usually at least. No one has woken up over here before. At least, not that I know of. It’s really scary here and if other friends have come here… I don’t know what happened to them. No one else is here but you. I hope they went home okay.”

Theresa didn’t think that was the case, and it was clear that the voice was trying to believe it too. “Maybe. Hopefully.”

“Did you want to play with me in my play place? It’s much nicer over there.”

“I might have before,” she answered honestly. The large expanse was enticing and admittedly she really wanted to go over there like she had from the start. But now… “With the monsters and whatever those things were outside… I just want to go home.”

“Oh…” the voice sounded so sad it broke her heart. “You’re still scared. I understand. I don’t like it here either. So I can send you home.”

“You can?”

“Yeah. No one stays forever, everyone has a home to go back to. At least, that’s what everyone has told me. My home is over there and when I leave to come over here, I want to go back. So it makes sense… I think.”

“Lots of people have homes, but some people have things to do rather than a place to stay.”

“Oh. Really?!”

She nodded at its enthusiasm. “Really. I actually have both.”

“That’s so cool! I wish I could talk to you more to find out what your home is like and what you have to do!” the voice said giddily. “But I won’t keep you here. You have things to do and a home to go back to, just like you said. That and this place scared you… I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“No… Maybe… It might be… I don’t know. I don’t like this place. Hopefully no more friends will come here again.”

“Hopefully.” She wouldn’t want to wish this experience on anyone.

“And next time if you come, I hope we can play together! I would love it if you came back. You seem nice.”

“If I come back, we can play,” she agreed.

“Thank you! Okay, goodbye, Theresa!”

“Goodbye… Um, how am I getting-” She didn’t get to finish as the train went a blinding white light and the floor disappeared from underneath her feet.

Her stomach dropped and she jolted up from her bed, back in her bedroom in her house. The thunder was more distant as the rain tapped on the roof. She looked around in disorientation, turning on the bedside lamp.

It was perfectly normal, like she never left.

She looked to the mostly curtain-covered window across the room. Was it… real or a messed-up dream?

Her heart settled as she laid back in bed. Whatever it was, she wasn’t sure if she would ever forget it. Though deep down, she hoped it was all in her head. She didn’t even want to think about the idea of those monsters, that realm, was at all feasible. That and she couldn’t bear the thought of a child-like entity being all alone on its safe haven of land, just waiting for friends to come and then go once more.

Tears started to form. It must have been so sad… so lonely…

So maybe… just maybe… if it were real, she hoped that when she closed her eyes for the night, she could play with the voice who rescued her. As a thank you and to not be alone, even if it was for a little bit.