The End of the Tunnel

Gene jerked backward as he realized that he wasn’t in his bed. He was on a speeding subway train which wasn’t where he fell asleep.

How did he get here? Did he wander onto the subway while drunk last night? He could never usually remember those nights where he would drink himself to sleep. That must be it. He thought about calling for help, so he searched his pockets for his phone. The phone wasn’t there, but he did find it on the floor next to him. He picked it up and noticed that the brand new phone wasn’t turning on and it had a large crack down the front of the screen. Gene spiked it on the ground in anger at the broken tech. He cursed and began to pace on the train car in an attempt to calm himself.

‘Okay this isn’t so bad, you’ve figured it out, you were drunk’, Gene thought to himself, ‘there is no reason to get worked up over a simple train’. But like always, he lied to himself. This was not a simple train ride, there was not a single person on this train besides him. It looked like an ordinary train for the most part except he felt a wrongness about it. There were windows, multiple cars, seats, and metal trolley poles, but the environment felt unnatural and eerie. The train smelled of rotting meat. The sound of a faint but consistent buzzing like that of a cicada in the summer filled his ears.

Gene looked out the window hoping to see another person or something at least to calm himself down but all he found was an insurmountable darkness. In this impossible void, it seemed like pitch black would not begin to describe the absence of light. It was as if something had swallowed the sun.

At least there were lights on the train however, which provided moderate comfort.

Faster than the thought could enter his mind, a lightbulb burst as if shot with a pellet gun which caused him to bolt to his feet. What the hell happened? Then another exploded. And another. Gene could have sworn that he heard the sound of footsteps far in the distance. His heart began to race again. He turned around and ran to the next train car away from the erupting lightbulbs to avoid sitting in that pure and unforgiving darkness.

He found no comfort in this second car. The lights were flickering in and out and that same pungent smell of meat that had been sitting out too long was present. Were those footsteps louder? He couldn’t tell, but they were definitely still there.

There was a small and pale child sitting by herself on the seat. She wore a yellow shirt and a pink dress with lilac flowers going down the leg. She wore her hair in pigtails with two pink hair ties. She couldn’t be any older than six. She looked up at him as he stepped forward. She wore a blank white mask without a face. ‘Okay, that’s odd’, he thought but at least it was some company he figured.

“Excuse me little girl, have you seen anyone else? I really need to get off the train. I have to head back into the office where I work. Are your mommy and daddy around?”

“What do you mean? You’re my dad. You don’t remember me?” She asked.

“Wha.. listen sweetie, I’m sorry but I know I’m not your dad. Are you lost?”

The girl started crying. “I’m not lost” she said while choking up, “you just never even looked for me”.

“Sweetheart… I’m sorry but I’ve never seen you before… please just tell me where the adults are so we can both get off the train. Have you seen the man who drives this? He can help us. Don’t you want off of the train?”

“Don’t you remember me?” “Don’t you remember my face?”

“Your face? You’re wearing a mask. I can’t see your face.”

“I’m not wearing a mask!”

Gene felt the hairs on his neck rise. No mask? No mask! Now that he looked at her from up close, he couldn’t see any outlines around her face that would indicate a mask.

“You’re not real. This is a dream isn’t it?” He asked through chattering teeth. When did it get so cold?

“I’m real. You’re real. This is all real.” The little girl replied with a shocking calmness for her age.

Gene started to back away from her at this point and slowly headed towards the third car hoping to escape whatever she was. ‘My daughter? I’ve never had a daughter, I’ve only had a son and he at least had a face’ he thought frantically.

“Daddy. Don’t leave again. You did last time when I was in mommy’s tummy. She always said that you were too busy with work to come see me.”

The secretary? Is that who she’s talking about? But her baby was stillborn and wasn’t his. Right? Well he wasn’t about to stick around and talk to someone who he was sure was a ghost, even if she was a little girl who claimed to be his.

He ran as fast as he could to the other car. If she was his after all, then he had abandoned her again. He couldn’t help but feel a small sense of remorse about that. She screamed as soon as he closed the door but he didn’t look back.

Upon entering the third car, he saw the most gruesome sight imaginable. A woman stood alone with clothing that was completely ripped to shreds with blood streaming down her arms like a waterfall. Her long black hair was falling out while she stood. It was like it was being blown off of her head by an unnatural wind. When Gene looked at her eyes he was horrified to see them torn out of her face leaving empty sockets.

He let out a shriek of panic. His heart was racing fast. ‘This isn’t real’ he thought, ‘please wake up Gene’.

“Husband. Were you working late again?” the ghastly woman asked in an angry tone.

“Barbara? Is that you?”

“You can’t even remember who I am? Did our twenty years of marriage mean nothing to you? After all, you’re the one who made me this way.”

“What…happened to you?”

“Forgot that too did you? You always were quick to anger. I stopped you from hitting our son and you murdered me. Left me in an alley like trash.”

Gene felt his heart drop. He knew what was coming. He heard those footsteps in the background again, this time louder and faster.

“You… y y y you’re not real!!” Gene yelled in a panic.

The woman who claimed to be his wife lunged forward with a powerful ferocity and grabbed him by the shoulders, her nails digging into his skin like knives. She reeked of death. She threw him through the train car’s door and he landed in the next car.

His head was on fire. There was a sharp ringing in his ears and aura in his vision.

He managed to stand up and noticed his leg was broken and cried out for help. Then he heard a voice from inside the car.

“Help? You want help? You got here on your own. You deserve this.” the voice said.

Gene turned around and faced the man who spoke to him. He was speechless when he noticed the man speaking shared his face. He didn’t mean similar, it was his exact face. It was covered in bruises and scars with a scowling mockery about it.

“You’re..me?” he asked out of breath and head still throbbing. “What the hell is this place? Why am I here?”

“You were shot. You left work and ended up here. Like everyone else. It wasn’t obvious?”

Gene froze. He knew what his doppelgänger was saying was true. He remembered leaving work late that night after staying behind with his lover, the secretary.

“Am I in Hell?”

The man laughed.

“You know, it’s pretty funny. You could have had happy memories with a family that loved you for some reason. Instead you ended up here when you died. I’m actually supposed to look like who you loved the most in life to accompany you, but it only makes sense that you would choose yourself. You always were a narcissist you know that?”

Gene swung at the man with all of the force he could manage, but his hand passed right through him.

“Always were such an angry little man. Violence solved all of your problems didn’t it? Just like with your family. But your past has a funny way of sticking around here.”

He knew he couldn’t fight his way out of this.

“Why did that man shoot me? Did I owe him money? Was that it? Spurned ex employee?” Gene asked reluctantly with sweat running down his face.

“No. You just happened to be there at the time.”

Gene sat down, knowing that if he really was dead, that his death meant nothing.

The loud, ominous footsteps appeared again coming directly behind him. He spun around hoping to catch who or whatever was chasing him.

There stood an 8 foot tall behemoth of a man with impossibly long arms. His features were inhuman, his face distorted in a mass of hundreds of eyes and he had large claws instead of hands. It was unfathomable.

Gene felt his heart slow down and his vision became blurry. There was no fight left in him. This was the end.

The monster grabbed him by the throat with his claws and squeezed. He lifted him into the air and those horrid culmination of eyes stared at him until everything went black. He was completely alone.

The next morning, the police were inspecting the corpse of a local business owner.

“What do you think happened detective?” Asked one of the officers.

“He was shot while leaving work. Whoever the murderer was, they didn’t even grab his wallet. Probably just some gang initiation.”

“Probably. Gonna be hard to find them in this city. I wonder if it’s even worth it to investigate further.”

In the distance, the investigators could make out the faint sound of a train’s whistle blowing.