Regicide [ORIGINAL SERIES]

10. Train Arc

Automotive Malfunction.

REWIND, 3 HOURS AGO...

As the train began its journey, the rhythmic lull of its movement and the distant sounds of the world passing by outside the window coaxed Amy into a reluctant sleep. It was a respite she hadn't planned but desperately needed. In the embrace of sleep, Amy found a temporary escape, not just from the physical confines of the academy, but from the relentless turmoil that haunted her waking moments.

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....
....?

Amy's eyes fluttered open, expecting the familiar blur of the world rushing by the train windows. Instead, she was met with a view that made her heart lurch-a chaotic, inexplicable scene that defied reality. It was as if the world outside had been replaced with a disorienting, ungraspable landscape.

Panic surged through her, triggering a flood of traumatic memories. The view outside the train was eerily reminiscent of that otherworld, where logic and physics crumbled away. In that moment, a dreadful thought crossed her mind: was this her fate? To be ensnared in horrifying, inexplicable events, forever isolated with her unspeakable experiences?

Looking around the train, Amy's desperation grew. The passengers, sparse as they were, seemed frozen in time, their expressions empty, bodies unnaturally still. It was a sight Amy had become grimly accustomed to, a reminder of her isolation from the rest of humanity.

Then, at the train's end, a figure emerged, its appearance unsettlingly familiar yet wholly alien. Its skin glitched and warped, as if it was a creature born from the matrix itself, moving slowly, ominously toward the passengers. Amy watched, frozen in horror, as it began its gruesome work, stripping away their human skin to reveal the horror beneath.

Amy was no stranger to violence, having been a reluctant witness to unspeakable acts before. But the helplessness that gripped her now was overwhelming. She could only watch in silent horror as the nightmare unfolded around her, a grotesque performance for an audience of one.

There was nothing she could do but wait, wait for the nightmare to end, wait for her own unraveling. As the creature continued its methodical terror, Amy felt a profound sense of despair. This was her world now-a world of shadows and monsters, where she was doomed to watch, alone, as everything she knew was torn apart.

Suddenly..

"Halt!" -???

The eerie silence of the train was shattered by a voice, youthful yet carrying the weight of untold stories. Amy's gaze snapped towards the source, witnessing a young girl wielding an axe with a confidence that belied her years. With a swift, decisive swing, the creature's grotesquely deformed head was severed, dropping to the floor with a thud that seemed too final for such a surreal moment.