Missed
written by: Rikst
You run for the train, weaving between people with trolleys searching for direction. Announcements in a language outside your grasp beg for your attention. Near collision.
The broken escalator recalls a past monster slain.
You run up the stairs, desperate.
It’s not there yet. 5 minutes delayed.
You look around, gasping for breath. There is a train on the other side of the platform, stretched along the pavement, waiting for the light to switch.
It goes to that place.
That place that you never quite managed to leave behind. That place that brought back the nausea every time you heard its name. That place of foul air, wet streets, asymmetry, loudness, betrayal, hatred, him and her. That place of soft sun, flowers pushing through a variety of colours, friends, comfort, and them.
You look at the faces behind the windows. Are they going to the same place?
You never step twice in the same river. But it can still try to drown you again. Or this time, it might let you pass to the other side unharmed.
The whistle sounds. The doors close. The machine hums.
The train thunders past and releases you from that place.
It’ll be back tomorrow.
