The Chirping 4

A Horror story by Emil Minchev

The following is part 3 of 5 of a short horror story from A Coffinful of Nightmares by Emil Minchev. Paid subscribers get it now, unpaid subscribers have to wait for ten weeks (or buy the book). Here is the first part. Here is the previous part. Enjoy!

‘Nothing’ Rasputin announced and spun around to face us, blinding me with his light. ‘No engineer, no conductor, no passengers. A ghost train.’ I was struck by how creepy he looked at that moment, his crude, boorish features underlit as they were by his phone’s torch. His eyes were like bottomless black holes. We were standing in the last compartment and shivering from the cold, because the window was open. Just a crack, but I slammed it shut in frustration. The obese lady sighed and sat down in one of the empty seats.

‘Now what?’

That’s when we heard a piercing scream from the front of the train. And then, a second later, a hollow thud, like the one a body makes when it falls to the floor. We immediately ran out into the corridor, tripping over each other. Rasputin almost knocked me down and made me drop my phone. I elbowed the businessman in the groin in my failed attempt to catch it. The sharp intake of breath told me I’d hurt him bad, but my apology turned into a gasp when Rasputin unceremoniously pushed me out of the way and ran towards the old lady’s compartment. I picked up my phone and followed suit. The door of the compartment was closed, but when he reached it, Rasputin didn’t even try to slide it open. He just stood there, staring. I finally caught up with him and saw exactly what I’d expected to see: an empty compartment and a pile of old lady clothes on the seat by the window. The Sudoku book had fallen to the floor. And the old lady had vanished.

‘Motherfucking SHIT!’ the big man yelled and banged his fist on the wall. His eyes were burning. ‘What the FUCK is going on here?’

The businessman caught up with us, holding his groin.