“I love you. Bye, Mother.”
“I love you, too. Goodbye.”
My bracelet buzzed as she ended the call.
The panel inside the cabin glowed, well lit for a passenger’s needs. The stairs retracted and the door shut on its own while I typed in my home address. The clean blue energy keeping the train afloat hummed beneath my feet as the train started traveling. I sat on one of the seats, the other nine empty, and rested my head back against the headrest.
My hands shook on the armrests, remnant terror sizzling in my bones. I closed my eyes and thought of my old mathematics professor. The man bored so many students that many fell asleep in his class every day. It was the thought of his monotone voice, the baritone easy and smooth, that soothed—and bored—me enough that I sighed in relief. Leave it to a professor I had once hated, for having no zeal for teaching, to be the solution for centering oneself.
The train came to a swift, unexpected halt.
I screeched as my body flew forward, my arms flailing in the air, until I slammed against the bathroom door. I continued to flap my arms as gravity took hold and my body brushed all the way down the door to the floor.
I grunted, “Oomph!”
Nothing was broken. Nothing was broken.
Please don’t let any bones be broken.
The shock held me frozen on the ground, wondering what had caused the error to occur in the transport.
Would I be able to fix it and get home?
My hasty, fearful scream charged the air, the train suddenly falling to the street. My sprawled frame rose off the ground for a heartbeat, until the train slammed onto the road, and then I hit the floor again with a groan.
In the startling silence, I pressed my shaky hands to the floor of the train and pushed my torso up, peering around the cabin. No alarms were blinking inside, which would be normal for a collision. The train was still intact, nothing out of place.
Except for my quivering body lying on the floor.
“What in the world?” I panted.
The door to the train opened to the night.
My eyes slammed wide, and my body jerked.
A new form of terror entered my system.
There was a man in a mask standing in the doorway.
He pressed his sword against my throat, staring down at me on the floor. “Ms. Mina Kramer?”
“Yes,” I whispered, not moving my head.
“Get up. Now.”
