Paint it Another Colour

Chapter 39

Czech Republic - Lida
Slovakia - Pavol

Ravis sat wedged in between Toris and Eduard on the train. Opposite them sat Feliks, Lida and Pavol, also squashed into the double seats they'd booked. There had been a confusion, a double booked seat somewhere, and Toris, being Toris, had stood up and said they wouldn't mind giving up a couple of their seats, which was fine to begin with, before they realised how small the seats actually were - barely large enough to accommodate one person, let alone another half. Admitably, it could have been worse. He got on well with Toris and Eduard. Opposite, Lida was busy shouting at Pavol for something that sounded slightly trivial. Pavol looked slightly zoned out, as though he'd given up listening to her a long time ago. Feliks was leaning against the window, his head rattling against the glass, talking with Toris over the table and every so often giving Lida a shove as she accidentally elbowed him.

Ravis shuffled uncomfortably and glanced up at Eduard who looked like he was falling asleep, head lolled back, glasses half falling off, mouth open and catching flies. He nudged him softly, careful not to wake him too suddenly. Eduard jumped a little and pushed his glasses back on his nose before glancing down at him.

"How long do we have left?" Ravis whispered.

Eduard checked his watch and sighed. "Two hours and forty-three minutes."

Toris glanced over at him and gave a tired look. Feliks blinked, confused looking and then turned to Lida. "Hey" he snapped. "Like, shut up."

Lida stopped talking for a second, giving Pavol a second for a sigh of relief. "It's not my fault" she huffed, folding her arms and leaning back in the seat as far as she could.

"Who's fault is it then?" Feliks raised an eyebrow at her and leant further against the window than he already was doing.

Lida shrugged. "He's left his bag in the meeting hall again. It's obviously his fault. He always leaves it, and it's always his fault."

"Hey" Pavol shouted in protest. "What about that time when you nearly set the kitchen on fire? That wasn't my fault."

"You were distracting me" Lida huffed. "But anyway, you're an idiot."

"And now that we've summed that up" Feliks said. "You can both shut up." Unbelievably, they both did. He smirked triumphantly and turned to Ravis. "Better?" Ravis nodded, and for a second it was: a normal train journey despite the cramped conditions, but the shouting was over and he could almost fall asleep like he normally did on long journeys.

That was, until the train grinded to a halt and the lights flickered off.

"What now?" Feliks sighed and peered out of the window. It wasn't dark out, so the train carriage itself wasn't cast into pitch black, but the sun was low in the sky, casting long shadows over the German countryside.

There was a faint click from above. "We are sorry for the disruption" a voice said from the intercom. "We are experiencing some minor rail faults at the present, but they will shortly be resolved and then we will..." the person was cut short and there was a sort of squelching sound on the other end before it was turned of.

"That can't be good" Eduard muttered.

"What if the counterparts have found us?" Pavol whispered as though keeping his voice down could hide them.

"You're not important enough to have a counterpart" Lida hissed.

"That was uncalled for" Feliks said blankly, not moving his gaze from the window. "Something's moving out there."

"They've found us" Pavol shivered and shuffled further down into his seat. "We're all going to die."

"No we're not" Lida huffed. "Stop being such a scaredy cat," but she didn't look to confident about the situation herself. "Everything's just fine." She patted his shoulder comfortingly and peered past Feliks' to see out of the window herself.