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Turned out rather well I think, and didn't deviate much from what I originally thought it would be like. ", "description_bbcode_parsed": "One of the pieces I wrote after my muse got back form the decade long sabbatical it was on. Turned out rather well I think, and didn't deviate much from what I originally thought it would be like. ", "writing": "A Not So Chance Meeting\n\nBy: Chaos Blackwing\n© 2006 Chaos Blackwing\n\nI’d always liked the wilderness. Whether it be the mountains, forests, or in this case, the plains, I’d always felt better when I was surrounded by nature, rather than in the cities or towns built by man. Sitting on my bike seat, peddling on this road, surrounded by the waving grasses and brush, just seems to bring a calm that I never felt when I lived in the city.\n\nThoughts of the city and the life I used to live always seem to bring back the memories of why I now cycle the roads, buying provisions when I need to, sleeping where I can, and never staying in one place longer than I have to.\n\n***\n\n The first indication of changes were the shadows. Ever so often I would see out of the corner of my eye what appeared to be people, but when I turned to look all I saw was a sort of person shaped shadow, hovering in the air. Odder yet, it seemed I was the only one who was able to see them. Whenever I tried pointing them out to the people with me, be it friends or relatives, they would only get weird looks on their faces and ask what I was talking about. While at first I only saw one or two of the shadows every month or so, within six months I was seeing them nearly everywhere I went. At that point it went from something my friends would joke about to something they suggested I go to a psychiatrist about, but I had distrusted psychiatrists ever since one had diagnosed a cousin of mine perfectly fine just a week prior to her jumping off of a three story building.\n\nThe next step in my seeming decent into madness was the voices. While they started as barely audible and closer to pure noise than actually speech, in less than a month they had reached normal volume and were almost understandable. It was at that point that I decided to leave the cities and my life behind, hoping that by doing so I would escape the shadows, but perhaps more importantly, the voices. Whatever they were saying, I had a very strong feeling it wasn’t something meant to be heard by mortal ears.\n\n***\n\nAnd so I left, saying goodbye to my job, my friends, and my family. For the most part they were sympathetic, understanding that I couldn’t continue as if nothing was happening for much longer without going completely insane. I sold my car and went out and bought the sturdiest bike I could find and then had the shop modify it to as near as indestructible as they could make it, then purchased a mini-trailer to hook to it to keep supplies in. Next up I stocked up on food and water, maps, a first aid kit, a few books for the road, spare clothes, and then I was off. Rather than doing any complex planning out of my route, I just picked a direction that seemed right and started to peddle. \n\n***\n\nThat was a whole year ago, and besides one very strange encounter, it seems that I have, for the most part, escaped from the shades and voices that were plaguing me. And yet, that single encounter has been cause for many a nightmare, and has left my sleep, and my mind, troubled ever since.\n\n***\n\nA few months into my self imposed exile onto the roads and trails of the country, I ran a across a most interesting sight. Just outside of a town so small and obscure that it probably wasn’t on any national map I came across a large grouping of tents and old fashion wooden stalls. Racking my mind for what this could possibly be, I was finally stuck with the answer. It was a carnival, but one of which the likes of hadn’t been seen for decades, even centuries. Far more akin to the fairs and festivals of medieval Europe than the gaudy and flashy ones seen today, it was a sight and experience that I could not pass up. \n\nWalking about, I found that my first impression was far more accurate than I could have known. The stalls contained many things, ranging from small charms and simple wooden toys, to ale and roast mutton. The attractions were likewise more suited to the dark ages than the twentieth century, consisting mostly of acrobats, men performing card tricks, and a horse trick show, featuring a woman performing various stunts on horseback.\n\nWalking among the stalls and tents, one in particular caught my eye. Simple in appearance, nothing more than a plain black tent with a small wooden sign leaning against it, it nevertheless drew me in. Looking at the sign I finally realized exactly what it was: a fortuneteller’s tent. Or more accurately, according to the sign, a ‘teller of fortunes, seer of the future, and reader of auras’. ‘Why not?’ I thought as I pushed the tent flap aside and stepped inside.\n\nAt first I couldn’t see anything, but as my eyes slowly adjusted to the dark I began to make out the contents of the tent. Much simpler than the insides of the tents of movie fortune tellers, and even the ones you sometimes find in street-corner shops, the contents of the tent appeared to consist of a simple wooden table with a white cloth covering it, a small bowl filled with water sitting in the center of the table, and who I took to be the fortune teller, sitting on the other side of the table, eyes closed, looking relaxed. Not quite sure what she was doing, I figured that the best thing to do was to sit down and wait until she noticed me.\n\nI had only been seated for a minute or so when her breathing started to speed up and her eyes started to flutter, which indicated that she was waking up from whatever she was doing. While I can understand being a bit surprised by having someone sitting not more than five feet from you when you open your eyes, her reaction upon seeing me was quite a bit stronger than mere surprise. As soon as she got a glimpse of me, her eyes shot open, and she practically threw herself off the back of her chair in fright, landing sprawled on her back on the overturned chair. Worried, I rushed around the table to make sure that she wasn’t injured, and to help her back up.\n\nStill unable to keep her eyes off me, all she could mutter was ‘death’ over and over again. Getting kinda creeped out by this point I put my hands on her shoulder and lightly shook her, trying to get her to snap out of whatever she was experiencing. “Hey, are you okay? Snap out of it alright.” Finally her eyes seemed to clear and she looked up at me. “You sure scared me young’n, appearing outta nowhere like that.” She said as she dusted herself off and righted her chair. Though she appeared fine, I got the distinct feeling that her sudden change in mood, from scared out of her wits, to nice and friendly, was mostly forced, and anyway, I was more interested in what she had said than her emotional façade.\n\n“Why did you say ‘death’ when you first saw me?” I asked as I helped her back into her chair, \n\n“Don’t worry about it young’n, the knowledge’ll only bring you trouble. Now what brings you here?” she said, apparently trying to change the subject.\n\nI however, was having none of it. “Still, I’d like to know, it could be important.”\n\nShe appeared to carefully study me for a bit before answering, “You absolutely sure about it young’n? The knowledge’ll bring no good, and’ll surely bring much worry and trouble on your part. So, you absolutely sure you want to know?”\n\n“Yeah, I’m sure. Not sure why, but it seems important for some reason.”\n\nShe stared at me a few minutes, waiting for me to change my mind, or making sure I was serious, I don’t know. Finally she relented. “Alright then, but let no one say I didn’t warn you. The reason the first thing out of my mouth was ‘death’ was because as I was coming out of my meditations I felt an aura that only those in the last moments of their lives typically have. You, young one, are closer to the realm of death than any other person I have ever seen.”\n\n“Do you mean I’m going to die soon?” I asked, worried.\n\n“Now there’s the odd part. As far as your aura goes, you seem to be perfectly healthy; and yet its as though the energy of the afterlife surrounds you.” \n\nAs creeped out by what she had already said, what she said next put chills up and down my spine for weeks afterward.\n\n“It is as though you are already dead.”\n\nTry as I might, I couldn’t get anything else out of the woman, so finally I left, but I knew I would never forgot what she said.\n\n***\n\nComing out of my remembrance, I found that I had been cycling for a good hour or so, running on auto-pilot so to speak, and was almost at a train crossing. As the bars were down and I could see the train approaching in the distance I coasted to a stop and brought out a book I keep in one of my pockets, beginning to read as I waited for the train to pass. As the train got closer I began to feel odd, the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. Something was wrong, something was very wrong. Alas it seemed that my sixth sense was too late, for just as I decided that I should move, I heard a tremendous clamor as the train started to pass, and then suddenly a large screech, as if something had caught on the wheels of the train. I only had time to look up, seeing the train start to tip sideways, crashing toward me before everything went black.\n\n***\n\nAs I started to wake up, my first thought was that that had been one incredibly vivid dream. Opening my eyes however didn’t reveal the ceiling of my small tent as it should have. Instead it appeared to be a blue sky, almost as if I was outside. I also didn’t feel my sleeping bag underneath me either, further reinforcing the idea that I was in fact, outside. But wait, if I’m outside, then that would mean… Suddenly I was fully awake, and I shot bolt upright, only to fall right back down as dizziness overtook me.\n\n“Easy there young fella; you took quite a bump from that accident. Here, let my help you up.” Said a voice to my left, as I felt someone’s arms go under mine, lifting me into a sitting position. Looking over, I saw a man who appeared to be about in his mid thirties, dressed rather strangely. No wait, he’s not dressed strangely, his clothes just seem about eighty- years too late, I thought as I realized that he seemed to be wearing the garb of a businessman of around the 1930’s or so. Simple black dress pants, polished black shoes, white undershirt covered by an old fashioned grey suit. \n\n“You okay now?” He asked, snapping me out my staring. \n\n“Huh, oh, yeah, I’m fine, except for a rather splitting headache.” I replied, getting somewhat unsteadily to my feet, still a little dizzy.\n\n“That’s to be expected from an accident like that. I’m sure it’ll go away soon enough.”\n\nAt the mention of ‘accident’ my mind finally cleared enough for my to realize what was in front of me. The train was lying on its side, huge furrows of dirt had been thrown out by the tons of rushing metal sliding across the surface, leaving large mounds of dirt piled up next to the cabins. Cabins huh? Must be a passenger train. But wait, that means…OH NO! There’s probably people inside! Suddenly my headache was the last thing on my mind, as I ran to the cabins, searching for a way inside. Scrambling around the cabins, I finally figured that my best bet was to climb up to the top, and see if I could open one of the windows, but failing that, I could always just break one open and climb through. Luck was on my side as the dirt was high enough for me to clamber up the dirt pile onto the top, formerly side, of the now overturned cabin. Trying windows, it only took me two tries before I found one that I was able to open enough to slide through. Looking down to make sure I wouldn’t land on anything, I lowered myself through the window and let go.\n\nLooking around at the mess inside the car, I realized that anyone that I did find would probably be wounded rather badly, so I should get searching as soon as possible. I had barely turned around before I spotted a form huddled in between two seats, facing the wall, and shaking violently. Not wanting to startle him more than he already was, I approached as quietly as I could and crouched down before speaking. \"Hey, are you alright? Are you hurt?\"\n\nWhen he spun around to face me, I could see two things immediately. The most obvious thing was the rather large blood spot covering almost his entire left side. The second was that his eyes appeared to be nothing but white. What was left of his sanity was barely hanging on. I needed to calm him down before he did something dangerous.\n\n\"W-w-what hap-p-pened?\" he stuttered out, shaking wildly. \"I r-r-remember being in my s-e-eeat, hearing a loud noise, and, and, and then...waking up here c-c-covered in blood.\" His eyes searched mine desperately, searching for an answer, for reassurance that things would be fine. I didn't know myself what happened but I figured the best thing I could do was reassure him and get him out of the train, get him under the open sky.\n\n\"Hey, it's going to be okay. I need you to calm down. The blood doesn't seem to be flowing, so whatever caused it seems to be fine now. Now, I need you to get climb up on those seats and out that window for me. Once you're outside, there's a man there that should be able to take care of you. Can you do all that?\"\n\n\"W-w-what are you going to do?\"\n\n\"I'm going to keep looking for other people who might be hurt. I need you to get outside so you can relax and have all that blood looked at.\"\n\n\"O-okay.\" As I watched, he climbed up onto the seat and reached for the edge of the window, then hoisted himself up through and out.\n\nAlright, now that he's taken care of, I'd better see if there's anyone else in here. With that I set out to see if I could find anyone else.\n\n***\n\nAfter a half hour of searching, nothing I found in the cabin was making any sense. I found suitcases sitting in the overhead bins, purses and notebooks lying about, and all other sorts of things that implied that at least fifteen other people had been here, but not a single scrap of evidence to imply that they were here now. It was as though they had disappeared in the space of a second. This, is getting seriously weird. But who knows, maybe they were in a different car. I'll just get out and check the next one.\n\nAs I hoisted myself through the window I looked about for the guy with all the blood on him, hoping maybe he could shed some light on where everyone had been, but I couldn't see him no matter how much I looked. As though he's disappeared too...This is getting really, freakin' creepy.\n\nAs I was headed to the next car in line a voice called out to me. A rather familiar voice. \"You don't need to, I've already been to them.\"\n\n\"What do you mean? And where did that guy I sent out here go?\" I asked as the man from earlier walked towards me.\n\n\"He's gone, but don't worry, he'll be fine. I must say, you did even better than I expected. Certainly better than I did.\"\n\n\"What do you mean 'he's fine'? Where did he go? And what are you talking about?\" I asked, getting irritated. First I find I guy soaked in blood, who happens to be in a train where everyone else was missing, then he goes missing, and now this guy who I don't even know tells me that everything is just fine.\n\n\"Calm down young man, and I'm sure I'll be able to explain things to a satisfactory end. As to your first question, the man in question is where he should have been, where he would have been, had he not been so confused or frightened of the situation he found himself in. You helped him, calmed him down and allowed him to realize what had happened.\"\n\n\"And what, exactly had happened?\"\n\n\"To put it simply, he died.\"\n\n\"But, but...ah forget it.\"\n\n\"You seem to be taking this well. I know that when this happened to me, I was almost as traumatized as that poor soul you helped.\"\n\n\"After all that I've seen and heard in the past year, none of this seems to be to much of a shock. The only question I've got that is really bugging me, is 'Who are you?' \"\n\n\"About what you have seen in the past year, I believe I can explain that. The shadows, and likewise the voices I'm sure that you heard, are much like warnings, preparing you for what was to come. As you got closer and closer to your fate, you also got closer and closer to the realm of death, allowing you to see and hear the denizens of that realm.\"\n\n\"Well I suppose that makes sense, it certainly explains why no-one else could see anything. But you still haven't answered my question: Who are you?\"\n\nHe looked like he was trying to hold back a smile, and failing. \"Haven't you figured it out yet? I am what you will be. As other things change with time, so must I, and so it is time for another to take up the mantle, for you to take up the job that you have been hurtling towards your entire life, till yet again it is passed on to the one after you.\"\n\n\"I, am death\"\n", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "A Not So Chance Meeting

By: Chaos Blackwing
© 2006 Chaos Blackwing

I’d always liked the wilderness. Whether it be the mountains, forests, or in this case, the plains, I’d always felt better when I was surrounded by nature, rather than in the cities or towns built by man. Sitting on my bike seat, peddling on this road, surrounded by the waving grasses and brush, just seems to bring a calm that I never felt when I lived in the city.

Thoughts of the city and the life I used to live always seem to bring back the memories of why I now cycle the roads, buying provisions when I need to, sleeping where I can, and never staying in one place longer than I have to.

***

 The first indication of changes were the shadows. Ever so often I would see out of the corner of my eye what appeared to be people, but when I turned to look all I saw was a sort of person shaped shadow, hovering in the air. Odder yet, it seemed I was the only one who was able to see them. Whenever I tried pointing them out to the people with me, be it friends or relatives, they would only get weird looks on their faces and ask what I was talking about. While at first I only saw one or two of the shadows every month or so, within six months I was seeing them nearly everywhere I went. At that point it went from something my friends would joke about to something they suggested I go to a psychiatrist about, but I had distrusted psychiatrists ever since one had diagnosed a cousin of mine perfectly fine just a week prior to her jumping off of a three story building.

The next step in my seeming decent into madness was the voices. While they started as barely audible and closer to pure noise than actually speech, in less than a month they had reached normal volume and were almost understandable. It was at that point that I decided to leave the cities and my life behind, hoping that by doing so I would escape the shadows, but perhaps more importantly, the voices. Whatever they were saying, I had a very strong feeling it wasn’t something meant to be heard by mortal ears.

***

And so I left, saying goodbye to my job, my friends, and my family. For the most part they were sympathetic, understanding that I couldn’t continue as if nothing was happening for much longer without going completely insane. I sold my car and went out and bought the sturdiest bike I could find and then had the shop modify it to as near as indestructible as they could make it, then purchased a mini-trailer to hook to it to keep supplies in. Next up I stocked up on food and water, maps, a first aid kit, a few books for the road, spare clothes, and then I was off. Rather than doing any complex planning out of my route, I just picked a direction that seemed right and started to peddle.

***

That was a whole year ago, and besides one very strange encounter, it seems that I have, for the most part, escaped from the shades and voices that were plaguing me. And yet, that single encounter has been cause for many a nightmare, and has left my sleep, and my mind, troubled ever since.

***

A few months into my self imposed exile onto the roads and trails of the country, I ran a across a most interesting sight. Just outside of a town so small and obscure that it probably wasn’t on any national map I came across a large grouping of tents and old fashion wooden stalls. Racking my mind for what this could possibly be, I was finally stuck with the answer. It was a carnival, but one of which the likes of hadn’t been seen for decades, even centuries. Far more akin to the fairs and festivals of medieval Europe than the gaudy and flashy ones seen today, it was a sight and experience that I could not pass up.

Walking about, I found that my first impression was far more accurate than I could have known. The stalls contained many things, ranging from small charms and simple wooden toys, to ale and roast mutton. The attractions were likewise more suited to the dark ages than the twentieth century, consisting mostly of acrobats, men performing card tricks, and a horse trick show, featuring a woman performing various stunts on horseback.

Walking among the stalls and tents, one in particular caught my eye. Simple in appearance, nothing more than a plain black tent with a small wooden sign leaning against it, it nevertheless drew me in. Looking at the sign I finally realized exactly what it was: a fortuneteller’s tent.  Or more accurately, according to the sign, a ‘teller of fortunes, seer of the future, and reader of auras’. ‘Why not?’ I thought as I pushed the tent flap aside and stepped inside.

At first I couldn’t see anything, but as my eyes slowly adjusted to the dark I began to make out the contents of the tent. Much simpler than the insides of the tents of movie fortune tellers, and even the ones you sometimes find in street-corner shops, the contents of the tent appeared to consist of a simple wooden table with a white cloth covering it, a small bowl filled with water sitting in the center of the table, and who I took to be the fortune teller, sitting on the other side of the table, eyes closed, looking relaxed. Not quite sure what she was doing, I figured that the best thing to do was to sit down and wait until she noticed me.

I had only been seated for a minute or so when her breathing started to speed up and her eyes started to flutter, which indicated that she was waking up from whatever she was doing. While I can understand being a bit surprised by having someone sitting not more than five feet from you when you open your eyes, her reaction upon seeing me was quite a bit stronger than mere surprise. As soon as she got a glimpse of me, her eyes shot open, and she practically threw herself off the back of her chair in fright, landing sprawled on her back on the overturned chair. Worried, I rushed around the table to make sure that she wasn’t injured, and to help her back up.

Still unable to keep her eyes off me, all she could mutter was ‘death’ over and over again. Getting kinda creeped out by this point I put my hands on her shoulder and lightly shook her, trying to get her to snap out of whatever she was experiencing. “Hey, are you okay? Snap out of it alright.” Finally her eyes seemed to clear and she looked up at me. “You sure scared me young’n, appearing outta nowhere like that.” She said as she dusted herself off and righted her chair. Though she appeared fine, I got the distinct feeling that her sudden change in mood, from scared out of her wits, to nice and friendly, was mostly forced, and anyway, I was more interested in what she had said than her emotional façade.

“Why did you say ‘death’ when you first saw me?” I asked as I helped her back into her chair,

“Don’t worry about it young’n, the knowledge’ll only bring you trouble. Now what brings you here?” she said, apparently trying to change the subject.

I however, was having none of it. “Still, I’d like to know, it could be important.”

She appeared to carefully study me for a bit before answering, “You absolutely sure about it young’n? The knowledge’ll bring no good, and’ll surely bring much worry and trouble on your part. So, you absolutely sure you want to know?”

“Yeah, I’m sure. Not sure why, but it seems important for some reason.”

She stared at me a few minutes, waiting for me to change my mind, or making sure I was serious, I don’t know. Finally she relented. “Alright then, but let no one say I didn’t warn you. The reason the first thing out of my mouth was ‘death’ was because as I was coming out of my meditations I felt an aura that only those in the last moments of their lives typically have. You, young one, are closer to the realm of death than any other person I have ever seen.”

“Do you mean I’m going to die soon?” I asked, worried.

“Now there’s the odd part. As far as your aura goes, you seem to be perfectly healthy; and yet its as though the energy of the afterlife surrounds you.”

As creeped out by what she had already said, what she said next put chills up and down my spine for weeks afterward.

“It is as though you are already dead.”

Try as I might, I couldn’t get anything else out of the woman, so finally I left, but I knew I would never forgot what she said.

***

Coming out of my remembrance, I found that I had been cycling for a good hour or so, running on auto-pilot so to speak, and was almost at a train crossing. As the bars were down and I could see the train approaching in the distance I coasted to a stop and brought out a book I keep in one of my pockets, beginning to read as I waited for the train to pass. As the train got closer I began to feel odd, the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. Something was wrong, something was very wrong. Alas it seemed that my sixth sense was too late, for just as I decided that I should move, I heard a tremendous clamor as the train started to pass, and then suddenly a large screech, as if something had caught on the wheels of the train. I only had time to look up, seeing the train start to tip sideways, crashing toward me before everything went black.

***

As I started to wake up, my first thought was that that had been one incredibly vivid dream. Opening my eyes however didn’t reveal the ceiling of my small tent as it should have. Instead it appeared to be a blue sky, almost as if I was outside. I also didn’t feel my sleeping bag underneath me either, further reinforcing the idea that I was in fact, outside. But wait, if I’m outside, then that would mean… Suddenly I was fully awake, and I shot bolt upright, only to fall right back down as dizziness overtook me.

“Easy there young fella; you took quite a bump from that accident. Here, let my help you up.” Said a voice to my left, as I felt someone’s arms go under mine, lifting me into a sitting position. Looking over, I saw a man who appeared to be about in his mid thirties, dressed rather strangely. No wait, he’s not dressed strangely, his clothes just seem about eighty- years too late, I thought as I realized that he seemed to be wearing the garb of a businessman of around the 1930’s or so. Simple black dress pants, polished black shoes, white undershirt covered by an old fashioned grey suit.

“You okay now?” He asked, snapping me out my staring.

“Huh, oh, yeah, I’m fine, except for a rather splitting headache.” I replied, getting somewhat unsteadily to my feet, still a little dizzy.

“That’s to be expected from an accident like that. I’m sure it’ll go away soon enough.”

At the mention of ‘accident’ my mind finally cleared enough for my to realize what was in front of me. The train was lying on its side, huge furrows of dirt had been thrown out by the tons of rushing metal sliding across the surface, leaving large mounds of dirt piled up next to the cabins. Cabins huh? Must be a passenger train. But wait, that means…OH NO! There’s probably people inside! Suddenly my headache was the last thing on my mind, as I ran to the cabins, searching for a way inside. Scrambling around the cabins, I finally figured that my best bet was to climb up to the top, and see if I could open one of the windows, but failing that, I could always just break one open and climb through. Luck was on my side as the dirt was high enough for me to clamber up the dirt pile onto the top, formerly side, of the now overturned cabin. Trying windows, it only took me two tries before I found one that I was able to open enough to slide through. Looking down to make sure I wouldn’t land on anything, I lowered myself through the window and let go.

Looking around at the mess inside the car, I realized that anyone that I did find would probably be wounded rather badly, so I should get searching as soon as possible. I had barely turned around before I spotted a form huddled in between two seats, facing the wall, and shaking violently. Not wanting to startle him more than he already was, I approached as quietly as I could and crouched down before speaking. "Hey, are you alright? Are you hurt?"

When he spun around to face me, I could see two things immediately. The most obvious thing was the rather large blood spot covering almost his entire left side. The second was that his eyes appeared to be nothing but white. What was left of his sanity was barely hanging on. I needed to calm him down before he did something dangerous.

"W-w-what hap-p-pened?" he stuttered out, shaking wildly. "I r-r-remember being in my s-e-eeat, hearing a loud noise, and, and, and then...waking up here c-c-covered in blood." His eyes searched mine desperately, searching for an answer, for reassurance that things would be fine. I didn't know myself what happened but I figured the best thing I could do was reassure him and get him out of the train, get him under the open sky.

"Hey, it's going to be okay. I need you to calm down. The blood doesn't seem to be flowing, so whatever caused it seems to be fine now. Now, I need you to get climb up on those seats and out that window for me. Once you're outside, there's a man there that should be able to take care of you. Can you do all that?"

"W-w-what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to keep looking for other people who might be hurt. I need you to get outside so you can relax and have all that blood looked at."

"O-okay." As I watched, he climbed up onto the seat and reached for the edge of the window, then hoisted himself up through and out.

Alright, now that he's taken care of, I'd better see if there's anyone else in here. With that I set out to see if I could find anyone else.

***

After a half hour of searching, nothing I found in the cabin was making any sense. I found suitcases sitting in the overhead bins, purses and notebooks lying about, and all other sorts of things that implied that at least fifteen other people had been here, but not a single scrap of evidence to imply that they were here now. It was as though they had disappeared in the space of a second. This, is getting seriously weird. But who knows, maybe they were in a different car. I'll just get out and check the next one.

As I hoisted myself through the window I looked about for the guy with all the blood on him, hoping maybe he could shed some light on where everyone had been, but I couldn't see him no matter how much I looked. As though he's disappeared too...This is getting really, freakin' creepy.

As I was headed to the next car in line a voice called out to me. A rather familiar voice. "You don't need to, I've already been to them."

"What do you mean? And where did that guy I sent out here go?" I asked as the man from earlier walked towards me.

"He's gone, but don't worry, he'll be fine. I must say, you did even better than I expected. Certainly better than I did."

"What do you mean 'he's fine'? Where did he go? And what are you talking about?" I asked, getting irritated. First I find I guy soaked in blood, who happens to be in a train where everyone else was missing, then he goes missing, and now this guy who I don't even know tells me that everything is just fine.

"Calm down young man, and I'm sure I'll be able to explain things to a satisfactory end. As to your first question, the man in question is where he should have been, where he would have been, had he not been so  confused or frightened of the situation he found himself in. You helped him, calmed him down and allowed him to realize what had happened."

"And what, exactly had happened?"

"To put it simply, he died."

"But, but...ah forget it."

"You seem to be taking this well. I know that when this happened to me, I was almost as traumatized as that poor soul you helped."

"After all that I've seen and heard in the past year, none of this seems to be to much of a shock. The only question I've got that is really bugging me, is 'Who are you?' "

"About what you have seen in the past year, I believe I can explain that. The shadows, and likewise the voices I'm sure that you heard, are much like warnings, preparing you for what was to come. As you got closer and closer to your fate, you also got closer and closer to the realm of death, allowing you to see and hear the denizens of that realm."

"Well I suppose that makes sense, it certainly explains why no-one else could see anything. But you still haven't answered my question: Who are you?"

He looked like he was trying to hold back a smile, and failing. "Haven't you figured it out yet? I am what you will be. As other things change with time, so must I, and so it is time for another to take up the mantle, for you to take up the job that you have been hurtling towards your entire life, till yet again it is passed on to the one after you."

"I, am death"
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