Runaway Train

Act II - Scene 4

Today was proving to be more question than answer, with enough terror to beat out both.

Johnny breathed panicked gasps as he huddled beneath the table with the others. His eyes were fixed on the end of it, out of which he could still see the legs and feet of the newcomer (Lillian, a servant of Death himself, apparently). If the situation were different, he may have liked to breathe the air in now; it had become sweet all of the sudden, a familiar floral scent to it—lilies, he realized as he recalled his sister's perfume. It was clear the smell wasn't from that, though; it faintly lingered all through the air, not like how perfume did. More like real flowers, but he hadn't seen any in the room before. That only added to the questions in his head. Though he was very afraid, his mind was a series of "how"s and "why"s and "what"s. It almost made him curious enough to pop out and take a peek. Almost.

"Oh Tuxy," he heard Lillian mutter. "You better not have been hurt, dumb dumb. Silly bunny." A pleased kind of squeaking followed. She's... talking to that rabbit, I guess? Maybe even petting it...? "You know Death would kill me, right? You want that?" It honked in reply. "Yeah right." Apparently she was done with threatening Ed for the moment.

To Johnny's dismay, Orla couldn't help but giggle. She'd hidden under the table with the rest of them, but it seemed their concealment wouldn't last for much longer now. "Never knew Death was so fond of rabbits, ay?" she snickered.

"Quiet!!" Sally whisper-screamed at her, covering her mouth. But the damage had been done; the strange girl fell silent, clearly having heard them. Her stance shifted around. She was looking for the source of the noise. Johnny's heart beat faster and faster. The silence pounded in his ears. Then, after a moment, the girl stopped her movement. Johnny sighed in relief. Maybe, by some miracle, she'd given up and decided to ignore the sound.

That hope was quickly snuffed out. To his renewed horror, Lillian bent down to look right at them. He screeched and tried to back away, but he bumped into Curtis. His panic began to spiral out of control. He couldn't get out backwards, couldn't go out the side (heavy dining room chairs blocked his way), and he certainly couldn't go through her. He was trapped. They all were. Despair quickly began to sink in.

He probably could have guessed her face would have been covered by a mask, but the deep emptiness of its eyes and chilling white of its surface sent chills down his spine all the same. It looked more similar to the other reaper's mask than the one worn by the rabbit in her arms, with a small slit for breathing at whereabouts the nose might be and gold roman numerals printed on the forehead (though the number was "I" rather than "III," in this case). However, the mask was where the similarities to that beast ended; despite everything, she seemed... mostly human. Though he did spot white rabbit ears springing from her head, everything else he could see just looked like... a normal young lady. But yet she most certainly wasn't. She wasn't fully a reaper, but not quite a human either. Then... what is she...?

She looked over all of them dismissively, ending with an exaggerated "ugh." "This is going to be so annoying," she groaned.

Sally, seeming to have gained some courage now that she could see what she was dealing with, scoffed. "What's going to be annoying?" she said. "We're just minding our own business! We're not with that brute—oh, what was it—Ed. We're not with that man."

"Well, you picked a bad place to do your business," the girl snapped. "The very fact that you're here at all makes you my biggest problem!"

"This is just what I meant," Ed cut in. He must've been trying to sit up; the whole table shook with his laboured movements and his words were growled through his teeth. "This train is for dead things. You all aren't meant to be here."

"Oh, you already explained all that?" Lillian asked. "Good. Then you already know that me killing you guys now won't be anything personal. It's just life. Well, death. Whatever. You get it." Johnny's heart dropped. Before any of them could react, Lillian snapped her fingers. A storm of pink light and flower petals burst from between them, flying under the table. Johnny screamed as it swept them all out from under the table. The force tossed them around and up, like a sadistic carnival ride with none of the fun and all of the danger. He shut his eyes tight. Tears leaked through the cracks. Where the storm blustered against him, his skin was touched by a strange pain; it was almost burning, sort of as a scraped knee did. This was far, far worse though. It was almost torture. Please, please let us live! Let this nightmare end!

"OW! God, fffff-"

Just like that, the tossing was over. Johnny and the others fell to the floor in a heap. The pink storm dissipated around them, petals shimmering away into nothingness. He struggled around to look at what had happened. Keeled over on the floor was Lillian, clutching her stomach. She hissed out a string of curses the likes of which Johnny had never heard before (and Johnny had known plenty of rowdy guys back at the studio, so that was saying a lot; it was almost impressive). Standing above her, even more ragged than usual, was Ed, his shovel in hand. Where Tuxy had gone to was lost on everyone involved, and Johnny was no exception.

"That wasn't fair at ALL," Lillian screeched. "That HURT, you know!"

"You'll get over it. I could've done worse." Ed wasn't smiling as he usually did; rather, his jaw was set in grim severity. His eyes scanned and re-scanned the scene, evidently hunting for the mask-wearing rabbit. On finding nothing, he grumbled disappointedly. "Well? Get moving!" he shouted over his shoulder to them all. "If you want to live for now, then come on!"

Someone slid out from under him, and someone else got off of him. Soon enough, they were all stood up and pressing through the door they'd just been shoved against by that horrid pink storm. Ed held it open for them. As he pushed through, Johnny caught a certain glint in his eyes of cold fire, something almost... kindred. Real mercy. Maybe there could be something other than cruelty in him, after all. It hadn't quite surfaced yet, but there it was, deep under. He would've said thank you if there was time.

Another grunt from Lillian caught his attention just as he made his way through the threshold. She staggered to her feet, still holding herself. If she did have a face under that mask, he just knew it would be scowling. "HEY!! COME GET THEM!" she called. "GET OUT HERE, DEMONS! COME AND GET THE MORTALS!"