"Traverse Town. Please alight."
The sleek train grinded to a halt, jerking its passengers slightly before the doors slid open. People raced out, pushing and shoving in an attempt to get to the platform, to the appointment or to the meeting. The click of heeled shoes mixed with the thud of flat ones were overwhelming but the sound disappeared in an instant, leaving only silence as the warning bell rang and the train took off again.
There were only two passengers left on the train. The first, a blonde haired boy staring absentmindedly out a window, his cornflower blue eyes glowed in the afternoon sunlight as the scenery raced past them in a blur. His black sneakers clicked against the ground, silencing only when his baggy pants got caught in the heel. A short white sleeved jacket was thrown carelessly over a black shirt that only emphasized the inconsiderate air he wore.
The passenger sitting across from him was the complete opposite. Her black hair was cropped in a boyishly short style that was tucked behind the ear on one side. Her sleeveless black jacket was zipped up and a chain was hanging out of the pocket on her jeans.
The boy, as if only now noticing the sudden vacancy of the train cast a wayward glance at the girl sitting opposite him. She noticed his stare and smiled, causing him to turn away in shame, as his gaze itself were a crime.
"I'm odd aren't I?" She asked. Her only reply was a half-hearted grunt from the boy as he resumed his amusing task of observing the landscape.
The girl frowned at his anti-social attitude and walked over and sat down next to him.
"I'm not mad at you."
Once again there was no worded reply as the blond boy seemed to ignore her.
"I'm Xion. Who are you?" She tried persistently.
When there was still no answer, Xion pondered for a moment, playing with the bang hanging behind her ear as waited for a response. The boy cast a backwards glare at her, blatantly telling her to leave but she seemed oblivious to his intentions.
"Why won't you talk to me?"
"Because you're a dream," He mumbled, giving in. Xion looked taken aback and he turned away, as if he knew she would leave now.
"I take offence to being called a dream you know." She said, edging closer to prod him in the back.
"But you are." He replied, not sparing her a glance as she insistently poked him.
"I am as real as you." Xion argued, jabbing him sharply for emphasis.
"I know where I am. I remember what I did. And with those facts in mind, I know you can't be real."
"And who are you to say that?" She retorted.
"Because I died, I'm dead. All I have to do is wait until you disappear, this train disappears and eventually, I go to whatever forsaken place God has planned for me."
"How did you die?"
The question caught him off guard, causing him to falter.
"What?" He asked as if he still needed confirmation.
"How did you die?"
"It. Doesn't. matter." He replied stiffly, taking the time to look her in the eye this time.
Xion glared at him, though thanks to her small build, it looked far from the spine chilling look she had intended.
"Of course it matters." She scolded, as if he had asked the most obvious thing in the world.
"Listen closely okay?" He muttered, as if there were some deep dark secret he had intended on keeping. "My death is none of your business. What would telling my death to a figment of my imagination achieve anything?"
"It would make you feel better." Xion reasoned, trying to get him to open up.
"If I'm dead, there's no reason to feel anything right?" His voice was a deadpan flat, as if he were ending the conversation.
"Of course it will!" She insisted, pressing forward. "Things will always have a reason-"
"No they won't!" He yelled, turning to face her, eyes blazing with anger unparalleled to any other.
"When my friends ditched me, did they have a reason? When my parents failed to give a damn, did it have a reason? When I was all alone in a world without anyone, what was the reason for that?"
Xion fell back, scared at the sudden change in his voice. Something that had once been nonchalant and careless had turned into one filled with rage and an unbridled desire for pain.
"There's only one thing in my life where that has been a reason." He whispered, though his voice couldn't have been more threatening if he screamed.
"And that's the day I jumped off the platform."
The silence was encompassing, seeming to fill the train carriage that was already empty.
The boy looked at her, as if he already knew what her reaction was going to be. It always was the same. Telling anyone about yourself would mean getting thrown into a psychiatric ward. Complaining would send you to the doctors. One step out of line meant being "fixed".
He turned away, back to the window with its picture perfect view. The crimson sun disguised a world without meaning, the journey point being death.
Even without looking at her, he could feel her get up off the chair, the plastic lifting up before she came to walk in front of him. Her sapphire eyes were more sombre, a sadness unique to her but they never loss the gentleness in them.
"Do you want to know how I died?" She whispered, barely audible above the rumble of the train.
"It doesn't-"
"It does, okay?" Xion snapped, her eyes locked onto his.
"I was in a train accident. I'm in a coma right now."
Xion gestured around to the empty train and at the sun setting in the distance.
"This was the place I felt most at home. Maybe that's why I'm judged here."
"You liked trains too?" He asked, surprised at her words. She nodded in reply, her gaze never leaving his.
"I was always here, riding the train till I reached the end of the line before turning around and finally heading back home. But one day, the train driver decided to have a bet. A bet on how close he could keep the train going without crashing."
Xion's eyes darkened at the memory but the change was only for an instant.
"Except he didn't stop. He wanted to outshine his friends. He wanted to play the game to the fullest. So he gambled on his life." She paused for a moment before adding.
"And also mine."
The effect on him was sudden. He went from careless to suddenly as if this story were his world. His cornflower orbs widened with surprise as he struggled to make amends for everything he had said but Xion only raised a hand to silence him.
"I didn't get a chance to choose whether I lived or died. I was doing what I loved when someone else had the gall to think they had a right to it. To him, I wasn't human enough to matter."
The blond swallowed, knowing the feeling all too well. The feeling that your entire existence didn't matter, that there was nothing about you that was even worth mentioning. You never mattered to them, you just weren't there in their opinion.
"That's why," Xion began. "When I see people like you, it makes me sad. Because you're lives were so bad that you took that choice."
It wasn't as simple as that, there were good days. It was just some times-
"All you need is someone to hold onto." Xion whispered softly, reading his thoughts.
"And what if there is no one?"
She laughed at his words, as if they were simply the naïve wonderings of a child.
"There is always someone to hold onto. If not, then hold on for me."
"And what if you aren't real?" He blurted out, causing another bout of laughter as they returned to their original argument.
"Here." Xion pulled out the small chain hanging from the pocket of her shorts. It was a small pendant with a small silver medallion hanging from it. The words that were carved onto it had long ago faded away but as he took it from her, his fingers sought out the succinct phrase.
"Never forget." He spoke softly and Xion smiled in return.
"It's all too easy to dismiss a dream isn't it?" She teased. For the first time in the entire ride, he felt himself smiling. Something that he hadn't done since the first of the thoughts began. Since his friends had dismissed his struggle as a trend, his parents scolding him for his 'rebellion'.
"Clocktower station. This train service terminates here. Please alight."
The monotonous voice led the two to instinctively stand up, the train repeating it's jerking as it pulled into the platform. The doors slid open smoothly once more, revealing a concrete world bathed in red light. He took a step forward, before hesitating slightly.
"What if I don't want to go back?" He asked her, turning around to see her still in the train.
"It's for the best. It was always meant for you to be the one."
"What are you talking about! You have to get off too!"
He walked back into the train intent on getting her to leave but he felt himself being shoved back onto the platform, two surprisingly strong hands pushing him away.
In the moment it took for him to register what was happening, the doors closed, blocking him from her behind the glass.
"No!" He screamed, banging against the door, praying for the glass to just give way. "You can't! This is the last stop! You have to get off!"
He didn't want to think about it. He knew there was only one stop after this. One stop that she would never come back from.
The train jerked back, regardless of his pleas. As the sleek white monster left the station, the world twisted, shifting and contorting around him. Concrete slabs slipped off the platform like chocolate icing and the colour drained from the world around him. The red sunlight dulled to a crimson red before it all went black.
…
"Roxas! Roxas!"
Roxas raised an arm to swat away the annoying voice that was disturbing him from his sleep. The noise however, seemed persistent in waking him and he eventually opened his eyes.
Roxas was lying down in a hospital bed, sterile white sheets covering him. The ceiling was tiled with blinding white lights that hurt his eyes who had become so used to the darkness. He turned his head, looking at the boy beside him.
"Thank god you're awake. Mum and dad were worried sick about you."
"Yeah." Roxas said, knowing deep down that this man was his brother. They're likeness was uncanny. Same hair, same eyes, even the way their face lit up was the exact same. The only difference was their name.
"Ventus." He whispered, as if he had to get used to that name all over again. Sitting up, he was greeted with a hug from his brother who was grinning uncontrollably. But from over his shoulder, he saw a bed.
And lying in it was Xion.
His eyes flickered to the monitor, where the line was dead flat.
Roxas raised a hand, brushing tears away, as he could only think of one thing.
She had ridden the train to the last stop. Only this time, she didn't turn around and go home.
His hand clenched tighter around the medallion, somehow still in his hand all this time. His finger once again, sought out the words that she wanted him to live by.
As if in a final good bye, Roxas whispered three words to her.
"I'll never forget."
Please review and tell me any faults! I'm not one against constructive criticism.
However, please refrain from telling me how worthless Xion is. She is real and very special to me.
Anyway, hope to write more Rokushi!