Ace and John walked through the streets to the mayor’s office. Unlike the previous night where it seemed like the inn was in a separate dimension of its own and the world outside was in complete darkness, they could walk outside now at the very least, even though the streets were still empty.As they neared the gate of the office, Ace sped up, ready to scale the fences when unexpectedly, the gate yawned open like an ancient mouth. Unnatural shadows swirled in the air as if waiting for them.Both Ace and John exchanged a glance before they moved towards the gate, embracing the mysterious darkness beyond.Ace jolted to a stop, raising his arm in a swift motion to halt John’s progress. “What’s wrong?” John exclaimed, shock written all over his face as his eyes locked onto the flickering red light emitting from Ace’s watch.Tension filled Ace’s features as he stared at the alert from his watch, warning him of the lurking dangers behind the gates.Without uttering a word, Ace gave John a
How would you feel if you got a free luxurious traveling package, but ended up in Hell?Corinne wasn’t even joking when she said Hell, it was literally printed on her train ticket—Hell Express.When she got the train ticket from the store associate at Wilmart, the train ticket felt thick and expensive, it was a cream-colored paper with a swirly gold font. It looked lush and fancy.But now, the ticket was transformed into something that looked like it came straight out of a horror movie. The paper turned black, and the curved font transformed into a creepy kind of text. Corinne wasn’t sure if she was just imagining it or if it was real but holding the piece of paper gave her chills.The thought of her being pranked popped into her mind and she started to wonder if there were hidden cameras around her just as the sound of radio static broke her train of thought.Bzzz“Welcome aboard Hell Express Six, fellow soon-to-be travellers! I’m your lovely conductor, Katie. I wonder how many of yo
“Don’t worry, I’ll call you guys when we reach there,” Corinne said, “plus, Claire is with me, if you’re not confident with me, there’s still Claire right?” The Lin family stood on the platform of the train station. Corinne had her brown locks tied in a loose bun with a daisy hair tie, a bright smile spread across her small round face and her eyes beamed with excitement. In comparison with the young brunette who was obviously in a good mood, her elderly grandparents were smiling as well, however their smiles seemed strained. Concern painted both her grandparents’ eyes, and Corinne felt odd about that. But she thought that they might just be worried about her. She was already a twenty-year-old young adult, but she had never left her grandparents’ side before. They were the ones who raised her, and she’d never known her parents. Grandpa George and Grandma Jane said that they died when she was just a baby. She spent her whole life learning Taoist magic from her grandpa and martial
When the door slammed shut, Corinne glanced up with a raised brow. What on earth? Is Claire mad at her because she asked her to get food while she was here laying around?Corinne did not hear anything from the other side of the door, nor did she hear the noise from the battle between Bellina and the ghost. It was plain silence.“Claire, are you mad?” Corinne went to the door, but when she turned the doorknob, it was locked.Corinne kept on rattling the doorknob, but it wouldn’t budge. She was stuck inside.“Claire, I’m locked in!”Corinne called out to her best friend while banging on the door.Claire could hear everything and all the noises that Corinne made, but it was like she was stuck in another dimension with all the sounds coming from all over the place.She couldn’t find her cabin and the hallway kept leading her back to the same spot. The lights that lined the hallway continued to flicker as she ran down the aisle and returned back to the same place once more.When Claire was
Drinnnnng Drinnnnng Corinne’s cellphone was vibrating and ringing on the bed. She went over and swiped to answer. “Corinne.” Eyes lit up upon hearing the familiar voice, Corinne smiled wide. “Claire! Where have you been? I’m locked in! I tried everything and the door won’t budge, can you get the train staff to do something?” “Corinne.” “What’s wrong? Did you hear what I just said?” “I’m here, open the door.” As soon as the sentence was finished, Corinne heard knocking on the door. Knock Knock Knock Knock When Corinne heard that, she didn’t move towards the door, instead she stepped closer to Claire’s voodoo doll army. “Corinne, what are you doing? I’m here, open the door for me…” Corinne wasn’t sure if she accidentally put her phone on speaker, but her screen showed that she was indeed on speaker. She glanced at the screen of her cellphone and that was when her eyes went wide. Her phone screen was plain red; realization hit her. Ever since she got on to the train, there
Hearing that question, Corinne and Claire exchanged a glance. Corinne gave Claire a nod before she pulled out a paper cutout. It was a plain, white piece of paper, cut into the shape of a human figure.Corinne mumbled an incantation while she drew a spell in the air using her fingers. In mere seconds, the human figure paper cutout floated down to the ground and moved towards the door.The dining crew outside knocked on the door once more, impatiently this time since he did not receive any responses from either of the girls.“Excuse me, do you want to order something or not?”“Yes, yes. Um…” Claire spoke, catching the staff’s attention.The paper figure slipped beneath the door. Corinne linked her senses with the paper cutout, so everything it saw, Corinne was able to see as well.The staff was a skeleton. The skeleton was wearing a white shirt with a blazer over it, a red tie, and a black apron was tied around his waist with the words ‘Hell Express Six’ embroidered on it using gold th
A registration page popped up when Corinne tried to navigate through the Hell Express app.Please enter your traveller name.Corinne tapped on the screen.Sailor Moon.-Name has been taken.Superman.-Name has been taken, you may try Superman12345.“...”Corinne stole a glance at Claire and saw that she had the same identical expression as her; she must be going through the same thing.Cutie Pie Princess.-Name has been taken.‘Are you kidding me?’ Corinne thought.Fudge You Traveller Name.-Please refrain from using profanity words. Warning #1.“...”King of The World.-Registration Successful.“Corinne, what name did you use?” Claire asked, “I’m Doll Queen1113.”“...King of The World,” Corinne said, eyes twitching.Luckily, nobody will know that that was her name, it was so embarrassing. It was definitely better than Cutie Pie Princess... right?The app was fairly simple.There were a couple of functions: Profile, Shop, Forum, Customer Service, and Wallet.Both the ‘Profile’ and ‘Sh
Maddie had never been treated this way before, she felt so embarrassed and mad at the same time that she needed to let this out, so she started to spam in the night round crew group chat.Lola, who was also one of the train crew that made night rounds, saw what Maddie said. Both her and Maddie’s role as night round crew was to make sure that all travellers were on schedule for bedtime.She scoffed at what Maddie said and couldn’t help herself from laughing at her co-worker, however, what she replied to Maddie was different from her mocking expression.Aww. Maddie, I’m so sorry that you had to go through that. Hope you feel better.Lola put her phone away before she ran late in making rounds.***Danny could hear the footsteps coming down the hallway.He had always been a night owl, asking him to sleep at 9pm was impossible. He had been tossing and turning around ever since the lights went out. When he heard the footsteps, his whole body froze, and he kept telling himself to sleep.‘Y