Minute-Reads: The Right Place

The next stop for this train is...

The announcement broke up into static.

William looked around in bewilderment. His memory was blank for a moment. As if it had blinked. Then it came rushing back.

The crash and screech of rending metal. The screams of passengers flung like wet clothing through broken glass.

He patted himself down for injuries whilst taking in the ruined train carriage some feet away.

It all seemed quite surreal. There were no other passengers just a heap of smoking wreckage and him, unscathed beside it.

A sob wrenched out of him as he realised what a lucky escape he had had. Somehow he had survived a train crash without a single scratch.

A desperate chuckle bubbled out of him.

'I wasn't even meant to be on this train... I got the wrong train!'

He leaned back and laughed at his good fortune.

'The wrong train!'

He found the incongruity of the situation preposterously funny. His laughter degenerated into tears.

The wrong train. The wrong train, oh God. Thank God, I'm alive!'

A shadow fell over him. He looked up.

A tall and monstrous thing stood above him. Black reptilian skin and stark red eyes in a face which had far too many sharp fang-like teeth.

It reached down a viciously taloned claw and sunk it deep into his shoulder.

'Wrong train... Right destination.' It growled.

He screamed.

The first of many.