They ran.
Or at least, they thought they did. The veins beneath their feet shifted like liquid, swallowing their steps, dragging them back toward the pulsing heart. Every corridor stretched and collapsed in impossible angles, doors leading nowhere, doors leading back.
Sophie stumbled, her skin pale and translucent, shadows crawling beneath it like worms. Every time she blinked, her eyes flickered black. The train was already inside her. Evelyn pulled her along anyway, refusing to let go, the lantern shaking violently in her grip.
Alex slammed against a wall that wasn't there a second ago. His fists bled as he struck it, but the wall was flesh, not steel. It moaned beneath his blows, then opened like a mouth. Hands shot out, clutching his wrists, trying to drag him in. He screamed, kicking wildly until Evelyn yanked him free.
Leo's breath came ragged. "We're not escaping," he rasped. "It's showing us what we want—but it's only running us in circles." His eyes darted to Sophie, then the others. "The train isn't chasing us anymore. It's… playing."
The corridor suddenly split wide, opening into a vast space that looked like freedom: sunlight, blue sky, an open field stretching endlessly. They froze, staring, hope bleeding into their terror. Sophie reached for it, her lips trembling into a broken smile.
But Evelyn's lantern revealed the truth. The "sky" was flesh. The "field" was veins. The light peeled the illusion away, revealing a cavern of writhing bodies—passengers fused into the walls, still alive, whispering, begging. Their arms reached, not to help, but to drag the survivors into the collective.
The heart's voice boomed, rattling their bones:"Run, if you wish. You only run deeper into me."
Sophie screamed, falling to her knees as the veins burst from her skin, binding her to the floor. Her voice broke as she begged: "Go! Before it takes me completely!"
But as Evelyn, Alex, and Leo pulled against the writhing tendrils, they realized the truth: the train would not let them escape. Not together. Maybe… not at all.
And in the distance, the heart kept beating. Faster. Hungrier.