<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">A rhythmic tapping sound echoed through the halls of the Prison. It may have gone noticed during the middle of the day but in these wee hours of the morning, nobody seemed to be awake to appreciate the out of place melody. In truth, the tapping was perhaps a little bit subtle for even the roaming guards to take notice of.<br/><br/>A man fiddled lazily with something between his hands. Sitting cross-legged on the floor of his cell the knocking sound was coming from a small idol which he clutched in his pallid digits and was knocking against the floor. Alone in his cell the prisoner began to mutter beneath his breath, barely audible to even someone sitting right next to him. If any guards had been around to hear what was going on they may have had the sense to shut him up, perhaps fearing he was communicating with another prisoner through Morse code. Then again the percussion seemed to steady to be any sort of code, there were no breaks or silences between the steady sounds emanating from him.<br/><br/>All of a sudden the sounds stopped. His muttering and the tapping ceased giving wide berth to an eerie silence. He was communicating with something, after all, and he needed to give it time to respond.<br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="color: #0080FF">"</span></span>In time,<span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="color: #0080FF">"</span></span> came the reply from somewhere in the nether.<br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="color: #0080FF">"</span></span>I don't have much of that left,<span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="color: #0080FF">"</span></span> thick Irish accent slurred from the Prisoner's lips.<br/><br/>-----<br/><br/>The train was more than welcoming of the many passengers who boarded it, a disproportionate amount of them choosing the same car. At first impression the train seemed relatively normal, it was lit by the same lights as its comrades and felt more or less like taking the train any other night. The only difference was in the atmosphere. The lingering heaviness and not quite tangible smell and taste were a little thicker here though not alarmingly so. As the men and women would enter the train there would be a short pause before anything happened, maybe a minute at most. The doors, all at once across every car would hiss and close, signalling that it was ready to depart. By now, any aware individuals would know that if anything were going to happen on the eleven fifty five, it was much too late to get out of dodge.<br/><br/>With a screech the train began to lumber forward slowly at first but picking up speed as it dashed into the blackness between stations.<br/><br/>Behind the veil of the world, Something reeled. It saw as well as felt the unnatural peoples that descended on its dwelling and sought to anchor themselves into the events that it alone was privy to. Snarling from its perch the Something took stock of those vicious few who stuck out among the puerile meals which it revelled in. It saw their code, their akashic worthlessness. Nothing but pitiful scraps of animated fons. It was one though, that sat amongst them which was driving a nail deeper into the Something's head, causing it much discomfort. But that one was stronger than the rest or at least stuck out to its senses more clearly. There were those among them who seemed much weaker, easy prey indeed and it sought to strike at them first, as death often did.<br/><br/>It took one last sweep. There were two it could easily recognize the scent of for they were close to death and there were two it could tell were different from the masses but radiated differently than it had ever seen. There was one man who was bright. Bright, it decided, in that, he was the servant of a macabre God. There were at least two who seemed easier to claim, perhaps to lead the stronger to its lair in order to better deal with the interlopers. Thusly, a decision was made in the Something's conscious.<br/><br/>Perhaps a fraction of a moment before the event that was about to unfold, the cat, Belle, who lay nestled in the bag of the golden eyed woman would pop her head up, ears reeling and bearing teeth. Maybe the woman would notice, maybe she wouldn't. Either way there was no hope for her to take the necessary precautions to exercise this presence from the train.<br/><br/>It was in a flurry that, behind the youngest female of the troupe, the Psychopomp would make itself known to them. Here it was all flurry of arms and a blustering squall of shadows. The girl whose hair found a hard time making up its mind on the color was the closest to its form, as it was her that it had chosen. The ghastly thing would surely draw the attention of those others in the car, though peculiarly those in the small group of investigative persons would find themselves the only ones reacting to this at all. The others who had shown up to take the train home would seem unaware of this thing's presence in the slightest, merely sitting in their seats with their heads hung. At first, those among even the seekers who were not accustomed to such other worldly things would find themselves unable to acknowledge the thing, but, at least for the girl nearest it, that wouldn't last long.<br/><br/>From 'neath the quaking shadows four arms extended rapidly and they would encircle the girl's shoulders and sides tightly, long fingers pressing into the skin beneath her clothes hard enough to bruise her. Its fingernails, like thin razors and would cut through the threads adorning her and into her flesh opening shallow wounds on her shoulders and abdomen. Twisting violently the Psychopomp would rapidly fling itself towards the front most door of the train car and another slew of arms would scramble forth from its mass in an effort to pre-empt a defence against the others in the car. The girl in its grip would find herself thrown from its embrace and into the door of the train car with considerable force, though not enough to do any lasting damage but certainly enough to shock her.<br/><br/>The Psychopomp stayed between the seekers and the girl and they would have a second at most to react to it before its next move.</span></div>