Editor: Kitty
Crow did not understand what Owl had said. He found that this man inexplicably carried himself in an imposing manner. To him, the man’s aura felt terrifying, like he was the train that charged towards the darkness, never to stop.
“It’s almost time.”
Owl announced as he glanced out of the window of the train carriage with thoughts in his mind.
The train whistled forward, the entire carriage shaking slightly. Outside the window, it was pitch dark. It seemed like the train was passing through a tunnel so dark outside the train that one was unable to see their fingers, as if the train was running in the primal chaos of another dimension. In the dark, the lone train became the only light source as it travelled.
They could only stay on this train for six hours. However, the train had 13 carriages in total, which meant that they must find a total of 13 keys for all the carriages, open each carriage, and finally reach the head of the train. They could only stop the train when they reached the train cab so that they could avoid the fate of a car crash-like ending.
To find the 13 keys, it would take a long time, so Crow and Owl quickly reached a consensus and began to search the carriage. After searching, they found some noteworthy places in the carriage.
For example, each train car had a toilet and a crew lounge.
On the wall near the ‘crew’s lounge’ was a number plate with a big ‘13’ written on it. This was the train car number.
Many places in the carriage were vandalized by someone with some inexplicable words in red pen.
There was a large amount of blood on the corner of a table in the carriage. There were several strands of hair on the table as well, and the hair was very short and should belong to a male.
The carriage was full of garbage, melon seeds and peels, and some sticky and overturned soup. However, in the midst of the pile of garbage, there was a square area that was very clean. It was as if a big square object had once been placed there, so everyone else’s trash was sprawled around except in that area. But later, someone removed that object and left a clean and empty square area.
On the top part of the carriage was a steel frame for placing luggages, and it was stuffed with baggage of all sizes. There was not even the slightest empty space available. With the slight shaking of the train, some of the luggage that were placed slightly protruding outwards almost looked like they would fall out any time.
Moreover, they found nothing unusual in the toilet and crew lounge in this train car. No valuable clues had been found.
“What do you think?” After Owl searched through the carriage, he turned to meet Crow and began to exchange their views. Owl started first: “This is the 13th carriage, that is to say, this is the last carriage of the train. There is a door at both ends of the train car. I looked at the door behind me. It has no handle, and there is a glass window on the door. Outside the window, everything is pitch black.”
“There’s no handle and no keyhole, right?” Crow asked.
“Yes. Maybe that’s how the game was designed from the beginning.” Owl spread out his hands.
Crow frowned: “Who would use a train to play a prank on us? This thing is not cheap.”
After he calmed down from panicking, Crow began to think and felt that something was wrong. Something was very wrong with the train.
“Think about it. Where’s the train heading to? It’s almost always dark outside, and there are no sources of light outside at all. Even if the train has been driving through the tunnel all this time, it shouldn’t take that long. Where on earth would there be such a long tunnel?”
Owl narrowed his eyes and suddenly smiled, “On the contrary, I don’t think the train is in a tunnel. Maybe we are really in a different dimensional space, and this train is running in this dark space.”
Crow felt miserable regarding this mystifying idea of his: “Alright then, you mean that we were all captured by aliens, and they were using us to play a game and left us on a train in an inexplicable space?”
“This is pointless… friend,” Owl said, “We’d better try to stop the train first.”
They went to the metal door located at the corridor connection between the carriages. According to the note, there would be a message indicating the location of their key here.
T/N: Corridor connection: A gangway connection (or, more loosely, a corridor connection) is a flexible connector fitted to the end of a railway coach, enabling passengers to move from one coach to another without danger of falling from the train. (Cr: Wikipedia)
The metal door at the corridor connection looked very solid. There was also a glass window on the door, but it was made of frosted glass. Through this glass window, one could see the situation in carriage No.12, but only vague shadows could be seen.
“The note said that five people would be involved in a game to escape from the secret chamber, but there are only two of us in this train car. Do you think there will be someone in the train car ahead?” Owl stuck onto the door, and his face was almost plastered to the small glass window on it as he tried to observe the situation in carriage No.12 but found nothing.
Crow was in a slightly gloomy mood and replied, “There must be someone there. But I don’t know whether they will be dead or alive—alright, stop looking. There are inscriptions on the door. You’re blocking it.”
Owl moved his body away and found a row of very small inscriptions on the metal door—
[There are actually three people in carriage No.13.]
[One of them was fated to be a victim.]
[The murderer killed him and hid the corpse.]
[The key to the door is in the pocket of the corpse’s pants.]
[Do you want to know where the key is?]
[Ask the murderer.]
These few phrases made the fine hairs of their bodies stand up, and goosebumps covered their bodies.
Almost at the same time, they stood up straight and stepped back. They leaned against the wall behind them together and glanced at each other.
Their eyes were full of anxiety and doubt.
Following that, both of them were strangely silent, but the silence lasted only a few minutes. Owl could not help but speak up first, “I don’t want to argue that I’m not the one, but when I woke up, I saw you sitting on the sofa reading a note…”
“Do you think I’m the murderer?” Crow interrupted him.
“But the door hinted to us that there originally should have been three people!”
Crow could hardly help screaming, “I know what you mean! There were three people in our carriage. One of them was dead, and his body was hidden! Of course, he didn’t commit suicide and hide his own corpse after killing himself! So it can only be done by one of us! Am I right?”
Owl took a deep breath and said slowly, “I know, I know… I’m doubting you, and you’re… also suspicious of me? Is that right?”
Crow looked at him warily: “I did not notice you after I woke up until you caused some sound, and this is very strange, isn’t it? What’s more, you have said some things that I find inexplicable. You even said that you are not afraid. Which lunatic would not be afraid when his memories have been seized and he’s been thrown on a train with no rhyme or reason?”
“That’s because I think it’s just a game!” Owl growled, took a deep breath again, and swept a sharp gaze at Crow: “Calm down. Now, we have yet to even see the corpse. We don’t know whether the hint written on this damned stupid door is making things up or not!
“Besides, you have to understand that even if you throw three random people into an enclosed room, they will not just casually start to kill each other. There must be a reason, a motive behind the murder!”
Crow’s face was a little pale. He took a deep breath, and he tried to calm his racing heartbeat. Then he said, “I see what you mean. Indeed, the hint given by this door may also be false, to let us suspect and even kill each other… Isn’t there always such a plot in suspense novels and movies?”
“And!” Owl added in a loud voice, “Maybe there is a corpse, but someone had just purposely placed it here… Is it possible that those people who crammed us into this train car also hid a corpse somewhere in the train car and inscripted those words on the metal door, just like… how some story settings are deliberately designed.”
“So, don’t think about who the murderer is. Just find the corpse and the key first, right?” Crow said that, but he was still afraid to get closer to Owl. He retreated silently and said, “Then, we can start to think about where the corpse is.”
“You’re standing too far away from me.” Owl remained where he stood, staring at Crow in silence.
“So what? I don’t want to stand too close to you.” Crow’s level of vigilance was too high, and any abnormalities of Owl would cause him to retreat and step backwards. He felt that he was like a bird startled by the mere twang of a bowstring now, but he was unable to stop this behavior of his because as long as he thought that the man who stood beside him might be a murderer, he would be lying to say that he was not afraid!
“Crow…” When Owl called Crow’s name, it seemed that he lowered his tone, and he said softly, “You are too agitated. I won’t hurt you. I’m even thinner and smaller in size than you are, so… don’t move too far away from me.”
“I’m not agitated.” Crow looked very calm, but his face had turned white, and he was not breathing properly: “I just think we should keep some distance between us.”
After a moment’s pause, Owl had to compromise: “Okay, we’ll keep some distance.”
Owl did not seem to like keeping a distance. He seemed to want to get close to Crow. Maybe he was also afraid of something. But Crow did not give him the chance. When they started searching for the hidden corpse in the carriage, Crow would constantly pay close attention to the distance between him and Owl.
In this very tense and suffocating situation, they started a thorough search of the entire carriage No.13. They looked through all the places where someone could hide a corpse but soon found that there were too few places capable of hiding a corpse in this carriage.
The toilet and the crew’s lounge were empty, and the spaces were so narrow that with a mere glance, one was able to see their entirety. There was absolutely no place for someone to hide a corpse. As for those sofas in the carriage, they were so densely packed together that only one hand could fit underneath them. Unless the corpse was amputated and its pieces packed separately into bags, there was no room to hide a corpse.
“Where on earth is that body hidden?” Owl looked to be a little irritated. He began to tear off a sofa cover, and the whole white cover was pulled away.
“There’s no place to hide bodies.” Crow sat on a sofa far away and answered him.
“Could it be that the body has been dismembered?” Owl guessed.
But Crow rejected: “I don’t think it’s possible. There would be many traces of bloodstains if the corpse was dismembered, but the toilet is clean and there is no blood on the ground… Well, if one of us is really the so-called murderer, I mean, if you’re the murderer…”
“Hey! I said I didn’t kill anyone!” Owl did not like the way the other party constantly looked at him as if he was a murderer.
“Well, if I was the murderer, and I had just killed someone…” Crow had to change the way he phrased his words: “I don’t know whether this person is a man or a woman, whether they are tall or short, but I killed them. I want to hide them in this damned carriage. Where can I hide people here…”
Almost as if he were speaking to himself, Crow raised his head and looked around. Perhaps he had been influenced by Crow’s character, but even Owl began to look around. Then, coincidentally, the two men raised their heads at the same time and looked at the strong luggage racks near the top of the carriage.
“Don’t you think that the luggage is too tightly packed?” Owl said as he tilted his head.
“Oh, I think so too actually,” Crow echoed.
T/N: Please note that the author uses ‘train car’ and ‘carriage’ synonymously, so I’ll keep it this way. The words mean the same thing. (Also please note that this chapter is not edited, the edited version will be up tomorrow, because Kitty is busy today.)
Edit [25/9]: The edited version is up.
I would like to thank soapy and Kofi-Supporter for the Kofis!! The two bonus chapters will be up either tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. Thank y’all for understanding!
Also, thank you guys for the comments as well, reading comments from you guys really make my day.