“We’re moving,” I say, stating the obvious in case it helps. “Look out the window.”
Tabby
The world is starting to slide by outside the window. It makes me feel slightly sick, if I am to be honest. The few buildings of Last Stop slip away, and then the outdoors starts to get very fast in a way my brain has never dealt with before.
I grab for Thorn in an effort to steady myself, lie back, and close my eyes. But there’s no real escaping the movement. I can still feel it, a pressure pushing me backwards.
“I don’t like this sorcery,” I say.
“It’s okay. It’s weird to get used to at first,” he says. “It might be easier to deal with if we go outside and get some air on your face.”
“Go outside? Go outside where?”
“There’re little balconies between carriages, and at the end of the train.”
I find myself quite unable to move from the bed. Mostly because I am clinging to it with an absolute death grip.
“I can’t.”
“It’s okay,” he says soothingly. “I’m right here with you, and you’re going to be okay. Just let yourself get used to it.”
I don’t know how anybody gets used to being in the belly of a charging beast. It’s the most unnatural thing I have ever experienced in all my days. This should be illegal.
I grip the walls on my way past, feeling very unsteady as the train rocks back and forth, side to side. I feel a sort of low grade queasy terror that is not like proper fear. It’s some other kind of thing, a fear of unfamiliar things. I have lived my whole life with only familiar things. Easy evils.
The door to the carriage opens at the far end, and Krall walks in.
“What’s wrong with her?” Krall looks immediately concerned.
“She’s getting her sea legs,” Thorn explains.
“The train is moving,” I say, barely able to get the words out.
Thorn opens the door at the end of the carriage. Wind rushes in, the tracks rush away. I collapse to the floor and scream. It’s not my proudest moment.
Thorn shuts the door again.
“I hate it here!”
“It’s okay,” Thorn says, going to a knee next to me. “I know it looks weird. Why don’t we just sit here for a while and relax?”
“Why don’t we get off this horrific beast? Nothing good can come from it.”
“You’ll get used to it,” Thorn says. “In a few hours you won’t even notice the movement.”
He is speaking so soothingly, but I don’t believe a goddamn word he says. There’s no number of hours that will ever make beingdigested by a metal beast feel normal or good. I want to feel solid ground again.
I feel tears pricking at my eyes. I am so afraid and there is no way out or off. I can’t fight this. I can’t flee this. All I can do is freeze, and that feels the most hopeless of all the options.
“Come here, baby,” Thorn murmurs, pulling me into his arms. He snugs down on the floor with me, holding me tight while I sob and hate everything. The train’s rocking is oddly soothing, but I also hate it because it proves we are still moving.
“What’s wrong?” Skor comes bursting into the hall with a growling fury. “Who did this? Who am I killing?”
“She doesn’t like being on a train,” Krall says.
“Oh,” Skor replies, seeming a little deflated because there’s nobody to fight. “Is she sick or something?”
“She’s scared,” Thorn says.
