In a field of tall golden grass, a young man lay completely engulfed. His eyes stared vacantly towards the orange dusky sky, motionless as if dead. The grass above that surrounded him swayed about gently rustling together, and it wasn't until some dirt blew into his face that he gave a startled grunt and quickly sat up. The grass was still tall enough to surround him, so he remained hidden as he breathed heavily holding his chest. Groaning he began to stand up, and once at his full height he was now tall enough that from his head to his shoulders were visible.
His medium length black hair caught onto some of the tall grass as he surveyed the area. While his hands without much effort brushed his hair from the grass, he found in the distance behind him there was a quaint little cottage but nothing else but grass. Turning to face the direction opposite the cottage he saw a stone stage that jutted out from the grass, with a stone alter on-top of it. Behind the alter a strange red door could be seen. The wind picked up again and the scent of flowers wafted by the young man, who turned towards the direction of the smell. There was a large congregation of flowers to his left swaying about like the grass. He carefully made his way towards the fragrant flowers, his shoeless feet feeling about the earth below to ensure he didn't step on anything.
Once he was within plucking distance of the flowers, a daisy slowly turned about to reveal a sweet little face, like a cartoon. "Oh! A passenger!" they sang with a breathy voice. The young man looked the strange flower over with a disquieted grimace. He backed away seeing how long its stem was, but as he did the flower used its long leaves to part the grass so they could more easily walk towards him. "We haven't had a visitor for ages!"
The other flowers slowly turned about, a look of surprise on their face which quickly shifted to joy. "A passenger! Oooh~ its been so lonely here without a passenger to entertain!" they all began to surround the young man who shied away as they all spoke in unison. As he lifted up his hands to try and bat away the flowers, his left hand revealed a glowing green number which read -1306. They giggled at this and began to twirl around him. "Don't be scared. We just want to get to know you."
All the flowers were clamoring and reaching towards the young man, some going so far as to hug him. The whole while, the young man could barely musters a word, only uttering baffled sounds of discomfort. Right when he was in the middle of prying one of the flowers off of himself, the daisy pouted and shook their head. "Hey guys?" the flowers didn't listen to the Daisy's more soft tone, which made them cross their leaves and sigh again. Taking a deep breath the daisy shouted. "Guys!" The flowers all stopped and looked anxiously at the daisy. "He's freaking out. Give him some space."
The flowers all looked at the young man, now seeing his discomfort. "Oh... we're sorry..." a posy said.
" We didn't mean to go overboard like that..." sniffled a lily.
The flowers all moved behind the daisy and hung their heads low. "Now then..." the daisy nodded to their fellow flowers, who shifted their collective attention back to the young man. The daisy smiled thoughtfully and held their leaves together like folded hands before continuing, "Have you been on the train long, or is this your first train car?"
"Train...?" the young man muttered, slowly looking around the field. It stretched as far as he could tell. Looking back to the flowers he saw the daisy nodding their head. "Is this a dream?"
The flowers all began to giggle, and the daisy shook their head. "Oh, oh no. This is very real. This seems to be your first train car based on your baffled expression. What a stroke of luck for the both of us!" The daisy moved forward and reached a leaf out to the young man. "I'm Dani~ what's your name?"
The young man gave a surprised expression at the name, and than looked wistfully at the leaf before he gently shook it. "I'm... I'm nobody really..."
"Mr. Nobody?" Dani tilted their head as they finished the handshake and pondered. "An interesting name, but we don't choose what we're called, am I right?" They chuckled as did the other flowers.
The newly dubbed Nobody sighed in exasperation, but said nothing else on the matter. He slowly looked back towards the alter where the door was, a look of interest coming over him. "What is this... train?"
"A place of healing from past sins." Dani said, folding their leaves together, the other flowers nodding in unison.
"A lovely little adventure before you reach your final destination~" a rose stepped forward and held Nobody's hands. "It is where all passengers are destined..." they flipped Nobody's hand over. He instinctively pulled it away, accidentally scratching himself on a thorn.
"Ow!" he shouted. He looked at his left hand where some blood quickly began to drip down and drop onto the ground. The flowers all cried at seeing him bleed, and the rose held their leaves over their mouth.
"I'm so sorry! I didn't... I didn't mean to..." they quickly left and hid amongst the other flowers.
"Its all right Kell, accidents happen." Dani sympathetically looked to Nobody who was now transfixed by the number on his hand rather than the blood. Dani plucked one of their shorter leaves that grew from around their body and began to wrap up Nobody's hand. Covering up the number.
"I'm so sorry about that Mr. Nobody." Dani looked into Nobody's face and saw him still pensively looking at his hand. "What is it?"
"That number... what does it mean?" he looked to Dani who looked a bit relieved.
"Oh that, its a number the represents what you need to work on till you can leave the train. Once you get it to zero, you are free as a Dandelion seed~" as if on cue, some dandelion seeds began to drift by them.
Nobody looked over and saw a now bald dandelion who was looking angerly at a violet who was sniffling now. He chuckled a bit, but slowly looked back to his hand, where he could still see the faint glow of the number from under his leaf bandage. "So... this is purgatory?"
"Hmm... I suppose that's a nice way to put it." Dani mused, but before they continued on this particular conversation they looked to the sky and saw it was getting darker. "It's almost night, perhaps you'd like to stay at our guest house?" Dani motioned towards the little cottage.
Nobody wistfully looked towards the cottage, before looking back to Dani who thoughtfully looked over. "That might be nice. Better than what I was in the middle of earlier..."
"Yay! A guest!" The flowers began to dance amongst themselves as Nobody walked towards the guest house. "We have to make him something~ its been so long."
"Call us if you need anything Mr. Nobody!" Dani shouted. "We're going to prepare you a lovely feast~"
Nobody smiled and looked behind himself to respond but saw there were no flowers anymore. The sudden empty field sent a chill through him, much like the wind that tussled his hair. "Thanks..." he softly whispered, his eyes anxiously looking about.
Once up to the house he saw it was haphazardly painted a pastel pink with some flowers drawn on the parts that were not completely covered by the paint. The tall grass didn't seem to grow around this place at all, leaving only barren dirt surrounding the house.
Opening the door he looked inside and saw no furniture, except a bed. There were also only windows on the front and side of the house, none on the back wall had any. The floor was nothing but the dirt that covered the ground outside. Nobody kicking some of it up as he glowered at his bare accommodations. "Suppose if this were purgatory they wouldn't want to give me much more than this..." he murmured as he crossed his arms.
He attempted to lean against the wall, to which he quickly recoiled as it creaked from his weight. He stared at the wall pensively before tentatively stroking his hand against it. "Pretty flimsy..." he muttered before walking back outside. While gently running his right hand across the outer wall, he looked to his left one where he peaked some blood dripping out from under the bandage. "Why's it a negative number..." he stopped when his foot crunched something, which lead him to let out a pained yelp.
Falling onto his behind, he groaned as he looked at his now bleeding foot. "How many cuts am I gonna get by the end of the day?" he glared at what he stepped on, which looked liked a piece of a shattered unpainted pottery. It was a yellowish white, and as he held it he noted that it felt similar to the walls.
"Heya~" came a sudden cheery voice. Nobody gasped and quickly looked about to see a sunflower poking out from the tall grass, the shard he found dropping from his hand. "Just checking to see if you need anything." The sunflower smiled warmly at Nobody. "Any dishes you like in particular?"
"I... um..." Nobody looked around to see where the shard had fallen, but it seemed to have disappeared. "Nothing... comes to mind... I'm not really hungry." When he looked back to the sunflower, he saw the flower nodding as if empathizing with this feeling.
"Ok... ok... well we'll just bring a wide array of stuff than. Hopefully something will spark your appetite. " still nodding their head.
While Nobody stared at the sunflower he heard the sounds of a fire materialize but he kept his gaze on the flower. It wasn't till the sound of a loud crack broke through the air like thunder that Nobody jerked his head away from the sunflower. "God! What was-" Nobody relaxed when he saw Dani smiling from around the corner. "S-started a fire? A bit risky for some flowers don't you think?"
Dani came around the side of the guest house, no longer obscured by grass. It was nothing too surprising. They were a long daisy with multiple leaves up and down their stem. They were still firmly stuck in the ground, but they seemed to move through the dirt rather smoothly. "We have a lot of experience with it. Don't worry yourself Mr. Nobody." Dani smiled until they saw more blood on the ground near Nobody's feet. "Oh no! You hurt yourself again!" They plucked another leaf and motioned for Nobody to lift up his foot. "You must be more careful." Dani neatly bandaged Nobody's foot and motioned him to come with them.
In front of the house was a little fire pit where long black sticks were burning away. While Nobody watched the fire burning warmly, he saw the sunflower toss the shard he was holding earlier into it, where it quickly began to crack apart and turn black as well. The sounds around Nobody seemed to become muffled as he watched the shard burn, his eyes occasionally looking to the sunflower who hadn't noticed his stares. There was a muffled voice calling to him, but he didn't notice till it almost yelled his name.
"Mr. Nobody?!" Dani shouted, catching his attention finally.
"Oh! Uh... sorry... what was it?" he looked to the daisy who who gave a relieved chuckle.
"Daydreaming? Or I suppose its nightdreaming now." The daisy motioned to the sky which shined with the gentle moonlight down upon the little guest house. "Your feast is ready, my friend."
Flowers began to come out from the grass carrying trays of pies, and pheasant, along with trays of nuts and mashed potatoes. The more flowers that came out the more variety of food Nobody saw. He stared in shock at all the food, the flowers all clamoring for him to try the tray that they had prepared for him. "Oh, so many options?" Nobody chuckled as he looked from flower to flower, a pained smile coming onto his face as they kept trying to get him to take something.
"You didn't say which you'd like best, so we just made a little bit of everything." Dani nodded to the sunflower who nodded back to Dani.
As the flowers all began to get closer, Nobody backed up looking warily at them. "Oh... you know... like I told Mr. Sunflower-"
"Its Floyd!" the sunflower shouted.
Nobody gave a sardonic stare to the sunflower, before clearing his voice. "Well... like I told Floyd. I'm not really hungry." He began to slowly back away into the house.
"Aw, come on... we went to all that work to make all this." the posy cried.
"Yeah, at least try some of it." The lily sweetly asked, taking out a spoonful of chocolate pudding and hovering it towards Nobody's mouth.
He seemed frozen as the flowers clamored towards him, begging him to try some of their food. He reluctantly reached towards one of the trays, garnering a cheer of joy from the flowers. He hesitated though, and quickly folded his hands neatly in front of himself. "N-no. I'm not hungry." His left hand began to flicker, which drew Nobody's attention.
"All right everybody! You heard him! Your food will keep for a while. Don't pressure him, he's had a long day!" Dani stood in front of Nobody and shewed the flowers away who all gave out sad cries of protest, but relented to Dani's words. Dani gave an exasperated sigh and shook thier head. "Sheesh... sorry about them Mr. Nobody. They can be a bit thoughtless." Dani looked back to Nobody who was still staring at his hand. "What is it?" Nobody peeled off the bandage revealing the number underneath, the bandage loosely held still in his right hand. Dani peered down at the hand and saw it now said -1298.
"It... went up..." Nobody said softly while touching the numbers, where his blood had finally dried now.
"Hmmm... usually its supposed to go down, but yours does appear to be in the negatives. Soooo, maybe that's a good thing?" Dani shrugged. "Eh, whatever. We'll iron out the details of it later. What do you plan to do now Mr. Nobody?"
With his wound having dried up, Nobody let the leaf that bound it go, and Dani watched the blood stained leaf intently. Nobody turned his back and headed into the house. "I'm probably gonna go take a rest." When he turned back he saw Dani trying to grab the leaf which drifted on the air, but it fell into the fire. His leaf hands clenched as he watched the bloodied leaf bandage burn away. "Danny?"
"That's a good idea, help you relax a bit." Dani turned about, with their same happy face. "I'll just go talk with the others, and convince them to be more respectful of your desires." Dani began to move backwards into the grass, still facing Nobody. "Have a pleasant sleep~" They than sunk into the grass and disappeared from view.
Nobody stared quietly out at the grass, while the fire slowly began to die away as if someone had turned a dimming switch. Once it was out, the gentle moonlight was the only light left for Nobody. No stars dotted the sky above. He walked towards the fire pit and rummaged his hand about in it, till he pulled out a curved stick. He looked it over before tossing it back in, wiping his hand on his baggy shorts. "Purgatory? Not so sure anymore..."
Once in his room he began to toss and turn, it felt as though there was hey poking out of the mattress. There was no pillow, and no covers so he shivered in his room. He had his back to the window when he finally settled down a bit. He hadn't fallen asleep, but his mind was lost in thought. "Am I dead? Or is this just a dream... this feels so weird." he sighed and began to shut his eyes to try and sleep again when he noticed a flower shaped shadow being cast by the moonlight onto his wall. He didn't move and just became quiet as the shadow lingered there, the soft sound of dirt moving was heard as the flower continued to stand still. His eyes kept watch on the flower shadow until he felt something tugging at his foot. He tried his best not to move as he stared down and saw some roots tugging on the leaf bandage on his foot. It eventually got it off and quietly slunk back off the bed.
A few moments later the flower shadow moved away and a cold wind blew through the room making Nobody shiver. His heart pounded as he remained still for a good while before slowly getting up.
His eyes stared out to the grass outside, not being able to see anything out there. His body was filled with terror as the grass swayed about from the wind. He had his back to the wall now and he slowly began to lean back into the bed, his hands tightly gripping the mattress. He heard a rip and looked down to see he had accidentally ripped it open. He saw thin hairs poking out of the hole now. He gingerly reached his hand in and pulled out some tangled hairs, all different colors. Some gray, brown, black, and even ginger. He pushed it back into the bed and laid into the mattress once more. His eyes staring vacantly out into the night.
When light began to return to the field Nobody got up, and began to head outside. The fire pit had been removed at some point in the night without his notice, which garnered him to frown at where it once was. He turned back to the house and looked it over. Going back in he began to feel around the walls. It wasn't till he got to the bottom of the back wall that he clenched his fist and punched it, creating a crack. He began to break off some parts of the house and gently ran it against his skin, seeing it slightly cutting it with just a bit of pressure. He peered through the hole he had made and saw some of the flowers huddled about seeming to be whispering amongst themselves.
Nobody pulled the mattress in front of the hole and returned to the door where as soon as he opened it, he saw Dani. "Good morning, morning glory~" Dani laughed, Nobody choosing to laugh along with them as he quickly hid his shard of the house into his shorts pockets.
"Hey, so... I still don't understand this train thing." Nobody said rubbing his head as he began to figdet.
"Oh yeah? Guess I haven't really explained it." Dani held their head ponderously for a bit. "So like... each train car is likes its own little world. This one is one of the best, but I am biased." Dani chuckled again, though their laugh weakened as they caught Nobody staring off into the distance, anxiously drumming his fingers against his cheek. Dani followed his gaze to the alter, and quickly looked back to Nobody.
"How do I visit the other train cars? Or... worlds?" Nobody smiled much more warmly at Dani than he had his entire time in the fields.
Dani was taken aback by the shift from anxiety to cheer, before bring their own smile back. "Oh? You want to leave already? Well... we can't have you going on an empty stomach. Hey guys!"
The other flowers cheered and began to flock from the tall grass. They all had breakfast foods like eggs, bacon, biscuits and gravy, and so many others. "Ready for something delicious~" The sunflower sang as they held out a donut to Nobody who took it.
"Why thank you... Floyd." He looked at the pink frosted confection and saw some jelly dripping out of it. Nobody sniffed and nodded his head. "Mmm... smells like... almonds." The flowers cheered at his acceptance but the excitement died down as he continued to not eat it. "So how do you get off the train car?"
Dani blinked at Nobody, who still held the donut. "It smells? Like almonds?" Dani's eye twitched as they glanced over at Floyd who quickly averted their gaze.
"Oh yeah... yum~" Nobody shook his head. "Sadly... I'm allergic." he gave the donut back to Floydd who was now frowning at his donut.
"Almonds?" Dani asked again now to Floyd. "You... put that in the donuts?"
"Look I'm tired ok." Floyd sobbed and walked off into the tall grass.
"Sorry, I assure you that we'll have something here that you're not allergic to." Dani bowed his head to Nobody. "You... seem in a chipper mood than yesterday..."
"Oh yeah, greaaat night sleep." Nobody's eye twitched a bit at saying this and looked down to his foot. "Oh my! My bandage is gone." Nobody dramatically motioned towards his foot causing Dani to look anxiously at it than back to the other flowers, the posy flinching as Dani's gaze hit them. Nobody noticed this and continued on, "Must have fallen off while I was heading out here."
"Yeah, your right. I can give you another one if you need it." Dani prepared to pluck another leaf, but Nobody shook his head.
"Oh no, its fine. Its healed enough..." Nobody looked out to the alter where the door awaited him. "So... the door is the way out, right?"
Dani and the other flowers all looked at each other, terror flickering onto their happy faces. "Uh... yeah. But you need to solve this car's puzzle to move on. Whoops~ but we don't know what that could be. Its been so long we forgot." Dani laughed weakly as Nobody nodded his head.
"I can manage. I'll just have a look arou-" as he began to walk off their was a root that grabbed at his foot. He looked down to it, and than to the flowers.
Dani looked furious now and turned to the lily. "Patty!" they screamed.
"I'm sorry! Its been too long!" Patty cried as Dani moved towards them. "I just wanted to grow more lilies."
"This isn't how we do thing!" Dani pointed towards Nobody, and the roots retreated. They groaned and turned back to Nobody. "I'm so sorry... everyone is just so obsessed right now. Yes, we should help you figure out the puzzle, but first you really should eat something."
Nobody quietly looked around to the flowers who now held their trays out to him once more. "No." he flatly stated.
"I-its been a while. You should really eat someth-" Dani was cut off when Nobody turned his back on them and moved into the tall grass. "I'm only trying to help you!" The shouted.
Nobody began to wade through the tall grass, the cries of the flowers reaching his ears as he kepy moving forward. Dani in particular kept calling to him, more frantic with each step he took. It was than that a root grabbed him more tightly, wrapping around his leg. He saw the posy coming through, carrying some orange juice. "Come on, just a drink of this should help you out on your journey." Nobody grabbed it and glared at the posy as he smelled almonds again. Bitter almonds. "I told you... I'm allergic to almonds... and arsenic!" he threw the orange juice to the ground, the posy staring mortified at him.
"You dolts! I told you not to use it unless you knew what you were doing!" Dani screeched as more roots grabbed Nobody and began to drag him under the ground.
"Dani! I'm sorry! Its been too long! I forgot!" The posy began sobbing grossly while Nobody frantically began to try and stop his dissent while fumbling with his pockets.
"We need to do this properly! Slowly! We can't just all go at him as we want!" Dani pushed the grass aside and glared down at the sobbing posy. Dani looked to Nobody now and shook their head sympathetically. "I'm so sorry Mr. Nobody... this process usually takes months before passengers expire. But it would seem these dolts couldn't have some self restraint and wanted to get it done right away... I hope you understand though." Dani sighed and held their stem. "It's just how things are here."
"I hope you understand this!" Nobody yelled as he cut the roots with the shard from his pocket and than grabbed the posy and swiftly sliced them at the stem. They let out a piercing scream as they fell and quickly began to turn into a regular posy. Nobody moved towards Dani, who quickly moved back, a look of terror on their face.
"Kill him! He has a cutting tool!" as Danis shouted more roots grabbed Nobody. The daisy quickly knocked the shard from Nobody's hand, before turning their back and moving away. The roots tried to pull Nobody down again but he ripped his feet away and made a mad dash towards the alter. Dani turned around in horror, "You can't leave Mr. Nobody! You don't even know the puzzle of this car!"
Nobody began panting as all the flowers were popping up everywhere calling to him, sadly reaching to him. "Mr. Nobody! Plead don't go! We're sorry! Its a misunderstanding. We'll do better!" They kept saying as they scratched his body up with their leaves. He made it within a few yards of the alter and saw on it their was a scythe. As he stared at it, he let out a scream as the rose jabbed their thorns into his calves.
"Please don't go Mr. Nobody! We'll miss you!" the rose screamed frantically as they tried to gore Nobody more as he began to rip their petals off. "Mr. Nobody please! You're hurting me!"
Nobody broke free and jumped onto the alter snatching the scythe, sobbing as the flowers screamed upon seeing him with it. "I hate you..." he cried as they began to run away." I hate you all!" He leaped into the grass and began swinging the scythe, cleaving the tall grass to a more manageable size. He got the rose, who was trying to put their petals back, and than the lily who was about to sink into the ground. It wasn't till he had cut away such a large portion of the grass that he could see there was some dirt drawing in the ground that formed the shape of a key. Cut flowers were strewn about the field, all silent. Dani slowly came out from the tall grass that Nobody hadn't gotten to.
They surveyed the plant carnage and their stem bent forward like they had fallen to their knees. "You monster..." they cried. "We were just wanting to feed the earth! Its been so long, we needed something to feed the earth to grow more of us." Dani began to cry as Nobody emptily stared at them. Nobody was bleeding all over his legs and parts of his arms. Where his blood fell on the key shape, new flower buds began to grow.
Nobody walked forward, towards Dani who was still crying, Nobody's own tears streaming down his face. "You're the ones that tried to kill me. You made me think for even just a moment I might make friends. You're just like all the rest." Dani than swiftly tried to stab Nobody with the shard he dropped earlier. Nobody used the scythe to knock it away and raised high above his head. "How dare you use his name against me!" he screamed before slicing the daisy in two.
As the petals fell to the ground, Nobody dropped the scythe and wobbled back, sobbing as he did. "Liars! Your all always lying! You just want me as long as I give you something!" He kept sobbing as he began to walk backwards until he bumped into the altar. He looked at all the new flowers that began to awaken and yawn as they came to this new world. Nobody turned away and scrambled up the altar. He ran to the door, and as he crossed through it shut behind him.
He froze, now realizing he was on a gigantic train, roaring down an endless tract in a wasteland. He slumped his back against the wall of the train car behind him, right next to the door, and slid down to a sitting position. "Danny... " he quietly muttered as he looked around at the world around him. He reached up to the sky and sighed.
"I did it... I actually did it... I'm sorry Danny... I did it." he leaned forward and his palms rested on the cold metal floor. "This is a dying dream... it has to be..." He stared listlessly at the train car that lay ahead. Nobody began to calm down and he shut his eyes. After a few more moments he pushed himself back up and stared tiredly at the next car. "I hope this is just a dream... I really was banking on the afterlife not actually being a thing..."