The Train of the Dead

Chapter Four

Michael almost jumped out of his skin, his heart pounding. The hand had left his arm, but he still felt the icy chills, almost numbing him. He whirred around to see the little girl staring at him, her dark eyes wide with panicked desperation.

Before he could reply or do anything, he heard his stepmother calling to him. "Michael, I found the bathroom. Do you mind if I go in first?"

Michael stepped away from the girl. The pleading look in her eyes sent shudders down his spine. It was almost more frightening than her blank expression from before. And she had been so cold – as cold as a corpse, not a young girl.

But what unnerved him even more was her words – the desperate, earnest warning.

"Michael?" Michael jumped at his stepmother's voice. She was staring at him with concern in her own eyes. "Is everything alright?"

"Uh... yeah," Michael replied. "You go first."

As she disappeared into the bathroom, Michael quickly stepped into the next carriage, desperate to be away from the creepy passengers. To his relief, it was mostly empty. There were only three passengers here – two boys and a girl, slightly older than him. About the same age as the kids on the hike. Their seats were faced away from Michael, their heads bowed as they muttered to each other. One of the boys was talking louder than the other two.

Michael gasped as he recognized his voice. Gasped a little too loudly. They all turned to stare at him, and Michael winced, not wanting to see more creepy expressions staring at him. Two of them had the same eerie gazes for a moment, but one of the boys was staring at Michael in surprise. Michael did as well after recognizing him.

Was that Riku?

"Michael? Is that you?" Riku called, standing up and stepping out of his seat to face Michael. He was sure of it now. He wore the same black and green camouflage shirt, and had the same short, slightly messy hair.

"Uh... yeah," Michael replied, both relieved and wary. "Funny we ran into each other again – isn't it?"

At first, he thought the boy and girl in the carriage with him were his friends from the hike, but they looked different. They were wearing similarly old-fashioned clothes as the other passengers. The girl seemed to be dressed in some kind of school uniform, with a white shirt above her knees, a dark grey vest, and long grey socks in black shoes. She had a pale pink cherry blossom clip – a kanzashi – pinned in her long black hair. The boy, like the older men on the train, wore a hakama over a white shirt. He had a similar playful aura as Riku.

To Michael's great relief, they didn't look as weird as the other passengers on the train. They were surprised to see him, but they didn't stare for an excessive amount of time with creepy looks on their faces. But there was something that set them apart from Riku – something eerie about them and the other passengers that Riku and Michael lacked.

"Ooh! New victims," the boy said with a grin. It was such a jarring change from the blank expressions of the other passengers, Michael was taken aback. "Is this your friend, Riku?"

"Not really," Riku admitted. "I just met him earlier today on Mt. Takao. He bumped into me... the same way he just did now. He wandered off from his family and got lost. I guess he did the same thing on this train."

"I did not!" Michael protested, wondering if running into him was a good thing or not. He was relieved to see a familiar face, and he had helped him before, but he also remembered the mean jokes he had played on him. "My stepmother is here with me. She's in the bathroom right now."

"Well, it's nice to see another passenger," the girl said, smiling at Michael. It was a small, almost sad smile, but it seemed filled with joy compared to the sullen expressions of the other passengers. "I'm Sakura, and this is my cousin Kenji."