<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Somewhere in the realm of the living, the wind whistled. Twelve-Twenty rolled over on a platform's clock somewhere in London and from a tunnel to the left, a train emerged at its final stop. Eight cars in total, one less than it had left its last stop with but at this time of night no one would notice. The conductor sighed deeply at a night finished, glad that he had the weekend off before he would be back on duty again the following Monday afternoon. He took the hat from his brow and shut off the monolith before drowsily lumbering off the train and onto the platform, he just had to lock up the station up top now and go home to sleep. All this business with that missing train car had put quite a bee in the bonnet of his company and they were watching their employees like a hawk today.<br/><br/>Out of lingering speculation, as he ascended the stairs to the streets above he took a glance back down into the dimly lit underground and, for a moment, wondered what his life would have been like if he'd been a Baker like his father.<br/><br/>-----<br/><br/>There was, despite the quickness and surprise of the Psychopomp, there was one who managed to react immediately. One of the humans in the car moved to intercept the young thing that it had thrown against the wall and proceeded to drag her from its clutches. The apparition reeled around, the shadows coalescing and then blooming from the center of its form as it twisted in place a moment before its attention was split on a veritable exhibition of magical essence cutting into reality all at once. First it was the river of fire spilling onto the ground and the toothy thing that rose from it, all teeth and armour. The stalking little thing emanating from the fire was gnashing its jaws together and wandering forward but for the moment it didn't seem to be doing much of anything. The Psychopomp was confused as, following the creature's appearance, several things happened at once. It felt constricted all at once as though something was suffocating its form from all around and another presence entered the insignificant domain it had made for itself in this place. Light cut through the treacle and flung towards it, unceremoniously colliding with its own presence and, though it could not feel pain, it found itself torn into by this energy, parts of it ripped away into the Aether and lost forever. The thing faltered and spun backwards as the shadowy grip released it. It didn't matter now, its work was done and there would be no coming back from where the patrons on the eleven fifty five would find themselves in a matter of moments.<br/><br/>Beneath the train car now, there was nothing. Almost at once, the whole carriage began to tilt violently before lurching into a spin. The car turned once, twice, three and four times, accelerating with each turn and the sensation of falling would be obvious. Glimpses of the distance outside the windows would yield views of rushing white dots, like being discharged through space. After mere seconds of this free fall, everything would come to a sudden stop. Time slowed as the car hit surface on an angle almost upside down and then rolled forward coming to rest on its roof, now completely overturned.<br/><br/>The crash, while unpleasant, seemed to be cushioned by something like a lighter gravity and would likely result in little more than bruises and scrapes for those aboard the train, though they would probably find themselves rattled and disoriented, thrown from their positions into various states of disarray around the interior. Silence overtook the scene for close to a minute. The eerie peace may be a clue to some, unsettling to others, but was short lived in its stillness.<br/><br/>Pale digits tore into the side of the metal colossus and as quickly as any respite had come, it was taken away. The things that sliced the steel were larger than the claws of the spectre that had made itself known on the journey to this place, nearly three feet in length each, and twelve in total. With one authoritative heave, the side of the car was fragmented and wrenched from the rest of the structure, opening up the wall to the air and darkness. Out in the realm they found themselves inhabiting, there was much to see but precious little time to do much of anything.<br/><br/>Moonlight was absent from the place outside the car, though it was decidedly some sort of night time. A long shore swept outwards laden with irregular white pebbles and stones which sunk into a murky sea that stretched out beyond any horizon that could possibly be out there in the Dark. Standing, or rather, existing, outside the window of the absent wall, was a hulking shape unlike any of the passengers would have likely seen before. A vaguely humanoid shape was protruding from the coast, close to twelve feet high and surrounded by the same long white fingers that had wrought the train car asunder. The thing had no head to speak of but a tall white pillar, at the base of which, a chain of various carvings was tied around resembling something of a noose. The thing was completely white save for a black circle on the right side of the pillar-like head.<br/><br/>Someone's ears would surely pick up the subtle, rhythmic whispering that sounded a little like singing and came in waves as the black water broke against the shoreline, it was an unsettling hymn in a language only the oldest of the dead could even think to remember.<br/><br/>Thinking of her fragility and positioning, Belle darted from the car onto the beach and to the right, vanishing behind the walls of the train car and leaving the passengers behind. She hoped this would be cue enough to rouse the others into leaving what would surely become a coffin in the next few moments as the being before them tensed and readied itself.<br/><br/>Of course, there were plenty of things to worry about other than leaving the train car, but Belle hoped that everyone would be smart enough to think about that after. There was something else about the thing that would make itself very apparent to each of the passengers individually, one by one, a single thought would unite them in some plane of consciousness or unconsciousness...<br/><br/>'Me... It's after <span style="font-style: italic">Me</span>...'</span></div>