The train was supposed to arrive at midnight.
Ethan had been standing alone on the abandoned platform for almost an hour.
There was no wind.
No birds.
Not even the sound of insects.
Only the old clock above the station entrance.
11:59 PM.
Ethan checked his ticket again.
Platform 4 — 12:00 AM.
The strange thing was that the station had been closed for years.
His grandfather had given him the ticket that afternoon.
"Take this train," he had said.
"Why?"
His grandfather had looked at him strangely.
"Because some journeys are meant to be finished."
Then he refused to explain anything else.
At exactly midnight, Ethan heard a distant whistle.
A train emerged from the darkness.
Its windows were completely black.
It stopped in front of him without making a sound.
The doors opened.
Ethan hesitated.
Then he stepped inside.
The carriage was empty.
At least, he thought it was.
He walked to the nearest seat and sat down.
The doors closed.
The train began moving.
Ethan looked through the window.
Outside was nothing but darkness.
After several minutes, he noticed something strange.
There was a passenger sitting at the end of the carriage.
An old man.
He was staring directly at Ethan.
Ethan looked away.
When he looked back, the old man was gone.
His seat was empty.
Ethan stood up.
"Hello?"
No answer.
Then someone whispered behind him.
"Don't get off at the next station."
Ethan turned around.
Nobody was there.
The train slowed down.
A voice came through the speakers.
"Next stop..."
Static interrupted the announcement.
Then the voice continued.
"...home."
Ethan's heart stopped.
His childhood home had been demolished fifteen years ago.
The train stopped.
The doors opened.
Outside was his old street.
His old house stood exactly where it had been when he was a child.
The front door was open.
Ethan stepped onto the platform.
He heard laughter coming from inside the house.
His mother's laughter.
But his mother had died twelve years ago.
He walked toward the house.
The front door slowly opened wider.
"Ethan?"
His mother's voice.
He froze.
"Mom?"
A shadow appeared behind the curtain.
Then another.
Then dozens of shadows.
All of them looked like people he had known.
His mother.
His grandfather.
His childhood friends.
Even people he hadn't seen in decades.
They were all standing inside the house.
Watching him.
Then his grandfather appeared at the window.
His face was terrified.
He mouthed two words:
"Run back."
Ethan turned around.
The train doors were closing.
He ran.
But before he reached the train, someone grabbed his shoulder.
He screamed and turned around.
It was the old man from the carriage.
The old man looked directly into his eyes.
"You were never supposed to leave the train."
Ethan looked back at the house.
Every shadow inside had disappeared.
The street was gone.
There was only darkness.
The old man pushed him into the train.
The doors closed.
The train began moving again.
Ethan fell onto the floor.
"Where are we going?"
The old man sat down.
"Where everyone eventually goes."
Ethan looked through the window.
For the first time, he could see the passengers.
Every seat was filled.
Hundreds of people were sitting silently in the darkness.
All of them were staring at him.
Then the speaker came alive.
"Final stop."
The lights went out.
And Ethan finally understood why his grandfather had given him the ticket.
It wasn't a ticket to board the train.
It was a ticket to come back.
The next morning, the abandoned station was found completely empty.
Except for one thing.
A train ticket lying on Platform 4.
It had only one word printed on it:
NEXT.
