The first sensation to replace the nothingness is the quaking, quickly followed by the light on her closed eyelids.

She opens her eyes, and it takes a few moments for her to get her bearings. Once she does, she is confused.

“Why am I on a train…?” she mumbles. Searching her memory, she cannot remember boarding this train. It is as if she went to sleep and woke up and suddenly there she was.

Based on the orange-ish yellow light that spills through the windows on all sides, she concludes it must be late afternoon. When she glances out the window, however, she sees nothing but the dim light. There’s no sign of the horizon, no sign of tracks beneath the train. In fact, she can barely even make out the wheels of the train in motion beneath her. It is like a void, except filled with sunset-like light.

Sitting back from the window, she takes a moment to stare blankly into space. “What on Earth?” Or is she even on Earth anymore? Is she dreaming? Is she insane? There is no way for her to tell.

Well, if she were insane, she wouldn’t be questioning her sanity, right?

That doesn't explain why she’s all alone, however.

Perhaps it is only her compartment that is empty. She stands up and walks over to the door toward the back of the train car. Before she can reach out her hand for the handle, though, someone speaks.

“So you’ve finally woken up.”

She jerks backward and whirls around to find the source of the voice. There. At the front of the car, there is a man. She can’t see his face, though. Not only is he standing too far away, his face is covered by a white mask. Yet, instead of feeling alarm or fear, she only feels curiosity.

“Who are you? How did you get there?” She doesn’t recall hearing the door open, though the sound could have been masked by the noise of the train rumbling and shaking.

“I’m the conductor of this train,” the man answers, walking down the aisle toward her. Based on the sound of his voice, she estimates that he is around twenty years old, though she’s never before guessed people’s ages by listening to them speak. “As for your second question, I have been here. You simply haven’t been paying attention.”

Well, that’s weird. “Um, I was all alone up until just now, when you suddenly appeared out of nowhere,” she insists, sticking with her logic. Never mind that her entire situation is rather bizarre and illogical.

The man sighs, sounding a bit exasperated. “You always were a bit oblivious,” he says, almost to himself more so than to her.

“Wait. You know me?” she asks, bewildered. “I don’t know you…do I?” Squinting her eyes, she inspects him more closely, searching for something familiar. Nothing triggers any memories.

“You do.” The conductor says this quite firmly, and she almost wants to believe him.

“How could I know you if I don’t remember you?” She wonders if he is deliberately messing with her mind.

“You’re asking the wrong question, I’m afraid.”

Now she is certain he’s just trying to play mind games. “Oh, then what’s the right question?”

“How could you remember me if you don’t remember yourself?”

“What? That’s ridiculous, of course I—“

That’s when it dawns on her.

“I…” Frantically, she wracks her brain, but it turns up with nothing. Nothing more than wisps she can’t grasp. Staring up at the conductor, she catches a glimpse of his eyes, which glitter ambiguously in that brief moment. “You know me, right?” she demands, her panic mounting. “Who am I? Why can’t I remember?”

“That’s why you’re here.”

“What?”

Right then, she feels the train begin to slow. It has been decelerating throughout their entire conversation. Soon enough, the train comes to a halt. The conductor—the stranger who claims to know her—turns her around and guides her through the door. “It’s your stop,” he informs her as she struggles and protests.

She stumbles off the last step—there is solid ground beneath her now. “Wait, don’t just leave me here, I—“

The stranger turns his back on her, the door shutting behind him. With a shudder, the train begins to disembark.

“Hey!” She runs after the it even while knowing she will never catch up. “Come back!”

It is too late, of course. The train vanishes into the distance. Before she can begin to cry, however, the world turns to nothingness once more.