I swallowed, determinedly staring at my phone screen. Unable to stand on shaking legs, I dropped heavily to my backside on the nearest seat. The moment I did, I caught a glimpse of something reflected on the screen which moved.

“H-hello..." I hoarsely called out again. I looked around me at a dizzying speed, trying to look everywhere at once. I felt anxiety mount as the seconds ticked down with no response. Gulping, I considered how I could stop the train. I wasn’t sure if it would be a good idea. Stopping it wouldn’t get me to the next station. The company might be upset about it. Furthermore, stopping in a dark tunnel would probably make things even worse. There wouldn’t even be a conductor on board.

Something else attracted my attention. This time it was something in the phone instead of being reflected. My eyes locked on a bookmark in my browser. It was one I’d created a month ago. After finding out about Reiko-chan, I found an online article about the incident, mostly to confirm it. I didn’t want to read it, now, knowing I’d cry so hard I’d disintegrate if I did, and I was already close enough as it was.

I sighed, trying to relax. It was probably just jitters because of how rough the last month was. The sounds of the train operations were suddenly silenced by a voice in the car.

“SssssssAuuuughhhhhhuuuuu!” The train rattled right then.

*RATTLE*

The lights went out. I screamed as I leapt to my feet again, certain that those feelings that I was being watched wasn’t just paranoia. My instincts screamed after I heard the voice.

Run, you fool! You should never have boarded this train! I said to myself, triggered by this creepy voice. My nerves were raw. At least the voice was human.

I sighed after considering that it might be someone who’d come looking for another living person on this train after finding themselves in the same situation. If so, they were more courageous than me. I decided that I needed to relax and put things into perspective. Did I not hear them clearly because of how distracted and upset I am?

I turned towards where I thought the voice originated from, across the car, perhaps in the next. I flinched when I didn’t see anyone. Instead, I saw a face hovering in the darkness of the slowly rocking train car. It moved from side to side as the train rattled periodically, slowly moving towards me. That face was bone white and possessed no expression nor features. There was a glow-in-the-dark-like effect playing about it.

That was pretty frightening, but my reaction was strange. I laughed aloud, disbelieving.

“W-what is this, you little punk?!” I yelled aloud, my voice full of bravado. I felt threatened by whatever this was, so I decided to act like the Yakuza everyone assumed I was. “Get lost. I’m not impressed by your weak prank.” I laughed derisively. “I don’t get Halloween, and I don’t care about it. Go bother someone else, or you’ll regret it, you little shit.” I wanted to seat myself casually to add to the menace of the words. That might serve to further disarm whoever it was playing games with me. An intuition prevented me from doing that.

In response to my scoffing, it uttered more creepy noises, taking its time moving closer towards me. I automatically edged slightly away from it, spoiling my bravado a bit. Accompanying those noises, I noticed something moving on the bone-white mask, right around where a mouth should be.

I-is that a mouth? That black hole in that mask? It moves? Is it an LCD technology I wasn’t aware of?

“SssauuuuuuuuuHHHHHHUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNN,” it wailed loudly, causing the train to shake more dramatically. It destroyed that line of thought. It was either a well orchestrated caper, or it was very much a real monster. The volume of the cry made my ears ache; I thought my eardrums might burst. I plugged them with my index fingertips.