Fallen Star Rising

Fallen Star Rising (Part 7)

With a grating cry and a hiss of compressed air, the train came to a stop at the platform. Here, with whatever was looking for me close, I was not tempted to taste the vibrations in the air to find out more about what it was. The risk was not worth the information at this point. Whatever it was had given no indication that it has smelled me, and I was content to remain in passive mode until I could regroup and do some research of my own. Knowing that it was out there, that it was looking, was enough for me for now. Anything else risked exposure.

Like a submarine running silently I kept my sonar passive and let the cold ocean of sensations wash over me and through me, giving the angry energy nearby no ripples by which to detect my presence.

There was no time while in this state of oneness, so I could not tell you how long the train paused at the platform. They are only normally there for maybe thirty seconds or a minute, but this was a bit of a unique situation. No one was here to get onto the train, and indeed, it did not seem there was anyone on the train to get off except the thing that continued to cast its red gaze about, looking for something in its fog of violence.

At some point it stepped off the train and began stalking the platform.

I could not risk touching the hum of reality to know exactly where it was. Likewise, I could not determine how far away my train was. I could only feel the ripples as they passed me by, trying my damndest to not create any ripples of my own.

It was here, I could feel the footsteps like the warmth from a fire on the other side of a stone wall. Distant and dully, only marginally better than feeling nothing at all, just the trace of movement and the sound of a step. I felt the flyer for the titty bar crumple under another foot step. The smell of saliva on the gust of air. A scrape of leather or flesh on the tile of a support pillar. I could feel the pores in the concrete through the thin soles of my shoes, and the heat from the skin on the palms of my hands leeching into the pillar I had my back to. My hair, just long enough to hang into my eyes, moved at the slightest vibration of the platform and waved with the breeze from the air pressure inequality between the tunnels. My eyes did not move, which was fine, in this state sight was the least powerful of my senses.

My train had arrived in this no time, and now I had a choice to make. Remain still and hide, hoping that the predator stalking me would pass over, or get bored, or find something else to take its attention away. Or release what was effectively my cloaking field and step on the train.

It was not as if I could not move while I was in this state, but the possibility of this thing hearing me, or seeing me if I moved away from my cover was not nearly as close to zero as I would feel comfortable with.

But here, in this state, I knew I had already made my decision, how could I not when I was clearly thinking about my chances of success for a future action? I kept in the moment as much as I could while thinking ahead. A wry and sarcastic smile found its way onto my face. My no mind had calculated exactly the time to step onto the train to beat the closing doors.

Looking either direction on the platform as my true self began to release and time began to flow as I was used to, I saw nothing and moved towards the open doors of my train. A ninja would have been proud of the amount of noise that I made, and the wind was jealous of my speed and light touch upon the floor.

As soon as I was through the doors I dropped to the floor of the train and rolled onto my back to look up from my prone position at the windows facing the platform I had just vacated.

The doors closed with a soft rubber on metal sound. The light from the platform darkened as the thing that was looking for me approached my train. I rolled against the door, pulling myself as close to the wall as I could.