“Is he still alive?”

“If he was he wouldn’t be with us, stupid.”

“Oh yeah.”                    

The shadows Luhan saw hovering over him weren’t posing much of a threat. That was the case until one of them started jerking him violently from side to side.

“Get up! Wake up! The undead shouldn’t sleep so much!”

The undead…dead…he was dead. The words had been completely jumbled in his head but when the puzzle pieces finally fit, he wasn’t surprised.

“Look! He’s waking up.”

The first thing Luhan saw after opening his eyes were a bunch of kids trying to get a better look at him.

“Where am I?” He pulled himself into a sitting position, still half-blind from sleep.

The ground was shaking in rhythmic pattern and he could tell he was in motion.

“On The Train.” One of the kids piped up. All of them were under the age of twelve and altogether, there were about twenty and counting.

“You know, that doesn’t help much.” Luhan stated, finally wobbling his way to one of the windows.

“How long has it been raining like this?”

“Dunno.” A blue haired girl said. “We’ve all been here since the ‘80s; it’s been pouring since we got here.”

Luhan scratched the back of his head. He somehow felt really accepting at the moment, quite the opposite of his cynical self, kinda like as if he was on drugs.

“Hey. Break it up!” Someone echoed across the empty train. (Sorry, the Train.)

The sudden apparition made the kids scatter towards the door, more out of obedience than out of fear, and they practically ‘melted’ though the walls into one of the other train cars.

“Sorry about that.” A boy not much older than him stepped forward. “My name is Baekhyun.” He added quickly, seeing how Luhan’s eyebrows were forming a quizzical pattern.

He was all clad in black like the guys from before but he was wearing a jacket instead of a hood and his chains were spun around his wrists.

“You a grim reaper too?”

“No. Suho and Kris are the only ones that come onto this Train. They’re the guys you saw earlier.”

“And what’s with the scenery?” Luhan pointed to the windows.

“The rain creates all the fog. You don’t wanna see what’s behind that fog.” Baekhyun let out a toothy smile and pulled at Luhan’s arm. “I’ll give you a tour. Everyone is in the other train cars. This one is the bridge between life and death so it’s mostly avoided.”

“Wait, Baekhyun. One more thing.” Luhan said, pulling back from his grip.

“What?”

“Why am I taking all this so well?

At this Baekhyun put his palms together, prayer style, and closed his eyes.

“Life is itself the largest confusion and now that you’re dead, you’re not confused anymore.” He opened one of his eyes just to test the waters.

Apparently, Luhan was still staring at him like a deer in the headlights.

Rolling his eyes, Baekhyun pulled up Luhan’s sleeve to reveal a badly sewn line across his shoulder.

“This…” He said, pointing to the black line “…this is the Grimm’s touch. It appears on the soul but not on the body. It’s a formality you have to go through to be officially dead. It erases all emotions of your “earthly life” and makes you feel a part of…well…us.”

“Okay. Got it.” Luhan said, his face finally breaking into a soft smile. “I’ll take that tour now.”

“C’mon.” Baekhyun started walking towards the door he had come through.

“Just one last thing.”

“What now?”

“I forgot your name.”

XXX