#fff183

[enchanted-lightning-aes]

Getting a Transit

A/N: a short of a person managing to get a train ride and how they’re just nervous yet looking forward to it. featuring some views from a train, i guess.^^

Word Count: 516

TW: None

***

As the bells chimed, a train arrived as it's doors slipped open. People slip out of it, crossing onto the platform along with an array of luggage and items. Checking in and out of the train station, gathering into a queue.

Tightening their grip onto the luggage handles, a passenger got into the entrance. They wheezed as they accidentally inhaled a musty scent, trying to cough it out. It somewhat slowed down their initial rapid pulse as sweat rolled down their forehead.

Okay. They were going to do this. No more delays. They had to psych themself up but. . . but they still had some doubts. Yet they were going to go with it and march with certainty. They didn't have an option to back out.

In front of the path between the seating and driver's area, a ticket collector stood there. Doing their job as they accepted passengers while obtaining their tickets. After the line lessened, the passenger dug their ticket out of a side of their backpack.

"Good evening," the ticket collector said, flicking an once-over at them. "Do you have a ticket?"

The passenger stretched out their hand. "Here you go."

Before they could squirm, the ticket collector obtained it from them. They slipped it into a jar containing other pieces.

"Ah, alright," the ticket collector replied, nodding slowly. They encompassed an arm aside. "Right this way, Mx."

With a nod, they proceeded to where they would look for their seat.

Some passengers leaned against the side. It varied from a person reading a book, tapping on their phone, or covering themself in a blanket. They spotted a vacant seat, where light spilled across it.

As they put their luggage beneath the seat, they plopped onto it. They wiped their clammy palms with a tissue from their pocket.

Once more people got into the train, the doors closed and the locomotives picked up it's slow pace. They leaned back and settled their backpack beside them. They turned at a window, where bluriness greeted them. Slightly distorting the surroundings into a hazy sight.

Their shoulders tightened as they bowed their head, dragging a hand down their face.

It felt a bit weird and intimidating to be by themself. But they needed to learn to adjust to it if they were to do this again at another time.

Since they were a kid, they wanted to travel but some fears discouraged them. The fear of doing it on their own. It intimidated them more than it interested them. So, they hadn't considered on whether they wanted to pursue it.

Often, they had heard of stories of people's experiences in different areas, they turned intrigued. Their curiosity hadn't waned despite their simultaneous fears. And on a whim, they had decided on booking a ticket and settled for a train ride.

Perhaps, taking a late night train had to be a spontaneous decision. But it was a decision they went for, regardless.

When they opened their eyes, they peered at the window by their side. They opened their backpack, putting their headphones on while switching some music on.

***

[writing-far-too-badly]

midnight train

The sky is shifting as the sun spins by From bruised blues to bright and brilliant red I'm sitting here unmoving, rememb'ring what you said Last stop you left, I have to wonder why

This train's the same, in morning, noon, or night And yet it feels so strange to see the stars With streetlights fading as they dim the cars I'm riding all alone beneath moonlight

"The train's the same, but I, I find, am not" That's what you said, at least that's what I caught And what I find on napkins, stained in tears, "The night's too long for day to hide my fears" My thoughts are colored by the scene outside I'd say they aren't but then you'd know I lied

Thanks for the prompt @flashfictionfridayofficial !

[renee-writer]

The Bells are Calling

She has always heard their call. It is one of the first sounds she remembers hearing. The loud call of the train.

Louder at night, with no other sounds to distract from it, it calls to her soul. Some day, she vows.

But there are chores to be done, children to raise.  Some day grows farther away.

The beginning of each new year sees her renewing her vow.

“Someday, I am going to catch that midnight train. I am going to ride wherever it takes me. "

Years pass, the children grow and have children of their own, and the chores remain but are easier with more modern appliances.

The train keeps passing, it's whistle is a siren call.

She makes her way to the depot. Standing on the platform, her luggage is in her hand, her ticket in her other. She is finally doing it, after all these years.

It stops and a young man who reminds her of her oldest grandson helps her aboard.

Settling into her seat, she watches bright eyes as her whole life, the life she has always known, starts to pass by her.

[nyamadermont]

Late Night Train

#FFF183

@flashfictionfridayofficial

Avatar: Legend of Korra

644 words

[Image ID: A dark black rectangle with scattered blue and red dots like blurry lights. The text “#FFF183 Late Night Train” is centered, in white. /End ID]

As she pulled out the packet of rice balls, she began to notice that the train wouldn’t outrun the fall of night.

The countryside blurred, league after league of greens and browns. Vast swaths of earth, both fertile and fallow.

She had traveled on foot, by wagon, on the backs of a few ostrich horses. Even by train, once, when she was little. Back before Tenzin was the center of the family. Back when forcing her father to ride the newly invented contraption was the height of modernity.

But it had all been for show. It had been a bright summer day, and they had just spent the morning riding in the train in the direction of Gaoling, without actually getting there because the track wasn’t complete.

It had taken all that afternoon to get the train turned around to head back to Republic City.

She had slept the whole way home, exhausted from inactivity and being on display and having to answer the same questions over and over.

With a little confusion, she realized her parents had never ridden a train again.

She had used them when she had no choice, but she avoided them when she could. They were smelly and loud. Too many strangers were packed too tightly. The rocking motion was just unnatural.

She missed Appa.

She leaned her head against the window until a jolt knocked her head against the glass. Reluctantly, she straightened in her seat.

Across from her, a weary man nestled a child in his arms, and his partner’s head in his lap. He stared forlornly through the window. She wondered if they were fleeing, visiting, or striking out to a new future.

She smiled faintly at him. He caught her eye and returned her gentle smile. He kissed his child, and stroked his partner’s hair. He tilted his head back, and she could see his shoulders relax, just a touch.

Outside, night had fallen. There was no longer anything she could see beyond the window.

So she let memory cover her.

She thought of so many times she had returned home from her travels. Her mother, running out from the house to greet her. Tenzin managing to be both welcoming and patronizing in the five minutes it took to get to the family rooms. Her father, ever more still each time she came home. Bumi, only there once or twice over the years, until recently.

She sighed, thinking of the one time, so many years ago, that she had returned to the arms of a beautiful woman, impatiently waiting at the docks. She sighed again, remembering leaving from those same docks just a week later, alone.

Then about fifteen years ago, she had started coming back to the joyously light footsteps of tiny airbender feet. The exuberant welcome she received from her niblings was like nothing else.

But since peace had settled, there had been one new person. Who never ran. Who never shouted. Whose arms did not fling wide, whose face did not light up.

Whose mere presence was enough to lighten her load.

Who, once removed from public view, could warm her as no other had.

Who, in the privacy of home, would shelter her from scrutiny and criticism.

Whose solidity would wash away the memory of the rickety unsteadiness of this late night train.

The lights in the corridor flickered, and the train slowed.

The man across from her leaned awkwardly down to rouse his partner.

Kya gathered her small bag and left them in solitude. She perched by the doors, waiting with mounting anticipation.

With grinding and hissing, the train slowed and the locks released. She wrenched the door open to scan the crowd.

There.

Lin stood in her long, black trench coat, her arms crossed and her eyes scanning back and forth.

Until their eyes met.

And they smiled.

Oooh, credit to @itsmoonpeaches for the prompt? Bonus!