Home on the that train

The one and only Chapter

I step onto the platform and feel the gravel under my shoes. They make a crunching sound as they rub against each other. Hove has never been my favourite station. It has this eerie feeling to it, like something bad has happened. Busy people run around doing their busy things. Or at least that's what usually happens. Today there is just me, and some teenage boys being stupid and pushing each other around. I am waiting for the 3:34 Seaford train. It is 3:37, the train is three minutes late. I lean over the side of the platform to see if the train is coming. I can only just see a bright pair of lights coming closer and closer. I keep leaning over the edge, waiting for the train to come near. One of the stupid teenage boys comes running towards me and accidently pushes my shoulder. I feel myself falling onto the rails with a great bang. My mind is blank. I don't know what is happening. I feel a pain in my shoulder. The boys look down at me, then walk off. I start screaming as the train comes near. I need someone to hear me. I stop screaming as the train comes just a meter away from me, and accept what will certainly happen. Then there is impact. Hard and fast impact, the kind you only see in movies. It is the kind of impact everyone should fear.

I slowly open my eyes a crack, but I can't see much. My vision is blurry. Everything around me seems to be spinning and I hear a ringing in my ear, partnered with an annoying beep of machines. I turn my head slightly, though pain is pumping through me. I try to move my hand, but I can only feel more pain. I taste blood running down my face and into my mouth. Everything hurts. Around me doctors are running with the paramedics pushing a stretcher, that I am lying motionless in. It seems like the whole world is running through this endless corridor. My eyes fuzz up again and quickly my vision turns to black. I go under.

I wake up with a funny taste in my mouth. It kind of tastes like metal, then I realise that what I am tasting is blood. I try to sit up, then collapse back into the hospital bed I am lying on in a heap. I gasp for air as my lungs close up. I feel my face and realise I am wearing nasal cannulas. The inside of my nose tingles. I try to wiggle my toes, but they feel as if they have been super glued together, then chained to the bed. I start to feel tight chested and light headed. I feel as if I might faint again. I notice a red button attached to the wall. I reach over and press it just a few seconds before I feel my eyes becoming heavy, and my vision becoming black all over again.

I wake up, where am I? Before I have a chance to think about it, a woman dressed in white paces up to me with at least three other men which I think are doctors. They say that I will be ok, and try to comfort me. Though I still don't know where I am, these people make me feel relaxed. As if I was Home. Home. The word runs through me, piercing me as if it was a knife. It repeats in my mind over and over, until I slowly start whispering it. The people around me look at me like I'm crazy. Maybe I am. I say the word louder and louder. I don't understand. By now I'm shouting it. Home, Home, Home.