Writing Championships #6

Pink Procrastinators

Warnings: Blood, murder, semi-graphic violence

"-And then, he started running! Like, seriously! Out of nowhere, it was hilarious!"

Laughter filled the compartment, accompanying the ever present humm from the engine. The train heaved forward, racing across the land at a remarkable pace. It was warm in the train, and comforting; the sound of people talking blurred into the background.

A trenchcoat-bearing man sipped at a cup of coffee, surrounded by his friends. He smirked as the story continued to go on.

"-And I, of course, was like 'What! You can't do that, are you crazy!' and he was all like 'I kno-"

The sentence was caught off as the train shook. The man's coffee sprayed everywhere, including his shirt. He yelped in surprise of the hot liquid flying all over the room.

He huffed in annoyance, but it really was the least of his troubles. The lights began to flicker off and on, until they finally went off completely.

Cue the absolute chaos.

People began yelling, running out of their compartments, tripping over bags and each other, slinging items in their wake. It was like a wild radio had gone loose. The travelers bolted in all different directions like it was a reenactment of Ratatouille.

Suddenly, a shrill, horribly loud scream sounded from a compartment, making all of the other noise abruptly stop except for the humming engine.

A pause. 

Then everyone was talking again. Running over to where they heard the scream, and each getting horrified when they found their shoes damped in sticky blood.

Someone banged the door of the compartment that Etho, Cleo and Zedaph sat. Etho looked up from his book as Cleo and Zedaph put their playing cards aside. "Is something wrong, besides the lights?" Etho asked, his voice calm, not knowing the grim news their visitor carried. Their visitor was Stres, her face was full of horror "We found Doc dead. He was lying on the floor, dead, blood all around him." The air suddenly changed, Cleo and Zedaph's vibe going from slightly annoyed to tense. Etho took out a notebook, staring to take notes.

"Could you take us to the body?"

When the trio arrived at the body it was hid under a piece of cloth. "Shall I?" Cleo asked, kneeling next to the body. Zedaph nodded and Cleo took off the cloth revealing the murderer's victim. It was a clean murder, killed with a single cut. They started to work on the mystery.

After they were done with it they arrived at the wagon everybody should be in. But when they arrived they came across a bad surprıse.

Bodies scattered all around the train, Etho, Zedaph and Cleo all were fucking mortified, trying to find the murderer.

They didn't want to go. They were all so scared, huddled together, like penguins trying to stay warm.

If they weren't careful the murderer could come around any corner and make them take their last breaths.

They walked through the eerily dark train compartments, opening doors, tripping and stepping over dead friends' bodies.

"I-I'm scared.." Zedaph murmured, "I don't know if these are our last moments together or will we figure this out? I think of death so much like a memory. When's it gonna get me? Now, murderer a few feet ahead of me?" Zed nervously ranted.

Etho spotted the silver glint of a knife in the eerie darkness ahead of them and tensed up. He whimpered slightly.

"Glint.. knife... shi- AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" He screamed, falling to the ground, knife penetrating through his chest as he took his last strained breath, a look of horror etched onto the albino's face.

Zedaph screamed and passed out, body dropping to the ground, but chest still rising unlike so many others.

Not long after, Cleo heard a familiar scream and both screams and etho's face haunting her.

She was close to hyperventilating.

-----

Cleo looked around the dark train cart, squinting her eyes in order to make out the shape of a person in the distance.

It had seemed impossible, but the lights dimmed even further, making Cleo's eyesight useless now. She reached a hand out, grasping at a seat to help her maneuver around the lifeless bodies filling the floor. Staining it red.

She walked in the direction she knew where the person was. And even after all her hard work, the bodies that went limp became harder to tell apart. She walked forward, feeling the blood seeping into the floor spread thin around her steps.

Soon enough, she reached the end of the cart, and reached out for the person, stumbling forward with a gasp. A knife ran through her back, blood sinking into her clothes and her breathing slowly stuttered out and her heartbeat became sporadic.

Cleo shut her eyes, hands clenched into fists before losing as her strength left her. She sank down to the floor, hearing a familiar voice hum delightfully

She tilted her head up, her body slowly numbing the pain as blood poured out of her back.

Her eyes landed on a figure, their large, maniacal eyes now clear as day.

"You're a monster," she spat at Keralis, "How could you do this to your friends?"

"Ah, Cleo, you all were never my friends. Just...an obstacle," he replied, a sinister grin stretching further across his face as Cleos chest stopped rising, her glare disappearing, and heartbeat stopping.

He walked across the train cart, the lights slowly coming on. Bodies still laying on the floor. He missed stepping on each of them, carefully.

He came to the door, grabbing the handle and easily opening it. He walked out into the barren landscape, his laugh echoing across the area. Haunting all those who heard it.

Score: 11 (Spectators' Favourite)