Hade's Express

“Ticket check, ticket check, please have your tickets ready!” Startled, I woke up from a deep sleep. Where am I, and how did I get here? Frantic, I feel around my jacket and look in my pocket for any sign of a ticket. Nothing. The last thing I remember, is that I fell asleep, in my bed. I don’t even remember dreaming. Is this a dream? I pinch myself, which I could feel, “no,” I think to myself, “it’s not a dream.” The conductor is a few isles behind me, now, “ticket check, ticket check, please have your tickets ready, the conductor repeated again, walking down the aisles. Getting more nervous by the second, I keep fumbling around my clothes, looking for anything resembling a ticket. He’s getting closer and closer, until he is right next to me. The conductor stops at my seat, “ticket please,” he said. Still fumbling around my jacket I look up at him and say, “sir, I’m sorry, I don’t have,” what’s this? In my pocket, out of nowhere, there is what appears to be a paper-like object. I pull it out, it’s a black ticket, with red writing on it. A chill went up and down my spine. There were goosebumps on my arms and legs.

A red stripe on the top and bottom, with black in the middle, and red letters that said, “Hades Express: Class 1st: Ticket Type: ONE WAY, Soul: One.” Below that, there was writing in red: “If you’re on this train, it has no stop, and your body is just a prop.” My body is just a prop? What did that mean? After reading this, I look at the conductor, he was looking at me, dead-in-the-eyes. I felt like I couldn’t breathe. Where is this train taking me. Where is the next stop? Thinking this was some sort of prank, I hand the ticket to the conductor. He reads it, silently, and hands it back to me. My hand touched his, in the process, and his hands were ice cold. Thinking nothing of it, at the time, I look out the window, but I couldn’t see anything. All I could see was black, with some red hue, like an Erie sunset.

Trying to distract myself, I get up to try and find a breakroom, or restroom, somewhere where I can clear my mind, by myself. All the other passengers on the train were so strange, I thought. Why are they all dressed from different eras? One was dressed in clothes that looked like they were from the 1800’s, and one looked like they were from the future. The person that looked like she was from the future was wearing an all-white outfit, that seemed to have a phone built in the arm sleeve. She was looking frantically through her phone, trying to get a hold of someone, but obviously was pointless, since I’m guessing there is no signal. “Hello, hello? Is anyone there?” She tried calling someone. I caught her attention, and we look at each other, both looking What seemed to be forever I find a strange looking door. This door looked nothing like the rest of the doors on the train. It was a black decorative door, with engraved, red-outlined trees. I ran hand on the door, touching the trees, trying to figure out how to open it. Pushing, pulling, and pulling on the door, didn’t work. All of a sudden, I remember that my ticket had that weird poetry on it. Putting my hand in my pocket, to take the ticket out, for some reason I had the urge to read the writing out loud, ““If you’re on this train, it has no stop, and your body is just a prop.” The door slowly opens.

I’m inside the room. There’s a small bar with a bar tender. I go up to him and ask, “how much for a drink.” He looks up at me, “it’s on me.” “So, where is this train heading,” I ask. “Nowhere.” I laugh, “haha, seriously, where are we going, the conductor asked for a ticket, so we must be going somewhere.” The bar tender looked at me, “once you’re on this train, you don’t get off, sleep, food, and drink won’t satisfy you.” “Ok yeah right, stop joking around. I have a very important work meeting tomorrow, at 9am, that I have to get to, so, HOW DO I GET OFF OF THIS TRAIN?” “Sir, please calm down, getting upset isn’t going to help your situation. Once you accept it, you’ll be alright.”

By this point, I’m extremely frustrated. I turn to go back out the door I came, in but it’s gone. I turn back around to talk to the bar tender, again. “I think you want to go this way,” he said pointing in the opposite direction I came in from. This time, it was the same door, but the colors were opposite of the door I came in at – all red, with black outlined engravings of trees. I laughed to myself in utter disbelief. Accepting what has happened, I go up to the door, look back at the bar tender, saluted him, and walked out the door. On the other side, I was back at the same cart as my seat. Did I just go in a circle? I went up to that door, and I tried again. The bar tender was still there. I again, go through the door on the opposite side of the room, I was back right where I started. It was like I went in a complete circle. “If you’re on this train, it has no stop, and your body is just a prop.” I finally figured out what this meant. I was dead, and this train was full of souls. This train was Hell.

I thought I was having a panic attack, but how could that be if I was dead? I'm not sure what I was having. I guess I won't be going to the important business meeting after all. "So, this is Hell," I thought to myself. It wasn't burning in fire, it wasn't complete torture in a dark room, it was a train that never stops. It just keeps going, and going, and going, for the rest of your life. Not communication with anyone you once knew. This was it.