Runaway Train

Act II - Scene 7

The grey, cloudy sky—that was all Johnny could see.

It was only, what, ten minutes? To him, it could've been an hour or more. Stuck looking up into the storm, trapped in his own limp body, and with that awful strangling force wrapped around him—and that wasn't even mentioning the terror of it all—it just turned every second into a lifetime. His eyes, unable to even blink, filled up with tears, both from the rain and from himself. All he could feel was them flowing down his cheeks. All he could do was cry. All he could see was grey. What was happening? Was everyone else seized by this force? Were the demons? And if those creatures weren't stopped... if he could have, Johnny would've shaken at that thought. If any of them did anything, moved a claw against anyone, he wouldn't be able to do anything to stop them. A familiar sense of uselessness crept up on him again, joining his fear. The amount of the tears he'd cried himself versus the ones put in his eyes tipped to the former side just a little. For that time, all was hopeless. The only thought in his mind was "please, let me go!"

Suddenly, everything jostled to one side (Johnny felt himself get knocked around, but his view didn't change much) and then the boat stopped. The silence stretched on a moment longer. Had they finally reached the end? Then what would happen to him now? Anxiety sped his mind up. Why am I not free yet? We're here, what's—

Then, all at once, the world slammed back into him. The sound, the feel of the rain soaking him to the bone—he gasped the most starved breath he'd ever taken as his gaze finally broke from the sky. The first thought upon him was the demons. The demons- everyone else, oh God what's happened?! His wide eyes darted around the dinghy, anxiety all in them. They had gotten to the dock on the other side of the car, it seemed, as they were up against another shabby wooden structure. To his relief and surprise, the demons were all running across it and out the door, away from the dinghy. Strangely, their tails hung between their legs, like dogs running in fear. As for everyone else, they seemed fine enough; Orla looked to be coming out of the same state he'd just been in, but everyone else seemed alert, if not a little terrified. Well, everyone but Salem and Anne, of course.

The girl was frowning in disappointment, her face still a touch red with emotion. She watched the demons go sadly, then turned to look down at her hands where they lay folded in her lap. "I wish I could have played with them... I didn't mean to make them upset."

Sally's shaken expression suddenly sharpened to a point of shock, almost in awe. "Made them upset- you're saying you did all that?" she asked. An impressed puff of air left her afterward. "Not bad at all..."

Salem, who had been in a state of giddy wonder this whole time, chimed in as usual: "Yeah, that was her!! Isn't she awesome??" they exclaimed. Despite their praise, Anne remained mournful, but distinctly not sorry about what she'd done to them. She... this little girl, she had made that force. She had held their souls hostage. It had been enough to scare even demons away. She wasn't even affected by what she'd done to them now. Almost involuntarily, Johnny shrank back against the wooden sides of the boat.

Breaking out of his own stupor, Curtis stood straight up in the dinghy. A dark look had suddenly come over his face. Without any hesitation, he grabbed Anne's arm and took a step out onto the dock, yanking her after him. Though the way he was dragging her was rough enough to make Johnny flinch in sympathy, she herself was strangely unaffected; she seemed to go limp, like a ragdoll, the moment her arm was bound in Curtis' grip. He recognized a familiar sense of helplessness in her young eyes; though she had just put them through all this terror, Johnny knew this was too far. Whatever Curtis thought he was doing, this was not at all the way to go about it.

Salem must have agreed, because they were pulling back on Anne's other arm, futilely fighting against the sailor's strength. "Hey, lay off!" they cried.

"You heartless brute!" Sally joined in, standing as well. "Do you have one bone in your body that isn't so vicious? She's just a little girl!"

"SHE'S DANGEROUS!!" Curtis snapped, whirling on them all. "She's dangerous, and I'm getting rid of her! If she's gonna freeze us up just to get what she wants, she has to go." His eyes cut through them all, clean and cold as a knife. His face twisted in pure anger, his lips almost in a snarl. Johnny shrunk away again, out of fear from a much more immediately dangerous-seeming source than the limp girl in Curtis' hands.

"If Anne's going, then- then I'm going too!" Salem suddenly said, trying to put on a brave face. "And I mean it!" To emphasize their point, they stood up and took a step out of the dinghy.

They didn't make it far away before Sally gently held them back. "No, you're staying right here! No one is leaving, certainly not children!" Without any of the fear Johnny himself felt, she reached up and shoved Curtis away from Anne, further back onto the dock. "Really now, you're just being plain cruel!"

"Yes, exactly!" Orla chirruped. "I was one of the ones just frozen, not you, and I wouldn't like to see the kids off on their own! Have a heart, sir!" She stood behind Sally in support, hands on her shoulders, as if she was trying to scare Curtis off from potential retaliation by seeming all big and tough. Though he was absolutely sure she was ready to fight, Johnny also got the impression she probably didn't actually care much about the kids. Either way, he was growing more and more afraid that her defense might be necessary.

The sailor could see he was slowly becoming outnumbered again, and Johnny knew he did. He glared out from under his brow at all of them, seeming to seethe and stew in bitterness now. However, there was something else in his eyes too, something Johnny almost couldn't believe was really there. Was it... a glimmer of anxiety? Distress? Perhaps... fear? It was all muddled and complicated, tangled up like an unruly knot, but it was sure there. Something about it bolstered Johnny's spirits and dispelled a little bit of his own fear. He sat up properly again, finishing with the cowering and shrinking. "We all know how dangerous this place can be," he said. "We can't just throw them out. Come on, Curtis!"

Their eyes met for a moment, rivalling each other yet again. After a moment, he finally relented; the anger in his eyes dissipated, leaving only bitterness and that strange something behind it. With a frustrated huff, Curtis began to storm off to the far corner of the dock. "We'll wait for that other threat to our wellbeing to get here, I guess," he muttered, still handing out orders despite his lack of power to be making them. Johnny got the impression he just felt better doing it right now. "We'll decide what to do then. Now everyone get out of the boat and be quiet."

Though all the companions were without a doubt indignant at this, there wasn't much else to do; they'd already all agreed they weren't leaving without Ed, after all. One after the other, the passengers helped each other out of the little dinghy. All strayed far away from Curtis, where he paced up and down one side. Soon enough, everyone was settled. All that was left to do was wait.