The Train from Nowhere

The fading sound of childrens’ laughter woke her from her stupor. Her eyelids fluttered as she tried to open her eyes, but they still felt so heavy. Groaning a bit, she turned her head to the side, her body following close behind. Realizing that she in fact did hear childrens’ laughter, her eyes flew open and she sat up. She looked around the sleeper carriage, a bit confused and a bit terrified. The last thing she remembered was crawling into bed with her older sister and younger brother. At thirteen, she has seen a lot of horrific things with her siblings, but still, waking up in an unknown train again would scare anyone. She briefly wondered if her brother and sister were dead, but shook her head quickly dispelling that thought. She knew that her fifteen year old sister would take care of their ten year old brother. Taking a deep breath she got off the seat and opened the carriage door slowly, hoping no one was outside her door. Seeing that the coast was clear, she stepped out of the room and looked around. There were rooms all up and down the hallway, as far as she could she and she strained her head to listen and see if there was anyone in the rooms. When she realized the coast was clear she tentatively stepped out of her carriage and tried to think of which way she heard the kids’ laughter heading towards. After a moment’s consideration she turned towards the left of the carriage and began walking. She hoped that she didn’t run into any of the people working on the train; she looked all over her room and did not find a ticket. She kept walking, keeping close to the sides, until she reached a door at the end of the train car. There was a small space between cars and while crouching, she took a deep breath and slowly opened the door. She stuck close to the shadows as she tried to peek over the window to see if there was anyone in the other car. Slowly peeking, she looked over the edge, then ducked down quickly after seeing some people in the car. She gripped at her chest, heart pounding and tried to slow her breathing. She had to get away somehow, hopefully they didn’t see her. She tried to slink back towards the car that she came from when she heard people talking on that end as well. Shaking now, she crawled on all fours to get to the corner of the carriage where the shadows were darkest and hoped that they didn’t see her. She couldn’t afford to get caught by anyone, not before finding out what happened to her family. She squeezed her eyes shut hoping that if she didn’t see them, they wouldn’t look at her. No such luck. The minute they entered the room between cars, they noticed her right away and soon they were all falling silent. She hoped that they wouldn’t yell or call someone and after a few seconds of silence, she finally opened her eyes to see people a lot older than her. They were not adults, not yet anyway, but they were not kids either. They seemed to look like the age that her older sister was, maybe a few years older than her sister. Her lip trembled and her eyes felt as if they were blown open and she knew she looked terrified. She thought they would do to her what the others did to her and flinched when one of the girls from the group got closer and extended her eyes. She could already feel the phantom pains being inflicted on her and she curled into herself more.

“No it’s okay. I’m not here to hurt you.” The girl who extended her hand said gently. The other two boys stepped back to show that they would not do anything that scared her and the other girl squatted so that she was eye level with her.

“We won’t hurt you. You’re safe here. Come with us and we’ll show you.” The other girl whispered to her.

They seemed so genuine that the little girl wanted to believe them, but she was always told by her older sister to not trust anyone. She shook her head vehemently and the two girls pulled back their hands so as not to startle the little girl.

One of the guys in the back spoke up. “You know, she kind of looks like…” He grabbed his chin in thought and tilted his head.

“Actually now that you mention it, she does.” The other guy replied. They both threw their fingers up in unison which caused the little girl to jump.

One of the guys raised his hands in an attempt to calm her and stepped closer to the door, “ Sorry, sorry I didn't mean to startle you. Um, wait here I’ll be right back.” He grabbed the arm of the other guy and yanked him towards the door then entered from.

Soon it was just the little girl and the other two older girls. They both smiled at her and just sat in front of her, not moving, so that the little girl knew that they meant no harm. She began to realize that they really didn’t want to hurt her so she finally calmed down, and sat down across from them with her legs crossed. When the two boys came back they found the little girl and their two friends laughing and giggling while talking animatedly.

When they stepped through the door, the little girl fell silent quickly and was about to get up to get away, but one of the girls stopped her.

“Hey it’s okay.” she reassured her while looking in her eyes. The little girl saw that she wasn’t lying but still stood behind the other two girls, peeking through the space between their bodies. The boys were standing in front of someone but they both stepped to the side to show another girl that was about fifteen. When she stepped through the boys, the little girl gasped and threw herself through the gap between the girls and jumped in the older girls arms crying.

“Woah. Hey here you are! Why did you leave the carriage! Brother and I were looking for you. We were very worried.”

She just sobbed in the girl’s arms, not able to say a word. The older girl’s friends just smiled softly, knowing that the girl was okay.

“Hey hey hey,” the older girl lifted the little girl’s chin to make her look at her, “you’re okay. We’re okay. Brother and I left to find you food because it seemed like you were waking up. We shouldn’t have left you alone. I’m sorry baby girl. You’re okay now. We’re okay.”

The little girl hiccuped, her tears slowing.

“Where are we?” she asked her older sister.

The older sister smiled with tears in her eyes as well and simply said, “Somewhere safe.”

They all migrated back towards the carriage where their brother was waiting with food for all and after eating and talking, the little girl fell asleep.

The fading sound of children's laughter woke her from her stupor and she smiled because she knew she was safe now.