Walking through the door, the passenger found themselves in yet another completely different looking room.
The walls were coated with a creamy yellow glazing, decorated with clean posters of groups and bands from a different time, and some grainy photos depicting a family with most faces blurred. There was only a maroon rug on the floor and an awfully shiny silver stepladder beside it.
From a basic observation, this seemed a perfectly normal, albeit suspiciously empty room; until they looked up.
They were met with an abnormally high ceiling. At the very top was a small lamp that lit the entire room. The ladder itself stopped halfway towards a rusty looking bed suspended mid-air, with the ladder acting as support. There was also a TV bolted on to the wall next to the bed
The passenger tried to climb the stepladder, hoping to get a better view of what’s above. But no matter how hard they tried, they simply could not climb it. It felt as if it was generously coated with the smoothest lubricant possible, leaving it with practically no friction. 166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzlwxBBJTew
Their fruitless attempts to climbing would go on for a while.
At one point, two steps and then back down. At another point, four steps and slipped back down. At a final point, a whopping eight steps, nearly an eighth way up to the top, but an unfortunate misstep and they went all the way back down with a loud thump, enough to wake up the person in the bed.
“Huh? Who’s there?”, he called down in a startled manner. 166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYLRTaobzbe
Looking around erratically, the bed-ridden person peered down onto the tiny speck looking back at him. He got up and gracefully slid down the ladder, getting toe to toe with his guest.
He seemed of a very old age. Wrinkles covered his entire face, complemented by his sprinkles of grey facial hair and a mostly balding head.
“Who are you?!” he asked furiously.
Even while having such loose facial skin, he could easily make a commanding face, completely freezing the Passenger as if he had plucked out Medusa’s eyes and attached them to his decrepitly baggy eye-sockets.
“Well? Do you have nothing to say? Are you deaf?” he asserted. “I’ll ask this once more," he said, grabbing them by the shoulders, and shaking them "what is your name!?”
They broke out a bit from this frozen state, pushed him aside and nervously replied, “I- I don’t have a name. I- I don't remember-”
“What kind of person doesn’t remember their name?” The old man immediately interrupted, “Why are you here if you can’t even remember yourself?”
The passenger tried to move on from the obvious dilemma and continued, “...anyway, I’m here to ask about-”,
“Why do you want to know more about something irrelevant when you don’t even know a darn thing about yourself!?”
The man was forceful in his questions, so the passenger retaliated.
“I don’t care about that right now! I just want to ask about this train! Where are we going? What’s its purpose? How and why did we get here? But since you don’t feel like answering anything, I should probably be on my way.”
He slightly softened at that point. 166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbCG4GoR0Wg
"Alright wait, I suppose I should be sorry for acting this way. It’s just having no identity? That’s just plain impossible!”, he remarked.
The passenger merely stared upsettingly at them, causing him to backpedal on his statement. 166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj7dIGiDR9r
“But fine, we can move on. About the train, right? Well," he rubbed his chin before continuing, "one day I died and suddenly found myself lying down on that bed over there, and I’ve been here ever since.”
“Don’t you want to leave at all? What if there’s something bigger outside.” 166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIbjDX5taWC
166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9C105YQpAS
“Sorry kid, but I have doubts. Just look outside, it’s just space! You would just float forever, and you can’t even die. Besides, I've got my TV to keep me company.”
“I don’t feel like I belong here, I didn’t even get my own compartment!”
“Well, I’m sorry but that seems to be your problem. Maybe you can share with someone else around here-”
“I don’t want to stay here; I want to leave!” The passenger furiously replied, “I don’t get how you can live like this, but I am not staying!”
Upon hearing this, the old man changed his entire tone to be softer.
“Hm, you remind me of someone I knew.” He rubbed his chin again and looked at the ground, contemplating, “I wonder what he thinks of me now.”
Suddenly, the insurmountable steps shrunk in size, bringing the bed to ground. He grabbed a key under the pillow, went towards the rug and flipped it over, revealing a trapdoor.
“Look son,” he said while placing the key in the lock and twisting it, “I’m sorry that I couldn’t help you, but maybe someone downstairs might help.”
The old man opened a trapdoor hidden under the rug to show a staircase with seemingly no end in sight.
“You’re free to come back for a chat, I suppose,” he said in a remorseful way.
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