The tremors didn't stop.They grew worse. The floor rippled under Evelyn's feet like living skin, the walls breathing in and out as if the carriage itself had lungs. The white flame in her lantern flickered violently—no longer from fear, but because the air around her was warping with heat and pressure.
The Heart was no longer holding back.It was waking up.
A deep, throbbing sound rolled through the carriage—not a pulse this time.A voice.A low, cracked whisper that scraped along her spine like nails on bone.
"Evelyn…"
Her blood froze.The lantern trembled in her hands.The voice didn't sound like a stranger.It sounded like—
her own.
Evelyn stumbled back as the floor split open beneath the floating Heart. The fissure widened, glowing with blinding red light. Shadows poured upward in spirals, circling the Heart like hungry serpents.
Then the Heart began to change.
It twisted.Crumpled.Unfolded.
And from its surface, a shape pushed outward—slowly, horribly. At first just a silhouette. Then features. Then… a face.
Her face.But older.Corrupted.Eyes black and empty, mouth stitched with threads of shadow, skin cracked like burned porcelain.
The Heart wasn't just mimicking her.It had been studying her.Learning her.Trying to become her.
The shadow-Evelyn opened its mouth, threads tearing, ash flaking from its cheeks.
"You shouldn't have come back…"
Evelyn's breath faltered. She lifted the lantern, but for the first time… her hand shook.
The creature crawled forward—its body still fused with the Heart behind it, stretched by veins of red and black.
Every movement was wrong.Jerky.Unnatural.Like a puppet forced to move by invisible hands.
"Stop…" Evelyn whispered.
The shadow-Evelyn tilted its head.Its cracked lips curled into something that almost looked like a smile.
"I am what you left behind.""I am the part of you that stayed in the train.""And you…"It reached toward her."…you don't get to leave again."
Evelyn's pulse hammered. The lantern's flame blazed brighter, reacting to her fear—but the creature didn't recoil this time.
It approached.Unafraid.Confident.
Because for the first time…Evelyn's fear wasn't directed at the train.It was directed at herself.