Black.
It wasn't just the absence of light but a presence all its own. Heavy. Oppressive. The colour the world wore when life became an unbearable weight. Hatred was black at its core. Grief was a shroud of it. Why else do we wear black when someone dies? Were we meant to taste the absolute dark they now inhabited? Or was it a grim acknowledgement? Life that was complex and colourful, ultimately resolved to this final, undeniable shade of black? Mix all the colours and they will turn black.
"...What is it…that you are seeing?"
Aki fumbled for his watch. The numbers glowed: 3:05 AM. Still here at the station. Alone.
"You fell asleep," the stationmaster said, his voice a low, steady current in the silence. "Lent you my blanket."
Aki looked down. A blanket. Black. Folded neatly over his legs. A flicker of unease. Aki was meticulous about cleanliness. The thought of a communal blanket...
"It's new," the stationmaster added, as if anticipating the hesitation. "Just got them in. Haven't been used. For folks who get stuck late."
"How the hell is he answering everything that comes to my mind?" The thought exploded in Aki's head, sharp enough to make him wince. He rubbed his forehead, trying to massage away the sudden throbbing pain.
'What's your name?' he asked, the question escaping before he could temper its abruptness.
The stationmaster's brows drew together in a slight frown. He didn't answer verbally, simply tilting his head towards the small plastic plate on his desk.
Joshua Nathan.
The name felt strangely ordinary.
Driven by a need for some anchor in the weirdness, Aki asked again. 'How old are you? You seem... younger than a stationmaster usually is.'
Aki guessed his age would be no more than twenty
A genuine smile touched Joshua Nathan's lips, crinkling the corners of his eyes. 'Young? Who says I'm younger? I'll be forty this year.'
"What?!" Aki couldn't help the exclamation. Forty? Nothing about this man, his presence, or his uncanny awareness felt tethered to normal reality. The conviction solidified – those feelings from the nightmare…the dream itself…were not normal.
Just then, a sleek, black cat, silent as a shadow, flowed onto the counter and leapt onto the stationmaster's shoulder. It settled there as a dark weight and looked at Aki with an unblinking stare. Its eyes were a piercing, luminous yellow-hazel. The exact, horrifying colour of "that thing's" eyes in his nightmare. A sudden, physical sensation of choking seized Aki, the air turning thick and unbreathable. Something choked his throat. He scrambled to his feet, snatching his bag.
'Right. Okay. I... I guess I'll take a taxi.' He backed away quickly, stumbling slightly in his haste to put a distance between himself and the unnerving pair.
Outside, after Aki's hurried exit, Joshua Nathan idly scratched the black cat behind the ears. "He doesn't like you, eh?" the stationmaster murmured to the creature perched on his shoulder with a faintly amused voice.
"Sir, we have arrived." The driver's voice was a distant echo, cutting through the thick fog of Aki's thoughts. He blinked, pulled back from the looping replay of black cats, yellow eyes, and unsettlingly calm smiles.
He got out silently, the driver's presence barely registering. He paid, handed over the fare, his mind still miles away. He didn't walk towards his building. Instead, he drifted, his feet carrying him slowly towards the neglected patch of field nearby. He found a lone bench and sank onto it, staring blankly ahead, his mind a whirlpool of disjointed worries – the stationmaster's unsettling enigma, the suffocating pressure of his job, the quiet ache of remembering Tanya.
An owl's sudden, piercing shriek tore through the oppressive silence, making him flinch. He felt profoundly, debilitatingly tired, a weariness that settled deep in his bones. He sighed, a long, shuddering breath, watching the cold plume dissipate in the air, as if trying to exhale the weight inside him. Finally, he pushed himself up and began the walk towards his building.
A faint, persistent sound seemed to trail him, a ghost of the noise from the station, though he didn't consciously notice its source, only its presence at the edge of his awareness. At his gate, he stopped. A shadow detached itself from the deeper darkness, cast by the weak light of the lamppost – a figure standing just inside the gate. He stood frozen, unsure of what to think. He stared at the silent, featureless silhouette.
Midnight.
Missed the last train.
Waiting for the next one that would never come soon enough. An irritating, dry rustling sound filled the air. "Uff! This noise is so irritating." He stepped outside the station waiting room, scanning the empty platform. Only the stationmaster was there, leaning casually against a lamppost.
There weren't any dry leaves near the station; the ground was bare concrete. Yet the sound persisted, a faint, scratching skittering. He heard it again, looked around, and saw nothing but the wind swirling dust devils across the platform. He likes the quiet of the station at night, the peaceful emptiness. He sat down on a bench just outside, checked his watch.
Half-past midnight.
Only thirty minutes had passed, but it felt like two hours. "Time passes slowly when you are waiting," he thought, the familiar cliché a small comfort in the growing strangeness.
Then came the sound again. Closer. More insistent. "Am I the only one who is hearing it?" He looked around wildly, a chill snaking down his spine.
The stationmaster turned. Abruptly. As if yanked by an unseen string, or responding to a silent command. And behind him, at the edge of the lamppost's halo, Aki saw it. Something. An indistinct shape, a shimmering distortion in the air, a patch of shadow that was wrong. And it was making that sound. It felt like it was leaning towards the stationmaster, a silent, horrifying communication passing between them. Aki tried to focus, to make sense of the shifting form, but his vision blurred, swam. Inside his head, a high-pitched, frantic siren began to wail.
He tried to force a shaky smile. "My brain is getting suffocated. I'm taking a break." Warming both hands around a steaming coffee cup, Aki stared down from the immense height of the office building. Below, the city stretched out, a grid of lights, reaching towards the sky.
Robotic life.
He sighed.
It had been three months. Three months since Tania left. Not his choice; it had been hers, a clean, sharp cut that had left him feeling hollowed out. The emptiness hadn't been this bad immediately, project work, a relentless tide that had kept the worst at bay. Why was it surfacing now? Why today, a sudden, gaping void?
"What the hell!" He stopped, pressing his fingers against his temples, trying to quell the sudden dizziness.
"I'm supposed to be taking a break. Why am I thinking about this?" The internal struggle made his head spin.
'Aki!' A voice cut through his pain.
'Yeah! I'm coming.' Shaking his head slightly, Aki turned and headed back to his office.
Later.
Much later. 11:30 pm.
The train pulled away as he reached the platform edge, a ribbon of light disappearing into the night. No matter how fast he'd run, he'd missed it. "Shit!" A cloud of cold breath plumed from his mouth. "Ugh. Getting old." He sighed, the sound swallowed by the empty station.
He trudged into the waiting room. Deserted, or so he thought. Tucked away in a corner, a figure lay huddled under a thick, dark blanket, completely concealed. A homeless person, seeking refuge from the cold. He felt a flicker of unease, a mix of pity and slight caution.
"Homeless people stay here when it's winter."
Aki jumped at the voice.
The stationmaster, Joshua Nathan, was behind his counter, calm as ever, pouring something steaming into a cup. He hadn't looked up or given any indication if he'd heard Aki enter or seen where his gaze had gone. "Don't worry," Joshua continued, as if responding directly to the unspoken flicker of caution, "he's not a thief."
Aki stared. Had he said that out loud? He was sure he hadn't.
Joshua turned, holding the cup. It was beautiful – fine white porcelain with an intricate design picked out in what looked like real gold. Elegant, clearly old. A vintage design, Aki thought, admiring it.
"It's a vintage design," Joshua stated, his eyes meeting Aki's for a moment, before he set the cup down.
A cold knot began to form in Aki's stomach. This was too much. Had the stationmaster just... answered his internal observation about the design? Aki tried to push the thought away.
Coincidence. Just a coincidence.
He managed a weak smile. 'It's beautiful,' he offered, genuinely meaning it. His mind immediately went to its probable origin. He must have inherited it. From his family. Probably his grandmother or something.
Joshua picked up the cup again, a soft, almost tender expression on his face. "Yes," he said quietly, his voice carrying just loud enough in the silent room. "I got it from my grandma. That's why I like to take care of it."
Aki stood frozen, speechless. Blood seemed to drain from his face. It wasn't a coincidence, nor twice, confirming increasingly specific, silent thoughts. Joshua Nathan had answered a question that had never left Aki's head.