The Ending Reader Chapter 6: Chapter 5 :Terminus

Read chapter 6 of The Ending Reader by Arthur04 on NovelPedia.

The train stopped. Not smoothly. Violently. Metal screamed beneath the cabin while the lights overhead burst one after another in showers of sparks. Vael grabbed the nearest pole to steady himself as the entire train shuddered like a dying animal. Then silence fell. Outside the windows, the station remained perfectly still. Hundreds of masked corpses stood beneath flickering white lights across the flooded platform, motionless beneath drifting black rain. Their porcelain masks reflected the train windows in endless rows of smiling faces. Watching. Waiting. The overhead speaker crackled softly. "Final stop." "Passengers may now disembark." The train doors hissed open. Nobody moved. Vael looked toward the silver-haired woman. She had gone completely still. Not fear. Something deeper. Recognition. Like a survivor returning to the site of an old massacre. "…You've been here before," Vael said quietly. A long silence followed. Then "Yes." The answer barely reached above a whisper. The Conductor stepped aside beside the open doors, bowing slightly as though welcoming them onto the platform. Vael stared at it. "You know," he muttered, "I'm starting to hate polite monsters." The thing's carved smile widened slightly. The silver-haired woman suddenly grabbed his wrist again. This time harder. "When we leave this train," she said quietly, "stay close to me." Vael glanced at her hand around his wrist. Cold. Trembling slightly. "…That serious?" Her eyes remained fixed on the station outside. "This is where the first timeline ended." The words settled heavily in the cabin. Before Vael could ask what that meant, one of the masked corpses outside moved. Its head turned sharply toward the train. Then another followed. Then all of them. Hundreds of porcelain masks tilted simultaneously. The overhead lights dimmed. A low sound echoed across the station. Not speaking. Breathing. Thousands of people inhaling together. The silver-haired woman stepped off the train first. Black water rippled around her boots. Vael hesitated only briefly before following. The moment his foot touched the platform pain stabbed behind his eyes. A violent ringing filled his ears. Then whispers flooded the station. "He returned." "The Reader came back." "Why is he alive?" "Why does the ending continue?" Vael pressed a hand against his temple. The masked corpses slowly parted around them, forming a path deeper into the station. None approached. None attacked. They simply watched. The silver-haired woman walked forward without hesitation. Vael followed close behind. The station stretched impossibly far beneath flickering white lights and rusted signs. Old luggage sat abandoned beside broken benches while black rain fell endlessly through cracks in the ceiling above. Everything looked ancient. Forgotten. Like the station itself had existed longer than the city above it. Vael noticed something carved repeatedly into the walls. A symbol. An eye surrounded by fractured circles. Every few meters, the same words appeared beneath it: THE END MUST BE READ His headache worsened. Fragments of memory flashed again. A child tracing that same symbol onto paper. A room filled with books. Someone saying: "Stories cannot die until someone witnesses their ending." Vael stopped walking abruptly. The silver-haired woman noticed immediately. "What is it?" "I've seen this place before." Her expression changed instantly. "…That shouldn't be possible." "Yeah, I'm getting really tired of hearing that sentence." One of the masked corpses suddenly stepped closer. Closer than the others. Unlike the rest, its porcelain mask was cracked down the middle. Black fluid leaked slowly from beneath it. The corpse raised one trembling hand toward Vael. Then spoke in a dry, broken voice. "You promised." Vael froze. The voice felt familiar. Painfully familiar. "…Who are you?" The corpse tilted its head slowly. "You said you would give us a better ending." The station lights flickered violently. The silver-haire