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When the train emerged from the tunnel, Hope was shocked to see, instead of the familiar English countryside, a dimly lit station that looked like it had seen better days. She wondered if Jhansi had put her on the wrong train by accident, but dismissed that idea; the policewoman had been very thorough, and had confirmed with the station staff which train Hope needed to get on.
Yet, as the train slowed down and stopped, Hope had the nasty feeling she'd just been sent to a much worse place than Earth and Pandora combined. Still, there seemed to be little choice in the matter; the doors slid open smoothly, and Hope stepped reluctantly from the train, shivering in the draft as the train sped away from the stations, the rails' "singing" fading away into an eerie silence as the train vanished through the tunnel.
Hope resisted the urge to scream; the silence was overpowering, and she could almost hear her own organs working. It was a nauseating sensation, and she rubbed her arms, cursing Jhansi and all the Pandorans anew. If this was to be her fate, the council could not have thought of a worse one, and Hope fought down the nausea. The placed looked like a ghost town, old signage from a bygone era still clinging to the tiles despite looking like they'd seen better days, and litter covered the platforms and tracks. Only a handful of lights illuminated the darkness, and Hope ran from patch to patch, fearful of what might be awaiting her in the shadows.
She eventually came to a flight of stairs leading up, and she made her nervous way upstairs, until she came to a wooden door. She pushed cautiously on the door, and it opened with a great creaking and squealing of rusted hinges that grated painfully on her nerves. The sight beyond the door was no more heartening; a deserted ticket hall stretched in either direction as far as the eye could see, as dirty and dingy as the platforms, and just as dimly lit. Hope stepped out, rubbing her arms again, jumping as the door slammed shut behind her, seemingly unaided, the echoes chasing each other up and down the cavernous space for what seemed a very long time afterwards, setting bats to screeching and fluttering. Hope covered her head with her arms as they flew past, the drafts raised by their wings buffeting, but eventually, they settled, and Hope cautiously lowered her arms, heart pounding. Nothing in this vast, dark hall told her of a way out, so she turned right and made her nervous way across the dusty floor, biting her lip as small things skittered away from her questing feet. Bats sometimes squeaked from the ceiling, but no more panicked flights came, much to her relief. Her nerves, though, jangled unmercifully every time something small skittered away from her, and by the time she reached another set of doors at the far end of the hall, she felt herself only moments away from madness. This is hell, she told herself. Maybe Pandora and all its horrors was just a dream. Maybe I did drown in that river, and I imagined all of it, and now I've "come back to life" in this place.
It certainly felt like hell, and Hope bit her lip hard. She didn't want to face whatever was outside, but neither did she want to stay in this deserted station with its echoes, its bats, and other unnamed things. And surely someone had to be out there, someone who could tell her just what the blazes was going on. It had to be better than in here, Hope told herself. Anything had to be better than the silent horrors she'd endured ever since she'd stepped off the train. 87Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs5dpiRpvBI
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