Beware the Bell

Chloe’s head throbbed, waking her abruptly.

Stars danced before her eyes as she sat up on the edge of a rickety cot with gray, frayed blankets. She was in a small room, roughly five feet in any direction. A curtained window hung above the cot, which ran along the wall. The opposite wall held the solitary wooden door. The other walls were bare save for two oil lamp sconces. The wallpaper was dingy and faded, the original color or pattern no longer discernible.

Chloe stood carefully, messaging soreness out of her neck and shoulders. The throbbing in her head originated from a large, tender lump that she could not remember receiving. She hesitated for a moment before reaching back over the cot to open the curtains. Thick, swirling white fog obscured the scenery. She stared intently through the fog for a moment before abandoning her attempt to discern anything outside of the room. Sighing, she crossed the small room and slid open the door.

The corridor beyond was also lit with dying oil lamps every few feet. It was lined on both sides with identical doors, all of which were closed. The corridor ended on both sides in a rounded green door with a porthole window, through which she could see the same swirling fog. Chloe paused, listening intently for conversation or movement.

Silence permeated the passageway. Chloe’s own breath and heartbeat created a cacophony in the oppressive stillness. Seized by a sudden desire to put as much distance between herself and this place as possible, Chloe jogged past two rooms to the right and opened the closest green end door.

Cool wind whipped her hair into her face and stung her eyes. Chloe’s breath caught in her throat as she stepped out onto a narrow metallic ledge. A large box, made of shiny black metal, loomed in front of her through the swirling fog. It had an identical green door and shiny metal standing ledge. The two narrow, metal platforms were linked by heavy iron couplings and chains.

Chloe stood frozen between two cars of a barrelling train.

She dug in her pockets frantically. Surely she had to have a ticket or boarding pass of some kind. She replayed her morning in her head as she searched. She had fed her cat before leaving for an early meeting. She walked to the coffee shop and bought a mocha and a muffin. And then she… woke up on a train with a bump on her head. And no ticket.

The train lurched suddenly, breaking Chloe’s reverie as she grasped the iron railing beside her. She righted herself and taking a deep breath, jumped across the four-foot gap between the cars. She caught herself easily on the opposite railing and slipped inside the new car.

The train car was almost completely dark. A small, circular window brimming with thick, white fog stood out of the blackness on the opposite end. Chloe ran her hand along the left wall and crept forward. After a few feet her hand slid from smooth wallpaper onto rough wood. She felt along the wooden surface for a moment and, finding a narrow groove, slid the compartment door open.

Remnants of a smashed gray cot rested under a singular, fog-filled window. Oil lamps cast dim light across the stained, torn wallpaper. The small compartment could have once been identical to the one she awoke in a few moments beforehand.

But a mutilated body lay in the center of the floor in a thick pool of blood.

Chloe retched in the hallway, her pulse pounding in her ears. Straightening up, she stepped into the compartment and examined the scene in front of her. The body on the floor was nearly unrecognizable as human from the waist up. Strands of torn flesh were strewn about the compartment, spattering gore into all four corners and up the walls. The man or woman, it was impossible to tell, was twisted into a semi-circle with its feet resting near what was once its head. Entrails were ripped from the gaping torso, and arranged in a neat little pile on the crimson-soaked pillow under the window. Chloe took an involuntary step back, stumbling slightly over a bump in the doorway. She glanced down and stifled a scream at the sight of a human arm at her feet.

She turned and fled down the dark hallway, sprinting for the beacon of foggy light in the porthole window. Chloe threw the door open and leapt onto a new train car without pausing. She stared into the open doorway from whence she came, knuckles white as she gripped the iron railing. She watched for several minutes, hair whipping around her wildly in the wind between the train cars. But there was no movement from the dark corridor, nor any sound discernible over the roaring of the foggy air. Chloe took a steadying breath, blinking hot tears out of her eyes. She had to find a way off the train. She scanned the horizon desperately, but the blanket of fog did not yield. The crips air stung her lungs as she took a final deep breath before cautiously sliding open the new door.

For the first time, Chloe entered a well-lit passenger car. Oil lamps burned brightly along the corridor, bathing its light gray walls in warm light. The wooden floor was covered in a long, dusty carpet, and the doors were spaced out a little more here. They were also all open.

Chloe crept forward, glancing side to side as she moved down the corridor. Her stomach clenched as she passed carnage in every room. A woman with her head torn off. A man whose legs had been shredded as he had tried to crawl out into the hallway. Bent, broken bodies coated in their own blood. Chloe tried to swallow the lump in her throat, but her quick, shallow breathing hindered her efforts. She was nearly at the end of the corridor when a gurgling cough pierced the silence. She crept toward the sound and peered around the edge of the doorframe.

A woman was lying on a blood-stained white bed, hands clasped over her stomach. She tried to roll onto her side as if to get up, but fell back with a loud groan. The woman turned her head toward the door, eyes wide. She pointed at Chloe with a red-caked finger and whispered, “Come”.

The hair on Chloe’s arms stood up at the woman’s raspy command. She moved silently into the room, eyes locked on the dying woman. The wound she was holding spanned her entire abdomen. The woman grabbed Chloe’s shirt and pulled her closer.

“Bell….”

The woman trailed off with a gurgling moan. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she slumped against the pillow. Motionless.

Chloe shrieked, prying her shirt out of the dead woman’s grip. She ran out into the corridor, crashing into the opposite wall. She raced to the green door and threw it open, jumping across the gap between the cars. A moment later, she was inside the next car.

Total darkness.

Chloe shuffled forward, hand along the wall. She walked for a couple of minutes in the blackness, tracking her progress on the wall. Dry, dusty wallpaper. A wooden door. Wallpaper. Door.

Sticky. Wet.

She recoiled, rooted in place. A strong metallic odor filled her nose. Bile rose in her throat and her stomach clenched painfully. She backed up toward the door, but before she could go more than a few feet she was interrupted by a high-pitched, echoing clang.

A ringing bell.

Chloe stood rooted in place by the sound. It filled her head, holding her captive in the dark. The ringing grew louder. Louder. The bell’s chime reverberated in her very bones. And underneath its toll, a low, rumbling growl.

The growl broke Chloe’s trance. She sprinted blindly down the corridor. Behind her, an inhuman screech mingled with the bell. She ran through the green door and slammed it shut behind her. Something hit the door, jarring her body with its force. Chloe braced herself against the door and looked to jump to the next car.

Fog danced around her in all directions.

Chloe stood on the caboose’s rear platform, holding the door with all her might. The bell tolled incessantly through the whistling wind and barred door. The railed platform wrapped around the curvature of the train car, giving an extended standing space. Inside, her adversary continued to howl and ram the door with tremendous force. Chloe took a deep breath and gripped the door handle tightly. In the space of a heartbeat, she flung the door open and ran with it around the curved platform.

With a clanging shriek, a living nightmare barrelled out of the door and rammed into the railing.

The creature was tall and pale, with many bloated tentacles in place of hands and feet. It wore a navy blue conductor’s uniform, hat placed jauntily atop its eyeless head. A large, toothy maw sat in the center of its face, purple tongue lashing out as it howled. In one of its tentacles was a large, brass bell.

Chloe screamed. The creature righted itself on the railing, and positioned itself firmly in the walkway between her and the door. The creature stalked toward her, its tentacles reaching out for her arms. She turned toward the railing in front of her and put one foot up.

Jumping would inevitably be better than being mauled by that thing.

The creature rang the bell furiously, and Chloe’s mind went blank. She felt her hands release the railing. She stood still. Helpless. Rooted in place by the bell’s sinister chiming. Only her heart responded in protest, beating wildly in her chest as the creature wrapped its free tentacles around her waist. The warped conductor held her aloft, then dropped her face into its screaming jaws.

The oppressive white fog gave way to black. For one endless moment, the hideous bell rang through Chloe’s body. And then she knew no more.

—--------

The conductor dropped the girl’s shredded, lifeless body. She slid off the train’s rear platform, leaving nothing but a thick trail of blood in her wake. The creature shrieked and sniffed the air.

Gone.

The last surviving human on the train was no more. No more. There was no more flesh to quell its hunger. No more warm blood to quench its thirst. And it was so hungry. So thirsty.

More.

The conductor re-entered the already slowing train. It had not been enough. It was never enough. It needed more passengers. More.

The fog outside dissipated slowly as the bell began to toll once more.