This dream starts on a platform at Ashfield station. I am standing there with C, her fiance and Marek. Though there are several sparse light poles, it is almost completely dark and I can barely make out their faces.
All around us, trains are passing by. We are discussing where to go to get the train to the city. I suggest that we should go to platform 1... but what platform are we on now? platform 5? we are puzzled as there are very few visual clues.
Steadily, the crowd grows around us. None of the trains seem to stop, but the number of people on the platform is increasing exponentially. Soon Marek and I become separated from the other two, who are swallowed up without a noise by the crowd.
For the number of people there are, it is eerily quiet. We are still walking up the length of the platform when we see some steps leading up to an overbridge. Let's go up there and see if we can see a noticeboard. I say to Marek.
We start up the stairs, but then a rush of people come down the steps and Marek is lost. I am now alone and the stairs seem to never end. They weave left and right, but there is nowhere even to stop and have a rest as there are no landings to separate the flights. I feel out of breath and my legs are burning, but the swell of people behind me push me forward.
I take out my phone and call Marek. The phone goes to voicemail which is fragmented, as if someone tore up the recorded message and scattered them in the sky: please... tone... message.. not... It goes on and I hang up. I try calling C but the phone is silent. Suddenly I feel very afraid, my hands and feet cool from perspiration.
Unceremoniously and without warning. the stairs end and I am at the top. I struggle to remember, is this really Ashfield station? It is so dark I cannot see anything on the noticeboards. I decide to go to where I think platform 1 is, and as I go down the steps, weeds grow into them and intrude upon my descent. I trip several times, not being able to see where they are.
I look up and the moon is shining bright. It casts its rays over an area just to my right, revealing a high ledge that looks like a brick wall. I try to climb up the side of the stairs to get to that ledge, convinced that there I will find some answers. It is a rather difficult climb, but eventually I get there and sit down on the cool bricks, utterly exhausted.
It's a great vantage point from which I can see all 5 platforms of Ashfield station. The trains come and go in all sorts of random directions with no pattern to them.
No wonder we couldn't find the train to the city. I think to myself.
Then I see them, dark shadows leaping from the tops of trains. All of a sudden, the truth is crystal clear - to get onto the right train, one must get on top of the train and jump from train to train - these trains cannot be boarded in a normal way. I feel overwhelmed with the idea of doing this though, and feel rather heavy in my heart.
Then I see Marek's shadow on top of a train. Tall and thin, it's definitely him. I stand up and begin to shout to him, but before the words leave my mouth, I see him leap into the air, trying to make it onto the top of the next train. In impossibly slow motion, I see his body falling, having missed the train altogether. Before he hits the ground, I see his body propelled forward in an extraordinary fashion. With a truly sickening feeling in my stomach, I realise that another train has hit him.
My heart feels like it will burst out of my chest. Then I wake up.
All around us, trains are passing by. We are discussing where to go to get the train to the city. I suggest that we should go to platform 1... but what platform are we on now? platform 5? we are puzzled as there are very few visual clues.
Steadily, the crowd grows around us. None of the trains seem to stop, but the number of people on the platform is increasing exponentially. Soon Marek and I become separated from the other two, who are swallowed up without a noise by the crowd.
For the number of people there are, it is eerily quiet. We are still walking up the length of the platform when we see some steps leading up to an overbridge. Let's go up there and see if we can see a noticeboard. I say to Marek.
We start up the stairs, but then a rush of people come down the steps and Marek is lost. I am now alone and the stairs seem to never end. They weave left and right, but there is nowhere even to stop and have a rest as there are no landings to separate the flights. I feel out of breath and my legs are burning, but the swell of people behind me push me forward.
I take out my phone and call Marek. The phone goes to voicemail which is fragmented, as if someone tore up the recorded message and scattered them in the sky: please... tone... message.. not... It goes on and I hang up. I try calling C but the phone is silent. Suddenly I feel very afraid, my hands and feet cool from perspiration.
Unceremoniously and without warning. the stairs end and I am at the top. I struggle to remember, is this really Ashfield station? It is so dark I cannot see anything on the noticeboards. I decide to go to where I think platform 1 is, and as I go down the steps, weeds grow into them and intrude upon my descent. I trip several times, not being able to see where they are.
I look up and the moon is shining bright. It casts its rays over an area just to my right, revealing a high ledge that looks like a brick wall. I try to climb up the side of the stairs to get to that ledge, convinced that there I will find some answers. It is a rather difficult climb, but eventually I get there and sit down on the cool bricks, utterly exhausted.
It's a great vantage point from which I can see all 5 platforms of Ashfield station. The trains come and go in all sorts of random directions with no pattern to them.
No wonder we couldn't find the train to the city. I think to myself.
Then I see them, dark shadows leaping from the tops of trains. All of a sudden, the truth is crystal clear - to get onto the right train, one must get on top of the train and jump from train to train - these trains cannot be boarded in a normal way. I feel overwhelmed with the idea of doing this though, and feel rather heavy in my heart.
Then I see Marek's shadow on top of a train. Tall and thin, it's definitely him. I stand up and begin to shout to him, but before the words leave my mouth, I see him leap into the air, trying to make it onto the top of the next train. In impossibly slow motion, I see his body falling, having missed the train altogether. Before he hits the ground, I see his body propelled forward in an extraordinary fashion. With a truly sickening feeling in my stomach, I realise that another train has hit him.
My heart feels like it will burst out of my chest. Then I wake up.
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