Cameron backed into the rear of the tiny bathroom, wedging himself between the toilet seat and the wall. “It’s Krampus, like that man said.”
Everything seemed to be mired in time, the madness that had unfurled moments before succumbing to silence.
Krampus was a fairytale, folklore the old man had recounted just to spook them, Amber told herself.
It’s a polar bear. One with rabies. It isn’t Krampus. That’s impossible.
Amber gradually released her grip on the door handle and looked over her shoulder at Cam.
“We need a plan,” she murmured aloud, more to herself than anyone else.
“Could we jump off?” Cam offered, mistakenly thinking she was talking to him.
Amber shook her head. She’d seen how fast they were going, how the train was clambering along the tracks unsteadily now that no one was in the locomotive to control it. “We’re moving too fast. We’d die in the fall.”
Cam thought for a moment, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “What if we went to the back of the train?”
Amber raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“I saw a movie once about how you can drive the train from the front and the back. They’re the same so the train doesn’t have to turn around. If we can make it to the back, we can stop the train, and then we can run for help.”
Amber had to admit it wasn’t a bad idea.
“That means we’ll have to go out there. And we don’t know what we’ll find,” Amber said gravely.
Cam nodded. “I know.”
“Are you going to be okay? You can hide here, and I’ll go out and try to find your inhaler.”
He edged away from the wall, jutting his chin up bravely. “We stay together. I’ll be okay.”
Amber took his hands in hers. “I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise. Do you trust me?”
He nodded, and she pulled him into a tight embrace.
Then she stepped back, her fingers lifting to unlock the door.
Chapter VII
THE TRACKS IN THE SNOW
A mber gently pulled the latch back, wincing at every creak and squeak. Centimeter by centimeter, she opened the door until she could see the seats and aisle closest to the latrine.
She crept out into the open, motioning for Cam to stay put.
The car to her right seemed eerily empty and silent, like a ghost town abandoned after a fabled gold rush.
But when she looked closer, she saw the same havoc she’d witnessed in the locomotive. Mutilated bodies and gnawed-upon limbs were strewn everywhere, across seats and tucked away along the aisle.
She swiveled to her left to the front of the train and froze, her breath caught in her throat.
It was just as the old man had said.
Pressed between the seats, a behemoth creature with white fur was hunched over in the aisle, its massive back facing her. Two long, curled horns protruded from its skull, and jagged, pointed ears peeked out from the blood-stained fur.
It made a wet, slurping noise, intermixed with a crunching sound that caused Amber’s stomach to flip.
She didn’t have to see what it was eating to know it was one of the passengers.
Cam started to move toward her, and she swiftly stepped between him and the creature, shielding him from seeing the hideous beast.
She crouched down to his level and signaled for him to maintain eye contact with her and not look away. Taking his hands once more, Amber began to walk backward so that Cam would only see her and nothing behind them. She cast periodic glances over her shoulder as she navigated the car, increasing the distance between them and the creature.
Cam would stiffen every time he stepped on something soft and mushy, and Amber knew his instincts were telling him to look down at the carnage, but she wordlessly shook her head and pointed from his eyes to hers, then continued to guide him to the next car, making sure to check that the monster was still busy feasting on what remained of the other passengers.
She had almost made it to end of the car when her boot landed on something tall and thin, followed by a crack as it snapped and fell to the ground.
Amber stared incredulously at her feet, horrified to see a partially consumed ribcage surrounding her boot, the broken rib beside it.
But then she heard something perhaps more terrifying.
Silence.
Nothing.
The disgusting crunching and munching noises she’d heard as they snuck past the many rows of seats had ceased entirely.
Her head shot up in alarm.
The creature was now on its feet facing her, its sheer size unable to be contained in the height of the car, forcing it to hunch over.
Its eyes were blood-red, like a smoldering volcano brimming with flaming, inextinguishable embers. Long fangs the length of fingers lined its open maw, and bits of flesh tangled in them, wobbling there, still dripping wet with blood. Its chest heaved as it watched them, unmoving, completely fixated with the sight of her and her brother.
Cam turned and saw it, too, and he screamed and backed up into her.
“Run!” she cried out, and the two of them broke into a sprint.
She chanced a look behind them and almost stopped running.
The creature was gone.
Just then, she heard a volley of thuds above their heads, and she pumped her legs faster, dragging her brother along with her.
Amber collided with the door to the next car and tried to jostle it open. She heard voices on the other side, hushed ones, and she knew they had barricaded and fortified the door so that no one else could enter. She briefly recalled the man trying to get into the latrine with them earlier, how she had refused to let him in, how it compared to the irony of the moment now.
In a fit of desperation, Amber flung her fists against the door, screaming, piteously begging them to save them, or at the very least, to take her brother.
The pounding above their heads ended, and Amber wondered when the creature would descend upon them, when they’d suffer the same fate as the conductor and the other passengers in the first two cars… torn raggedly limb by limb before monstrously long fangs sunk in to devour whatever flesh still clung to their bones.
Chapter VIII
THE TRACKS IN THE SNOW
A nd then Amber heard large items being shuffled around on the other side, voices increasing in volume and urgency, and she enveloped Cam, keeping him close to her body in case the creature decided to attack them.
She wasn’t going down without a fight. She would protect Cam until her last breath.
“Look!” Cam shouted. He pointed to the door as it gradually slid open, and Amber shoved him forward, needing him to reach safety first.
“You shouldn’t have let them in—it’s too great a risk!” a well-dressed middle-aged woman snapped to the group of passengers who had moved the luggage away from the door.
“What did you want me to do? They’re just kids. Whatever’s out there, I wasn’t going to just let them die when it’s within our ability to save them,” a young woman with long black hair and piercing eyes retorted. She gestured for Cam and Amber to take a seat while she and the others hastily piled up the luggage against the door once more.
“Did you see it, what’s out there?” another stranger pressed them.
Amber nodded, holding back the bile rising in her throat.
“Well,” the first woman prodded with impatience, “what was it?”
“It’s Krampus,” Cam responded very matter-of-factly.
Everyone seemed bewildered. When Cam noticed this, he sighed. “German folklore says that he comes out around Christmas to steal bad kids and eat them. Didn’t anyone in here pay attention in history class?”
Amber looked down at him. “Cam,” she whispered. “You just found out about Krampus less than an hour ago.”
He shrugged. “Yeah, but I’m a kid. They had their whole lives to learn about him.” He turned back to the skeptical audience. “Anyways, we
can’t stay here. We need to get off the train.”
A man wearing a tight sweater stretched obscenely over his muscles crossed his arms. “If you haven’t noticed,” he began, gesturing out the window, “we’re moving pretty fast. I’m guessing this train is cruisin’ without a driver. We can’t exactly jump off.”
“Actually, the back is the same as the front, and you can drive the train that way,” Cam corrected him. “We need to get to the back, and stop it from there.”
Several passengers’ expressions exhibited equal parts surprise and aversion. “We’re not going anywhere. We’re safe here.”
Amber placed a hand on her brother’s shoulder. “It doesn’t matter how much stuff you put against that door,” she chimed in. “The monster can make it through. I saw it happen.”
“We’re staying put,” the man with the tight sweater emphasized. “There’s a reason why they’re dead, and we’re still—”
Suddenly, jagged claws punctured through the metal ceiling of the train, and they swooped down, grabbing the man, digging deeply into his torso and tugging him up through the gouge above. The man was much too large to fit through the hole; there was only enough room for his head. The passengers listened to him scream as the monster yanked on his body, trying to force it through the opening. His skin curled and ripped along the uneven edges of the metal, and the creature pulled up and down powerfully until with one last wail of agony, there was a sickening, wet pop, and what was left of the man’s ravaged body plopped down to the floor, skinned and shredded and ruined beyond recognition.
Broken electrical circuits sparked and sizzled around the hole, and the lights on the train flickered a few more times before shutting off completely.
The remaining passengers huddled down, ducking beneath seats and staying close to the floor, hoping their hiding places would be obscured in the darkness. A few took their phones out and scrambled to find the flashlight feature.
“Put your phone away! It’s shining too bright! That thing will see us!” someone hissed.
“It already knows we’re in here; we have to get out!” another protested.
Amber’s heart was racing so much she was sure the creature would know their location just from the loud, rapid, unsteady beating of her heart. She pulled her phone away from her chest and tried to dial their parents once more. Maybe this time the call would go through. Maybe this time they’d answer.
Metal screeched, and everyone fell silent. The creature was prying open the hole with its claws, making it large enough so it could fit into the car, able to descend upon them like a hawk capturing its prey.
The car catapulted into bedlam as passengers stampeded past one another, scrambling and shoving, throwing the luggage away from the door in a frantic attempt to flee.
Cam saw the middle-aged woman who did not want to let them in earlier lying motionless on the floor, her body trampled in the fray. Her eyes were wide open, frozen in shock.
Not wanting his sister to suffer the same fate, he crawled under a seat and pulled Amber with him.
Amber grasped his hand. “We have to lay low for now. It’ll be okay.” She tried to appear calm in front of her brother, grown-up, in control, so that he wouldn’t have another asthma attack, but she knew they were trapped. Stuck in the madness, the disarray, entombed in a train full of people who were soon going to be reduced to nothing more than puddles of flesh, food for the beast.
She turned away from him then so he wouldn’t be able to see the tears pooling in her eyes and trickling down her cheeks.
Cam happened to look up in time to see the creature’s enormous head appear through the hole, its glowing red eyes staring right at him. Its long tongue extended, seemingly salivating just by looking at him.
Amber was still trying to reach their parents, but when she heard Cam gasp, she froze. She followed his gaze and whirled around, inadvertently bringing the phone up with her, its blinding light illuminating the hideous visage of the monster.
So close to her, just above their heads, she couldn’t help but scream. But when the creature bellowed and shrieked, retreating to the darkness outside, it took the whole car by surprise.
“What happened?”
“Where did it go?”
The door that Cam and Amber had entered through was finally cleared, and passengers began fighting their way through it. But then Amber noticed people changing their direction, running to the back of the car following an explosion of metal and blood.
The horned creature stood just outside the now-disfigured door, struggling to wedge its giant shoulders through the opening. One arm swatted at the passengers as they fled, while the other dug claws into the metal, shoving it apart, hooves smashed against the floor of the train to try and gain traction.
Amber grabbed her brother and hurried down the aisle. Three other passengers made it out of the car with them, and they all raced further and further into the depths of the train as the temporarily restrained beast let out a fierce howl.
Amber’s heart sank, but something within her continued to propel her forward, if anything, to save her brother.
Chapter IX
THE TRACKS IN THE SNOW
A mber and Cam ran through the cars, followed by the three men. They were so close, only a little more to go. If they could just stop the train, they could make it to the nearest town, to safety.
They reached the rear of the train, encompassing a worn seat in front of an array of panels with colored buttons and levers and switches.
Cam looked up at his sister doubtfully. “Umm… which one makes it stop?”
Amber shrugged, casting a glance behind her. “Just try them all.”
The adults who were running behind them finally caught up. “How do you stop a train?” she asked one of the three men.
“Hell if I know.” He leaned down to look at the controls and pushed a couple, but nothing happened.
Another man reached for the radio. He pressed the side button. “Hello? Hello? Can anyone hear me? We need help!”
He released the button and was welcomed by a painfully long burst of static. Then a garbled voice answered, “Copy that. What is your location?”
The man looked questioningly at all of them, including Cam, who returned the same unknowing look. “Uh, somewhere in the mountains. I don’t know. We left from the Cherryton station en route to Piedmont. Bring help now! We’re being attacked by some bear—”
“It’s not a bear!” Cam interrupted in frustration.
“a bear that got onto the train,” the man continued. “It’s tearing us apart.”
“There aren’t any bears in those parts,” the voice responded.
“And I ain’t never seen a bear like that,” another passenger agreed.
“It doesn’t matter what the hell it was!” the man shouted. “Just bring help! Now!”
“We can’t help you if we don’t know where you are,” the voice repeated.
Amber snatched the radio from him. “This is pointless. They won’t believe us anyways. We need to stop the train.” She thumbed the button on the side of the radio. “Which button makes this train stop?” When she got nothing but static on the other end, she tossed the radio down. “Just start pushing buttons. Something has to work.”
Everyone began pulling on levers and pressing various controls, and in spite of the cold, sweat dribbled down their faces and pooled at their backs, dampening their clothing.
Cam was studying one red lever that sat lower on the control panel than everything else, almost out of sight. His breathing quickened, and he tried to calm himself so he wouldn’t bring on another asthma attack. What if the button made the train explode? He would be the reason why they all died.
But that was stupid. This wasn’t a bomb.
This could be the only lever that saved them.
Without saying anything to anyone, he wrapped his hands around it and yanked down.
Immediately, screeching and hissing, like nails on a chalkboard, gea
rs grinding, metal against metal, the train gradually began to slow from its dangerously high speed.
Breathless with anticipation, they all waited until the train came to a complete stop. Without thinking, two of the men bolted out the door and leapt into the snow, shifting about nervously to figure out which direction to go.
The third man grabbed Amber by the arm and tried to pull her out with them. She hesitated and attempted to wrench herself free.
“What are you waiting for? We’ve stopped!” the man barked at her with impatience.
She shook her head fervently as she stared at the darkness ahead of them, the only light coming from the moon as it cast its beams across the snow. Everything was so still, so peaceful. She could even hear the gentle sounds of snowflakes as they drifted to the ground, the pine trees straining and creaking under the weight of the snow on their branches. “Something isn’t right.” She yanked her arm away. “It’s too quiet. Something isn’t right!”
The man threw his hands up in exasperation. “Suit yourself. I’m outta here!”
Cam and Amber looked out into the forest, holding the edges of the doorway, fearfully watching as the men scampered across the tracks, fading deeper into the night.
And then there was a thud in the snow and something darted by them toward the men.
Cam knew it was the creature, and he started to yell to them, to warn them, but Amber clamped a hand over his mouth.
She remembered how the monster had looked at the two of them, how it seemed fixated on them when it peered down from the hole it had created after dragging a person through it.
The other kills were just a distraction for the beast, an appetizer, an obstacle to getting what it really wanted, a barrier between it and the children.
The old man had been right. This was no polar bear, no rabid wolf.
This was German folklore brought to life.
The mythical devourer of children, Krampus.
And Soon Comes the Darkness Page 5