X-Factor

PART 1: Blue Hills

SEPTEMBER 14TH

The country-side was a stark contrast to the city skylines Grace was accustomed to. There were rolling hills and trees as far as the eye could see. The occasional small town appeared once in a while, but their size was nothing impressive. 

The train ride felt like it was taking an eternity. Grace leaned against the window dozing on and off over the span of the ride. There were barely any other passengers on the ride too. Their destination was as far from the city as one could get. 

Grace looked down to the watch on her left wrist. It was almost 5 PM. Even from looking outside, she could tell it was getting late; the sun was starting to lower. It had been over two hours since the boarding, so she figured the train would be arriving soon. Even still, Grace could feel her eyes getting heavy. She'd gotten plenty of sleep from the night before, so her exhaustion was puzzling to her. Sure, the ride was boring, but she could usually stay awake as long as she listened to her music. 

Grace tried to fight it, but the exhaustion took over and she closed her eyes again. She hoped that when she opened them she would be at the station.

A vague amount of time passed and Grace slowly opened her eyes. The light from outside the window was no longer illuminating the train. The sky was pitch black, aside from the faint glow of a yellow moon obscured by dark clouds. There was a rumbling of thunder in the distance, but no rain was falling.

Grace looked around the train car, but there was no one else around. All the passengers were no longer in their seats; they were completely gone. Grace stood up from her seat and walked into the aisle. Her heart started to beat a few tics faster.

"Hello?" Grace asked. Her question was met with silence. 

As she slowly walked towards the end of the car, she noticed another oddity: the train wasn't moving. Peering out of the windows, the train wasn't docked at any station, it was sitting still in the middle of nowhere. Grace walked to the end of the car and tried to open the door, but it wouldn't budge. She tried knocking on the door intensely, but there was no answer. Grace's heart started to beat even faster.

"W-What's going on? This isn't funny," Grace stuttered to herself. 

The sound of footsteps came from behind her. Grace quickly turned around, but couldn't see anyone around. The footsteps were getting closer, but still there was no one that she could see walking.

"Who's there?!" Grace asked in a panic.

The footsteps stopped. Grace focused her eyes on the empty aisle to find the source of the noise. Just barely, straining her eyes, she was able to see something. A silhouette of a person was visible to her now. A silhouette was inaccurate, it was more of an outline of a body. There were no distinguishing features, only the size of the figure could be made out. It looked roughly the same size as Grace, maybe even a bit smaller, though it was hard to tell from the distance. 

"I hope you're ready to take accountability for your actions," the figure said. It's voice was distorted, making any determination of it's gender impossible.

"Accountability?" Grace asked.

"Only when you discover who you are, will you be able to face the trials that lay ahead," the voice said.

"I-I don't understand! What is going on?" Grace asked.

"I can only manage to speak to you this one time. I will return when your mind has become clear. I hope that we can work together someday," the voice said.

Just as Grace started to walk towards the figure, it's form disappeared. The floor beneath her started to shake; the train was moving again. Grace nearly fell to the floor, but she caught herself on a pole besides one of the seats.