TICKETS, PLEASE

[egghead]

Swallowing back the lump growing in his throat, Glen shielded his nephew from this nightmare as best his scrawny body could.

He had lost his faith a long time ago, but now he was actually praying for Declan's safe return home. There was nothing left to his existence, he was an old man with too many years of sadness and regret behind him, but the boy was still young and had an entire life to experience.

If only one of them could make it out alive, he hoped it was his nephew.

Now he was staring at an even older man, more ancient than time and death. Fear wormed its way into the core of his heart, but even though he was shaking, his voice was the loudest and clearest it had ever been.

"If you want my son, you're going to have to go through me."

 

[Atom]

Every vein under the conductors dying skin was aflame, the sight of Glen made his remaining humanity seethe. "You..you can't run away anymore." He pushed away every chair and desk with ease, taking heavy steps almost enough to shatter the floor beneath. The gold accents on his uniform jingled furiously at the movement, filling the muggy air of the classroom. "How about I take both you and your son on a nice ride, there's nothing more sickening than someone who thinks they can play hero better than me."

Declan could only stand in a whole other world of his own, the very word son ringing in his ears like a broken music box, over and over again....How long had it been since he was called that? This time it wasn't so bad, it almost felt like....home?

"I...I wont let you touch my family!" Not again, nope. There was no way he was going to lose the last person he could proudly call family without getting a sinking feeling in his chest. Glen was important to him despite the things they might have been through, he could tell from the tone in his words that he shared the same protective tone with his sister. Glen was his whole family.
He stepped forward to stand on even ground with his uncle, right next to him no matter how terrifying the conductor was.

"This is very, very interesting.."

One hand of the conductors melted into a black sludge looking goop, almost a tar like substance and the other melted into a thick, dark metallic smelling blood, both spilling onto the floor. He raised them forward, looking like he wanted to shake hands. "These are for you-"

 

[Dingus]

Leaving while double checking his body for any signs of gore, Gertrude picked up the sounds of wet thrashing. It felt like it was months since he heard that sound but he remembered it instantly. Still kind of confused about where he was, he then realized his overcoat was on the floor and his hammer not too far away from it. Gertrude slung his jacket over his shoulder and began to make his way through the maze of cubicles. Following the red glow of an exit sign the moist sounds of skin slapping over each other started to sound much louder. Gertrude finally ran into the much familiar monster and in reflex: drop kicked it's legs in and chrunched it's spin with his foot.

"I already know how to do this..." Gertrude grumbled to himself.

Opening the exit door led to a concrete stairwell. As the sounds of his boot descending on the concrete steps echoed through the dimly lit rectangle prism, the sound of his original name flashed through his mind like some sort of old propaganda film; forcing him to accept what was in front of him.

Kingston

It didn't settle well with him. Gertrude always knew that he had a pre-existing name but he dreaded that he would soon realize what it was. In it's own right, there was nothing wrong with the name Kingston. It felt strong and imposing. But there was something within his brain that made him feel uncomfortable.

As if the name Kingston fit a disgusting murderous monster like him.

It wasn't until Gertrude was far into the foggy streets that he noticed he was too lost in thought. Through the fog he noticed a small shop along the road with many televisions in the showcase window. All of them covered in a thick layer of dust as they sat on top of a metal shelf. Reaching for the door to the establishment, Gertrude was shocked to find that it wasn't locked as it opened with a slow dingle of a bell. Slipping behind the desk, Gertrude found a case of tools. With that he then clutched on to one of the TVs on the display and began to crack into it.

It took almost fifteen minutes to replace his broken screen. In such circumstances, Gertrude's partner in crime, Matsuda, would have assisted in the replacement. But Matsuda was far from here. Probably already at the teacher's convention. Once Gertrude stood up from his seat, he turned to realize that at least five of the previously seen creatures were slapping their damp tendrils against the window of the pawn shop. It was almost like none of them realized there was a door ten feet to the right of them.

"I guess I'm taking the back door." Gertrude mumbled to himself again while cleaning the remaining dust from his new screen with a green rag.

 

[egghead]

Glen's stomach reeled at the sight of the blood. It gushed out from the conductor's sleeve and poured onto the floor in a waterfall from his darkest dreams. His hand flew up to cover his mouth as he gagged and tried not to throw up from the smell of iron alone.

This is it... He thought as he sealed his eyes shut. It's over.

But it wasn't over. The floor suddenly began to shake beneath his feet, pulsing and alive with a heartbeat that became more and more intense before the wall behind them literally exploded. The force sent him flying face-first into the puddle of blood. He screamed, but the hollering of a familiar voice was louder.

"Yee-haw, motherfuckers!"

Rachel hooted as she burst into the room on top of a steed made out of thousands upon thousands of cockroaches. The grin on her face was cocky (pun intended), and only stretched wider when she seen the conductor.

"That's right, I made your bugs my bitch!" she cackled triumphantly as she pulled the "reins" of her insect horse to get it to swoop down so she could reach a hand out to Declan. "C'mon, boy, take it!"

It was a total enigma how she got over her irrational fear, but would probably make for a great story over a round of drinks.

 

[Dingus]

Gertrude slid through the back doors of the pawn shop as he began to adjust his under-chin dials. As he left the back door to close slowly, he noticed a car parked on the gravel not too far from him. Gertrude's spirits suddenly lit up and fell flat on their face as soon as he realized there was no way to get the rusting vehicle started without finding a key or breaking into it. Finding the key would result in turning on a light and trying to search the pawn shop behind him. Both these options could only result in alerting more the tendril beast into noticing him. He needed to get back to the school somehow. If that weird guy had done what he had done to Gertrude to the others, he absolutely needed to return. He also wanted to know who that other guy was. He turned towards the pawn shop and then turned back towards the ally.

"Alright, let's go!" Gertrude announced as he took off down the misty back road in a small jog.

 

[Atom]

The sight of the black substance falling from the conductor sent a spine chilling feeling down Declan's back, as if something was looming over him by just seeing it. He had no idea what it was or why he was so afraid but he just was. The fear was so intense, sadness, agony and most off all anger began to well up inside him in overwhelming amounts. There was a feeling of something wet on his cheek and as he went to touch it, he realized it was black, blacker than any night sky. A black tear just like the stuff the conductor was trying to present to him.

Before it all got to him too much, the wall smashed and Declan was on his knees from the force. A strike of pain went through his earlier head wounds from how hard he winced at the commotion. Upon looking back, it could of course only be one person...


Rachel.


....On a horse made of bugs...??????

There wasn't enough time to process as she already had a hand out toward him, he took it without hesitation, the fear being too much to refuse any kind of help. "Rae!" Declan's expression then kind of lit up at her presence.

This time, the second time around, the conductor was absolutely livid. He shook his hands in one quick movement and they were back to normal.

"YOU CAN FIGHT ALL YOU WANT BUT YOU WON'T HAVE HIM." Large waves of thick blood appeared on both sides of glen, swallowing him in an inward crash and just like that he was gone. Gone to a metal room with no escape, just like Rae had. Atop the walls appeared to be rust but with closer inspection, or a keen eye, it was old blood, from which new blood began to pour out of and flood the room.

"You're next." The musty old man pointed a bony finger toward Declan along side Rae, but for now, he took a cloudy, ghost like form and disappeared into thin air like dust.

 

[egghead]

"Shit."

The red knight in shining roach armor only grit her teeth once the conductor vanished. He had escaped before she could give him the beating he deserved for prying into her head, and even dragged Glen down with him. Something told her that the spineless worm wasn't going to make it out of whatever hell he was sent to, but she didn't say anything to avoid upsetting the boy anymore than he already was.

If things didn't work out, she could always lend him one of her Glens. Maybe one that was less broken than the man-child they found crying alone in a closet.

ー

Meanwhile, Glen was enjoying his summer vacation on a sandy beach in Maui. Just kidding. He was standing knee-deep in a pool of blood that was slowly climbing up his legs.

He held a forearm in front of his face, covering his nose, but the fumes still assaulted him. Coughing and occasionally gagging, he waded through the metal-smelling sludge, trying his best to imagine water but knowing too well that water could never feel so thick and horrible.

"Oh, God, please help me..." he sobbed through his sleeve to the heavens that he stopped believing in long ago. "Please..."

 

[Atom]

It seemed Declan did bring his mind elsewhere when the entire situation dawned on him, like the fact they were on a horse made of live cockroaches. But the distraction didn't last long as they were now missing the entire reason he even boarded the train...his uncle.

"Wait-" Declan jumped off the steed, landing with a large thump. "He's gone again..." It sounded as if he was going to hyperventilate.

 

[Dingus]

Gertrude burst through the doors of the school. Running down the hall he finally spotted his two comrades. Rae on some kind of beast and Declan on some sort of breakdown. But he had noticed one thing was wrong; where was the other guy? Gertrude remembered running pass three separate people. Everything seemed really confusing so all Gertrude could muster up was,

"So I missed everything, huh?"

 

[egghead]

Everywhere he looked, there was blood, blood, blood.

It reminded him that he was going to die, and right now, despite everything that led up to this moment, death was the last thing he wanted. Memories of his nephew flooded into his mind, the image of his smile renewing his will to live. He couldn't leave Declan behind like this, not like everyone else had.

With a yell that to threatened to rip apart his throat, he rushed at one of the walls oozing his deepest fear with his arms held out and ready. He disappeared into the red waterfall and found himself somersaulting into another place entirely.

It was a hallway, endless and covered in bright crayon drawings; He was back in the school.

ー

"Where the hell were you this whole time?"

Rachel leapt off of her steed to land on the floor with a loud stomp before it melted away behind her into a shapeless mass of cockroaches that all scurried away once their queen had no more use of them.

She looked him up and down, noticing something different about him but not exactly able to pinpoint what it was.

"You get a haircut or somethin'?" she half-joked before Glen came stumbling into the room. He was covered from head to toe in blood that obviously wasn't his own and looked like he been through some serious shit.

She couldn't help but laugh at the horrifically traumatized look on his face, it was just too priceless. "Welly, welly, well, look who else survived that old prick's bullshit."

 

[Atom]

Luckily Gertrude's sudden appearance stopped Declan from spiraling into a full blown panic again. He didn't say anything to him, only hoping that his uncle would return alive. If this was how his first train ride had turned out, then he never ever wanted to board one again, as if his first 19 years of his life weren't hell enough. Some part of him felt like the entire events were a strange dream and he'd wake up back as his childhood house, but that seemed highly unlikely.

Rachel's words broke his thoughts, turning around to see a blood soaked familiar face. Had he been lost in thinking for that long or....?

"You're back! Thank goodness, I wasn't about to lose you to some dusty old man." Declan would have ran to hug him again but the thought of touching copious amounts of mystery blood held him from doing so. Now that Glen was safe and the four of them together, the words of the conductor settled in the front of his mind.


'You're next.'