Chapter 9: The Silent Train [1]

"Alteration."

A delicate and fashionable woman muttered solemnly in the same room that was as sizable as half a tennis court.

The Madam's eyes gleamed an impressive green, enough to entrance just about anyone caught staring. Slowly but surely, the room she was in began morphing. It was as if she was somehow bending reality to her will, warping the very space she entered with nothing but a command.

What replaced a gloomy air was that of a livelier one. If before, the room was marked with nothing but the Madam's appearance, it was now being decorated in what looked to be a scarlet-themed environment, accompanied by the smell of roses.

It didn't take her long to reshape the room, as soon enough, the bleak atmosphere was remolded into something far more engaging to the naked eye.

Reflecting upon the Madam's emerald-tinted eyes was the visible outline of a red, queen-sized mattress.

Next to the luxurious bed were illuminated lampshades situated on opposite ends-- the latter being planted on top of sizable redwood desks. The new place could best be described as regal-looking, if maybe a little too grandiose. It seemed to have been specialized and suited to fit someone of her caliber.

'Did I somehow miss the mark?'

She had been trying to imitate the look of a background adorned with the exemplary compositions of antique designs that once made up a giant room of a castle she remembered setting foot on. But for now, this was maybe nothing more than a little assessment.

Unfortunately, it hadn't been to her liking. Though it was not of a poorly designed interior, for a woman of her standards, it was a bit more crude and unpolished than she would've hoped.

"Still rather rudimentary and lacking for the time being. Great for a first test. But not what I had wanted. Perhaps I'll have to refer to the image a little more," her voice resounded in the small room.

Within a few moments, the environment morphed again, but it didn't take so much as another word to do the trick this time. The interior had gradually changed into something a tad more... ancient. If before it had been scarlet-themed, the room was now suddenly flowing with a multitude of different colors.

The walls were tinted as well as she had envisioned, almost as if they were the makings of a classical artist; next to those walls were arrangements of designs that served only to embellish them, if not each other. The aroma, on the other hand, remained unchanging, as it was still the same smell of roses that were more refreshing than a cup of coffee.

Things like modern-style technology and even windows existed no longer and what replaced them in their absence were the items and furniture reminiscent of the Renaissance period-- a period in history when technology had yet to be advanced enough for humans to harness the power of electricity.

When she finally finished her decorations, Lady Anastasia had been lying down on a comfortable and relaxing sofa made up mostly of leather, held together by oak wooden sticks dispersed underneath.

Looking around her with glistening eyes and with lips that were curled slightly upwards, she was nevertheless impressed with what her ability could do.

The image before her very eyes invoked a familiar sense of nostalgia, like going on a trip down memory lane. But despite how similar the castle room was to the one she'd visited, it was still only just that-- similar. It may have looked the same; it may have even been built with the same materials, colored with the same shadings and ingredients... And yet, it contained none of the charm nor the essence.

It may as well have been a completely different room.

'Better... but not good enough.'

Shortly after that, the Madam started making fabrications yet again. Now, she had a clear goal in mind.

"If I truly want to capture that exact image from before, then I'll just have to be even more direct."

As she stood up from the sofa, she began recounting every minute detail that went into what exactly made the castle room as fascinating as she had remembered it being.

However, it took her even longer to make adjustments despite how minor they had been. If the average person did not pay close attention, they would most likely be disappointed in the seemingly minimal number of changes compared to earlier.

Seconds turned into minutes, and the minutes that passed felt like days, weeks, years, maybe centuries. Eventually, Lady Anastasia finished reshaping the room once more but not before she started grimacing and reeling from an uncomfortable sensation that had emanated from the sides of her head.

As the Madam clutched onto her head with one hand to alleviate the pain, she could not help but frown in discontent, but this was not entirely due to her discomfort.

"Strange. I still feel the same way..."

With the Lady silently recovering from the pain, she began walking around the room.

"I need to see for myself whether or not my abilities have evolved as much as I think."

As Anastasia briskly paced throughout the room, she would raise an eyebrow or two over the many new ornaments, surprised by her remarkable accuracy.

Before her changes, the Madam had only tried to mimic the place she had in mind, but she swiftly reconsidered when she saw that it had led her nowhere.

The new designs excited her to no end, and while it may have taken her a bit of a while to spot them all, she would eventually come to see the big picture.

When she finished making her observations, she would mutter in a surprised tone, "I-I did it..."

The room looked exactly as she remembered, down to the last detail, such as the carvings on the wall or even the paintings next to them, all scattered around the room. What came with those beautiful paintings were also the more intricate patterns on the carpets, none of which could be found before the new changes. These things came together to make what she considered nothing short of a masterpiece.

Soon, her initial disappointment was promptly replaced by a more passionate feeling of joyous exhilaration— a feeling she hadn't felt intensely in quite some time.

"Wow! I mean, how marvelous! It seems my abilities have grown to the extent that I am now capable of Perfect Replication!" Lady Anastasia said as her eyes flickered in astonishment. "But alas, I have yet to finish evolving..."

She paused for a bit before continuing.

"No, it is not an exaggeration to say that I am nowhere close. Even with my general improvements, I still have quite a long distance ahead of me that I must continue to cover. If thousands... millions of steps aren't enough, then I'll have to keep moving forward," the lady spoke firmly and with great resolve.

"And with the addition of The Great One comes the necessary strides required for that process."

As the Lady stared at the room, she decided to sit down on the same wooden sofa as before.

'Now it seems I have another journey ahead of me. I can only hope to serve The Great One as well as ever.'

As time passed, Lady Anastasia thought about many things that were in the back of her mind. She liked to think she was entirely self-aware but to see herself becoming quite reckless in terms of how she should use her abilities...

'I should not overexert myself like that excessively. If he's going to rely on me to help him, then I mustn't let my emotions get the best of me.'

After contemplating her skills for a while, the newly formed room around her gradually deformed. It was not at all a pretty sight. The beautiful decorations and the many elegant items began to rot until they decomposed. This did not change the lady's demeanor, though a blank expression had nevertheless donned her face.

Standing up and walking away into the distance, the lady looked nothing less than grandeur, as implied by her appearance.

She boasted a pale, almost flawless pigmentation and her choice of attire was a crimson-colored cambric shirt coupled with black and long tights that expanded until they could reach her feet. Supplementing her charm were thin but elegant eyebrows and cherry-glazed lips that were just as wide. Her allure had even extended to her hair: silky, smooth, and auburn, flowing freely down the sides of her face. In short, Lady Anastasia was quite the stunning individual. She radiated a stellar aura that could cause men and women alike to bow to her as they would to a queen.

As the surroundings changed to what they were previously, so did the lively ambiance. It had unfortunately regressed to that grim and desolate environment from before.

However, Lady Anastasia did not falter as the smile she recently manifested returned to soften the isolating atmosphere. Only, it was brighter and full of passion.

"I hope we all succeed in this life."

Just like how the previous entities vanished without any indications, the woman did the same, without the erratic spiral that had previously helped her to perforate into the room.

Silence once again ensued.

***

As I continued to come of age after Irene's disappearance, I grew very bored with life.

Even with the hefty sum of money Irene had given me right after high school thanks to his wealth, life had never been worse. An excellent example was when even my hobbies started becoming needlessly tiring.

Whether it was browsing on the internet, consuming my favorite foods, T.V. shows, anime, and a few other things that I was introduced to by my best friend, as well as my favorite leisurely activities. One of them being something I was good at doing with my hands, like... writing-- mostly about whatever was on my mind.

Either way, every time I tried to have fun for the sake of hedonism, I just simply couldn't feel anything pleasurable anymore, let alone something.

It got to the point where life had become incredibly burdening. I even remember being unable to stand out of bed immediately without relying on my alarm clocks.

And because I liked to set up multiple alarms only to forget about the fact that I had previously set them up the day prior, it only became increasingly annoying until I was left with no choice but to go through an extra phone.

There was also the fact that I ended up getting a job prematurely to sustain myself with the phone's surprisingly expensive bills-- that I wanted to pay for with my own money and not Irene's.

But that was what I liked about them. Not the part about how expensive they were but the fact that phones were replaceable tools that held immense value in today's society.

I doubted the possibility of me being able to venture that much further into life without phones and especially without something precious as Wi-Fi.

I was eternally grateful for such things, as I couldn't have possibly achieved my dream of living "normally" without them. Regardless, life was boring, and the chances of that sentiment ever-changing soon were initially next to nothing...

...That is until that fateful day happened.

It was a sunny afternoon out in the city, with what I could assume was a bustling atmosphere; I could hear the many voices roaming under the streets as well as the quiet but audible humming of the engine of the cars.

They'd no doubt been waiting for the red lights to go green as their many numbers overfilled the roads. I didn't have to look at any of them directly to get an idea of how busy they probably were.

I had been walking home after working at my part-time job. It was a relatively rough day, having dealt with annoying customers and a few unfortunate accidents during my morning shift. All my energy had already been sapped away just from working earlier, and walking home wasn't helping in that regard.

Tired of basically everything at the moment, I continued to drift across the concrete grounds as I felt like complete and utter garbage. I was unwilling to invest my energy into doing anything beyond walking, even if it was as simple as paying attention to what was in front of me. Trying to think at all would've only worsened my already nagging headache, so using my brain was out of the equation.

My immediate surroundings somehow got a whole lot noiseless, and what appeared before me were the train tracks of a railroad that I couldn't exactly tell if they'd been abandoned. Nevertheless, I continued moving forward, not caring about where I was or where my steps took me as long as they led me back home.

Looking down at my feet, I could spot the countless pebbles and the train tracks that seemed to have stretched for miles towards the distance.

But out of nowhere, while I was still in my bored state, a sudden sense of overwhelming curiosity enveloped my mind. Raising a head and looking straight ahead into the far distance, I saw something I could only describe as a specific craving: The faint outline of a black train moving towards me.

My feet were already set inside of the train tracks, and assuming that there was nothing wrong that could ever happen unless I somehow fell asleep at the moment, I paid attention and continued to stare at the oncoming train, sparing not even a second to remove my feet outside of the tracks.

The sight of the train was almost intoxicating. At first glance, it looked about as unassuming as my fat and frail figure.

But the more I stared at it, the more I became bewitched by its mesmerizing appearance despite its evidently lacking features. Like a bootlicking moron following the orders of his superior without hesitation, I continued to stare and stare. And as I stared with curious eyes, the train only got closer to where I was standing.

Inching ever so slightly to the train in the far distance, I unexpectedly heard a voice-- faint but discernible, even if only barely. It only distracted me from my newfound goal of wanting to "meet" the train. I could no longer determine what the train would do to me, but my curiosity only served to fuel my desire.

But before I could think of the train any more, the same voice echoed even more loudly in my ears. It was enough to break me out of my trance. "Hey! Hey! Can you hear me, young man!?" someone hurriedly asked me.

"H-huh?" I asked in return, turning my head around to find where the voice originated before finally settling towards a specific direction.

To my right stood an old man who looked even shorter than I was. He had been yelling at me with an evident worry in his words. His complexion paled considerably, and he glared at me with eyes that looked like they could burn holes through me.

"E-excuse me? Who are you, exactly?" I asked again, still baffled over what was happening.

"I want you to first step out of them train tracks and follow me. I need to tell ya of a very important story," the man turned his back on me and walked away a few steps before uttering once again, "Come with me, boy. We'll talk shortly."

I had no time to ask about the current situation, and as I stared at the old man's back, I thought to myself, 'What the hell just happened?'

Moments passed as I followed the elderly man, neither of us saying a single word. The train that had shown up in the far distance did not come as I had expected it to, partly because we walked away from the surroundings, away from where the train could be seen. I don't even think I heard it passing by.

I grew confused over what just happened, not knowing what to think and make of it. Then, the man spoke for the first time in what seemed like minutes after we moved away from where the train was going.

He wasted no time getting straight to business.

"That 'train' that you just saw. It's a very dangerous train, and you're lucky I was there to save you. Idiots like you probably have no clue why I did what I did. But I know you were entranced by it, so I want you to listen to my words very carefully," his deep voice resounded in my ears.

"Uh... okay?" I said.

"That train that ya saw or whatever... That wasn't just any train, mind you. No, no, no, no," the old man chuckled lightly.

"That 'train' is what we like to call... The Silent Train."

Every word of his was weighty, guttural even. Add to that his seasoned face, which I could tell belonged to someone who had seen plenty of disturbing things in life. Even so, he didn't particularly strike me as someone who had been acting tough because of his many circumstances.

In a confused but curious tone, I murmured to the man who was already sitting down on a wooden bench, "T-The Silent Train? Do you know what that is exactly?"

"Yes, I know very much about it," the old man said as he paused for a second to stretch out his arms and neck. I had seen enough movies to know what that implied.

"Fasten your seatbelts, kid, 'cause it's gon' be a hell of a ride."