Lady Of The Island

Shutting Out The Needy (II)

The sound of grinding metal ripped through the midnight countryside, causing Alice, Tasha and Burnett to turn around.
Eight magenta metal legs wedged down onto the ballast, releasing small drops of gold dust. Lady's face sat upon the spider-like machine, with a large crack underneath her upper lip.
She no longer had two bright eyes, several more had appeared, showing nothing but a lifeless abyss inside of the face.

"Wh...what is that...?" Tasha shook violently.

"I..." Burnett placed his hand onto her shoulder.

The monster's face twisted, causing a wet turning sound to fill the air. Her legs began to move, slowly shifting towards Alice. She leant forward, creaking.

"..What do," Alice paused. "What do you want from me?"

Lady, well what remained of her, raised one of her legs, revealing a sharp end which could slice through someone very quickly.
Tasha and Burnett watched in fear, latching onto each other. When...

"What th' h'll is that?" A voice echoed from down the line.

Tasha turned to see a little green bearded tank engine staring in horror.
"Lennox!" She shouted. "Go!"

The monster took its eyes off Alice and slowly turned to Lennox, and pointed one of her legs at him.

"Run." It hissed, launching into the air at ridiculously high speeds.

Lennox began to back away, the way that he came.

But he wasn't fast enough. Lady landed right infront of him, raised her leg and shot it through his smokebox - instantly draining the life out of him.

When she pulled it out, it was covered in coal and seemed sharper than before.

She turned around to go after Alice, Tasha and Burnett - but the trio had fled...each going different ways.

***

Burnett flew across the countryside, pushing through trees and bushes. Although he made sure that Tasha got a head start, he couldn't help but worry about her.
He ran for quite a long time, not looking back once and didn't stop until he heard the humming of an engine nearby as he hid behind an alley wall.

"Oh god. Oh god. She's here." He picked up a pipe beside the tracks. "I'm not scared of you! Foul beast!"

A light shone onto him. A purple diesel with a youthful face looked at him, worried.

"Er, who's here?" He asked, looking around. "Are you okay?"

He read his nameplate 'Sydney'.

"No, no I'm not. I need to get off...this island but my," He took several panicked breaths. "My wife..she's still on the Island...running from it..."

"Running from what?" Sydney raised an eyebrow.

"There's this...thing...and it's coming for us. Please..help me find her."

Sydney sighed.
"Come into my cab and I'll take you to the big station, we'll help you out there."

***

Alice sprinted through the forest, jumping over bushes and getting cut by branches.

But she didn't care. She just wanted to get out of the situation alive.

"Help?!" She called out, lost. "Anyone? Help?!"

For ages, there was no reply. Until she ran straight into an old hiker.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!" He snapped, picking up his stick.

"Oh thank god!" She shouted, collapsing onto his legs. "Please, help me!"

"The hell are you on about?" He looked at her bruised body. "What are you, some drunk?"

"No! Never!" Alice let go of his legs. "Please, it's dangerous here!"

He slowly began to walk away.

"Get away from me, you creep!"

"Please, please Sir! I-I can't.." She let put a wheeze and curled into a ball on the forest floor and the hiker walked away...

***

Tasha found herself running along the rails, unable to fathom where she was. After quite a long time, she was still running.

"Oh god...Where's Burnett? Where's Alice? Where am I?" She called out, but there was no response. She was truly alone in the dead of night...

At least until she spotted a lone, but abnormally large cottage along the hill.

Tasha was covered in marks. Her pink dress was mudded and ripped, her Bob was now all over the place.

"I'll shelter there until the morning. I'll find Burnett, then Alice. God, I hope they're okay."

She stumbled up the long set of stairs that lead up to the front door. All of the lights were off, indicating that nobody was home.

"Ugh, no!" She whined and punched the door with her fist, putting a hole in it.

Suddenly, she heard heels tapping...coming towards the door.

"Hello?!" She called. "Hello? Please?!"

The door slowly opened, revealing a posh woman with a beautiful brown Bob and blue dress.

"Jane!" Tasha fell to her knees with tears in her eyes. "Thank god you're here!"

She raised an eyebrow, crossing her arms. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"..I don't...It doesn't matter. I just need some shelter for tonight. There's this thing that's hunting me down and I need a safe place for tonight!"

Jane pulled two gloves off of the table beside the entryway and applied them carefully.

"Mhm," She looked Tasha up and down. "You look a right state, don't you?"

"I do, but that's out of my control. Just please, could you help me out?"

Pause.

Jane smiled.
"I'd love to help you-"

"Oh, thank you Jane! Thank you so much!"

Jane put a finger up.
"But..."

Tasha froze.
"B-but?"

Jane nodded, pointing at her appearance.
"You're a right state and well...I just got my new carpet down - and you might be carrying some sort of illness and Bertram just got over his last episode so..."

She trailed off.

"You-You can't just leave me out here! She'll come for me!"

"Tasha, you're clearly hysterical. I don't want you scaring my grandchildren."

"Jane..." She slowly stood up. "Please..."

Jane slowly and gracefully removed her gloves, placing them back onto the table and held onto the door.
"Goodnight."

She slammed the door in Tasha's face, who grabbed onto it, falling once more with a scream.
"Jane! Please! Let me inside! She'll kill me if she catches me! Please, Jane! Please!" She continued wailing and shaking the door for a few more seconds, until Jane appeared in the living room window. Tasha, teary eyed, turned her head to take a look.
All Jane did was shake her head and draw the curtains to a close.

Tasha admitted defeat and slowly lumped back down the steps and along the rails once more.

Both Tasha and Alice were stranded, struggling to find shelter to hide from the monster, but only one of them would end up surviving the night.

The question is, which one?