My random ramblings

The pressure in your spine finally lifted slightly as you slumped in the seat. The number of projects and work piled on top of everything was frankly quite ridiculous. You nearly missed the last train of the night, the compartment was quite empty and filled with late night stragglers, some coming back home from work, some on their way back from a night out. You didn’t want to think what you would’ve done if it passed by, maybe throw a tantrum before finding somewhere to crash for the night. You shook your head against the railing beside your seat, waving away the what ifs. 

Your eyes caught the train map on the top, a few more stations and you’d be home, back in the comfort of your bed. Your eyelids were drooping, you furiously blinked, trying to dispel the wave of sleepiness. You only had a few more stations to go, now is not the time to fall asleep but with the background hum of the train that was some sort of white noise and really, no one would disturb you right now. Not the group of teens congregating near the doors, not the weary businessman a few rows down. There wouldn’t be any noise that you’d usually hear around your neighbourhood here, the screeching TVs of your next-door neighbour, the street cats tousling and yowling at 3 in the morning, just the distant hum of the wheels on the tracks that was ignorable.

A few minutes wouldn’t hurt right?

Yeah, a few minutes.

Your eyes slide shut.

At first all you heard was the distant rumbling of the train, then something else pierced through it. Sounded like people panicking, the sound of faraway screaming that sounded more like an animal than human. Your brain blearily hoped it wasn’t human. Wait. Why did it sound like there were a lot more people than there were originally? Your eyes snapped open, hand rubbing away the fog. 

People. Lots of them. All in work suits. All looking like they just saw something horrific. 

Weird. 

You looked up to the station indication.

[The train is now departing from Sorrow Station.]

That’s…. There’s no station with that name. You tried to look for the station map. None. Nothing that would indicate Sorrow Station existed. What was this? Why were there people screaming and shouting? Why was there one who looked like he was totally calm? What was going on? 

Your phone pinged. A notification. 

[Welcome to Abyss Transpo]

: A ghost story featured in <Dark Exploration Records>.

D-Class Darkness that boasts a ridiculously high difficulty for escaping and one of the most infamous stories. The Field Exploration Team suffers endlessly.

Exploration Records indicate a total of ■■ entries 

Mission: Find the missing items. 

What? What in the world was a Darkness? Field exploration team? You felt your breath come out short. The way it was formatted…. Like something out of a wiki and find the missing items? What could that even be?

The guy beside you suddenly mumbled. “This is like ghost stories on YouTube.” 

Your brain halted. Took that in slowly. No way. No way. There’s absolutely no way. What are the odds of it being real? You weren’t sure how long you sat there, turning the idea in your head, going through all five stages of grief. 

The three people who sat near you stared at you, you stared back, then down your body. Oh. you were still in your normal clothes, standing out from all the others in the train with their suits.

“A civilian? That’s a hassle.” You snapped your head up. Why was the guy with curly hair talking like that? Like the rest of them weren’t civilians? Maybe they weren’t. What have you gotten yourself into?

You were about to snap back when the speakers sounded again. 

[This stop is Euphoria, Euphoria Station.]

The doors slid open, so did your eyes but you didn’t move. You had no idea what was going on so it wouldn’t be wise to foolishly do things without thinking it through. The black-haired man went ahead and blocked the doors, stopping the others effectively. You turned to the woman beside you, asking what exactly was going on.

You later find out that she was Go Yeongeun and that this was some sort of test for them to get into a pharmaceutical company. Which made zero sense to you but here you are. 

The guy who you now know as Kim Soleum, was making some pretty good points about the announcement and how we shouldn’t recklessly just get off on random stations. The people in the front got off unfortunately.

You stared out the window as the train started again, Soleum sitting back down on your left. The group who got off were running to the stairs, the so-called exit but they were too late. The platform floor began to boil with a yellow hue and they all started sinking into the ground. Gold. They were fusing with the gold from the ground until only the upper halves of their bodies were left. 

The scene of the bodies cutting in half and turning into gold makes your mouth drop, bile rises up your throat. Horrific. 

“Hey. Kim Soleum, right?” You finally spoke up, his head turned to you. “You said something about listening to the announcement, right? Wha-”

[Attention passengers, this is an announcement from Abyss Transpo to ensure a pleasant journey. Please pay attention.]

The announcement blared once more.

[The train is about to pass through a curved section, which may cause noise and shaking. Please be seated to prevent accidents.]

He told everyone to take a seat, surprisingly no one objected. You saw people in the front car standing. The lights cut out and then the screaming started. 

You cursed in the darkness, closing your eyes as you looked up and clasped your shaking hands, trying to ignore the horrific noises coming from the other car. Something wet bursting, a dull thud. You tried not to conjure up the mental image. Please gosh no. You had enough things to worry about now, you didn’t need to add exploding organs to that. 

The lights came back on, the front car was covered in blood. You gripped the railing. The people in your train started to panic, some banging on the doors and all. You just closed your eyes, head slumping backwards to the window behind you. 

Think 

Think

What would be the proper approach to this? One that would get you out alive.

What was the missing item that the notification on your phone was supposed to be?

[There is a lost item.]

[If you’ve found the lost item, please disembark at the next station and hand it over to the station staff.]

[The lost item is the left eye of a type-A male in his twenties.] 

You perked up, a lost item. An eye. You need to find an eye. A left one at that. Specifically, from a male with type A blood in his twenties. You rubbed your face. That’s ridiculous. How were you going to find something like that?

The compartment started chattering, people exchanging information about themselves, their age, blood type, all that. You stayed quiet, watching carefully, your hands haven’t stopped shaking yet. 

A person sitting across from you stood up. “I fit the criteria exactly!”

You thought saying that out loud was stupid. Stupid mistake. Painting a target on your back. Information always costs more than money. The curly haired guy punched him mercilessly, bones were crunching, smartphone hitting his left eye as if to gouge it out, probably the intention, blood vessels bursting. He quite literally dug the eyeball out of the socket, and stepped off onto the station, waving innocently at the rest of you. Psychopath…. 

You stared blankly at your reflection in the window as you watched him pass, you looked dead on your feet and he got to get out alive just because he found something missing.

You looked down at your phone again, staring at the weird wiki page, there wasn’t much on it, just the name of the ‘Darkness’ and what it was, difficulty level and a very cryptic mission that might correlate on how to get out of here.

Left with something lost, missing. Find the missing item. 

[This stop is Hatred, Hatred Station.]

[This stop is Serenity, Serenity Station.]

“Hey.” You mumbled out to Soleum beside you but he clearly heard it all the well. “Could it be… so far, the stations are like emotions and stuff. That guy got off giving something missing. Could we get off somewhere with an emotion we don’t have? Exchange it, I mean?” You decided to keep the part of you having a barely useful wiki to yourself, less it makes you seem more suspicious. 

His eyes seemed to blaze at that, some sort of spark, as if you had just gotten something right. He subtly nodded at you, looking at the doors that would soon slide open. “This is the correct station.”

Your eyes widened at him, a huff of air coming out. “Wait, seriously?” 

He hummed out an affirmation and helped the eyeless, injured man up. You stood up, stood near the doors and waited for them to open. When it did, you didn’t expect to see what you did. Red. Bizarrely, like molten lava, the whole platform was covered in a sea of blood. Not the dark red dried-up kind of blood, no, it was bright red, as if it had been freshly drawn and dumped onto the station. You didn’t even want to think about how that was possible, the sight already churning your stomach. Seems like you weren’t the only one who stopped, everyone else did too. Even Kim Soleum, who suggested to get off at this station, his face was expressionless but you could somehow see the furrow of his brow.

“Excuse me! I still think we should get off.” Go Yeongeun spoke up. “That guy earlier tried to get off on his own, causing all that chaos… At least I’d rather listen to someone kind. I’m getting off.”

She looked back at you, holding her hand up, offering it to you. Your eyes darted, to the pool of blood, the flight of stairs in the distance, to Soleum’s face, back to her hand and you took it, wading through the blood. Sticky, red, pungent smelling pool of blood. You closed your eyes and shook your head, Yeongeun leading you to the stairs slowly as that seemed to be your pace. Well at least you won’t die alone if he was wrong about this. The stairs didn’t instil confidence in you at all, plastered all over it were talisman-like symbols. Great. The stairs were either keeping something in from getting out or the other way around.

Your vision blurred slightly and then suddenly you were blinded by bright lights, a lecture hall.

<Congratulations on Completing Your Probation Period> : Congratulations. You have been officially hired to the Field Exploration Team of Daydream Inc.

[Now, it’s time for the gift awarding ceremony!]

You stared at the stage, definitely wasn’t supposed to be here. The spotlight hit you, but no one seemed to noticed or were focused on you.

[You don’t belong here, do you?]