Creepypasta Short Stories

Sleeping Passenger

"What things would you need to do if someone dies?", she wondered. Sitting on a window seat in a train, she tried to make the two hour commute to university more bearable. A dramatic song had started playing through her headphones, and she stared outside the window while ruffling through her short red hair.

"I'd have to cancel their bills like phone, sports, premium subscriptions etc. Call their work and family, maybe even update their social media platforms. On top of that, the funeral is also quite expensive." A bunch of trees passed by her window, and the sunshine of the early morning hours cast a shadow onto one half of her face. "Dying is quite a bother to the people you love, it seems."

Her bag rested on the seat beside her, the seat opposite to her occupied by a young man that looked like he was in his late 20s. His black hair was bleached, although the roots had started to grow out. His head leaned against the window and his eyes were closed, the lower half of his face hidden by a FFP2 mask that was mandatory to wear in trains during these times.

Reclipping the hairclip that held her stubborn bangs out of her face, she took a good look at him. "His sleeping face looks kinda cute, I wonder what his eye color is", she thought.
She wasn't sure if he had been awake earlier because he'd already slept like that ever since she boarded the train about half an hour ago. If she weren't as shy, maybe she would've asked for his number.

Pushing these weird thoughts aside, she directed her gaze back at the beautiful scenery that flew by her window. The sunrise made everything sparkle, and paired with a lofi song it felt like everything in the world would be okay eventually. In fact, she often did exactly this when she was upset. Turned on a peaceful song and peeked into gardens as the train drove by, watching people who lived a life totally insignificant to her. And then, after just a few seconds, she'd forgotten them like nothing ever happened. "If I die, my death will be as insignificant to others as their life is to me, now."

Her thoughts continued to drift deeper into the topic of death. "The true crime video from yesterday said that the memory cortex is the last part of the brain to shut off when someone dies. So I basically take a trip throughout my whole life when I die. Not too bad." She wrapped one hair strand around her finger multiple times, letting go and rewrapping it until the strand was all tangled.

"Come to think of it: Kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, high school, and now university. Most of my last images would be of me studying. Meh. No lovely scenes with a hot guy like him. Hopefully the memory cortex gets it over quick for me." As the train passed another station, the hall was filled with people trying to get off. Especially two stations among the many her train drove by were the worst. At least 100 people would get off, while probably double the number got onto the train at the same station. It was damn annoying. Luckily she boarded the train quite early, so there were always a ton of empty seats for her to choose from.
As the sun rose with every minute of the train driving, train staff came through the hall checking tickets. "He has to wake up the cute young man", she thought. "Too bad."

Ruffling through her backpack, she eventually found her wallet and took out her student ID before the train staff even reached the group of seats where she sat. Having the ticket ready before they came to the seats made the process go by quicker, and she could go back not worrying about anyone trying to get her attention when wearing headphones.
"Good morning, your tickets, please." The train staff on that day was a kind elder gentleman, holding the strange-looking device in his hand that could scan all kind of tickets. It almost looked like those machines that printed receipts.

"Thank you, Miss", he said when handing back her student ID after scanning, turning towards the young man sleeping on the opposite seat. "Sir? Your ticket, please." When he didn't react and the train staff went closer to shake him, she held him back. "Maybe he had a rough night. You pass through the carriage multiple times, right? So why don't let him sleep a little more?"

"Okay. But next time he has to wake up and show me his ticket", he replied in a grumpy voice before moving on to the next row of passengers. "For that favor he has to give me his phone number", she thought to herself, giggling under her mask. Come to think of it, his mask looked a little wet, as if he was drooling in his sleep. Because the mask he wore was black, it was hard to see, which probably worked in his favor. If she was him she'd be deadly embarrassed if she drooled in her sleep for everyone to see.

She mustered him in more detail. He seemed to be quite tall, sunk down all the way against the wall. His shirt was black, along with his pants and shoes. There was a print of some creepy anime girl on the front of his shirt, but since she hadn't watched anime for a long time she had no idea who it could be.

A backpack sat beside his seat just like she had done to keep creepers from sitting down beside them. One of his hands lay protectively over his bag while the other rested in his lap. The black clothing made him look exceptionally pale, but that was probably just the contrast.

She watched him for a few more minutes before her phone distracted her. A message on LINE.

Hey, any train delays today? Wanna meet up at the subway station?

It was a friend of her's, who arrived at the city's main station around the same time as her, so they eventually decided to take the subway together. "Sure", she typed before sending the message. Her messages were quite cold at times, but that was just because she struggled to open up towards others, and ever since starting to watch true crime videos online, she hadn't had any friends, especially not a boyfriend. Instead, the topic of death kept appearing in her thoughts, until the point she started making a list of all the things people would have to do once she died.

She added a few more items onto that list while a darker song started playing. "Cancelling subscriptions, cancel gym membership, cancel university tuition, get rid of my stuff, hopefully update my social media to let people know I'm gone", she thought while typing in a note document. Why she even documented it was unclear to her, but for some reason it felt right.

After half an hour, the elder gentleman from the train staff came back, asking in a loud voice: "Sir, could you wake up and show me your ticket, please?" When the young man didn't react even after multiple attempts to get his attention, the train staff started shaking him, which only resulted in his bleached hair strands falling down on his face, but his body didn't move an inch. "How asleep can someone be?", the train staff asked her as he continued to shake the sleeping young man. "Did he take any supplements?", he asked, and she just shook her head, a little concerned.

The train staff took a step back, taking out a walkie-talkie type device and alerting his coworkers that he needed assistance. Then, he pulled the guy's mask off trying to check his breathing. But when he did, both his and her heart skipped a few beats.

Blood covered his lips, and flowed all the way down to his chin, the pale color of his skin even more noticeable. The liquid that had stained his mask hadn't been drool, it was blood. Enough of it to be concerning. She jerked back at the sight of the young man she'd found attractive earlier lay there with a pale face drenched in blood.

The train staff held his fingers against the young man's neck, looking at her in horror. "He-he's dead", he simply said. Suddenly, the world started shaking really violently, and her hands held her mouth as she ran away in disguist.

Images of his dead face flashed in her mind, making the gag reflex unbearable. She ran throughout the middle hall of the train, other people confusedly looking at her as she passed by. In the distance the train staff tried to calm the other passangers that had seen the young man's body. After a few seconds, panic set in.

The passengers started screaming in horror and trying to get away from the body, and one of them hit the emergency stop button. In the middle of a wooded area, the train hit its breaks, and as she ran down the hall, she lost footing, pushed by the sudden stop to fly through the rest of the hall before slamming against the sliding door separating the first and second classes. Her body slowly sank down to the floor as the entire train was filled with screams.