082. Nightmare, 1

(Rose)

I heard a scream in the distance. Behind the rain, outside I believe. It sounded like a woman hurt and in pain, but something was off.

I open my eyes, but I don't remember where I am and the things I can see don't make sense. My brain needed a few more seconds to be able to make sense of what my eyes see. A sharp pain spreads in my brain for a second but then vanishes. I feel weird.

The ground is shaking madly. The lights in the wagon are all off. I can barely see the rain outside because of how dark it is outside. I see the water flowing against the windows almost as if we were on a ship.

I'm scared and I can't stand up.

I realise from the ruckus and shaking that something awful is happening. The other passengers are loud and panicking. I can't move. I only keep my bag close tightly while looking outside. There's something happening...

I see in horror what looks like transparent hands scratching the windows from outside. They're suddenly covering the windows as if a swarm of ghosts was trying to get in.

The rest of the wagon is so dark and loud. I see the windows invaded. They suddenly explode and I'm deafened by a mixture of screams and storm.

Rain poured in, flowing inside. Thunder makes everyone scream. Panic began. I still can't move from the bench I'm sitting on.

A tree, very large, just obscured the sky for a second as we rolled past it. I saw it lean. I think it was falling onto the train.

I'm already cold and soaked, but I manage to move a little. I grab a handrail close to me. I yell to watch out but I don't think anyone heard me. We can suddenly hear terrifying noises.

The ground abandons us for a moment. Some things are sent flying into the air and around us. There's a loud awful music of cries, thunder and derailing train, deafening all of us. I see sparks in the distance. I'm unsure as to whether I'm standing, siting or being thrown away as I feel dizzy.

A powerful metallic sound repeats itself like a heartbeat. It comes closer, stronger, and faster as if it was going to burst out of somewhere. The lightning strikes something close. More screams.

Pieces of the roof are ripped away and vanish in the distance. The train still goes fast, despite everything and the wagon being steadily shredded apart.

Then the worst happens. During the flash from thunder, me and a few others see something terrifying inside the wagon. Something besides us, scarring us deep in an instant as if death itself was suddenly there amongst us.

We hear more screams, but different. Less fear but far more pain. We can feel the train finally slowing down. But what is now seemingly with us focuses our attention.

We hear a groan that sounds like the laugh of an animal, and then bones being broken. The screams of pain become stronger.

The panic grows as if a hound of wolves was inside this wreck with us. Some people try to leave, I hear them. I can't follow them.

They scream and try to flee. The train does slow down now gradually. Another flash of lightning and we all see something scary around where the screams came from.

I think it was someone, hanged and wounded or even staked like a scarecrow in the middle of the wreck. One of us maybe, probably dead. If someone wanted to scare people, it works, everyone is panicking.

A part of the roof above me falls at my feet in the water. The wind is gone, but the rain is drowning me. I clench my bag and move aside, coughing.

I step on something and fall in the way. I'm hurt. I think something ominous passes by, more interested in the group squealing a bit further rather than the quiet me. I feel something passing right over me, dripping of a warmer rain. I stand up after it's away by pushing something fleshy. The thunder strikes again. I see the man from behind. His arms are shreds. Something stuck in his back. They scream. I wonder if the scarecrow is still behind me, along with the culprit. I'm putting words on things, but really I don't know what's happening and what I get glimpses of. I have no idea.

My heart beats so fast, but I'm so cold. I don't know if I should run or hide. My consciousness is in a terrified lull, I don't really manage to think with words currently, only instincts.

I hear a fight in the dark, and swears. Some people managed to open the doors and are leaving the train and running away.

I hear awful sounds of a dog eating meat and crushing small bones. I'm petrified.

I don't hear screams anymore. I might be the only one left in the train. But I see that something is getting close to me. Something large and smelling like it's covered in blood. It moves slowly, so do I.

I get closer to the window. I climb on the soaked couch. The thing is moaning and sniffing. It scratches the couches a bit further. It rips it. I move slowly. Under the heavy pouring rain, I let my bag go outside and go through the missing window. It attacks. The train shook. I slip and fall outside.

~

A night to remember I think to myself for a short lucid moment. The weather is so leaden it looks like a night, but it still is morning surely. I'm hurt, I've fallen onto my hips and arms, but nothing serious I believe.

I find my bag and I hear the thing rattling over my head. In front of me is an open field with houses in the distance. But I see human scarecrows being set, still screaming. Some things are building twisted landmarks out of people... I turn around and go below the train, crawling.

I find a bit of shelter and look around. I crawl behind the wheels to be hidden from sight. I look everywhere around for where to go.

I see behind the rain some men and women being turned into scarecrows, for lack of a better word, violently. They are staked, butchered, crucified. The shapes guilty of the crimes then crouch into the fields, and they can't be seen anymore. I see other people running away from the train going toward them without realising what lies in the shadows.

I can't watch this again, I look away. I still hear them in the distance, screaming until they die with the rain covering their last moans.

I'm scared. The storm covers everything but the weather is changing fast and weird. Where am I? Where should I go?

Certainly not that way. On the other side of the train starts a forest, even darker without sunlight into this horizon.

But I don't hear any scream and I notice other people running madly into these woods. Some are holding hands when they go in. That looks like the better choice.

Behind, the fields become and remain eerily still now. I go on the side of the forest. I slip out from under the train, looking carefully around. There is nothing unusual around... I hear a strange animal shriek coming from the top of the train. I don't look behind and just start running.

Only a few steps away the woods begin. I hear growls behind me though, and as I pass the first trees, another scream of terror, from a young boy somewhere behind. I want to stop and look back, but I'm too scared and keep running into the woods. There's still some light entering through the horizon so I can guess where I go. I see other human shapes here and there, running or hiding. I hear them whisper when we pass close each other, but I don't stop running. I can't stop yet.

I keep running until I trip on something I didn't see and fall into a bush. I'm not that hurt, and probably a bit hidden now, so I breath and I try not to move.

I look at the sky, but see nothing. The rain falls onto the leaves far above me, it doesn't reach me. When I breathe, I see a bit of vapour flowing and vanishing in the air. I'm just in a forest like any other in my countryside...

I wait, and rest a bit. My mind still remains very foggy.

I wait...

~