The door creaked open, and at first, Evelyn thought the carriage was empty. But then the smell hit her—thick, metallic, suffocating. The stench of freshly peeled flesh.
The lantern light revealed walls covered in skin. Pale sheets of it hung like curtains, stitched crudely together with black thread. Some pieces twitched, some bled, some still bore tattoos or scars from the lives they'd once belonged to. The ceiling sagged with strips of raw flesh dripping thick red drops onto the floor.
Sophie gagged, covering her mouth. Alex stumbled back, pale. Leo muttered, "This… this can't be real—" but his voice cracked.
Then the floor moved.
They looked down—and realized it wasn't wood they were standing on. It was a patchwork of faces. Skin stretched flat, eyes sewn shut, mouths stitched open in eternal screams. The faces shifted, moaning faintly, the seams around their lips oozing blood.
Evelyn's stomach churned. Her lantern shook in her grip.
The train whispered: "Skin is memory. Skin is identity. Shed yours… or be stripped."
A sharp tearing sound echoed. One of the walls shivered—and then hands pressed out from beneath the skin, clawing, ripping through. Bloody figures stumbled forward—skinned alive, their muscles glistening, their faces half-torn. They moaned with agony, but their eyes glowed with hunger.
One reached Sophie first. Its bloody hand grazed her cheek—and in an instant, her skin began to peel itself back, sliding off her face like wax. She screamed, clutching her cheeks as blood poured down her neck.
"No!" Evelyn rushed forward, smashing the lantern light against the creature. It shrieked, bursting into black smoke—but Sophie's face was still raw and bleeding, strips of skin hanging loose. She sobbed, trembling, "It's… it's still me… right?"
Alex roared as another skinned horror lunged at him. He tackled it to the floor, but its claw dug into his arm, ripping long strips of flesh away. His scream was raw, animal, as blood poured freely.
Leo staggered backward, only for the stitched floor to tear open beneath him. Faces ripped free, their stitched mouths stretching impossibly wide. They snapped at his legs, tearing flesh from his calves, chewing greedily.
Evelyn's lantern blazed, but weaker this time. Each creature burned slowly, too slowly, as if the train wanted them to watch the peeling, the tearing, the endless exposure of raw, helpless muscle.
She forced herself to think. "It wants our skin," she rasped. "If we give it willingly… it'll strip us alive. If we resist… it'll fight harder. There's only one way forward—keep the light burning."
Her arms shook, blood dripping from her own skin where the air itself had begun peeling her. She forced herself forward, burning through skinned horrors, dragging Sophie, Alex, and Leo step by step toward the sigil glowing faintly on the far wall.
The creatures wailed, their voices raw with agony and hunger. "Stay. Stay skinless. Stay ours."
Evelyn slammed her lantern against the sigil. The entire carriage exploded in white light.
The skin on the walls blackened, curling and shriveling into ash. The stitched floor shrieked, faces collapsing into nothing. The skinned horrors crumbled, their screams echoing into silence.
The survivors collapsed in the doorway, gasping, trembling, their bodies torn and bleeding. Sophie touched her ruined cheek with shaking fingers, whispering, "I don't… I don't look human anymore."
Evelyn held her lantern, now dim and cracked, her voice barely a whisper:"We're all breaking. Piece by piece. But we can't stop. Not now."
The next door stood open, a yawning mouth of darkness, breathing faintly like it was alive.
And the train whispered one final word as they stepped forward:"Deeper."