Tick Tock

Nancy pushed against the fiery winds, crawling and stumbling into the gravel, a small briefcase clutched in her arms. Behind her, she could hear chimneys getting blown off, roof slates crashing to the ground and the onslaught of the rain. She crouched and squinted into the distance, skirt flapping and hair whipping, hoping to see anything. But it did her no good. The night was dark without its moon and it was darker with its storm clouds.

The train hissed. Nancy scampered ahead.

“No!” she tried to call out and looked blindly for the tracks, but it came out as a gasp, her voice muted by the winds. It may have been dark but she knew every inch of those hallowed grounds, and she could see it now, in her mind’s eye, the Loft bridge looking as frail as it did in the morning light, toeing into the water, arching into the ocean. She knew the meaning of every sound it made; she had spent years seeing herself on the train to her dreams, to the other side of the Gulf of Loft where her golden future awaited, telling herself it would be over soon.

She knew the power it held. The strength it had. She knew where it could take her.

The train lights blared, Nancy rushed towards it with a growing dread, but she was too late. It had chugged away from her in a cloud of smoke, leaving her behind. She heaved and coughed, staring at the Loft bridge as the train left. For a long time her throat constricted with a horrible sense of loss, the guilt pushing against it along with regret. Then, unable to bear it any longer, she cupped her mouth, willing herself to keep quiet as sobs bracketed her chest.

She collapsed into a nearby stone and let the rain drown her. Just a few minutes earlier and she would have been there.

The train had gathered speed. She heard it go away from her, faster. She almost didn’t look back at it. But she did, and an odd chill settled into her bones. It wasn’t because of the rain.

Nancy watched, paralysed in shock, as a thick blackness went over the site of the bridge, the lights of the train still visible before the wind howled and slapped the train away.

Her blood ran cold. Just a few minutes earlier and she would have been there.