Man in the Corner

After walking to the very end of the platform, to the very last car, Vera slides into the very last row of seats. The seats that faced backwards from the way the train was moving. Most people get sick from backwards motion, but really, Vera preferred it this way. She always does this because the last car is always empty, and Vera needed to be alone for this journey. Vera shoves her bag into the overhead, and plops down next to the window. She is clammy; she had to speed walk from the parking lot to catch the final train this evening, to a place she very much did not want to go. As the train begins pulling out of the station, Vera rests her forehead on the cool window, watching as they exit the blackened tunnel and enter the night beyond. The time was 9:57 pm and she wouldn’t reach her destination until the early morning, 5:15 am or so. 

Vera is startled by the train whistle, not realizing she had fallen asleep against the window, and hits her head against the glass. She closes her eyes and sighs, an oncoming headache imminent, she thinks to herself. She glances down at her phone, 11:03 pm, it’s barely been an hour. This is going to be a long night. Vera wishes they would turn off the lights in the car so she could fall back to sleep, and so the night could go by as quickly as possible. Although maybe she didn’t want it to go by too quickly, the end of this trip was the beginning of something much more painful and tiresome. 

The night outside the window is inky black, they’ve already passed outside of city limits and now they are trekking through the countryside with no stops at all. No one else boarding, and no one leaving, at least not until her final destination. 

Vera takes off her jacket, the car is still very warm, and rolls it up to use as a pillow. She again leans against the window, now with a bit of cushion so she doesn’t knock her head a second time. Staring into the darkness, something catches her eye. She blinks a few times, focusing her vision and realizes that what she is seeing is the reflection of a man in the car with her. That’s strange, she could have sworn she was alone. He must have come in when she fell asleep. 

The man is wearing a long, tattered brown trench coat, and a dark wool Deerstalker cap- not quite as charming as one would imagine Sherlock Holmes looking. It was odd, the man was not sitting in a seat. He was standing at the opposite end of the car, facing the corner.

Vera was watching him through the reflection in the window, wondering what the man was doing, why he wasn’t sitting. How long had he been there? That’s when she heard…was he pissing on the floor? She watched as his shoulders relaxed and heard him zipper up his pants. She quickly averted her eyes from the man in the reflection as he turned, hoping he wouldn’t catch her. She pretended to be asleep as she felt him stalk to the back of the car, almost ghost-like, towards where she was sitting. Please no, the entire fucking car is empty, she thought to herself. 

The man chose his row, behind Vera but diagonally opposite of her. Why did he have to sit so close? She could smell an odor wafting over from him, stale cigarettes and something that reminded her of the musty mop head when she would have to clean the floors at the end of her shift at the restaurant. The smell of a dirty, wet, overused sponge. After a moment, Vera realized that added to the stale cigarette smell was freshly burning tobacco as well. The man lit a cigarette and was smoking in the train car. Fucking hell of a journey this was turning into. 

Vera turned closer towards the window, trying to sink as far away from the man as physically possible. She pulled her sweater up over her mouth and nose, and was tempted to pull her knees into her chest, but decided against it. She pulled out her wireless headphones to drown out the situation around her, only to realize that they were dead. Wonderful. 

Needing to use the toilet, she turned her head around trying to catch a glimpse of the man. She didn’t want to leave her bag alone with him in the car, but she really had to go. She’d have to wait until he fell asleep before she’d attempt getting up. Vera settled back in, hoping that time would come soon. 

11:55 pm and she heard soft snores coming from behind her. Thank goodness, she didn’t think she could hold her bladder any longer. She quietly got up and tiptoed to the bathroom at the other end of the car, shutting the door as silently as possible. 

After finishing, Vera wandered two more cars ahead in search of the food and beverage car. Oddly enough, the train had gone from boiling hot to frigid in the two hours she’d been riding, and she wanted something to warm her up. Just a tea or even a hot chocolate if they had it. Unfortunately for her, the counter was closed when she got to it.

Making her way back, she slid open the door to the car, her car, and immediately stopped before entering. The lights had all gone out. She peered again behind her to see if other cars were dark, maybe it was a midnight thing, but it seemed that only her car had been unlit. 

Trying not to jump to conclusions, she took her phone out and clicked on the flashlight to find her way back to her seat, momentarily forgetting about the sleeping man. It must just be the quiet car, or the sleeping car, Vera thought to herself. That’s probably why this guy came back here in the first place.

She once again settled herself in and hoped to finally get some shut eye. 

That smell. It hit her again, this time rousing her from her slumber. It was stronger this time. Opening her eyes, she was startled to turn and see the man, sitting in the seat right next to her. Inches away, she could feel the smell soaking into her clothes. What the actual fuck was going on. 

He seemed to be asleep again, but why was he sitting next to her now? And why didn’t she wake up and hear him again? It was as if he moved like a dark shadow, silent and discreet.

Vera needed to move, but didn’t know how to escape her seat. Maybe she could climb over the top to the seat behind. His legs were too long to step over, he was a tall man, and for some reason nagging the back of her skull she was afraid to wake him. At least the seats were wide enough that their thighs weren’t touching. She pulled out her phone to text her friend the bizarre situation, but there was no cell service. 

Although she was incredibly uncomfortable and honestly a little spooked, her eyes were beginning to feel heavy again. She really wished the dining car had been open so she could have had a coffee to keep her awake. The last thing Vera wanted to do was fall asleep with this creep next to her. She feared sleep was drawing near though, and soon she wouldn’t be able to overcome the pull into dreamland. 

Once again, the train whistle jostled Vera from her sleep. Dammit, she wasn’t able to stay awake, but soon realized the man was gone from beside her. In fact, as she took a look around, he was nowhere to be found at all. Her attention then turned to what woke her. The train whistle ceased, but they had stopped moving. Why had they stopped moving? They still had hours until their final destination, and there weren’t supposed to be any other stops. 

She peered out the window and didn’t see a train station. Vera didn’t see anything at all. No lights, no signs, no railroad crossing. Just the black abyss on the other side of the freezing cold glass. 

After a few seconds, which felt more like minutes, the train jolted hard. It was almost as if it were stuck. It jolted again, and it reminded Vera of a time she had gotten her beat up old station wagon stuck in the mud on a hiking trip. Rev the gas, knock forward, rev the gas, inch a little more. 

As the train continued its lurching, the car lights began to flicker on and off. Maybe it’s an electrical thing? she wondered. The jolting and the flickering continued on and on, Vera’s heart picking up speed. Even though the car was still ice cold, beads of sweat began to line Vera's brow.

*crreeaaAAAKK*

Vera whipped her head around, the door at the opposite end of the car slowly slid open. The man in the brown coat appeared on the other side. The car behind him was now darkened too, with the lights flickering just as they were in her car. He was holding something in his right hand, but she couldn’t make it out. His shirt sleeve was long and covering past his wrist. She looked back up at his face and they locked eyes. He was staring directly at her, head cocked to one side.

What the fuck is going on?! Was that…blood on his coat? No, no, no.

Vera peered behind the man, trying to glimpse someone, anyone else on the train. Now that she thinks back, she didn’t remember seeing anyone on her walk to the dining car. 

The man started walking down the train, slowly due to what seemed to be a limp. How was he limping and still moving so quietly? Vera pulled her phone back out, but still no bars. She typed up text after text, to her friend, to her mom. Nothing was loading, nothing was going through. 

He inched closer, close enough for Vera to see that in his hand he held a knife. A long, bloodied kitchen knife, dripping on his coat with the fresh slick of wherever his last victim was.

“Please! Stay away from me!” She shouted, crouching into her seat, he was standing above her now. “Help! HELP!” Vera bawled, but there was no one to hear her. 

The man raised the knife above her, Vera screamed, closing her eyes and covering her ears, the train whistle screeched its own tune. This was it.

THUD.

Vera’s head hit the window. She jolted awake. Her heart was racing, sweat dripping down her temples and neck. She looked around, alone in the train car. The sun was cresting the hills out the window, and her watch read 5:10 am.

“This is the conductor speaking, we should be pulling into our final stop in just about five minutes folks. Thank you for riding with us this evening.”