Destiny (1)
Chapter 15

The noise of the wheels skating across the rails roared in my ears, swallowing me whole. Thalia leant her head against Ash’s shoulder and snored loudly. Ash stared mournfully out the window. Again, I wondered who Dean was, and why Ash had paled when he saw that he had been taken. Someone wandered through the aisles offering snacks, but none of us were really hungry. We were just sullen.

I couldn’t sleep, for fear of seeing that abhorrently wicked face again. An hour passed. Two. Three. I counted the stops. An old woman who smelled of cigar smoke and mothballs (not a pleasant combination), breathed heavily in front of us, disconcertingly. A woman with a pram scooted past, heartbreakingly reminding me of Mya. A young boy sat behind my seat, swinging his legs and kicking it.

“Will you cut that out!?” I swung round and hissed at him, only to shrink back when I saw who I guessed was his father frowning at me.

“Oh, don't worry,” he said, “I should have told him a while ago. Yes, Samuel, stop kicking this poor girl’s seat.”

I turned back to my seat. Something was wrong. I could feel it in the air, the tension was hanging, like how you would leave a wet towel out to dry. Some of those faces… I had seen them before. They felt familiar, yet I couldn’t understand what they were from.

Another hour passed.

Thump. Thump. Thump. Urgh. Samuel must be kicking my seat again.

I swung around in my chair, but the boy wasn’t doing it. Then who was it?

Tapping Ash’s shoulder, I managed to get him to look up.

“What?” He moaned, bored.

“Something’s up,” I replied.

“Uh huh,” he said, unconvinced.

“Can’t you hear the thumping?”

He glanced around, and turned back to me.

“That dude’s kicking your chair.”

“What? No he’s not… oh.”

As I turned to look, I saw Samuel’s father staring threateningly at me, kicking my seat.

“What is it, Daddy?” Samuel shook his father’s hand.

“Quiet!” He sneered.

Samuel quivered.

The guy developed a halo of smeared colour around his body, and began to merge with the other woman pushing the pram, the baby in the pram, and the old mothball-smelling granny.

“Uh-oh, not this again,” I murmured, as clone-Sasha, clone-Michelle, clone-Aurelia and clone-Zach merged together.

“Run!” Ash screamed.

Thalia woke with a start and jumped up.

“Wh-wha-what’s going on?” She whimpered.

I stared around. No one was in the carriage other than the boy, Samuel. Oh, and his father, who was tied and bound up under his chair, unconscious. Samuel yelled, but to no avail.

“Let’s make this one shut up,” one of the heads sneered behind me, on the snarling and spluttering creature.

“No!” Another said. “I like it when they scream.”

This must have been Sasha, because the others conceded.

I swung round to face it.

“Are you sure…?” The one from before whined, who looked like Michelle. A hand with three sharp talons inched towards Samuel hungrily. He trembled, and sobbed.

“Stop!” Thalia slapped its claws away feistily.

“I’ve changed my mind. Take that one instead!” Growled Sasha, and the beast charged at her.

“Get Samuel!” I yelled at Ash.

“Who?” He screamed madly back.

“The boy!”

I jumped up from behind my hiding place, and swooped in. I dodged the flailing arms, and managed to grab what I hoped was Thalia’s hand.

“Come on!”

She didn’t need telling twice. We hared off, past Ash and Samuel, and slid into the carriage loos. The two boys closely followed us, and slipped in too. Slamming the door, I turned to them.

“Now what?” I groaned.

“What about Daddy?” Samuel shivered.

A pang of guilt hit me. We’d forgotten about him.

The four-headed monster scrambled down the aisle, and stopped outside the door. It banged on it hysterically. Every noise resonated around us, and I knew the door wouldn’t hold up for long. And, with four people in there, the toilet wasn’t fitting us in very well either.

“We’re going to die!” Thalia panicked.

“Not helping!” Ash tried to shush her.

“Why’s your hair green?” Samuel said spontaneously.

“Um…”

“Also not helping!” Ash cried.

Lost in thought, I ran my fingers along the hinge of the door.

“Ewww. You know how many germs are on there?” He said again.

I studied it more closely. A thin vine would fit through it. We had a chance.

“Please, please, please, tell me you have a plan,” he moaned, wrestling with Thalia to stop her from hitting the fire alarm. Samuel bit his nails nervously.

I grinned. “Of course,”

“Will it work?”

“Probably not,”

He smiled. “I love it already,”

Focusing painfully hard, I squeezed my eyes shut. A vine shot from the ground, and curled its way around the doorknob. I flinched, and the vine became taught, on the brink of snapping. Concentrate. I snapped my fingers. The vine became lax again, and tied a knot, in such a way that the door was jammed shut. Then the loose end hit the light switch.

Momentarily startled, Sasha and co. stumbled. Or at least I presumed they did, because a crashing noise emanated from outside.

“Come on!” I tied the green, leafy rope around my waist, took a deep breath and jumped our the window. As we had planned, Ash held onto it, and the vine became so tight it knocked the air out my lungs. Not to mention the fact that the train was going at about a hundred miles an hour.

I scanned the ground hopefully. It zoomed past, but I spotted a free field a few hundred yards away.

Thalia screamed.

“Bambi, we’re running out of time!”

“Get ready to jump!”

“Are you crazy?”

I paused.

“Five… four… three…”

“Fay!” Ash yelled in warning.

“Two… one… jump!