Sure, the ground loathes when you tread upon it, and the escalators’ dutiful chugging is underlaid by strained groans and hateful squeals whenever it’s forced to take your weight. Sure, the grey of the walls saps the light and warmth and sound from the space, leaving any crowd feeling empty and alone. And sure, with each train that comes, the doors seem to linger longer before begrudgingly struggling open to permit you entrance, and maybe, if you’re lucky, passage to somewhere, instead of another nowhere. Every aspect of the space glowers and bids you move along.
But it was never meant to be empty. Your footsteps weren’t meant to be audible over the silence, and your heartbeat ought to be drowned out by the nervous muttering of people going from somewhere to somewhere, not thrumming in the emptiness of the space. And no space this empty has the right to be this warm, the stale air humid with the breath of people who aren’t there.