The Red Marker

Ren woke up startled, his legs sliding across the worn carpet as he fought to maintain his seat. The wind whooshed by quickly outside the windows and he could feel himself rock gently to the metronome pulsing of the train tracks.

“A train? I’m on a train?” he thought to himself. He took a deep breath, then another, feeling the air cool his nostrils as he inhaled and pushed the air out through his pursed lips. Ren shook his head to clear the fog, trying to remember how he got into the train compartment but everything before he woke up was blank.

He slapped his legs a few times to make sure they were awake enough to move his body and he stood. Ren reached up to adjust the ball cap he always wore on his head but found only a matted, greasy patch of hair. He scratched his head, his usually tightly clipped fingernails now longer and they dug into his scalp with a soothing pain.

He looked around the tiny compartment, his feet almost steady with the vibration of the floor, and found a small door knob which he turned. The compact space behind the door was a small washroom, complete with a toilet, sink, and blurry mirror which he gazed into.

Ren’s face was different, his chin was covered in weeks of growth and he raised a hand to stroke through the rough beard hair. Furrowed brow, he tried to understand why he hadn’t shaved recently. He bent at the waist to try and get a closer look when he realized he was bigger, much bigger than the space would allow.

“What is going on?” he mused into the fuzzy mirror. “I’m only five and a half feet tall, why am I having to bend over to look at myself?”

Another deep breath in and pushed out.

“Get it together Ren,” he said. “Find out why you’re here and why you don’t have a ticket.”

He closed the washroom door and turned to slide the compartment open. Bending out to look down the hallway, he looked left and then right and found no other person doing the same. Ren stepped out of the room, careful that he was steady enough to walk, and shut the door behind him.

Not knowing why, he heard a voice in his head tell him to mark the door. Instinctively he reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a large red marker. Popping the cap off, he marked a large X on the door and replaced the cap and slid it back into his jeans.

“Get a move on man,” he told himself, trying to motivate his feet to move and his heart to stop pounding louder than the thumping of the train. He looked out the window for just a moment and could see the trees whipping by. The train seemed to be flying across the tracks.

He turned in the direction of what he assumed was the front of the train and started walking, he glanced into every other compartment to see if there was anyone else on the train with him but no luck, his car seemed to be devoid of human life, except for him.

Ren reached the front of his car and could see the small walkway that attached his car to the one in front. Looking across, he saw movement, a few bodies swaying back and forth holding cups and plates. Must be the dining car, I’m sure someone will know where we are, he thought to himself.

Sliding the heavy door open, the air was sucked immediately from behind him and it hauled Ren towards the shaky chain rail. Almost stumbling to his knees, he quickly regained his stride and hurried through to the next door, frantically heaved it open and pitched himself onto the floor safely.

As Ren crouched on his hands and knees in the safety of the dining car, he expected someone to come ask if he was alright, but no one did. They all seemed to be lost in their quiet solitude. He looked up as he straightened his now hulking frame and scanned the room.

A small, old woman sat with a tea cup just inches from her lips, her soft whistle of breath blew the tea cooler but she never sipped.

A tiny, crooked man held the newspaper up to his face as if reading but his gaze was fixed on the glass window.

Two children, twins it seemed, sat opposite each other, a plate of cookies in between but none touched or bitten into. They stared at the plate, never wavering.

“Hello?” Ren asked.

Nothing. No answer, no movement, no shred that any of them could even tell he existed.

“Can someone help me, please?”

Again silence save for the old lady blowing on her tea.

SCREEEEHOOOT!!

The vicious screeching of the train horn caused Ren to jump out of his skin and take a startled leap backwards, pressing himself against the door that he fell through only moments before.

The car pitched forward, the trees started whipping by faster as the train picked up speed. Tea from the old ladies cup trickled onto her lap but she ignored it. The old man’s paper flapped as if it could tell they were going faster. The cookies on the plate in front of the twins shifted slightly, one sliding off, but not touched, just left on the doily covered table.

Ren glanced frantically around the dining car, his pulse racing and he could hear, and feel, his heartbeat throbbing in his ear. One deep breath in, one breath out, just breathe Ren, he reminded himself. He closed his eyes and focused on his breathing.

“What’re you doing here?” a deep voice boomed out from across the room.

Ren’s eyes slowly opened, his heart calmer now. He cleared his throat.

“I don’t know, I was hoping someone could tell me where we’re going. I don’t remember getting on this train,” he replied as he scanned the room looking for the owner of the voice.

A young man, maybe in his early twenties, stood up from a seat all the way at the front. He was dressed in overalls, a dirty shirt with sleeves rolled to his biceps, mud soaked boots, and a weathered bowler hat. Ren could tell from his stature that he was strong; his skin was tanned from the sun and the backs of his arms were littered with scars.

“What’s your name?” Ren asked the man.

“That doesn’t matter,” he replied. “What matters is why you’re here and what you want.”

“I honestly don’t know,” Ren said. “I woke up in one of the compartments in clothes that weren’t mine. I feel like I’ve been asleep for weeks.”

The man snorted a mean chuckle and turned around. “This place’ll do that to ya.”

“What place?” Ren asked.

“This damn train. Been on it for ages, it never stops and I just wanna get off it already.”

“Have you tried going to the main engine car and asking the conductor?”

“Well, hell, why didn’t I think of that?” the man queried, the sarcasm dripping from his lips as his mouth curled into a snarl.

Ren suddenly became afraid. The man’s face was dark, his eyes menacing.

“You seem kinda stupid,” he said, chuckling under his breath as he crossed his arms over his chest.

“I’m not stupid, just a little confused,” Ren replied.

“Same damn thing.”

“It’s really not,” Ren said, taking a step forward. “Maybe if we work together, we can find a way off this train.”

The man matched the step, one and then two, then a third. As soon as he got close to the twins, their heads turned, their faces turning ghostly white and they shut their eyes.

Ren could feel the pit of his stomach start to churn with fear. He’s who you’re looking for Ren, the voice in his head told him. Ren’s throat became dry and he could feel it scratching every time he tried to swallow.

Another step, closer and closer the mean-faced man came. He stopped just next to the old woman. He shifted his gaze to her tea cup and with an angry swish of his hand, he slapped it from her grasp. She shrieked and covered her face, turning her whole body against the window.

“Hey man!” Ren hollered. “What’s your problem?”

The man’s gaze became piercing and full of hate.

“My problem? MY PROBLEM?!” he hollered. “I’ll tell you my damn problem! I’ve been stuck in this car for ages with these wimps of companions and I’m SICK of looking at their PATHETIC faces!”

“Calm down!”

“Don’t you tell me to calm down! I’ve killed them dozens of times but they just keep coming back… EVERY DAY! Every time I open my eyes, they’re back! Sitting in their stupid seats, blowing on their stupid tea, staring out the window or into nothing!”

A bright flash of light speared through the car, knocking the man to his feet and blowing the hat from his head.

“What the hell?!” he shouted.

Ren suddenly realized why he was there. Drag him down, the voice in his head said, and Ren nodded.

“It’s time for you to leave.”

“I’ve done told you before, I can’t leave! You stupid old fool, I’m STUCK here!”

“Let me tell you a quick story…” Ren started to say.

“I don’t want to hear a damn story!” the man screamed, his once deep voice now cracked with fear.

“You don’t have a choice,” Ren replied as he put up his hand.

Instantly the man is silenced, his mouth now gone, replaced by only skin. He scratched his dirty fingers against it, but cannot break through.

“70 years ago you were hiding on a train, probably quite similar to this one. You had no money, no ticket, so you decided to rob a few people. You found this car. There was a grandmother and her grandchildren, and an old man…they were all minding their business when you decided to pull a gun on them.

“They gave you all their money, their jewelry, hell…even the little ones gave you their cookies. They were terrified and yet you still took everything they had. But was that enough for you? No. You decided that they’d seen your face so they had to go.”

Ren paused in his story to take a step forward, crouching down to come eye to eye with the mouthless man. For the first time, he could see fear in the dark, mean eyes.

“You hopped off on the next stop and lived your life, not caring at all that you destroyed so many other people’s lives. But now it’s my turn, and I’m going to fix that.”

With the quickness of a flash of lightning, Ren grabbed the man by the collar of his dirty shirt and pulled him to his feet. He turned to the door and opened it, he could feel the train picking up speed, and yanked the man through with him.

“This is for all the lives you destroyed! You don’t get to stay here ANY MORE!” Ren bellowed to the rushing tracks underneath their feet before tossing the hateful young man into the darkness below.

*****

3…2…1…

Ren woke in the dark room, the candle flickering its last breath before snuffing itself out. The mirror across from him was completely black. He blinked several times before getting to his feet, his legs were a little shaky and he could feel the pins and needles that were working hard to wake his hands and arms up.

“Is it done?” a soft voice whispered in the dark room as a curtain was pulled back to allow the moonlight in.

Ren took a deep breath before responding. “Yes,” he said. “He’s gone now, he won’t be haunting your family any more.”

He could hear the catch in the old woman’s throat as she choked back tears. “Th…thank you sir. It’s been so long and he’s haunted my dreams ever since.”

“I know. That’s why I help people like you find peace.”

“Did you see them all?” she asked.

“I did. Your grandmother and the twins, even the old man,” Ren replied.

“Not twins, we were triplets. I was in the washroom when the man came in…I hid there terrified, but I saw it all. Now I just hope I can sleep.”

“You will. He won’t ever touch your dreams again, I promise.” Ren reached out to hug the frail old woman as she tried to push a wad of money into his hands.

“No, that won’t be necessary. He was a brutal one, those are free of charge,” Ren smiled down into her sweet face. “Now go, get some rest. I have some cleaning up to do.”

She smiled deeply and turned to the door. “Bless you Ren,” she said before slipping out.

He chuckled as he reached up to adjust the ball cap on his head.

Ren spun on his heel and clapped his hands together. He started to dismantle the sections of his psychomanteum, placing each piece gently into the trunk in the small room. Looking into the now blackened mirror he said softly…”and here is where you will stay” before removing the red marker from his pocket and placing a large X on its surface.