Manoj Regmi
Somebody woke me up with a gentle nudge over my shoulder. I had to open my eyes, though reluctantly. There was this middle aged man in his uniform, squatting beside me. My eyes were burning like hell. But as soon as I realized myself sleeping on the floor, I abruptly stood up. That was shocking.
“Hey mate, you alright? You are not allowed to sleep here.”—The officer inquired and warned me at the same time.
“I am sorry, but I have no idea how I got here.”—I said standing on my sore feet.
“What do you mean you have no idea? Were you drunk or something?”—He looked at me suspiciously.
“No, Sir! I was not. I never do, to be honest.”
“Then how come you are sleeping on the floor of a station at this hour of the day?”—he said pointing towards his wrist watch.
“What is the time, Officer?”—I was just curious, so asked it.
“It’s Seven O’clock in the morning.”—he stressed on the last word.
“What?! Did I spend the whole night here on the station floor?”
“How would I know? Maybe! Maybe not! I just saw you here. I had been here the whole night. I can guarantee you that you weren’t here when I came patrolling at around 5 O’clock.”
“Oh, Man! What is happening with me?”
“Are you okay? Where do you live here? You look awful. Why don’t you go home and have some sleep? Looks like you did not have any sleep last night.”
“I think I didn’t.”, after a pause I added, “Officer, I have something very important to tell you about the station if you have time.”
“Of Course! Go for it! I am here!”
“Sorry! It’s a long story. I can’t just tell you.”
“Is it? Not a problem. I have nearly finished my shift. I will sign-off and see you in a minute. Wait for me here.”—saying this he left towards his office.
He returned after 10 minutes and said— “Let’s go out and talk over coffee, shall we?”
“Sure!”—I said and followed him.
He took me to a nearby café. He ordered a Cappuccino for himself and a Latte for me.
“So tell me, what is it?”—he said. He looked so serious as if he was expecting something in particular.
I began—
“I am new here. It has just been two months since I landed in Australia. I barely know this place, let alone this station.
Yesterday, I went for a work trial. The trial was supposed to finish within few hours as I was informed. But it took a bit longer as the Boss took me to another place after we had finished the first one. He took me to the other site saying that he really liked my work. The second one finished at around 1:00am.
By then, I was bone-tired and hungry, too. The Boss had offered me some noodles during the lunch break, but I could not eat a morsel as it tasted so bad. The Boss, who seemed bit bossy and strict to me throughout the day, showed me some mercy after the work had been over. He offered to drop me at the Central Station. He knew that it was difficult to get a bus at the late hour of the night. So, he dropped me at the station. When he dropped me there, it was 1:20 am, to be precise. He dropped me there and left.
I then checked the schedule for the train on my phone. There was a train at 1:26 am. To get that one, I had to run to the platform number 25. I just had 5 minutes. I was bone-tired, still I mustered some energy and ran towards the platform. I quickly read the display, scanning my Opal card in the meantime and ran towards the platform. There was a flickering light at the mouth of the stairs to the platform. I did not care. I minded my own business. But, as soon as I reached down the platform, I heard a loud thudding sound behind me. The sound was like that of a slamming door. Ignoring everything, I sat on the bench waiting for the train. The train came and halted exactly at 1:26. The train was not the new one, but that did not matter to me if it was taking me to the station nearby where I lived. I got in the train. The train moved from there.
I was so exhausted that I could not stop myself from sleeping in. Soon I dozed off.
I had no idea how long I had slept in for, but when I woke up, the train had already stopped at the station. The doors were all open. I quickly got out of it and started scanning the surrounding before walking towards the stairs.
“What the heck! I had never been anywhere! This train took me nowhere!”— I could not believe my eyes. I was standing at the same station where I was some 20 minutes ago. I checked my phone, it still was 1:26am.
“Are you serious? How is this possible?”- I asked myself.
I again sat in the train. It moved again and stopped. I got out—this time too— at the same platform. All this just sent shivers down my spine. After few attempts, I abandoned the idea of getting into the train again, rather I tried finding a way out of the platform.
Every time I checked my phone, it displayed 1:26 am. That was strange. There was no reception, so I could not make a phone call. I roamed around the station in search of a way out. But my all efforts went in vain. Everything I did was just burning the remaining calories from my body. I shouted. I cried. I did everything that a man does in such hopeless situations.
There were these flickering lights everywhere. There were mice and roaches everywhere. The train was still there, empty and motionless. Being completely tired and clueless, I sat on a dusty bench, thinking all the possible ways to get out from there, or at least get help from someone.
Seeing no option, I thought of calling out for help.
“Help! Help me, please! Somebody help! I am lost! I want to get out of this place! Can anyone hear me?”—I cried my heart out.
“Who the hell is screaming at this time of the night? Would you please shut up and let me get some sleep?”—an annoyed old man with white beard swore at me from the corner.
I disregarded his anger. You know what, I was so relieved to see someone at this alien place, and after all that had happened to me that night. I went near him and asked him if he could help me out.
He was so furious that he said—“Why the hell did you come here if you had not known anything about the place in the first place? There were these kids who did not let me sleep a while ago and now you!”
“I am lost. Please help me to get out of this place, will you? I will be more than grateful to you.”—I pleaded, scanning around for the children that he had just mentioned.
“Look there!”—He pointed at something behind me, and added—”Can’t you see the exit door there?”
To my surprise, there was one. There was not any when I was looking for one a while ago. “How come it appeared there just like that?”—I asked myself.
I went to the door. Turned back just to thank him. Oh my god! He was standing right behind me. I was startled to see him so close.
“Thanks, mate! Much appreciated!”—I said as I was exiting the door. He slammed shut the door. I could still hear him saying “Idiot!” from outside of the door.
As soon as I came out of that weird place, I could feel the cool breeze of the ocean. I could even hear the splash created by the ripples of water. I was wondering where I was then. I looked around and saw the Harbor Bridge in front. To my surprise, I was standing at Circular Quay, two stations away from where my boss dropped me a while ago. While I was trying to figure out what had been happening to me, my phone rang. There were 26 messages from my wife. And I checked the time, the clock on the phone displayed 4:26am. I nearly fainted when I realized it was 4:26 in the morning. I was totally dumbfounded with what was happening to me. So, I just called my wife. She was so worried that she started crying. That made me cry too, but I controlled. I did so because I did not want her to worry more. She asked me where I was the whole night. I just told her that I was safe and would tell her everything once I got home.
I hung up and looked up at the bridge. There was a train waiting at the Circular Quay station. I checked if I missed that, I would have to wait for another 26 minutes to get another one. So, I ran towards the station and took the one waiting at the station.
I knew I again had to change the train from Central to Kogarah, where I live. I was a bit relieved when I got into the train.
After a while, the train stopped at the station. When I alighted from the train, I realized that the train had brought me to the same station. Same platform. I thought I had got rid of that scary place, but NO! I was standing at the same platform—Platform no.26. I then realized this vicious circle was not going to leave me alone.
The man who showed me the exit was not there anymore. I looked for him everywhere, but couldn’t see any sign of him. I had tried everything there. So, instead of doing anything, I decided to sit on the dusty bench where he was sleeping. I was so depressed and desperately missing my bed.
I had no idea how many hours had gone by. Everything remained the same in that dungeon. The train number 26 always stopped at the platform number 26 always at 1:26. Everything stuck at 1:26 there.
Maybe, after a few hours, someone came in screaming for help. He eventually came to me and asked for help. I showed him the door as the old man did to me. He went out from there and came back after some time exactly as I did.
The train number 26 brought him at the Platform number 26 exactly at 1:26am. As soon as I heard the train screeching, I felt a strong jolt from somewhere. And I blacked out. And you know rest of the story, don’t you?”
“I guess, I do. And I must tell you that you aren’t the first one to experience this.”
“I know. I know that because there was an old man before I reached there, and there came another boy before I blacked out.”
“Oh, I see! But I didn’t mean that. I wanted to tell you something. To be more precise, you are the 26th person to experience this. I don’t know how many more to come.”—he sighed and said looking at the door behind me. He even took out a piece of paper from his pocket and showed me the list of the people who had had the similar experiences before me. He was continuously looking at something behind me.
I followed his gaze. There was a locked door with a sign on it. It looked like it has never been opened. The sign on the door reads— “Platform No. 26. RESTRICTED AREA. KEEP DOOR CLOSED AT ALL TIMES.”
[Manoj Regmi (1987) has passion for writing short stories, both in Nepali and English. He is originally from Pokhara, currently living in Canberra, Australia. He completed his masters’ degree in English from Tribhuvan University in 2012. A few of his stories and book reviews have been published in some of the online portals of Nepal.]