Sophie's screams tore through the chamber as black veins rooted her into the floor. Her body convulsed, veins bursting from her skin, weaving her into the walls like the countless passengers before. Her eyes flickered between terror and emptiness, her voice echoing with more than her own:"Join me… it's easier… it's peace…"
Evelyn clung to the lantern, tears streaking down her face. She refused to look away, refused to let Sophie become just another face in the wall. "No—we can fight this! We can fight it!" But her voice shook, a fragile hope cracking under the weight of reality.
Alex, trembling, turned to her. His eyes were wide, bloodshot, haunted. "No… Evelyn, don't you see? That's the lie. We can't fight the train. We never could. It doesn't want death—it wants us. It always wanted us. Our fears, our hunger, our guilt—it feeds forever." His voice broke into a whisper. "We're already inside it."
Leo laughed—a harsh, broken laugh that sent shivers through the air. "Inside it? Look around, Alex. We are the train." He tore open his shirt, revealing veins crawling beneath his skin, pulsing with the same rhythm as the monstrous heart. His chest rose and fell with its beat, his voice warping as he screamed: "Don't you understand?! Every carriage, every horror—it was us all along!"
The heart pulsed violently, shaking the chamber, the whispers of the damned rising into a deafening chorus. Evelyn dropped to her knees, clutching the lantern like a child clutches a toy against the dark. She wanted to scream, but all she could do was whisper: "No… no, that's not true…"
But the shadows wrapped tighter, Sophie's body disappearing into the wall, her last words a hollow, mocking echo:"You'll see. You'll all see. You don't escape a heart when it's your own."
The lantern flickered once more—then went out.
And the survivors were left in total darkness, the heartbeat consuming them from within.