Lock and Key

Dark Woods

Grace exited the mall car into a car that had been themed around a sound stage. As she entered denizens that took the form of soundboards, headphones, and cameras hustled and bustled around her seemingly preparing for a production of some kind. Grace noted that the car didn't seem to have been disturbed and all of the people were still intact which gave her a great deal of relief. Approaching a camera shaped denizen Grace inquired about the exit. He responded in kind.

"The exit is just past stage right, but, you've got just the look we're going for. How would you like to be the protagonist of our next production? It's about a girl who gets haunted by the ghost of the person she killed." he explained. Grace internally screamed. The train had to be purposely fucking with her.

"No thanks." Grace said. "I don't think i'm cut out to be a star." she offered as an excuse. The camera shook his head.

"But you haven't even heard the twist, the person she killed, was her best friend." he said to her excitedly. Okay, now Grace knew the train was fucking with her. She shook her head and pressed on through the car to the exit following the directions she had been given. Grace desperately needed a nap but as she entered the next car she found it very likely that she wasn't going to get one.

The car was a huge expanse of dark forests and a large threatening mansion loomed over the car sitting atop a hill. Grace knew enough about the train to know that her exit lied somewhere in that house.

"Am I even going to be able to get up that hill with my leg?" Grace asked herself. She began to turn around in order to go back a car and ask one of the denizens for help but as if on cue the door was no longer where it had been. Grace supposed she should have expected it from a horror themed car but it didn't mean she had to like it. Tiredly she marched on through the woods.

Grace immediately felt like she was being followed. Her skin crawled at the feeling of the eyes that she knew weren't there staring at her with a dark piercing intensity. Unable to handle the feeling Grace swung around only to see that the way that she'd come was now completely blocked by trees. Grace took a deep breath, she was okay, she was alone. This was a horror themed car, of course she'd feel watched.

Still, it wasn't just the car's atmosphere that contributed to her unease. It was the eerie silence that no real place could have. The way that Grace could swear she could hear footsteps, and breathing. She clenched her fists and pushed onward. She had to consider the idea that she was being followed. On crutches she was a walking target, there would be nothing she could do to properly fight off anyone who dained to come from the darkness and...

Grace had no idea what she thought this fictitious stalker would do if they caught her but as the wind seemingly picked up out of nowhere and began sounding more like a scream than anything else Grace decided the answer was nothing good. She just had to remind herself that this was all in her mind. No one was following her, why would they. Even with the reassurance Grace couldn't stop herself from letting her mind go to the place that she really didn't want it to.

What if Simon was following her? The footsteps that Grace could swear she wasn't imaging were getting closer, the breathing louder. This was all just guilt, this was her mind trying to cope with everything she'd been too numb to feel after she'd done it. Grace felt her mouth become dry as she remembered what Simon had said to her after a session of treating her like she was less than human. The way he'd taunted her at the idea of her ever truly being free from him.

"Even if you got out of the car, you think that would stop me?" he'd said to her. Grace felt her breathing grow frantic. He was dead, she'd killed him, she'd come to terms with that. So why did she feel like his words still held some truth. "You think that would stop me?" Would anything stop him? Or was Grace doomed to be tormented by the memory of what she'd done until she died. Grace didn't realize that she'd been doing the best approximation of a run she could until she tripped.