Story 985: The Crawling Dark

The door slammed shut behind the Forsaken Girl. The rest of the survivors were left staring at its rusted metal, the Ghoul Trainmaster’s grin stretching impossibly wide.

“She made her choice,” he mused, adjusting his skeletal fingers around the flickering lantern. “Now we watch and see if she survives the Dark Car.”

Mira clenched her fists. “What’s in there?”

The Trainmaster chuckled. “A test.”

Inside the next car…

The Forsaken Girl stepped forward, the floorboards creaking beneath her bare feet. A thick, black fog curled around the room, twisting unnaturally. The walls seemed to breathe, as if something enormous lurked just beyond them.

Then, the whispers began. Low. Guttural. Hungry.

A shadow shifted in the fog—long, jagged limbs scraping against the walls. A thing neither dead nor living, twisted by the train’s curse.

It spoke with many voices, each layered atop the other.

“You do not belong.”

The Forsaken Girl stood still. “Neither do you.”