THE 14TH PASSENGER

The last train departs at 11:47 PM. Dr. Nora Vance doesn’t remember collapsing on the platform. She doesn’t remember her heart stopping for 47 seconds. She only remembers waking up on the train, cold and confused, with a man in the seat across from her who has been dead for fifteen years.

He wears her mentor’s face. His eyes are black. He calls himself the Conductor.

“You shouldn’t be here,” he tells her. “This train is for the dead.”

She looks around. The other passengers are motionless. Their eyes are closed. Their chests are still.

“The 13 who came before you are still on this train,” the Conductor says. “You are the 14th.”

“Can I leave?”

He smiles. It is not a kind smile.

“Only if you find them. Only if you learn their names. Only if you set them free.”

The doors lock. The lights go out. And the train rolls into darkness.

Nora has seven nights. Thirteen doors. One chance to escape.

But something else is on the train with her.

Something hungry.

Something that has been waiting for her since the day her mother vanished.