He stood at the platform of the Burnt Oak London Underground station above Watling Ave, looking at the his gold watch his mother had given him for a Christmas present last year, he could see that the time was 12:00. The night sky above his head covered darkness around the entire London area. A recent snowstorm had just ended hours earlier but the cold air still carried through the city.
A train had pulled in behind him; turning his head he recognized the trademarked colors of the Underground. The new trains with the white and blue sidings and the red sliding doors made him feel as if her were in some futuristic world set decades ahead. The doors slid open and people began to disembark the train. The computer operated address system went off and he stood annoyed at the sound of the woman’s voice.
“This is…Burnt Oak…This is an Edgware bound Northern train. The next and last station is Edgware…Please stand clear of the closing doors.” Moments later the piercing sound of the train’s door warning system went off. The doors closed and the train took off, leaving him alone once again.
He looked down at Watling Ave to see the people leaving the station; some were catching private cabs waiting outside while others were waiting for the N5 or N16 night buses to carry them home. He looked down the platform waiting for others to coming to catch the last southbound train of the night; it was now 5 minutes late and he began to worry he was going to miss his connection at Embankment.
The lights soon appeared from the north of the station and he walked closer to the edge of the platform and kicked some of the snow off of his shoes as he prepared to enter the train that had just pushed the wind against his body. The train slowly came to a stop although the brakes always sounded as if they were struggling. The pressurized air pushed the wide doors open and he walked onto the train that was noticeably warmer than waiting on the platform.
“This is…Burnt Oak…This is a Morden bound Northern train via Charing Cross. The next station is…Colindale. Please mind the closing doors” said the woman over the announcements. The signal to close the doors began to ring as someone ran up the stairs making it into the next car as soon as the doors had slammed shut. The train jerked forward and he began his journey into Central London on his way home from a birthday party of his cousin’s.
Leaning his head back he began to register his surroundings on the train. An old Caribbean woman, possibly in her 60’s was on the end of the car knitting something. She was sitting next to her granddaughter who had fallen asleep in her lap. The woman glanced up at him and then looked down to continue on her fashion project.
He slowly drifted to sleep as the train slowed to pull into Colindale; he saw the lights from the tall towers that the Metropolitan Police owned. The train pulled in and no one boarded, he was fast asleep as the train continued its journey into London. The hood from his sweater slowly dropped from the top of his head as the train quickly moved through a short tunnel to the next station. He began to feel cold because his black hair was so short from a cut he had gotten earlier that day.
His black phone lit up as the train pulled itself from out of the tunnel and gradually came to another stop. The orange screen lit up alerting him that he had received a new text message while he was underground. The time on his phone read 12:11 and seconds later the screen once again went black. The doors opened and closed for a few more stops down the route.
He was awoken by a cold wind that blasted through the train as it sat in a station. He wiped his mouth as he naturally did when he woke up. Looking around he saw that the he was at Golders Green, the last stop before the train entered the underground tunnels of Inner London. The old woman and her younger travelling partner were seen at the stairs slowly making their way up.
The door alarm soon went off and the train made its way underground. He looked at his phone to see that it was 12:14. He read the text as the train entered the tunnel and the lights began to flicker. He grinned as it was a message from his roommate saying that there was a call from the job interview he had before going to the party. He had just been hired for an accounting position in a stock firm in Canary Wharf.
He drifted back off to sleep as a grin covered his face. The train quickly made its way through the century old tunnels beneath London. The lights suddenly went off between stations as they quickly moved further and further south. He wasn’t aware as his sleep prevented him from being aware of anything around him. The train jerked to a stop as it usually does when it gets closer to the busier stations.
Slowly he gained consciousness and realized that the train wasn’t moving and the lights were off. Being accustomed to the behavior of the trains at this time of night he didn’t panic or worry, he just sat still in the seemingly empty train. Minutes passed and he became annoyed as he worried about missing his next train at Embankment.
Looking at his phone for the time, he saw that it was 12:30. He sucked his teeth while placing the T-Mobile phone back into the clip hanging from his belt. Silence once again covered the entire train and he closed his eyes.
Moments later there was a faint sound of someone calling his name. He ignored it as his own imagination and kept his eyes closed. Goosebumps raised on the skin of his arms and the hairs on the back of his neck slowly raised by themselves. He suddenly felt as if he weren’t alone, as if someone had just walked onto the train with him.
At this point he was too scared to open his eyes, and forced them to stay closed. A cold wind brushed against his face and he clenched his teeth and pulled his hands into fists as his palms became sweaty. There was a tap on his right shoulder and he slowly opened his eyes to see an old man sitting in the seat in front of him. The man was staring straight at him but was motionless; he began to sweat and didn’t know what he was imagining.
Suddenly the man began to cough and vomit on the floor in front of him; he couldn’t tell what the man was throwing up as the train still was dark. The man fell onto the floor and began screaming his name in between purges. He stood up and began to run to the end of the car to press the button and alert the conductor.
Just then the lights turned back on and the train began to move. He turned around to see that there was no one in the car with him. He sat back down to try and gain back his composure, the train pulled into Charing Cross and people began entering the train. A young teen sat in front of him and asked if he was alright, since it was odd for someone to be sweating while the snow had begun to fall again outside. He assured the young man that he was fine and leaned his head back onto the window as the train pulled off again.
“This is…Embankment…change here for the Circle, District, and Bakerloo lines. Upon Arrival the doors in the last two cars will not open, please move forward to exit at this station” announced the computer once again. He stood up to the doors as the train pulled into Embankment. The train gradually came to a stop and opened its doors and he ran to the District/Circle Line Platforms.
He walked to the platform to see that it had been completely emptied. He looked at his watch and it was 12:40, the last District line was scheduled for 10 minutes prior. He figured that all of the trains were running late and decided to wait. Images of what had just happened on the train filled his head as he sat on the bench next to the wall. A soft sound of whistling began to get louder and louder, he thought it might have been the train and stood up to walk to the edge of the platform.
Looking down the tracks he didn’t see anything but the sound had gotten stronger. He began to walk to upstairs to the ticket hall exit in order to catch a night bus to get home. He started to feel nervous as the whistling still gained strength as he walked away from the platform and up the stairs. It felt as if it were behind him, following him.
His heart dropped when he walked into the ticket hall to discover that it had been emptied and the gates were padlocked. His heart began to pound and he started to sweat again, he ran to the Help Point against the wall and began pounding on the button. The speaker produced the sound of a ring; he waited as it continued to ring. The sound echoed through the station and it bounced back and forth; there was no answer.
He began pounding on the padlocked and screaming at the dozens of CCTV cameras in the one hallway. He decided to go back down to the platforms in order to see if maybe there was someone to help, or if there was a working Help Point. He began running down the stairs to get to the platform level when he heard someone scream “Hey You!” He turned to see a black figure standing at the top of the stairs and out of shock fell ten feet to the bottom where he slammed his head onto the side of the escalator and began bleeding.
Looking back up the stairs to see who was there, he was frightened to see that the object had gone. He knew no one was up there within five seconds of him leaving. He stood up holding his hand to the cut in the back of his head. There was the sound of a train on the District platform, he ran to catch it knowing he didn’t miss the last train.
He ran to the platform to see no train and no people. He screamed as tears ran down his face, he wiped his bloody hands onto his shirt and sat down on one of the benches. He started to hear screaming off in the distance. It was as if someone was being attacked, he shuttered as the screams of horror suddenly stopped. He heard water starting to fall onto the tracks in front of him; he looked up to see the floor covered in blood a river of blood quickly passing beneath his feet.
He saw something on the platform across from him, on the other side of the tracks, the same old man from the train. The man looked up from the floor and waved to him, the man began to stand from his seat and walk over to the edge of his platform.
He didn’t know what he was seeing, the old man pointed to him and jumped onto the tracks just in time for a train to slam into him. He jumped in his seat, confused on where a train came from.
He jumped up screaming, he’d been awoken by the train slamming on its brakes and opening the doors. “This is…Golders Green” announced the computer as the train arrived. The Caribbean woman stopped and asked him if he was okay. He didn’t know and he stepped off of the train asking her where to catch the night bus to Embankment.
The train doors closed behind him and he thought he heard a scream as the train entered the tunnel making its way under Central London. Weeks later he’d discovered that the job that he received was to replace an elderly man who was one year away from retirement. He was fired that night and rather than facing his family he jumped in front of a Circle Line train at Embankment.
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