The train stopped in the middle of the dark.
Not the way an ordinary train stopped while waiting for a signal. The car shuddered without warning, the lights went out, and the engine noise vanished as if something outside had swallowed it whole.
Kino groped along the carriage wall.
“I think I have to go there, Kin.”
Vier appeared behind the connecting door, his pale face lit by the glow of his phone.
“What do you mean?” Kino turned. “I’m coming with you.”
“No. It’s dangerous. Hide here.”
“But, Vi—”
“Vier!”
Running footsteps came from the next carriage. Arlan appeared, drenched in sweat and gasping for breath.
Kino immediately raised his phone.
[CHAT ON]
Kino: Arlan is back. He’s with me now.
Jidan: What the hell, Kin? I just saw Arlan walking in the front carriage. I saw him clearly.
Kino: No! Arlan is with me right now, Ji! Who did you see?
Naren: I’m hiding in the bathroom. Arlan is in the bathroom next to me.
Gama: Fuck. So there really is a ghost?
Gama: I’m sure the ghost is Arlan! Run, Kin! The Arlan beside you is fake!
Mario: Listen to me. I’m looking at Handra right now. But he looks really strange, like a ghost. He’s standing stiffly in front of me.
Kino: Don’t drive me insane! Then who is standing beside me?
Jidan: Arlan is looking straight at me now.
[CHAT OFF]
Arlan beside Kino stared at him with tearful eyes. Again and again, he showed Kino his phone screen. No Service.
“Kin, I swear I’m real,” he said. “My phone has no signal. I can’t send messages. Don’t listen to Gama or Jidan.”
In another carriage, the real Arlan kept striking at his phone screen. His messages failed to send. A red hourglass spun beside every warning that never reached the group.
“KINO! That isn’t me!” he shouted, though his voice was swallowed by distance and steel walls.
Kino looked at the Arlan in front of him. The figure seemed too frightened to lie. That was exactly why Kino began to doubt him.
Then his thoughts stopped at Vier.
Vier had arrived alone. No one truly knew him before that night. Vier had also been the one who held Kino back when Arlan first ran.
Kino typed quickly.
[CHAT ON]
Kino: Gam, don’t trust Vier! Don’t meet him!
Gama: What now?
Kino: Arlan and Handra came with me from the beginning. There’s no way they suddenly turned into ghosts. Vier came alone, and nobody knows who he really is. He held me back earlier, and now he’s pretending to come to you!
Jidan: He has a point. Vier has been the most suspicious from the start.
Mario: Stop accusing each other! Handra is still in front of me, and he is definitely not human!
Gama: Vier! Don’t come any closer! If you do, I’ll hit you with this chair!
Vier: Kin, are you insane? I’m human! I held you back because it was dangerous!
[CHAT OFF]
The message had barely been sent when the sliding door in front of Vier began to move by itself.
Screeech.
Cold air flowed in from the next carriage. Vier raised his phone flashlight.
Behind the door stood someone wearing the same jacket, with the same face and the same eyes.
The fake Vier smiled.
Before Vier could scream, the creature clamped a hand over his mouth. It dragged him into a dark compartment and locked the door from the outside.
In the cargo carriage, Mario rubbed his eyes. Handra, who had been standing stiffly a moment before, had vanished.
“Shit! He’s gone!”
Meanwhile, the fake Arlan was still sitting beside Kino. When the sliding door opened violently, the real Arlan burst in carrying a door bar.
“KINO! Don’t get near him! He isn’t me!”
Kino backed away until his spine struck the wall. Two Arlans stood before him.
“Fuck! Which one is real?”
The fake Arlan stopped crying. His face suddenly went blank. A wide smile split his features, then his body dissolved into black smoke and disappeared into the darkness.
The real Arlan knelt beside Kino.
“I’m real, Kin. I’ve been in the next carriage the whole time. My phone stopped working.”
Kino was still shaking. “We have to find Gama. Vier is going to attack him.”
They found Naren hiding near the bathroom. The three of them ran to the carriage where Gama was hiding.
The door was battered from outside.
“I’ll hit you, Vier!” Gama raised the metal chair.
“Gam! It’s me!”
Gama recognized Kino, Arlan, and Naren, then locked the door again. For a few seconds, they felt safe.
Then came a knock.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
“Gama! Open up! Vier is going to kill me!”
It was Abim’s voice.
Arlan reached for the door, but Naren stopped him.
“Don’t! That creature has been using the chat the whole time. It could be pretending to be Abim to make us open the door.”
The knocking became pounding.
“GAMA! OPEN!”
Through the frosted glass, Abim’s silhouette appeared to be crying. But before anyone moved, a tall shadow rose behind him.
The fake Vier raised a knife.
Abim blocked the first strike. He slammed the creature in the chest, punched its jaw, and kicked its knee. The fake Vier did not cry out. Its body could be beaten, but its smile never changed.
When the creature threw Abim down and aimed the knife at his chest, Mario appeared at the end of the corridor.
“ABIM!”
Mario charged. The fight continued outside the door, but Abim’s blood quickly smeared across the glass.
Gama stared at Mario’s silhouette kneeling on the floor, his hands covered in blood.
“No wonder,” Naren whispered. “Mario is the ghost’s right hand.”
“Open the door!” Mario shouted. “Abim is still alive!”
“Go away, Mario!” Gama shouted back. “I don’t trust you anymore!”
Jidan appeared a few moments later. Together, he and Mario finally convinced Gama that Abim was alive. The door opened. Everyone gathered in the same carriage, including Abim, who was badly wounded.
They tried to open the exit, but it was jammed. The train had become a steel room with no way home.
“What about Handra?” Arlan asked.
“I saw him in the cargo carriage,” Mario said. “He stood like a corpse. When I blinked, he vanished.”
“So Handra is—” Kino stopped.
“Don’t start accusing people again,” Mario cut in. “We need to find a way out.”
Jidan gave a small laugh. The sound was wrong.
“You haven’t changed, Mar. Still selfish as ever.”
Mario stared at him. “What do you mean?”
Jidan lifted his face. His skin trembled like the surface of water. It cracked, sagged, and changed into the face of a young man none of them had seen for four years.
Sean.
Everyone froze.
“No one gets out of here,” Sean said. “You all have to feel what I felt.”
Abim, who had been lying on the floor, opened his eyes.
“Sean… enough.”
An old memory struck him.
Four years earlier, Jidan had found Sean on the same train. Sean had not boarded by accident. He had come to confront the people who had spread lies about him and driven him away. During the journey, Sean argued with someone.
When the accident happened, Jidan saw Sean pushed from the train. The person who did it was Gama.
Mario had seen that Sean was still alive and asking for help. But Mario chose to run after Jidan, who had been separated in another carriage. After the accident, Mario hid everything. Jidan eventually found out and ended their relationship.
Sean had not died because of the accident.
He had died because he was abandoned.
“Sean…” Kino lowered his head. “I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.”
Sean did not answer. His gaze shifted to Gama and Naren.
Gama slowly fell to his knees.
“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice breaking. “I didn’t mean to. I didn’t know he was Abim’s brother.”
Abim turned sharply.
“What?”
Jidan spoke quietly. “He pushed Sean.”
Abim stiffened. “Gama?”
“Bim, I can explain—”
“You killed my brother!”
Abim rose and swung his fist. Sean caught his arm before it struck Gama’s face.
“Don’t,” Sean said.
Abim stared at him, breathing in broken gasps. “Why are you stopping me?”
Sean looked at everyone.
“Because I don’t only want to kill you. I want you to remember everything. I want you to look at one another and understand that everyone here once chose to remain silent.”
The train lights came back on.
For one second.
In that white flash, Kino saw every face around him turn pale. Behind them, the windows reflected other figures standing silently in every carriage.
Handra. Vier. And many faces he did not recognize.
The lights went out again.
From the train’s speaker came Sean’s voice, even though Sean stood directly before them.
“The journey has just begun.”
The train began moving again.
This time, toward the site of the accident from four years ago.