A/N: Scribbled out another spooky Blue Archive fic~ Satisfying my itch for horror, I am~

Do enjoy~

Graveyard Train

''Uuu... why did I have to get distracted...''

Reisa's petulant whine went unanswered, mostly because she was the only person within earshot of herself. The quiet might've been haunting for some and for Reisa, it was, but she did her best to ignore the eerie quiet by playing on her phone – music from her game blocking out the stifling silence around her.

The train platform was practically abandoned at this time of night; not another soul in sight. The concrete was bathed in the yellow lights overhead and the booth at the far end was still lit up, an officer or whatever inside doing paperwork, but otherwise the entire place was dead. Not helped by the fact the train station was surrounded by thick forestry to add some much-needed greenery to the district, leaving darkness on all sides that she looked, the streets and buildings too far away to illuminate the woods.

Frankly she hated taking the train this late at night. However her study session at SCHALE had extended far longer than she originally intended, in part because she kept getting distracted and lost her place, meaning Sensei had to go over subjects again and again. She almost felt bad for making him repeat himself so often, but it wasn't her fault she kept getting distracted; Hifumi was constantly texting her about this and that!

Maybe that was why he took away her gun as punishment...

Sighing to herself Reisa looked about, daring to peer into the darkness. Nothing leapt out at her but she had to concede tit was unnerving to standing out in the open like this – the nearest pillar or sign a dozen feet away. She felt compelled to hide herself, to tuck out of sight and hope nothing found her, but such thoughts were just childish fears of the dark – and thus, she banished them. As well as she could, anyway.

Then something reached her ears. The sound of a train running down tracks. Her face lit up and she rushed up to the edge of the platform, tiptoes nearing the 'stand back' line as she waited, and her hopes were confirmed as her train chugged on around the bend towards her. It was an older sort of train, silver and with boxy rectangular cars instead of the newer sleek ones. Windows held stiff square edges and as it neared, the interior lights glowing a dull yellow, she spied the numerous empty seats along the walls or the dangling handrails above. Only a few people were inside, and when the train finally lurched to a stop and the doors hissed open, nobody got off.

Not that she cared, hurriedly hopping inside.

The train car she was in was void of people and while that unnerved her a little, the privacy was a rare treat and so Reisa skipped down to the far end of the train, plopping her butt down on a seat and dropping her school bag into the one next to her, sighing in relief as she reclined. The air was stagnant but slightly warm compared to the chilly outdoors and she savoured it, idly pulling her phone up and tapping on her game, making the silly yellow bird flap past the green pipes.

'Mn... wonder what Kazusa and the others are doing right now...?' Reisa mused to herself, glancing up at the top-right corner of her screen. 11:59AM. 'Probably in bed, huh...'

Perhaps it was because of the time that she resisted the urge to call them, putting it off with a hum. Instead she continued to play her game, listening idly to the train as it set off from the station with a hiss of its hydraulics – the cabin lurching briefly before they set off on their journey to Trinity. It was the final stop of this train, that she knew, so she had no risk of missing it even if she got distracted. Still, she quickly tabbed out and set an alarm for half an hour from now, just so if she did fall asleep she'd be woken up in time for her stop.

Was it that thought, perhaps, that made her eyes feel so heavy? The clock ticked over to midnight before she realised it and her body certainly felt the late hour; her shoulders sore and her back gladly sinking into the seat as she just stared at the screen, tapping away dumbly and practically on autopilot. She died several times but that was okay, she'd always come back.

Her eyes felt heavier and she let them close.

Only to wake with a start a second later.

Sucking in a breath Reisa sat upright, blinking harshly, but nothing was there. She frowned and rubbed at her eyes, groaning. They were sore, and she guessed looking at a screen wasn't the best of ideas... but, when she looked down at her phone, it was turned off. Which was weird, it wouldn't usually do that when a game was playing. Standby, yes, but turn off completely? Never happened before.

Grumbling to herself Reisa held the power button and turned it back on, idly typing her password in. The phone brand's logo flashed on screen and when a loading bar appeared below she let her eyes wander about the cabin, gazing up at the still handlebars and the darkened windows. It was pitch black out there, and when she stood to stretch her legs she found she couldn't see out there at all – the glow from the inside lights just didn't penetrate far enough to illuminate anything. Not even the ground.

'Huh... did we go through a tunnel?' Reisa's expression scrunched up. 'I don't think there was any tunnels on this route, though...?'

Odd, but then again she was forgetful, so it probably just slipped her mind. Or maybe they'd built a tunnel since she took this train last week. Something about the idea thought felt... unbelievable. Something about the idea, in fact, felt distinctly wrong. She stared out into the darkness with a squint, trying to discern what laid beyond the veil, but it was just pitch blackness to be found. There were no passing trees, no train tracks, no posts. Just... emptiness.

A shiver crept up her spine then and she shuddered, looking about. The cabin was empty as before but something didn't feel right. The air, stagnant, had become still – no airflow to push it about. She looked up at the handlebars and watched as they remained motionless, no rattling from the train's movements... and then she realised the train itself wasn't moving. There was no buckle, no churn, no whine of the wheels. They'd come to a dead stop. But why? Had there been an accident, but surely if there had been then they would've made an announcement?

And why was it so dark outside?

Just then she heard motion. Something had moved outside the train car. She couldn't even put a word to the noise – it wasn't a walk, it wasn't a slither, it was just... motion. The displacement of air as a body moved through it. Still her curiosity compelled her to the back of the train car, carefully approaching the locked rear door and gazing out the window on it. The void stretched out before her.

Her phone vibrated in her hand then and she looked down. Her game had been paused because of a lost signal. She closed it without thinking and hit 'reconnect'... but, her phone didn't. It just popped up that no signal connection could be found.

More motion. She raised her head and tried to squint, but she couldn't see anything still.

'Ah, hang on...!' Reisa grinned, opening her camera app.

Holding her phone up she switched over to the 'Night' setting and held her phone steady, then pressed the big white circle. It took a second, then snapped a photo. With a grin she opened her gallery-

And froze.

The night vision didn't go much further than her own sight did. In fact, probably only a few feet further. But it had captured an... appendage, of sorts. A long, mangled arm-like extension twisted thrice over and weeping blood. Bone and sinew protruded from the flesh whilst four fingers jutted out at odd angles from the 'hand', three of which clutched onto the wooden slab of a railway track. But the wood itself was rotted and the metal rusted. The grass around it was a putrid black in colour and none of it made any sense, and the longer she stared the more her head hurt, as if she was staring into a bright TV screen.

But the abnormal ground was not her focus. She snapped another photo.

The arm was closer now. A shoulder was attached to it, fleshy and raw, like tenderised meat but of a bloody hue. The hint of something reflected in the light of the camera, glistening, and she realised it was an eyeball.

Another snap-

It was gone.

Reisa felt like she couldn't breathe. She snapped another photo but the thing was absent. The ground was unchanged, the darkness remained, but the thing that had crawled towards her had disappeared. She tried to tell herself it was just a dream, that her mind was drawing up imaginary images – but no, she still had the photos. She looked at them daringly, as if doing so would invite the thing back, but she couldn't help it.

It looked like it was made of raw bloody flesh. Sinew stretched and tendons coiled around the crimson-stained muscle, like a person turned inside out and moving in the most inhuman manner possible. The eyeball she'd seen though perturbed her the most. She couldn't see it fully, just the glint off of it, but it wasn't surrounded by flesh. There was no side of the head visible, no forehead or jaw, just... an eye. Was it on a stalk or something? But if so, what the hell was it?

Such thoughts were halted as she heard motion again.

A shiver travelled through her and she looked at the window. She started to raise her hands but stopped, fear getting the best of her. Did she want to know what was out there, to learn something she perhaps could not unlearn? No, she didn't. So she backed away. Step by step she retreated further into the cabin, not even bothering to grab her bag and only glancing momentarily over her shoulder, peering down the long length of the train, plastic doors interrupting between each train compartment. Where was everyone else?

Click.

The noise made her gaze dart back to the door at the far end of the cabin. A door that was locked. A door that, against all odds, creaked open, revealing the yawning darkness beyond.

Something was out there.

And it wanted inside.

Her footsteps hastened and she nearly tripped over herself. Her back hit the plastic door and she hurriedly scrambled to open it, palming blindly at the handle and not daring to look away – not that it mattered. A hand of four fingers latched onto the rim of the door frame and pulled up a body of bloody flesh, numerous other arms protruding from the twisted torso. Just staring at it made her head hurt and she yanked the door behind her open.

And ran.

''H-HELLLP!'' Reisa screamed at the top of her lungs, sprinting through into the next cabin.

But there was nobody there. Her shoes loudly plodded across the thinly-carpeted floor and she heard fleshy squelches as the entity followed her, plastic bending and shattering as it forced its way after her – but she didn't look back. Couldn't. Panic clogged her throat and she yanked open the next door, then the one after that, her surroundings blurring – until she reached the end of the train.

The robotic conductor was gone. She was completely alone on the train.

The monster disproved that idea, the sound of its approach loud – slick, wet flesh slapping against metal and dragging across carpet as it hauled itself after her. She looked around, the glass windows tempting her to jump through them, but that meant she'd be left alone in the dark with that thing. However there was a door too – the bathroom.

Hiding was her only choice. Without hesitation Reisa yanked the door open and threw herself inside, closing the door as quietly as she could and locking it – before sitting on the toilet seat, tucking herself as far away from the door as she could, and waited.

She could hear it moving. Hear its bloody body dragging itself across the carpet, hear its rasping breaths and squelchy twitches – when it stopped. Her breath caught in her throat and she didn't dare breathe, listening intently as the air grew still.

Then the alarm she'd set earlier went off.

The shrill beeps lasted all of a few seconds before she turned her phone off, her heart pounding in her chest – but she could hear the beast now. Its breathing, rancid and ragged, right outside of her door.

…

'Does it-'

Wood splintered and she screamed, flinching away from the door as a circular maw of teeth barged through the wood. Lidless eyeballs protruded from the rim of the maw, a hundred blunt teeth lining the inside of the maw as it chomped and snapped as her, all eyes on her as the eldritchian shoved its way through the door, her cries reaching a shrill shriek as it lunged, blunt teeth ripping cloth and chomping greedily into her stomach-

And then she was back her seat.

Reisa scrambled in place as the train lurched to a stop and she fell onto the floor, the carpet harsh on her cheek. Adrenaline pumped through her veins and she frantically pushed herself to her feet, eyes darting around the empty train cabin – but she could see her stop just beyond the windows, illuminated by lights and with the buildings of Trinity just a block away. The automated voice droned over the speakers about this being the last stop, and as she jerked her head towards the back of the train she found the door locked.

'It was... just a dream...?' Reisa wondered, her mind still coming to terms with the idea.

After a long minute though she realised laying there wouldn't do her any good and the conductor would be coming soon, so in a daze Reisa grabbed her phone and bag and hurried out of the train, glancing over her shoulder before discreetly checking her gallery. The photos weren't there.

Other people walked with her. An old couple chatting, a Trinity girl she didn't recognise on her phone, along with a few others.

'It really was just a dream...' Reisa dared to relax, smiling to herself. 'Yeesh... guess I better stop eating sugar so late, aha...'

Unbeknownst to Reisa, back on the train, laid the splintered remnants of the bathroom door.

And upon the toilet laid the disembowelled corpse of Uzawa Reisa, eyes vacant of life and blood coating the walls in a macabre paint – her killer absent.

Absent to all but preternatural eyes.

[END]