Hell Express: The Survival Games

Chapter 2-The Cakeland Kingdom

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 contemplating what to do, the lights went out completely and she was immersed in a blanket of darkness.

The only thing that made her feel slightly at ease was that Bellina was still with her, but at the same time she was on edge because Bellina was feeling agitated again, and when she felt that way Claire knew that they were not alone.

A sharp wind sliced through the air, heading right towards her. Claire sidestepped, dodging whatever was coming her way.

Claire couldn’t see anything without the lights, but she caught a glimpse of white as it zipped passed her. It looked like the hem of a long white dress that was identical to the one worn by the ghost that Bellina devoured earlier.

Bellina jumped down from Claire’s arms and chased after the ghost.

“Bellina, wait!” Claire called after Bellina, but she was gone.

Claire wanted to run after Bellina, however, she couldn’t make out which direction her princess voodoo doll had taken off to.

How she wished the lights were on.

As though her wishes were heard, all the lights came back.

Claire sucked in a deep breath as she felt like a lump just formed in her throat. She was engulfed in a wave of red, the lights came back, but they were not the same cloudy orange, instead they were blood red.

Huff

Accompanying the soft breathing sound were the lights flicking once more.

Huff

That was not a good sign, since she got attacked the last time the lights flickered and turned off afterwards.

Huff

She could hear the sound of the breathing getting stronger by the second; with the red lights flickering like this she could barely see anything.

When Claire thought that the lights would go out again, they stopped flickering. That was when Claire noticed it. A silhouette stood at the very end of the hallway.

Her face turned pale, and her mouth went dry. In a couple of seconds, the lights flickered again.

Huff…Whoosh…

When the lights turned back on, the silhouette seemed to have moved closer.

Before Claire could process what happened, the lights flickered once more. When that happened, Claire could feel her heart race and she felt cold all the way to her feet.

Huff…Whoosh…

Claire’s hands balled into fists, and with her lips pursed, she began to move backwards. When the lights stopped flickering, Claire’s movement came to a halt, and she felt she bumped into something.

Her whole body froze, and her breath got stuck in her throat as she quickly distanced herself from whatever she just bumped into.

“Claire, what are you doing just standing here?”

Hearing the familiar voice, she glanced over her shoulder and saw Corinne standing right behind her with her head tilted a little to the side, blinking at her with her big round eyes.

Seeing her best friend, Claire felt her body relax only a tiny bit. Claire swept her head to the other side; the silhouette was gone.

The lights seemed to go back to normal this time, covering the entire hallway in a cloudy orange. No silhouette, no lights flickering, everything seemed to turn back to how it was when Corinne stepped into the train aisle.

Claire felt relieved and the tension evaporated. Her cellphone slipped out from her relaxed fist, dropping to the ground with a light thud.

Bending over to pick up her phone, Claire answered.

“I was just—”

Claire’s words got stuck in her throat, her whole body tensed up once more as her eyes went wide.

Huff…Whoosh…

The same soft breathing sound and the sound of something flew towards her.

Still bending, Claire flinched as her fingers tightened around her cellphone. She saw it.

Corinne closed the distance, and her feet came into view.

She was standing on tiptoe!

Claire couldn’t stop staring at the tip-toed feet, who would walk and stand on tiptoe? Ghosts and spirits.

The Corinne who stood in front of her was obviously a ghost!

“What are you looking at?”

The ghost spoke in a voice that Claire was so familiar with and could recognize anywhere, but now all the ease she felt from seeing her best friend was gone.

All she felt was the chill that ran down her spine, as though a malicious snake was staring at her, watching her, preparing to attack.

Lifting her head slowly, Claire startled. Corinne’s face was so close to hers that she could see how ghastly pale her skin was.

Corinne was bending over just like Claire; her lips were curled up in such an eerie way that Claire was positive that this thing in front of her was definitely not her best friend.

Corinne’s smile was bright and cheerful with little dimples on both side of her lips. Her smile was nothing like this ghost’s.

The uneasiness and fear that welled up within her overwhelmed her so much that it was like tidal waves continuously hitting her, drowning her.

Glancing up at the ghost that wore an identical face to Corinne, the ghost looked at her with bulging eyes; Claire could have sworn that the ghost’s eyes would fall off any second if she kept bulging her eyes like that.

The anxiety that reached the peak of what Claire could handle faded away just like the roaring waves that went still after a storm.

Claire’s eyes narrowed as her eyes turned cold.

The ghost did not notice the sudden change within Claire. She tilted her head, wearing that wide, malicious smile.

“What are you doing? Get up and come with me.”

A smile slowly spread across Claire’s features, and she stood up, reaching over to the silver chain around her neck, revealing a bone needle hanging on the necklace.

When the ghost saw the bone needle, a sudden fear boiled in the pit of its stomach.

With a swift motion, the bone needle floated atop of Claire’s palm, emitting a soft glow before a silvery white thread appeared out of nowhere and surrounded Claire.

“Why don’t you come with me instead?” Claire said, looking at the ghost with a little smile on her face.

Claire loved how those supernatural beings looked when they realized that she was not some damsel in distress. Just because they lured her voodoo doll away, that didn’t mean that she couldn’t fight on her own.

The dim orange lights began to flicker slowly, turning red once more. Claire was seriously fed up with the light flickering trick, and she was even more frustrated with the ghost using Corinne’s appearance.

With a flick of her hand, Claire sent her bone needle flying towards the lights. The thread was pulled along by the needle, a silvery white light zipped around the lights at the speed of lightning.

When it came back, a ball of smoky, dark energy was trapped in the white thread, just like a ball of yarn. Apparently, it was the ghost’s black energy that was making the lights go crazy.

Claire tossed it up and down, her cat-like eyes glanced towards the ghost lazily as her lips curled up in a smirk.

“Now, it is your turn.”

***

Corinne pouted, looking at her hands. Her skin had turned red because she had been banging on the door for five minutes and it wouldn’t even budge.

She thought the doorknob might have been broken or something. Corinne also looked around the room to see if she could find anything that could tell her how she could contact the train staff.

When she could not find anything and her eyes landed on Claire’s voodoo doll that was sitting in the suitcase, the idea of breaking down the door began to bubble in her mind.

Corinne went over, kneeling, and flashed her signature bright smile that showed her dimples to the dolls.

Apart from Bellina, which was Claire’s princess voodoo doll, the rest of her dolls were mostly animals, if she didn’t count that strawman.

The voodoo dolls that Claire made did not look like dolls that came out of a horror movie, they looked just like normal plushies with button eyes. If you didn’t see how they were in action that is.

“Guys? Guys, think any one of you could help me break down that door?”

Corinne blinked at the plushies with her shiny, round eyes, looking at them with anticipation.

The animal plushies looked at Corinne before they huddled up in a circle as though they were discussing what to do.

Normally, only Claire would be able to make them do anything, but Corinne was merely asking for a small favor. However, the dolls remembered how Claire told them to ignore Corinne if what she asked for would cause trouble.

Is breaking down a door trouble?

The animal voodoo dolls don’t have the intelligence to process this, all they could think of was to be loyal to Claire.

In the end, they turned to the strawman; while they huddled up, the strawman had crawled out from the suitcase with a beach chair and hopped to the table that was closest to the window.

Corinne followed the animal plushies’ gaze to the strawman. What she saw made her jaw drop. Jax, the strawman, took out a pair of sunshades and was laying on the beach chair with a lollipop in his mouth.

Jax looked even more like he was on a vacation than her!

Corinne had no idea why he acted like he was bathing in the sun when she could see nothing but plain darkness through the window.

Honestly, the voodoo dolls Claire made always had such distinctive personalities.

Zimba, the lion plush who had a crown on his head, growled, calling for Jax’s attention.

Jax barely moved from the beach chair and did a waving motion with his straw hand.

When Corinne was going to bribe Jax with her bag of candies, her cellphone rang.

Drinnnnng