The Watch – Part 94:

I stepped forward with my arm raised, ready to grab the handle and open the door. The handle was cold to the touch and stiff to pull down.

‘Are you sure you want to do this?’ I asked Amy one last time before it was too late.

‘I’m sure,’ she said, looking like the nerves had finally caught up with her. She was breathing heavily, but confident nonetheless.

‘Here goes nothing,’ I pulled the door outwards. It moved an inch before stopping abruptly. The dust that had collected over the years, suddenly disturbed, flew out of the gaps and into the air. At first, I thought that the door was locked, but instead it was just stiff. I pulled towards me once more and the door came loose from its frame, swinging stiffly open with a high-pitched creaking sound as the rusty hinges were forced to work once more. I could see that the door was spring loaded and would normally swing shut on its own, but due to the rustiness of the door and everything else, to the spring’s best efforts, the door remained in place, allowing us to enter without being pushed in from behind. Inside was nothing but darkness except from a few rays of sunlight that were trying their best to spread as wide as they could but with little to no success.

I stepped in and felt a chill run down my back as the cold air washed over me as it rushed outside. The dust and stale air ran up my nose, making me grimace and sneeze at the same time. I heard Amy do the same only moments afterwards as she followed me in. I switched on the torches and had a look around, seeing nothing but furniture that had been decaying over the years and had almost become one with the dust. As we walked on in further, the dust and bits of rotten floor and wood from the walls crunched underfoot like snow, leaving clear, distinguishable footprints behind.

‘See anything?’ Amy asked.

‘Only what you see,’ she said. We carried on forward until we reached the point where the rays of sunlight couldn’t penetrate any further and we had to rely on the torch’s beam to look around as best we could. The ticket office still had the shutters up to indicate that it was still open. I could very clearly picture someone sitting behind the glass with a long line of people ready to buy their tickets so that they could board the train and go on an adventure, but all that was left now was a rotten and damp smelling rope attached to a cold metal pole at either end.

‘It does feel lonely in here, doesn’t it,’ Amy said.

‘I wish this place would get back off the ground again,’ I said. ‘This place looked like it was amazing.’ I moved my torch upwards to have a look at the ceiling and found that it was in a very bad state. It was almost falling down, in an endless fight with its own strength and the power of gravity. The trouble was, everyone knew who the winner would be and it was only a matter of time before gravity tore this entire place to the ground. It was being patient, holding on with everything it’s got until the wooden beams can’t hold on to each other any longer. Gravity has already won.

‘Have your eyes adjusted yet?’ I asked Amy as we entered the waiting room area. The room was a little lighter than all the previous thanks to the torch’s light and the natural ability to see in the dark.

‘They have a bit,’ Amy said, ‘but the torch’s light keeps stopping them from fully adjusting, but I know that if I take the light away, I won’t be able to see a thing.’

‘That is a problem,’ I agreed. Like all the other areas of this station, the floor was caked in dust, the walls were rotten and the ceiling was falling to bits. This was the only room of the entire station where the window wasn’t broken, but it was at the wrong angle for the sun’s light to flow through properly and help us look around. However, unlike all the other rooms, time had beaten this one up more. The dust was thicker, the walls were practically on the floor themselves, and the ceiling had a massive hole in the middle, but instead of the roof opening up to the outside world, it allowed for us to see the other room upstairs.

‘I didn’t see any stairs here,’ I said looking upwards.

‘Me neither,’ Amy said copying my actions.

‘Maybe we need to look behind some door or something,’ I said.

‘Maybe,’ Amy said curiously.

‘Do you see anything in here worth noting?’ I asked.

‘Except that it is not the best place to hang out in,’ Amy said completing the sentence as an answer. ‘Nothing at all,’ she said after one last look.

The dust in the air made me sneeze once more, even more violently than before and twice in a row.

‘Bess you, times two’ Amy said.

‘Thanks,’ I said sneezing for the fourth time.

‘Times four,’ she said.

‘I’m beginning to dislike dust,’ I said, wiping my nose with my sleeve.

‘It isn’t the best to be standing in, that’s for sure,’ Amy said. ‘Come on,’ she said after having one last look around the place and finding nothing, ‘let’s get out of here before we start to suffocate.’

‘Right behind you,’ and we started to make our way out of the building to get some fresh air before making a decision on whether we want to go back inside or do something else entirely. As we were about to leave, I heard a sneeze behind me. Amy heard it too as when I came to a dead stop, she did too before turning around and facing me.

‘Was that you?’ I asked, hoping that the atmosphere of this place was playing havoc with my senses, even though I knew that it wasn’t Amy as she never made any such movement, indicating a sneeze, but I just wanted the answer confirmed.

‘I thought that was you,’ Amy said.

‘That means only one thing,’ I said, turning around to face the dark station once more.

There was someone else with us.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)