The lantern's death left them in a silence thicker than shadow. No light. No hope. Only the pulse.
The survivors felt it inside them now—not as an enemy, but as an organ, as natural as lungs, as inevitable as blood. Their hearts no longer beat alone; they were in rhythm with the train.
Alex staggered forward, his hands pressed against his chest. Every throb pushed images into his mind—cities swallowed whole, countless passengers screaming as they were absorbed, railways stretching across endless voids. "It doesn't end," he whispered, eyes wide and unseeing. "It never ends. The train doesn't travel… it devours."
Evelyn clung to him, shaking her head, trying to drag him back. "No—don't listen to it! That's what it wants. If we give in, we're finished. We're nothing!" Her words were desperate, hollow, as the walls whispered her own name back to her.
Leo collapsed, laughing through tears. His veins glowed faintly in the dark, pulsing with sick rhythm. "Don't you see? We're not passengers anymore—we're the fuel. We're what keeps it alive. And when we're gone… it'll find more." His voice twisted, echoing with the whispers of the heart.
And then the chamber shifted. The heart split open like a wound, revealing not flesh but railways stretching into infinity, each track twisting into darkness. On those tracks, countless trains moved, each filled with passengers screaming, shadows feeding, souls breaking.
The voice returned, now deeper, eternal, undeniable:"There is no escape. There is no end. You are not passengers. You are the journey."
The survivors fell to their knees, their minds fracturing as the truth spread through them: this train was not a single cursed machine. It was part of something infinite. Eternal. Endless hunger carried on endless rails.
And as the heart pulsed again, Sophie's face appeared in the wall, her voice hollow, echoing:"Welcome home."
The darkness closed in. The train screamed.And Chapter 50 ended with the promise: the ride never stops.