The sudden explosion...
He could see a dark silhouette standing at the end of the island's side of the bridge. He couldn't see it clearly in this green light but it was large and menacing, and felt not entirely human. It was as if someone had cut out a part of an eerily starless night in the shape of a giant man and placed it there. It felt wrong.
The resulting crash...
His ribs were broken in several places and threatened to pierce his lungs with each gulp of breath. His short legs lay awkwardly sprawled on the cold, cold asphalt beaneath him. His left eye, caved in, with blood flowing freely over it from the open wound on his forehead.
The arrested screams...
Cars lay smoking everywhere in dead silence. Almost no one survived the accident, but the few who did were too injured and too afraid to even move. They were all aware of the dark figure's presence at the end of the bridge. Looming over them. Coming closer. And they all felt that to show any signs of remaining life would only invite Death.
...it was just all too much for a child to endure.
After what felt like an eternity, he started crying softly for his parents. His voice was small and cracked. But in that palpable silence, it was a deafening scream for all who heard - a small flame that appeared like a bright beacon on the dark, lifeless sea of that dreadful, dreadful night.
Yet only the darkness gave him a reply.
Time knows not to wait.
He awoke with a start, cold sweat dripping down his forehead and neck despite the AC's constant blast of cold air. Slowly, he raised his head to survey his surrroundings. There was no one else inside the train car, which was no surprise, he thought. Few people take the midnight train nowadays. Less so after an incident.
Train service today is significantly delayed due to a fatal accident.
We apologize to any customers who were in a hurry.
The next stop is Iwatodai...
Fatal. Accident.
The evening papers were all over that bit of news despite the lack of information, and witness accounts were too few because the police were still interrogating anyone present at that time, considering it only happened that afternoon. At least the trains were still allowed to operate quickly after that. A suicide in the tracks was rather serious business after all.
Raising a pale hand, the train car's lone passenger wiped the sweat underneath his blue-black hair, and wondered how it was like to be crushed by an oncoming train at full speed. He imagined it to be painless - at least if he died as soon as he got hit - for which there was only the darkness.
The explosion, the crash, the screams.
He had that dream again. He's had it for years, true, but he's been seeing it frequently these days. He wondered why. Perhaps this was what they called the first day jitters. Although it had never occurred to him that he was capable of such a thing. Then again, he was transferring to a new school after all - the first school he's ever going to attend since leaving Japan. There's a first for everything, he thought. Maybe he still wasn't used to the idea of living away from his grandparents. Not after ten years.
Iwatodai.
This is the final train bound for Tatsumi Port Island.
Please take care to board before our departure.
The blue-haired boy, nudged from his musings, blinked at the speakers before realizing the train doors were already opened. Slinging his duffel pack over his shoulders, he adjusted his MP3 player and reflexively increased the volume while exiting the train.
Not much people on the platform as well. In fact, aside from him, there were only three other people who seemed to have gotten off the train: a middle-aged man in a business suit, a younger man who was also in a business suit, and some guy in a hooded sweatshirt. None of which were particularly interesting, so the boy walked on.
Passing the turnstiles, he reached inside his jacket to retrieve a folded pamphlet. Unfolding it revealed the directions for arriving at his hastily assigned dormitory. To think the school had not yet organized his accomodations until the last minute despite being the one's who invited him to study there in the first place, the boy frowned. He glanced at the paper for a moment before replacing it into his pocket and motioned for the exit, his footsteps in time with the ticking of the station's clock as it approached midnight.
Tick, tock, clip, clop...
The long hand struck the final second of the day as he took his first step into Iwatodai. But the moment his feet touched the asphalt sidewalk, everything died as the world was bathed in an eerie green glow.
AFTERWORD: (05.10.17) This chapter has been rewritten. Please read, review, criticize. Cheers.