A Mind Trip

Waking up to an empty train car felt strange. Unfamiliar, as she tried to grasp for the familiar it was gone.

She was alone with no knowledge of her purpose or being. When some thing starts chasing you by instinct you run. She saw a figure in white. Leaving all thought and confusion behind. She ran to the next car. Letting the door slide behind her.

The figure who was following behind her now gone. She face the train car filled with people no room to even step forward. It felt even stranger that no one would venture tp the empty car she had been in.

Or perhaps it wasn't that strange at all. The figure in white had been pretty daunting.

The fluorescent lights flickered and the train went under a tunnel. As the lights flickered back on, every pair of eyes was looking at her in horror.

She looked behind her and tried to grasp at what could possibly terrify them. She felt a heavy weight in her hands. Readjusting her grip, she brought the weighted hand up.

"Bella? Why do you have a lever in your hand?" The figure in white suddenly appeared in front of her. A woman in all white with red lips standing out against dark skin. Her voice called out again filled with panic,"Bella."

She shook her head,"I don't know you. Stop following me. Why are you calling me Bella?" The name felt familiar but it didn't feel like hers. She didn't recognize anything. So why couldn't it be hers. But it also didn't feel like a name she should claim. Maybe this person could guide her to who she is.

Maybe this person would be the reason she had no recollection of herself at all.

The figure repeated the name,"Bella, its me Melina. How about we go back to the conductor's room?"

Melina started to sound almost like she knew everything. Confident and as if everything she spoke became true instantaneously.

Her voice called out again forcefully,"Bella."

She shook her head,"I don't know you. Why are you calling me Bella?"

The name felt familiar but it wasn't hers. How was she supposed to recognize anything when everything felt like it was just shy of its correct spot. Waking up in a train car, wrong. No people around her, wrong. A full train car when there was plenty of space to move about, nonsensical.

What was she supposed to do, when everything felt off kilter. Was she the problem in the only thing in the correct place was her?

Melina sternly shouted,"Give me the lever and I will fix everything."

She gripped it even tighter in her hand. Knowing that statement was the most wrong she had ever felt.

What was she supposed to do go back to a car alone. With no one to witness how this figure would take her.

She figured that might be a more merciful option. The opportunity to not have other people watch her demise.

Well as that thought came to fruition, she felt the train speed past a stop. Wrong. The patrons became even more frantic pointing at the lever and some even starting to lose composure.

She backed into the empty train car. Looking around she saw the gears and mechanisms for the train.

Was she a conductor?

Was she the reason the train wasn't stopping?

She looked up and saw the figure in white, floating in front of her,"Have you figured out what you've done?"

She shook her head trying to push the thoughts out of the horrible things she might have done. What she had done.

"Bella, Bella, Bella," the figure chided,"You know. Stop pretending."

The figure who was ethereal in nature before become almost more so, reaching a godlike nature. Her hair creating a halo, hands glowing with ghost like energy in her fingertips. Melina stared straight into her eyes.

"Melina is a nickname. But you know that. You know me Melinoe, goddess for souls and spirits. You came to see me. You wanted guidance on how to make it last.

I gave. As a benevolent goddess does. As you needed. However with every gift comes a sacrifice. You gave me such a lovely sacrifice."

Her eyes widened as she realized. The train couldn't stop. Wouldn't stop. It was her fault. She had doomed everyone on this train to death. Bella weeped knowing no memory or rightness would come.

The goddess of spirits reveled in the crash.