text: It was a rainy and bleak May night in Pennsylvania, with the clock sharp on midnight. It was on a late-night train travelling from Allentown to Philadelphia that three friends, Justin, Bethany, and Sam were travelling back to college after spending time at home. As Justin stood up to stretch his legs, he banged his head on the luggage holder, his tall frame putting him in an awkward position. But Justin was by no means a lanky fellow, he was built, but slim, the ideal weight for a professional Badminton player, as his friends often teased. He smoothed back his hair, fussing about how he wished he wasn’t so tall, so he wouldn’t mess his hair when he constantly banged his head on things. “That wouldn’t happen if you weren’t so clumsy, dumbass.” Spoke up Sam “Yea and while we’re on the shitting on Justin parade, please wash that stupid cologne off! Where did you get it? A strip club?” jested Bethany “Hey c’mon guys, this meant to catch ALL the ladies, and it’s called *Love swash*” Justin rebutted sarcastically As Justin sat back down, he had to squeeze into his seat, hindered by Sam’s large gorilla like form. His square glasses were nearly knocked out of his wavy brown hair as Justin clumsily flailed his arms about trying to get in his seat. “C’mon Sam get your damn protein bar wrappers off my seat; I don’t want any leftover chocolate staining my jeans” “Yea fuck off, I need the fuel to keep this figure. You know all the girls like my muscles.” He said flexing Justin finally managed to get in his seat and the trio sat quietly for half an hour, with Bethany falling asleep while Justin and Sam talked quietly. Her bag full of precious textbooks and her laptop snuggled closely behind her legs. “Bethany, you awake?” Sam was nudging Bethany to try and wake her up, Bethany was awake the whole time, yet wanted to be left alone. She kept silent. “Bethany, come on, wake up.” Bethany opened her unrested eyes to be met with Sam and Justin getting out some cards to play poker, she rolled her eyes and tried to close them again, but Justin stopped her. “Come on, just one game? Sam and I are dying here Beth” “Yeah, we’re dying” Considering Bethany knew that Sam had no more brainpower than a muffin and Justin couldn’t ever hide the fact he had a good hand, she obliged, she often likes to flex her cognitive prowess. “Alright! Dibs shuffle!” Sam had the cards strewn all over the plastic table and was wiping them around in an attempt to randomise their order. Bethany and Justin gave each other a look. “Alright, shuffle done! Beth, can you grab a card that fell under the table on your side? I would, but I don’t think my tremendous forceps would fit under the table” Bethany gave out a chuckle, and then proceeded to look under the table while saying; “Forceps are a surgical instrument for grabbing things dumbass.” “Oh yeah, I knew that, I was just testing you.” Once Bethany picked up the fallen card and was sitting upright again, a slight scream could be heard from the front end of the train, it only took a split second later until sparks were flying from outside the window, the driver was slamming the breaks harder than what the train is designed for. Cards went flying, Justin covered his face with his hands, Sam was slammed into the table with a wet thud reminiscent of a slab of meat hitting a benchtop, and Bethany threw her hands over her bag full of precious items. It didn’t take long for the train to finally stop. All three said nothing. Suddenly, the intercom gurgled out a few static notes, and then came to life with the voice of the shaken and rattled conductor. “I... There... There was a body on the road. A human body, I don’t know how it got there, but it... Was... A... Human corpse.” Bethany, Justin, and Sam all looked at each other blankly. Though their mouths were shut, their eyes were conveying more emotion than any phrase ever could. Sam was clenching his stomach, the pain from the thud from earlier was only just starting to settle in. “A body, so we just travelled over a dead body.” Justin’s words were empty of air, like the words of a man with no lungs. Bethany tried to compose herself and spoke to the others. “Do you want me to go to the front of the train to see what people are doing?” Sam and Justin both nodded. “Can you guys take care of my pack?” “Sure Beth.” Bethany gave her backpack to Justin and wandered out of the cubicle. The back of the train was completely empty, so Bethany had to wander for a while to actually find someone. After checking cubicle after cubicle, Bethany finally found someone, a man, probably aged in his 50’s, travelling alone. His face was paralysed with fear and his eyes were tearing up. Bethany’s knock on the cubicle window made him jump. He looked at her with eyes deprived of sleep and life. Bethany could tell this man was mortified. “You alright?” Bethany said in a calming voice, the man gave her a miniscule nod, a lying nod, he was hiding the truth. He shakily spoke in reply; “I, I think I am, I don’t know.” Bethany noticed his hands shaking, she decided to console him. “So, what’s your name?” “Edgar.” Edgar gave Bethany a warm smile. Bethany smiled back at Edgar; she could tell that he hasn’t talked to anyone in a while, he seemed traumatised and lonely. Bethany proceeded up the train where a small meeting was forming. There were about six passengers and the conductor all congregating in one of the carriages. “Should we go out? I mean, we can’t just stand here” A middle-aged woman was asking the conductor to leave the train to investigate. She spoke again in a boasting voice. “I’m a doctor, I can check the body.” Bethany heard a familiar voice behind her. “What are you gonna do? CPR? Stitch his mangled parts together again?” It was Sam. He and Justin had joined Bethany and the congregation while carrying her backpack. Edgar remained in his seat, still traumatised. The conductor snapped at Sam; “Show some god damn respect who-ever-you-are” Sam rolled his eyes, if there was one thing he hated, it was being told what to do. Everybody stood silently, either because nobody had anything to say, or everybody silently mutually agreed to give the nameless body on the tracks a silent vigil. “I think we should go out, I mean, at least to check the body.” Bethany bravely broke the silence. About a half of the congregation nodded, it could easily be seen that all agreed, just many did not want to go out. “I’ll contact the police and the railway company.” The conductor shuffled back into the front of the train and began dialling numbers. “So, who wants to come out with me?” Bethany was met with no answer for the first few seconds, until Sam announced while nudging Justin; “We’ll go.” Justin’s face fell into a gloom-like state. “C’mon Justin, it’ll be fine, the more people that go out, the less scary it’ll be.” Sam seemed oddly sympathetic about Justin’s fear, perhaps it was the fact that he too was terrified. Bethany looked across the congregation to see if any others would come out to inspect the body. “Hey, what about you, the *doctor*” Sam hastily pointed at the woman who claimed to be a doctor. She looked back at him with snarling eyes. “Sure, I’ll go out, we need someone to actually know what they’re looking at, don’t we?” The group to go outside was decided, it was to be Bethany, Justin, Sam, and the doctor. The four of them began to walk up to the front of the train to ask the conductor to let them out, but he was engaged in a call. The four stood outside his door waiting. “Wait, Justin, can you give me my bag? I need to put it somewhere while we wait.” Justin handed Bethany her backpack and she began walking down the train to Edgar’s booth. “Hey mister? Can you hold my bag for a bit? Thank you so much.” Edgar’s eyebrows lifted for a split second; he was needed for something. Edgar couldn’t remember the last time that somebody needed him. “Sure, I can.” Bethany smile and made her way back to the front of the train, relieved that her bag will now be safe. She noticed that the conductor was off the call and that the first carriage’s door was open. She hesitantly stepped outside onto the soggy ground to meet up with the other three. “So, uh, the body should be about twenty feet down the train, give or take.” The doctor was pointing down the train when Sam interrupted. “Are you sure genius? I mean, wouldn’t there be *bits* of who-ever-it-was everywhere?” The doctor had just about had it with Sam, she lowered her hand and walked up right into Sam’s face. “Listen kid, would you leave me alone! I am trying to do my best here and the last thing I fucking need is for some brat to tell me I’m fucking doing it wrong!” She turned from Sam and marched slowly down the train searching for the mangled corpse, Sam wiped droplets of the doctor’s spit from his face. “Uh, Miss?” Justin called out; his voice devoid of life. “I think I see something...” The doctor and Bethany approached Justin; Sam looked on from a distance. Justin was avoiding looking at the thing that he had just found. “I think we found it.” Bethany called out to Sam, Sam responded in a thumbs up, but he remained away. “You guys have a look at that, I just can’t.” Justin stumbled away looking as pale as a fresh sheet of paper, he walked over to Sam where they both began heading into the train. The doctor and Bethany looked at the corpse from about five feet away. “I’m going to take a closer look.” The doctor got to about three feet away to examine the body, it was a male, at least it used to be. Its face was smothered in blood and the skin was a pale-yellow, but it was intact; the same could not be said about the rest of him. From the bottom of his breastbone was where the true damage lay, with that being the part that was caught by the train. His entire abdomen was ripped in half by the train, with his intestines leaking out onto the soggy, mushy, blood ridden ground. The doctor could not make out his legs, as they were severely mangled under the train. “That’s funny.” The doctor called out to Bethany. ‘It has a stab wound!” The doctor notice that there were multiple stab wounds on the corpse’s upper-left section of the chest. “This was a murder, and the train was the killer’s way to dispose of the body!” Bethany’s brain was racing, part of her wanted to have a close look at the body, but part of her wanted to throw up. “We need to get back in the train, kid.” Bethany nodded; she was mortified of what may have caused the corpse’s death.