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"Why are you here?"

I look up from my work. A random kid asks as she peers at the map I'm working on. She's cute, a small blonde haired child about 6 or 7. For the last 4 hours, I've only heard the distant chattering of other passengers and the constant train noises as it moves on rail.

"I'm travelling like you." I tell her.

It's night time, the train is packed with people all falling asleep in their booths.

"When I'm travelling, I like to look out the window." She tells me as she makes herself comfortable in my booth, sitting across from me. "You don't look out the window." She confirms her theory by looking at the window next to me. The curtain is drawn and I've stacked books in front of it.

"There's nothing to see." I tell her.

"because it's dark now.. But there was light five hours ago when you boarded."

"Are you stalking me?" I joke.

"Maybe" She replies as she observes the books.

"Are your parents somewhere around?" I inquire, quite concerned that a hysterical parent might appear any moment and accuse me of being a Kidnapper.

"My mom is right there." She points to a beautiful woman sleeping sitting upright two rows away from us, in the opposite aisle. "What's your name Mister?"

"Keith." I turn my attention back to the kid. 'Yours?"

"Bella."

"Bella, I think you should sit by your mom. She might get scared if you aren't there when she wakes up."

"It's ok. My mom isn't scared of anything." Bella states. "So what are you doing?" I glance at her mom once more then answer her question, realizing that it's better I amuse her for a while and let her mom get some rest.

"I'm studying."

"Isn't that quite boring." Bella scrunches her nose.

"Sometimes, but I have a subject I like." I tap my pen on a map. "Geography."

"I've heard of that. That's learning about the world." She tells me.

"Well yes but there's more to it than that. There's landmarks, history-."

"What are landmarks?" She interrupts, looking at me with wide eyes. She's inquisitive and it's odd as just a second ago, she turned up her nose at the word 'studying'.

Realizing it's a kid I'm talking to, I choose my words carefully so she can understand, "A landmark is something that makes you remember a place."

She looks at me confused for a moment, then it clicks in her head. "Like the big donut on the Donut Store?"

"That's right." I smile at that. "You catch on faster than the students in my classroom."

"I am pretty smart." Bella nods. "You're a teacher, Are you going to school right now?"

"No, I just quit." I tell her, "Moving onto bigger and better things."

"Don't you like teaching?"

"It wasn't my first choice but-". I catch myself thinking I'm geting to personal with a 6 six year old. "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

"A doctor." She says simply.

"That's quite noble of you. I'm sure you'll make a great doctor." I draw a line on my map. "Do you only want to be a doctor?"

"It's not my first choice. but it's what my parents want." She says the exact same sentence I was about to say.

"They're parents. They worry about you. They just want the best for you." I say almost like It's rehearsed in some way.

"I know I know, but it's a lot of pressure and I'm not that good at school."

"So what do you actually want to be?"

"I don't know." She shrugs, "I'll know when I get there."

Something I used to say as well.

"What do you want to be." She asks.

"I wanted to be a doctor, then I changed my mind a few hundred times, and now I'm mapping out my next route." I say quite literally.

"You don't know either?"

"I have an idea. It has to be something with Geography and History. The only two things I actually enjoyed in school. And I went to University to study the same thing."

"Seems like a lot of work."

"It was."

"Where are you going?"

"Back home. To my parents, they got me a job at a University close by."

"I thought you didn't like teaching."

"I don't but I need to get money somehow."

"Is money important?"

"If you want to live a comfortable life, yes"

"Okie. I want to have lots of money."

"Me too."

We talked for quite a while, then soon her mom awakens and spots her at my table. She walks over and apologizes.

"I'm so sorry, has she been bothering you from your work?" She tugs her daughter out of the booth.

"No no, we've been chatting for a while. You have a very intellectual child here." I smile at her, "She asks a lot of questions."

"She does that." Her mom smiles. "What time is it?"

"5:45am" I tell her, checking the watch on my wrist.

"Oh then we should be getting off soon. Thank you for talking to her for a while."

"It's no problem." They head to their booth, Bella waves goodbye to me.

I pack up my maps, and place my books into the sack I brought them in.

My phone vibrates in my pocket. The name 'WestWood University' flashes across the screen.

"Hello?... Yes, I am almost to the station... Yes, I know where that is... Money Morning, see you then... Good bye.."

Looking around, people are now stirring awake, some are up walking to the breakfast area. Filling their cups and plates. I glance at Bella in the corner, dozing off in her mom's arms. It's peaceful.

I open up the curtain to see the sky waking up. It's beautiful, to say the least. The sun is peeking out from the horizon, the greenery is slowly turning greener as the light moves up ward. The world is going by quickly, as every second goes by, the nature turns into signs then buildings. Empty train rails appear at the side of the train indicating that we should be stopping any moment at a station.

Soon enough we come to a halt. But it's not at a station, we're a few minutes away from the station. You can time it on your watch. From a distance I see a train heading at us.

In less than a minute.

The world turns dark.