The door ahead groaned open, revealing a space that reeked of iron, blood, and decay. The air itself felt thick, heavy, almost alive, pulsating with a hunger that reached into their bones.
The floor was slick with blood, the walls stretched impossibly high, dripping viscera and black ichor. The shadows in the corners twitched and lunged as if trying to swallow them whole.
From the ceiling, dozens of jagged teeth erupted, snapping, chattering, trying to bite at anyone passing. Tendrils of living flesh crawled across the floor, wrapping around ankles, legs, and torsos, squeezing, burning, feeding on fear as much as flesh.
Sophie cried out as a tendril coiled around her waist. Images of every failure and guilt she had carried appeared before her eyes—every person she had wronged, every secret shame. The flesh tendril pulsed with her fear.
Alex swung at the tendrils, only for them to split and double in number. His muscles burned; his lungs screamed. Every movement seemed to feed the carriage, making it grow stronger.
Evelyn raised her lantern high. The light flared violently, cutting through the flesh and shadows. But the carriage adapted—the floor rippled, the walls pulsed, and new tendrils slithered toward them from nowhere.
The Conductor's voice echoed from the darkness, omnipresent and omnipotent:"Hunger never ends. Fear never dies. Your pain… your terror… it nourishes me."
Leo staggered, his reflection from a puddle of black blood twisting into a monstrous version of himself, whispering:"You are already mine… and soon… nothing will remain."
Step by step, Evelyn dragged the group forward, navigating a maze of living flesh, snapping teeth, writhing shadows, and whispering horrors. Every heartbeat risked feeding the carriage further, every scream strengthening the Conductor's power.
Finally, a glowing sigil appeared in the far wall, pulsing like a heartbeat. They lunged toward it, dragging each other, ignoring the searing pain of tendrils, the hallucinations, the snapping teeth.
The Conductor's laughter echoed, cruel and amused:"You survive… but only because I allow it. Deeper still, the true horrors await. And the train never forgets…"
The sigil swallowed them, leaving the Carriage of Eternal Hunger writhing behind, its pulse echoing in their bones.
The survivors collapsed, broken, terrified, barely breathing—but alive… for now.