THE AFTERMATH | BEING HUMAN (UK)

PROLOGUE

Amanda stood on the platform, looking down at her phone with anticipation. It was almost five o'clock. If the call was going to come, it was going to have to come soon. She sighed and closed her eyes, stuffing her phone back in her pocket and shaking her head. She would try her best not to let the impending rejection ruin her night out.

"Miss? Are you alright?"

"Hmm?" Amanda opened her eyes and turned around. Next to her was a pretty brunette with a worried look on her face. "Oh! Yeah, I'm quite alright. Just waiting on a call."

"Ah..." The stranger gave her a knowing look. "Boyfriend?"

Amanda laughed and shook her head. "God, I wish. No, I'm supposed to find out if I got a job this evening. It's kind of important. Like, dream job important."

"Oh, wow. Best of luck to you then." The brunette said. She sounded Scottish. "What job is it?"

"Publishing firm." Amanda said with a smile. "I want to be a published writer, so this is the best way to get my foot in the door, you know?"

She nodded. "What do you write about?"

"Oh, you're going to think it's stupid. Or childish, or something."

"No! No judgement, cross my heart."

Amanda playfully rolled her eyes with a grin. "I like writing fantasy. All that paranormal stuff, it's always been so interesting to me. And, oh god, the psychology behind all of that literature, and..." The stranger had an unreadable look on her face. "And... you probably don't care."

The brunette shook her head. "Of course I care! I think it's cool!"

"Really?"

"Are you superstitious at all?" She asked.

Amanda shrugged. "Well, I'm not not superstitious. I've just never seen any proof. What about you?" She smiled. "Do you believe in the monsters under the bed?"

The brunette, taking her curly hair out of a ponytail and adjusting the cuffs on her denim jacket, smiled. She smiled in such a mystifying way that Amanda was almost sure she knew something no one else on that platform did. "I think that the monsters are more than just under the bed."

Amanda wasn't sure what to say to that. Thankfully, she didn't have to say anything as the train arrived just in time. She turned around as it stopped moving. "Well... good chat!"

"Yeah! Good luck on the job!" The brunette said as Amanda got on the train.

As soon as she stepped on, Amanda saw the woman walk over to a man who she couldn't quite see. They talked for a few seconds then, got on the train on another car.

Amanda found a seat towards the front end of the car, right by the train bathroom. It was the only place she could end up sitting alone, so she took it, setting her bag down. Finally, her phone rang. She immediately tucked her red hair behind one ear and took out her phone, pressing answer.

"Hello?...Yes, speaking... Oh that would be wonderful!... Yes! Yes I can start next week... o-oh. Hello? Hello? Damn tunnels..."

She hung up the phone, opting to send a very apologetic email to her new employers when she got home. As she put her phone back in her pocket, the train stopped. "What the fuck..."

An announcement came on over the speakers about a delay on the tracks and everyone in the train car collectively groaned. The message of the speaker quickly turned to screams and various other odd noises, putting everyone in the train car on edge. The lights began flickering as well

There was a scream coming from the back of the train car. Amanda immediately turned around to see two people standing at each end of the aisle. She recognized them as the brunette and the man she was with on the platform. Though the very first thing Amanda saw was the fangs, then the black eyes, then the blood on their faces, and finally the bodies starting to drop.

Amanda screamed, just like everyone else in the train car, and made for the bathroom, locking the door behind her. It was a flimsy mechanism, but it was all she had. Everything happened so quickly. It seemed like just ten seconds before the door was rattling. She continued to scream.

The two murderers-no, monsters-were talking, yelling rather. But Amanda couldn't make out what they were saying over her own panic and the beating of her hearty. She knew they were taunts, ugly terrifying threats, horrible things that would always stay in the peripherals of her mind. Until it went quiet.

She stopped screaming, curled up and shaking on the ground, tears still pouring. Amanda heard the sound of a door opening, one belonging to the outside of the train. Suddenly, the lights in the bathroom came back on.

There was another noise. A yell. Some commotion. And then more silence. It was deafening. After Amanda decided that she would go mad listening to herself breathe any longer. She slowly stood up and unlocked the door, sliding it open.

It was complete carnage in the train car. Mangled, bloody bodies were everywhere. About twenty of them. The redhead gasped and stepped back, running into something behind her. Though it turned out that something had arms.

She was shoved into the now closed door by the man with black eyes. The brunette was standing next to him, just watching.

"What... What are you?" Amanda choked out with a sob.

He laughed. She smiled and spoke with an eerily mellifluous voice. "Haven't you figured it out, darling? We're the monsters under the bed."

The man opened his mouth to reveal two fangs. Amanda screamed and struggled. "Fucking humanity..." He said with a guttural bitterness, shoving her again. "High and mighty. Clueless and cruel."

Amanda felt fangs in her throat for about two seconds before he was pulled away.

"Daisy, what-"

"The trains about to move again dear." She said. "Leave her. It's not like she saw anything anyone would believe."

The man scoffed and let the supposed Daisy drag him by the hand towards to door leading out of the train. Amanda's heart had been pounding so fast that it hardly came as a surprise to her when she fainted.

And Daisy was right. When the train pulled in, when she was found unconscious and wounded, when the police were called, she didn't have single a believable word to utter. In a daze, she told them she'd ran to the bathroom then blacked out and couldn't remember anything past that.

All she had were her twisted, nightmarish memories. Ones that no one would ever be able to hear.