Evelyn didn't scream.She didn't even breathe.
Her body went still as the blue flame-hand pressed against her cheek, sinking partly into her skin like warm wax.
Alex grabbed her shoulders desperately."Evelyn! Look at me—open your eyes—EV, COME ON!"
Nothing.
Her chest didn't rise.Didn't fall.
As if someone had pressed the pause button on her life.
Sophie sobbed, shaking her head. "She's not—she's not breathing! Alex, she's not—"
Leo crouched beside them, terrified and useless."What do we do? What do we do?!"
Then the lantern spoke.
Not whispering.Not echoing.
Speaking.
Clear. Sharp. Direct.
"sHe iS bReAtHiNg."
The flame twitched, pulsed—and Evelyn inhaled sharply, jerking like she'd been electrocuted.
But her eyes…Her eyes didn't blink.
They were wide open.
Frozen.
And glowing faint blue.
Alex shook her. "Ev! Ev please—say something!"
Evelyn's mouth opened.
But the voice coming out wasn't hers.
Not human.
Not singular.
A layered chorus of many voices at once:
"tHe tRaIn HaS nEeDeD a hOsT fOr A lOnG tImE."
Sophie staggered backward. "No… NO… Alex—she's still in there, right?!"
The lantern drifted above Evelyn like a puppet master.
Leo whispered shakily, "Alex… the flame… it's inside her."
Evelyn's head tilted unnaturally, her neck bending at an angle a normal human neck should never bend.
She looked at them.
Every tiny movement stiff, jerky, wrong.
"Do YoU kNoW wHy ThE tRaIn ChOsE yOu?"
Alex stepped in front of the others, fists clenched."I don't care. Let her go."
The lantern flickered, amused.
Evelyn's body rose slowly to her feet—not standing,but pulled upward by invisible strings.
Her hair hung limp.Her limbs dangled like a marionette.
"iT cHoSe YoU bEcAuSe YoU fEAr ThE sAmE tHiNg."
Alex stiffened. "Fear what?"
Evelyn's head tilted, cracking.
Her pupils dilated until her eyes were pure black surrounded by faint blue rings.
"tHiS:lOsInG eAcH oThEr."
Sophie's breath caught. "Stop… STOP—PLEASE STOP—"
Evelyn took a single step forward.
It wasn't a walk.It was a slide.
Like her feet weren't touching the ground at all.
Leo whispered, voice cracking, "Alex… the train wants to break us apart. That's why it keeps showing illusions. Why it keeps isolating us."
Alex held his ground. "You're not taking her."
The lantern hummed.The train's walls pulsed like veins.
"tHe tRaIn wAnTs a sEaT iN yOuR hEaDs."
The floor rippled like a heartbeat.
Evelyn's hand lifted, trembling, reaching toward Alex—
But her fingers weren't normal anymore.
They were glowing faint blue, ghostlike at the tips.
She whispered in her real voice—tiny, terrified, buried underneath the chorus:
"Al…ex… r…run…"
Then her body snapped upright again.
"No. sTaY."
She lunged.
Alex barely dodged, pulling Sophie and Leo backward—
But Evelyn wasn't slow anymore.She wasn't confused.She wasn't human.
She moved like something with too many joints and no bones, gliding across the floor in an instant.
Sophie screamed.Leo stumbled.Alex grabbed them both and bolted.
The creature controlling Evelyn let out a multi-voiced laugh.
"LeT's PlAy."
And the doors behind them slammed shut.