SOMETHING UNEXPLAINABLE IS HAPPENING…

Her head was pounding from the inside out. Drumming on her brain like a marching band. The more she began to wake from her slumber, it seemed her entire body was aching from head to toe. Muscles in her back felt like tiny razors digging and scraping through her skin. Her eyes felt as prickly as a cactus, burning around her eyelids. Her throat was a desert, scratching all the way down her windpipe. It eventually dawned on her; she was sat on a train.

Her mind was cloudy, bombarded by the pain striking her body. When she turned her neck daylight blinded her, causing her to shield herself from the sun’s rays by placing her shoulder in front of her face. Wherever she was, she couldn’t make out. Generic blue skies with a shimmering sun and water reflecting. There was one thing for certain though, she was travelling along a coast, she just didn’t know where…

Turning to investigate the carriage, she could see many pristine, white seats all in a row, with no other passengers. The whole carriage was immaculate. No chewing gum under the table where she rested her arms, no stains on the plastic chairs.

“What if I’ve been abducted by aliens? Perhaps this is how they travel now?” she thought.

It may have been peaceful, but the annoying thing was, there seemed to be no one to ask and the most concerning thing about the situation, was that she wasn’t concerned at all, not one bit. She tried to adjust to her surroundings. Blinking every millisecond so that her eyes seemed to function as eyes should. She hoped the agony in her body would fade but alas it seemed like a permanent fixture, even to the point that things started to become more painful.

She stared at the vast sky and sea, for what seemed too long to just stare at one fixed place. In her mind it seemed as though the train wasn’t moving but looking out and the occasional jolt and sounds of the “chugga chugga” below, was enough to tell her that the vehicle was continuing at a steady pace.

Doors in front that looked as though they were painted on, they blended so well into the rest of the walls, slid open, each side folding in on itself. A robot, or something not human at least, zoomed across the aisle towards her, she almost jumped out of her skin.

The robotic creature was dressed as if it were a human waiter. It contrasted with the rest of the train by being a brass colour, looking like the outside of a Victorian factory. Its entire body looked man made, by an amateur. It had tiny screw bolt eyes, and a rusty nose and mouth, with a tin can body and metal arms. It seemed to float, it’s legs non-existent, just a round bottom, on which it glided. It wore an apron around its can waist and was holding a tray, full of strange round, blue pills.

“Pop a pill, you’ll feel better!” The voice of the robot was croaky, like a frog, it sounded as clanky and tinny as it looked.

She hesitantly reached her hand out and gingerly picked up one of the blue pills, popping it in her mouth. She was in so much pain now, she would try anything. The taste was like no other medicine she had taken before as soon as it hit her tongue the insides of her mouth started to sizzle like popping candy.

“Now swallow... ahhh!” The robot explained in a monotone voice, opening his rusty mouth for demonstrating purposes.

She swallowed. She could literally feel the pill sliding down her throat.

“Who are you?” She asked wiping her mouth of saliva.

“Welcome aboard this train to …” The robot cut off, as if he was glitching out. “I am your assistant for the journey, Mr. Cotton Balls.”

It caught her off guard. She tried to keep a straight face but her laughter kept escaping.

“So, Mr, erm, Cotton Balls…” She paused composing herself. “What exactly are you, are you a male, a female perhaps, perhaps I’m coming across too judgemental...”

“I am nothing, there is no concept for who I am. I exist for you.”

“Okay... but where exactly are we? Where is this place? Tell me, where am I going?”

The more questions she thought of, the more the panic began to kick in.

Who was she? She couldn’t remember anything, why couldn’t she remember and why was she hurrying along a seemingly never-ending track to nowhere, with one robot to keep her company.

“When will we arrive?” Then it suddenly dawned on her she had no concept of time, there were no clocks or writing to read anywhere she turned, everything was white, like the purity of an angel.

“What time is it?” She continued. Each question she asked was being ignored.

“The time is...” Mr Cotton balls movements were jolty, as if it was going to break into millions of pieces. it moved his rusty arms towards his beady screw eyes, where many metal watches hung on him like apples on a tree.

“35:45.”

“Excuse me?”

“The time is 35:45. The time is 35:45. The time is 35:45. The time is 35… “

“Okay! Stop! Stop!” She cried, standing abruptly from her seat, everywhere in her line of vision began swirling around, her eyes couldn’t focus on one thing. Her legs felt like a jellyfish. She fell back on her seat with a thud, where she promptly threw up all over the clean seats and table.

“Jesus Christ,” she spat, staring at the mess in front of her.

She had only just noticed, when she was covered in her own mess, what exactly she was wearing. A long, white, flowing dress, now stained.

“That will be the pills working Mrs.” Mr. Cotton Balls calmly commented, taking one of its arms, from which a large vacuum appeared. The funnel attached started washing away the mess in front of her, including her dress. As if by magic, the pristine white reappeared, no smell, no mess, or stains. She watched as Mr. Cotton Balls sucked the vacuum back into its arm.

“You’re a miracle worker.” She said smiling into his inexpressive eyes.

He may have been a robot and perhaps it was her brain telling her she’d gone insane, but behind the sheen of its eyes she could have sworn that some human interaction was taking place.

“How long have we been travelling?” She asked calmly.

“We have been travelling at 1800 MPH at 2500 per hour. We have been travelling for…”

It paused, abruptly.

“30 days.”

“30 days! What is going on, please, I’m scared now…” She began to weep, hiding her red tomato face in her hands.

“Judging by the water coming from your eyes, I can tell you are experiencing sadness. Would you like some comfort? A hug? A warm beverage? A massage?”

She looked up from the table with puffy eyes.

“A tea please.” She said, weakly.

She watched Mr. Cotton Balls toddle off, jolting down to the train door which opened automatically as it slid through. Wiping her eyes, she rose from her seat and heading towards the sliding doors, gripping tightly to the backs of the seats.

The door in front of her, slide like it was in a windy breeze. The room she entered was not another carriage, or even a room at all, just a dark space, that seemed to have no access to light. The banging and clattering of pots and pans echoed throughout the mysterious place until suddenly everything was silent and then the soft sound of rolling began to come closer. Mr. Cotton Balls appeared from the darkness, holding a tray once more, but instead of pills scattered around, a teapot, milk and a pot of sugar sat in its place.

“Sit, sit.” It said in a mechanical tone, gesturing his arm to the many empty rows of seats in the room behind. It guided her back while her head was still fixated on the sliding door which had automatically closed behind him.

“What, what’s inside there? Why couldn’t I see anything?”

Like a teacher sitting a child down for a lesson, Mr. Cotton Balls guided her back, and she took a seat opposite the one she had been sat on previously.

“Drink, you’ll feel better.” It said, she could tell it struggled with human emotions and interaction but continued to help.

She obeyed, grabbing hold of the tea pot on the tray, placing a porcelain cup on the table in front of her, pouring it so that it flowed like a fountain, adding a drop of cooling milk and a sprinkle of white sugar. She pressed the cup to her lips. The steam rose to the ceiling while she blowed on the tea to coo it. The taste was like nothing she had ever tasted before, or anything she could remember. Just as the pills had, she felt liquid gliding down her throat just like an elixir for the soul.

She turned to face the robot. It stood like a guard, with no expression at all, standing tall, wearing its clean white apron around its tin waist.

“Please, sit with me.”

It didn’t know what to do initially, but she could tell somewhere in its metal eyes and mind, its cogs were spinning. Just like that it came closer to her seat and swivelled his non-existent legs around. Somehow jumping into the plastic seating. They were now eye to eye, staring into each other’s head. She smiled. Perhaps the tea had magically qualities, perhaps it was because she thought she was dying and this was the road to the great beyond, but a soothing atmosphere flew though her veins.

She turned to face the window, nothing but open blue skies, clouds, and bright blue seas.

“It’s my special place,” Mr. Cotton Balls whispered to her, completely out of the blue.

Her head span around. “Pardon?”

“You asked me, before, what is in the room, well, it’s my own room, my own quiet sanctuary, nobody can visit, I go there when I want to be alone, to think...” His voice had dropped the mechanical robotic tone and started speaking as if it was a living human. “It’s like you, being here, this was your happy place, remember? It seems as if you’ve forgotten?”

She felt a croak in her throat. She couldn’t remember exactly, but she remembered the feelings and unusually she didn’t question it, didn’t question Mr Cotton Balls.

“Can I have that hug now Mr. Cotton Balls?” She murmured.

She was staring at the emptiness of the world from a glass window, cooling breezes of the ocean and skies flooded her mind, all while being peacefully soothed by a robot. She sighed. She could feel her eyelids growing heavier and heavier. The last thing she saw was the skies touching the sea.

She awoke with a start, rocking in her chair next to the fireplace, her eyes wide awake, her pupils bulging. She was quickly greeted with a smothered hug from a young woman, her cheeks flushed and a toothy grin on her face.

“I was so worried! You had a nasty fall!”

She knew parts of things, parts of her memories, she turned to her right, where a window looked out upon the sea, rows of houses reaching up to the clouds. Underneath the wooden windowpanes, sat an old metal table, where a sculpture made from tins and metal, stood just one foot from the ground.

“Ah, yes, we were watching over you, me, and Mr. Cotton Balls. She knelt to the ground, so that she was in direct contact with her, their faces touching.”

“You always knew he was in my happy place, ever since I made him for you… but I’m here now, don’t worry Mo