The door slid open with an unnatural hiss, and immediately Evelyn knew this carriage was different. It was silent. Too silent. No screeching metal, no echo of footsteps—just an oppressive hush that pressed on her eardrums.
Then came the whispers.
They began softly, like the brush of wind through dry leaves. A thousand voices, overlapping, tangled, impossible to understand yet somehow inside her head. The sound crawled beneath her skin, making her shiver.
Alex clutched his ears. "Stop it—make it stop!"
But Evelyn knew it wasn't sound. The whispers weren't entering through their ears. They were worming directly into their minds.
Sophie staggered forward, her face pale. "They're saying… they're saying things I've never told anyone…"
The voices grew clearer. Evelyn's own whisper hissed back at her:
"You should have let them die. They're slowing you down. You'll never survive if you keep protecting them."
Her heart pounded. "It's lying," she whispered, forcing her hands to stop shaking. "It's trying to break us apart."
But the others weren't as strong.
Leo suddenly lashed out, shoving Alex against the wall. "You think I don't know you've been planning to abandon me?! The voices told me everything!" His eyes were wild, veins bulging at his temples.
The whispers filled the carriage like a living storm. Words of hatred, fear, and twisted desire poured into their minds, dragging up their ugliest thoughts. Evelyn gritted her teeth as her own voice grew louder:
"You want to give in. You want to stop fighting. You want to sink into this train forever…"
The carriage itself seemed to pulse with the voices, the walls beating like a massive heart. The whispers grew so loud Evelyn thought her skull would split. She dropped to her knees, clutching her head, blood dripping from her nose.
But then, in the chaos, she noticed something. Among the storm of voices, there was one whisper different from the rest. Faint, almost drowned out, but steady. Guiding.
"Evelyn… follow the light…"
Her eyes darted upward—and she saw it: a faint lantern glowing at the far end of the carriage. Barely visible through the haze.
"Move!" Evelyn screamed, grabbing Sophie by the wrist. "That's the way out!"
But Leo was still fighting Alex, both of them consumed by the whispers. Evelyn had no choice. She drew in a breath, then slammed her hand across Leo's face. Hard.
"Wake up, damn it!" she shouted, her voice cutting through the storm.
For one second, his eyes cleared. Alex shoved him off, coughing, and the four of them sprinted through the darkness. The whispers clawed at their minds, trying to drag them back, hissing every secret, every lie, every fear. Evelyn bit her lip until she tasted blood, forcing herself to run faster.
At last, they reached the lantern. Evelyn grabbed it, raising it high. The whispers screamed in fury, and the walls of the carriage shook violently, glass cracking and shadows writhing.
Then—silence.
The voices vanished, as if ripped away. The lantern's light spread, wrapping around them like a protective shield.
Evelyn's chest heaved. She wiped the blood from her face, trembling. "This train… it's not just trying to kill us. It wants us to destroy ourselves."
And though the whispers had quieted, Evelyn knew they hadn't truly gone. Somewhere deep inside her, their echo lingered, waiting for the perfect moment to return.