Things happened a lot quicker than I thought they would..
"Where are we supposed to get tickets from..?" the petite woman murmured quietly,
"I'm sure there could be something in the luggage compartments, even if it's nearly impossible, these kinds of stories should still at least be beatable", Yeong Siyun hummed, tilting her head and tapping her chin twice, gaining several confused looks from others,
"…what?" The other three surviving passengers stared at her incredulously while Baek Siyun had already began reaching up to sift through the bags and suitcases, one foot on the blood-soaked seats,
"Ah, that is true" I murmured with a hum, "these kinds of stories are usually unbeatable unless the protagonist has insider info" I blinked when she turned to face me,
"Oh, you read ghost stories as well?" She hummed,
'Is this what it's like to have friends?'
Hic
"Horror stories mostly,", I nodded,
The two were oblivious to the way the flat-haired man bemoaned the fact of their shared interest,
"Ah..! A ticket" he murmured, stepping down as he held the singular piece of paper, noticing his trembling hands holding onto it tightly,
"You can keep it.. you found it," Yeong Siyun hummed casually, i felt compelled to agree, "mh, there should be more in other luggage," in fact.. I didn't feel the need to search for a tickey at all,
The shorter man breathed a sigh of relief, "Truly.. thank you both.."
"Um.. What should we do? We can't get to the front car at all..." the petite woman asked hopefully, the mousy girl standing next to her seemingly just as helpless,
The tension and anxiety amongst the remaining passengers grew, naturally they seemed the most rational out of them,
"Why are we supposed to move?"
"That.. isn't it wrong.. to stay in a car full of corpses..? Couldn't we get infected from them..?"
She held a good point.. even if we didn't die from being infected this amount of dead bodies was probably dangerous,
"She is correct, we could get infections or diseases from their blood, as well as the gases they produce can be harmful considering their proximity and the lack of proper ventilation,"
The long-haired woman received more odd, unsettled looks, "Yeong Siyun-ssi [1]works in a morgue..", Baek Siyun offers weakly, seeing as the long-haired woman held no reason to defend herself unless asked for details,
"Ah.. my apologies.. it just felt a bit unsettling.. given everything else that's going on"
A wiry, cunning-looking man standing by himself interrupted, "Wait— you're not one of those people that volunteered for this freak job?"
"I believe we should focus on finding more tickets, the announcements said that the inspector will be conducting an inspection soon," She turned her head, ignoring him, "We might as well be dead soon"
That made them start moving with urgency, albeit slowly avoiding the corpses of people that had died and the blood continuously seeping from the ceiling, searching the luggage compartments
How odd.. she speaks of dying a lot, not that i'm one to talk —but she's so much more of a natural at this.. surely not because she worked in a morgue?
"…Are you not going to look..?" She tilted her head casually, My mouth feels dry again,
Probably the blood loss.
"I already have one", she stared at me for a few more moments, "..alright then.."
Why did I say that?
I don't think I ever had a ticket.
Why did I lie?
There's nothing to gain from it at all..
[Dun~~Da~Dun~~]
[Ehkerm, Mhm, Pardon me, The Inspector has arrived, please remain seated, and prepare to hand your tickets over to him.]
"um.. Yeon Siyun-ssi.. are you sure you want to sit there..? You still have blood on that seat.." the shorter man muttered,
"I'm fine.. It's dry for the most part.. besides… this ticket matches my seat" she blinked dully, expression blank amidst Baek Siyun's stunned one, eyebrows raised,
"The tickets are assigned to seats?" His brows furrowed slightly, inspecting his own ticket, ".. but there isn't any seat labeling on this ticket",
"I know, but the luggage that had this ticket was above this seat" — Her logic made him blink,
"..oh.." He clearly didn't expect such a simple answer, sitting down in one of the untouched car seats, holding the ticket in his hands tightly,
Just then, the petite woman asked, "Does everyone else have a ticket..?" Her friend whom'd she was still holding onto had short, neat black hair with bangs that didn't move as they walked, "we only have one.."
Sensing an opportunity, the wiry, cunning-looking man snatched the ticket from the small woman,
The mousy-looking, younger woman grabbed his arm, trying to pull him back. "Wh— Hey..! that's ours..!"
"Get lost— it's mine!"
He shoved her away, making her shoes slip on the wet floor and bump into the smaller woman as the two of them fell over,
Flicker
Flick
The lights flickered, the car door that we had tried everything to open abruptly slid open with such ease before a heavy, mechanical voice rang out from the front of the car,
"Everyone, please remain seated. It is time for ticket inspection."
There stood a man with an unusually tall and lanky figure, with a short neck and narrow shoulders, "I will now stamp your tickets in chronological order[2]." His head was lowered, the brim of his conductor's hat hiding his gaze and obscuring the top of his face,
The Inspector walked with a slight limp over the dead bodies and blood, as though they weren't there in the first place. "Please remain orderly on the train." At that moment, the Ticket Inspector had approached Baek Siyun, "Ticket, please", his same stiff and still tone echoed,
The timid man's expression twisted, face a shade paler than before as his lips pressed together, visibly afraid, but handing over the ticket.
Watching tensely as the inspector pulled out a ticket puncher
Pak!
They held their breath, waiting for something, anything to happen really, would Baek Siyun die?
Did the ticket match the seat?
Did that even matter?
The lanky man pulled away, and nothing happened, He reached into his pocket, and returning the ticket with an additional one, "You may move up a car", The inspector was entirely focused on performing his duty, throughout the whole process, nothing else happened.
The timid man didn't hesitate to stand up and flee to the car the inspector had come from without a word,
…
Which was fine, reasonably, I'm not quite sure why he was in such a rush,
"Ticket, please", the Inspector loomed over the petite woman and her mousy friend that had huddled themselves in the corner of the train, too afraid to speak.
"Hic.. we.. we don't.. have one.. I don't—"
Hiss…
The Inspector's mouth opened, the skin around his face stretching taut, a rotound blackness exposed to view two elongated flesh colored fangs,[3] forked tongue slowly extending,
plat…
plat..
"Ah.. ahh..", Cold, slimy saliva dripped onto the petite woman's face as they looked up at him, her breathing hitched, wide-eyed and trembling,
She didn't get the chance to make another sound, when it lunged, large fangs sinking into her neck, The small woman began to scream and struggle, desperate yet unable to get away, convulsing violently, It barely lasted for a few moments, before she eventually stilled, her body twitched, muscles spasming,
Gurgle…
The sound of wet flesh tearing echoed in the silenced train car as she was swallowed whole,
The mousy-faced woman's hands covered her mouth, face messy with snot and tears, trying not to vomit at the grotesque sight, pressing herself even further against the rumbling wall of the train.
And then, like nothing had happened, The Inspector stood up straight, face returning to normal as he adjusted his hat on his head, "Please remain orderly on the train." His head turned back to her
"Ticket, please."
She couldn't speak, but she had to, or else she would die as well,
"I.. i—", her breathing shuddered and trembled, "..I lost it.." she finally managed to say, "..it was in my luggage.."
After a tense moment, The inspector reached into his pocket and retrieved the same ticket that had been given to Baek Siyun, "I see, here is your new ticket. You will he given a fair to pay at our next stop.", the woman stared at him, mouth agape, open and closing like a fish, hands shaking as the ticket was place in her sweaty hands,
And just like that, the man moved on, she trembled, stumbling as she hurried to the next car before he changed his mind, the door sliding shut behind her
"Ticket, please."
The long-haired woman handed it over easily, tilting her head slightly as she tried to catch a look underneath the brim of his hat,
Pak!
He punched her ticket, handed her a new one, and dismissed her like the previous two,
Ah..
He was standing in front of me, I hadn't moved at all, and here he was asking for a ticket, hand held out,
—Left Pocket
…
'I'm becoming increasingly skeptical of this voice..'
But there's nothing else I can do but listen..
A ticket?
I can feel Yeong Siyun's eyes bore into the side of my head as The Inspector punched the ticket.. twice, staring at me from the other side of the door, turning when our eyes met,
Pak!
I clutched the new ticket in my hand tightly, putting it in my pocket as I shuffled over the blood and corpses into the next car,
Bang!
The others couldn't help but focus their attention on the scene unfolding as I turned,
The inspector loomed over the wiry man who had risen to his feet, backing up as quickly as he could "Forgery detected. You are not a passenger." Back facing the door as his jaw unhinged once more, stepping closer, and closer before the entire train car was shrouded in a heavy, oppressive darkness.
"Help! Help me! Help! Urkh!—"
I turned back around until the screaming stopped, sitting down in one of the seats,
This car looked different than the one they'd just left, slightly modern but still strangely old-fashioned, but most notably the bulbs no longer flickered,
Glancing away from the sight with rising nausea, Baek Siyun turned to Yeong Siyun. "…is there a reason why didn't you warn the others about the tickets.."
She blinked, tilting her head, "It was just an assumption, a subpar theory, at most.. Who's to say that it's not just a coincidence that I happened to be right this time?" She shrugged lightly,
"..some luck you have i suppose.."
[Dun~~Da~Dun~~]
[Ehkerm, Mhm, Pardon me, Thank you for your cooperation, dear passengers, The Staff work earnestly to guarantee your safety and comfort]
[Food and Drinks will be served shortly, please use your meal tickets to order. We at Dreamful Transpo thank you for your patronage,]
"Oh my.. well isn't that interesting,", the blank face woman hummed, lifting it as she waved the ticket in her hand—observing it under the artificial light,
"The ticket the Inspector gave you turned into a Meal ticket?", the timid man murmured, quickly checking his own ticket,
"All of ours have I assume," she hummed, index finger tapping her chin a few times,
[1] ssi; a polite honorific used after a person;s name, similar to "Mr.", "Mrs.", or "Ms." in English. It;s used to show respect when addressing someone you;re not close to or who might be older than you, or when addressing someone with similar social status. It;s a common way to address strangers or colleagues
[2] Seat Order
[3] some snake fangs actually tend to be covered by their mouth tissue instead of extending bone!