The door opened with a groan that sounded almost alive. The air was thick with heat and a sickly-sweet perfume that made their heads spin. The carriage walls shimmered with moving shadows, each one whispering intimate, hidden thoughts that made the blood in Evelyn's veins feel like fire.
Immediately, the passengers realized this carriage fed not on flesh alone, but on desire—every buried wish, every shameful fantasy, every longing they had dared not speak aloud.
Sophie stumbled, clutching her chest. Shadows slid along her skin, cold yet electric, tracing every secret she'd buried: jealousies, lust, betrayals, all warped into grotesque, physical forms. One shadow reached toward her lips, brushing them in a mockery of intimacy that made her shiver violently.
Alex's own desires were weaponized. Figures appeared—impossibly beautiful, impossibly close—taunting him, whispering promises he didn't want but could not resist. He swung, tried to resist, but the illusions wrapped around him, teasing, burning, drawing at his mind like molten metal.
Leo cried out as the walls themselves flexed, pulsing with eroticized horrors. The floor rippled like liquid, hands emerging to stroke, grab, and claw. Pain and pleasure twisted together so sharply that each scream was both agony and something else, something darker, shameful, undeniable.
Evelyn's stomach twisted. The lantern flickered wildly as her own thoughts began to betray her. The shadows whispered secrets she hadn't dared admit even to herself. "You wanted this… didn't you?" they hissed. "You always crave release."
She shook her head violently. "No… I fight. I will survive."
The shadows surged, morphing into tendrils that wrapped around her limbs, slipping under her clothing, cold and hot at once. Each touch clawed into her mind, stirring fear and desire into a maddening, unbearable mix.
She slammed the lantern down. Light exploded outward, burning some shadows into ash, but the others multiplied faster, twisting her desires against her. Every step forward was agony—flesh and mind tested beyond limits, each breath a battle to stay herself.
"Follow me!" Evelyn gasped, dragging Sophie and Alex toward a sigil glowing faintly at the far end. Every shadow surged, whispering and clawing, trying to drag them back, to consume their deepest secrets.
With one last scream, Evelyn slammed her hand onto the glowing sigil. White-hot light surged, obliterating the shadows and burning the whispering figures to nothingness. The heat scorched the walls and floor, leaving only scorched air and their trembling bodies behind.
They collapsed, shivering, gasping, covered in sweat and bruises, their minds raw from the psychic torment.
Evelyn whispered hoarsely: "We… survived. But this… this carriage… it knows us. Every part of us."
A soft, mocking whisper echoed around them, almost intimate: "Desire is hunger… and hunger is eternal. The train is patient. It will claim all you try to hide."
She tightened her grip on the lantern. Ahead, another dark doorway loomed, promising nightmares that would make even this torture seem mild by comparison.
The Midnight Train had no mercy. It had no end. And Evelyn knew, deep down, that whatever awaited beyond this next door would demand everything—body, mind, and soul.