A known face
Once every week, Kamal boarded the midnight train from Bilaalpur, a lonely ride through shadows to make it in time for his early morning shift. But this night was different. Rain slashed the ground in angry sheets, drumming like restless fingers on the station roof. As Kamal waited, drenched and shivering, he realized something was wrong. His train—usually late by minutes—had not arrived at all. The platform, usually humming with the faint noise of the night, now sat in an eerie silence, broken only by the distant, hollow whistle of… something else. Something that wasn’t supposed to come.
He turned to leave, ready to abandon the journey and call in sick. But then it struck him—tomorrow’s client meeting. It had been fixed for weeks, impossible to miss. The thought gnawed at him like something sharp and cold. Desperate, he rushed to the empty ticket counter, hoping for an alternative.
“Is there any other train tonight?” he asked, his voice trembling under the weight of the storm.
The man behind the glass didn’t even look up. “No trains now,” he murmured, almost as if he was talking to himself. “Not at this hour. Not in this weather.”
Kamal’s heart sank.
He had two choices: return home and carry the weight of failure… or wait, stranded, in the dead of night, chasing the faint hope that something else might come.
And something did. But it wasn’t what he expected.
As he debated his fate, a faint voice drifted through the rain.
“Looking for a ride?”
It was an auto driver, hunched in his seat, face hidden beneath a dripping hood. His grin seemed out of place, stretched a little too wide for comfort.
“There’s another train,” the man said, his voice scratchy, as if he hadn’t spoken in years. “A goods train. It carries mining labour. Comes every night at this hour. Quiet train. No tickets needed. Just climbs through the back. It’ll get you there… fast.”
Kamal hesitated. He had never heard of such a train. The station was empty, and the schedule posted behind him made no mention of it.
“How come I never saw it before?” Kamal asked, the unease blooming in his chest.
The driver just chuckled, eyes glinting oddly in the rain.
“Some trains aren’t for everyone to see.”
