Like champagne corks

I was sitting on a dark wooden seat, it was uncomfortable, but my heart felt a warmth that I hadn't felt for a long time, it was nostalgic and almost unreal.

I looked around, my vision was kind of magnified in the center and blurry on the sides. Even so, I was able to make out my surroundings.

I was in a room with a rectangular plan, stretched out in front of me, the walls of the room were of a dull and boring dark metal, sometimes in the walls to my sides there were windows that gave on to the outside, while above me there were vaults of lamps embroidered with metal weaving that descended from the ceiling.

Both in front of and behind me there were other rows of seats, always in dark wood and always positioned in pairs so as to leave a small corridor passing through the center of the room.

All the seats were occupied by blurry-faced people of which I could only recognize the gender.

I was seated to the right of two people, a woman and a man in their thirties. At that moment I didn't notice it, but I was next to two people even though the seats where we were sitting were only for two.

The woman seemed short in stature and pale in complexion, with large dark eyes, straight black hair that reached just below the shoulders, thin long eyebrows, small mouth and slightly red lips, and a small nose that beautified her already sweet and delicate face.

She was dressed semi-formally, in a navy blue long skirt and a creamy white shirt with a brownish leather jacket over it.

The man appeared to be about 1.80 m tall, had an olive complexion and was slightly tanned, had light eyes and blond hair, appeared to have recently shaved, his face was lean and with strong features.

He was dressed formally, in black slacks, a white long-sleeved shirt, and a black tailcoat.

Their faces looked a little flustered.

I didn't quite understand why, but I couldn't take my eyes off them, and my heart was beating faster and faster. Somehow it seemed to me that I knew them, or that I should have known them.

While I could see them, they didn't seem to be able to see me, which made me feel strangely sad. I tried to move, however, apart from my head, my body was held in place by an invisible force.

For some reason I didn't pay too much attention to it, I turned to my right and saw a window with purple-brown curtains drawn at the sides. At first glance I couldn't see anything, it was as if the environment outside the window was veiled by a thick fog, however I didn't give up, I sharpened my view and after a few seconds I managed to see something, the environment outside was moving at low speed.

'Where am I…'

Still observing the environment outside the window, I glimpsed a dilapidated building that looked like an old abandoned factory.

*ciuff ciuff

At the same time I heard an unfamiliar noise, but I had already read about it somewhere, maybe in a poster. That sound, the fact that I was moving even though I was sitting, and the environment around me made me understand where I was: on a steam locomotive!

As soon as I realized this, my heart sank into a sense of pain, sadness and fear.

Even though I had never taken a train in my life, I hated and feared them at the same time.

I turned to the two passengers who were on my left, a doubt arose in my mind.

'It... it can't be...'

My heart closed in a vise and my breathing became heavy and irregular.

Mixed emotions flooded my mind.

*Skreeeeek!

A shrill sound tore the silence apart.

The train had stopped abruptly.

The passengers all around me stood up in confusion.

However, the man and woman next to me didn't look confused at all, they looked terrified.

They stood up still as if frozen.

Coming from the wooden door that led to the carriage ahead of where I was, I began to hear dull noises, similar to those made by uncorking bottles of sparkling wine.

At that moment my senses seemed to go crazy, it was as if my instinct was telling me to run, run like a prey does when it knows it is being hunted. However, I couldn't.

I turned again to the two passengers who looked somewhat familiar to me.

I yelled at them "RUN AWAY, GO!" However, no noise came out of my mouth.

I tried again, but nothing.

The wooden door from which those strange noises were coming suddenly opened with a shrill sound.

A man with an exaggerated smile walked through the door.

He was dressed formally and almost entirely in black, save for a monocle with a burgundy frame and a slightly gold lens over his left eye, and a red feather protruding from the pocket square of his black jacket. On his head he wore a top hat which was also all black.

He had no beard but a long funny white mustache curled up, and eyes whose irises looked like wasps' nests.

Entering the carriage in which I was, the first thing he did was to take off his hat and bow, as if he were a magician.

In that instant, my gaze was drawn not to that man, but to the scene behind him.

From the car he came from, headless people knelt as if in prayer, their hands clasped in a rounded triangle at the bottom, and streams of blood flowed from their necks.

My mind froze from how surreal that scene was.

My attention was suddenly drawn to the scream of a female passenger who was right in front of me.

*Pop! The head of a gentleman violently detached from his neck and jumped into the air as if it were a cork from a champagne bottle, streams of blood dispersed in the surrounding environment, the now headless man's body fell to his knees, joining hands to form a kind of triangle.

I horrified, and probably would have thrown up at that moment if I had been able to.

The next head to jump was that of the lady who had previously screamed, then it was time for another,

then another

then another

then another…

*Pop!

*Pop!

Meanwhile, the gentleman with the bordeaux and gold monocle was step by step getting closer and closer to where I was, always keeping an amused smile on his face.

Everyone in that room was going to die.

For some reason, I knew at that moment that the fear and dread I was feeling wasn't for me at all, but for the two people to my left.

At that moment, my heart seemed to confirm the doubt that occurred to me earlier, I turned to the two next to me with a horrified look and with tears in my eyes.

By now the man, who was perhaps better to call a monster, came one step away from us.

My breathing stopped, I tried to swallow but my throat was dry, I tried to stand up but my legs were locked, I tried to scream but my voice was gone.

The lady in her thirties, who had been frozen up until then, started to water from her eyes, moved her lips as if she wanted to say something, but no sound emerged from her mouth.

I read her lips.

"Sorry… Kri…"

My heart skipped a beat.

.

.

.

I looked at the man in his thirties next to her, he had a sad and lost look.

I didn't feel anything, or maybe I felt so many emotions that I no longer understood anything... I wanted to take them by the hand and run away with them, my legs didn't move.

"MOVE!!" I screamed desperately and soundlessly at my legs, however, they still didn't move.

What could I do… nothing… absolutely nothing… I looked up at the two people very familiar to me… I looked at them…

"Dad… Mu-"

*Pop!

*Pop!

My parents' heads left their necks, leaving only a fountain of blood in their place.

"AHHH!" I screamed until I was out of breath, my heart writhed in a vise, tears upon tears gushing from my eyes, feelings of pain, sadness, fear, but also resentment and hatred flooded my limbs.

At that moment he understood that the greatest fear a human being could feel was wanting but not being able to do anything.

At that moment, the scene in front of me shattered.

.

.

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