For a long moment, none of them moved.
The train car looked normal again—seats, handles, windows—but none of it felt real. The air still pulsed with the memory of ribs, with the heat of breath, with the echo of those teeth.
And floating at Evelyn's side like a loyal ghost…the lantern flickered softly.
Not warm.Not comforting.
Alive.
Leo swallowed. "Ev… is it… talking to you?"
Evelyn didn't look at them.
Her eyes were locked on the flame.
The flicker curled upward, forming shapes that almost resembled fingers pressing against the glass.
"Ev," Alex said, stepping closer, "you don't have to answer it—"
The lantern turned.
Not Evelyn.
The lantern turned by itself to face him.
The blue flame stretched… forming a long, vertical pupil.
Watching him.
Alex froze. "Okay… nope. Nope nope nope—"
The flame blinked.
A soft whisper followed, brushing across all their ears at once:
"EvElyN… ChoSeN…"
Sophie clung to Evelyn's arm. "Chosen for what?! Evelyn, please—say something!"
Finally, Evelyn spoke.
Her voice was quiet. Trembling. Almost distant.
"It thinks… I belong to it. I can hear it whispering. Calling me by names I don't recognize. Names from… before the train existed."
Leo frowned. "Before—? What does that mean?"
But before she could answer—
The lights above them flickered.
Not randomly.
But in a pattern.A rhythm.
Tap-tap.Tap-tap-tap.Pause.Tap.
Morse code.
Alex narrowed his eyes. "Is that… signaling something?"
The lantern suddenly flared bright blue, lighting the car in a harsh, unnatural glow.
The windows darkened completely — like ink spreading across them.The floor rippled.The walls hummed.
The train was changing again.
And the lantern whispered through Evelyn's mouth this time—her lips moving, but her voice not her own:
"STaY StILL. iT sEeS MoVeMeNt."
Sophie almost screamed."Evelyn, STOP! That wasn't your voice!"
"It wasn't," she said, clutching her throat. "I didn't… I didn't mean to talk."
The lights flickered again.
Closer.
Louder.
A deep echo came from the ceiling — not above the ceiling, but inside it, crawling like something huge was moving overhead.
Then—
A slow… heavy… dragging sound.
Sliiiide.Thud.Sliiiide.
Leo's face drained of color. "What the hell is that…?"
Alex pointed up with shaking hands. "Look—look at the vents."
The metal vents in the ceiling bent outward.
Like fingers were curling around the edges from inside.
Sophie choked on her breath. "Don't—Don't tell me something's coming through."
The lantern flared.
The flame spoke, voice layered over Evelyn's:
"NoT sOmEtHiNg."
The vent tore open.
Hanging down from the darkness above…
A head.
Human-shaped.But stretched.Skin hanging in folds.Jaw unhinged, swinging loosely.Eyes glowing faint gold, unfocused but searching.
Its neck stretched out like a rope, lowering slowly, silently…
Right above them.
Alex whispered, "Don't move… it's blind… but it hears everything."
But Evelyn couldn't stop trembling.Not with the lantern breathing beside her.
The creature's jaw snapped suddenly — CRACK — and its head jerked toward the sound like a broken marionette.
It sniffed the air.
Long, loud inhales.Wet, dragging, desperate.
Its neck stretched further, inches from Evelyn's face.
She squeezed her eyes shut, breath shaking.
The lantern flickered, glowing brighter—and the creature's mouth twisted into a horrible grin.
Leo whispered, "Ev… the light! It sees the light—"
The flame pulsed once.
Twice.
Then—
It went out.
Pitch-black.
Evelyn screamed.Sophie screamed.Alex grabbed blindly for them.Leo slammed into a seat in the dark.
And above them…
A single wet inhale rattled through the car.
Then a voice, barely human:
"FoUnD yOu."