Work Text:
The platform was deserted except for a couple of young men who could not be more out of place. It was strange to see someone with tattoos, piercings, and leather accessories, wander around the financial zone, the everyday habitat of suits and portfolios, in special at hours when only the last office slaves remained in the area –as was her case–, accumulating extra-time –by choice or not.
She noticed them as soon as she entered the platform. Despite their singular appearance, the most striking was their hairstyles: they wore their hair in spikes made with such care that they would have given the impression of having hedgehogs on their heads had it not been for their colors –on wore a green similar to acid candies, the other was dyed blood red.
She watched them with curiosity as she moved to the edge of the platform. She tried to be silent when she moved so as not to get their attention, but her heels betrayed her by resonating at every step. The young men interrupted their conversation, turned in search of the cause of the noise, and smiled when they saw her. After keeping their gaze for a few seconds, she turned her back on them to look at the direction in which the train would enter. She glanced at her watch, estimated how much she should wait, and took a few steps to get away from the young men –albeit she stayed near the exit. She heard a murmur followed by a laugh and then only the occasional whistle of the wind that sneaked through the numerous buildings adjacent to the station.
When the train arrived, the three boarded the same wagon through different accesses. The young men sat in front of an old lady who frowned at them, an attitude they left to pass. The one with the green spikes winked at the expressionless young woman, who remained in the access studying the interior of the vehicle, and motioned for her to approach –he had left enough space for her between him and his friend. In other circumstances, she would have followed their game, harmless flirting didn't hurt anyone, but she was tired, the reason why she preferred to put distance between them.
One side of the end of the wagon that she had closer was unoccupied. She went there and dropped into the corner seat. Across the hallway, a man slept soundly, curled up on the two seats, wrapped in a ragged raincoat of an indecipherable color.
To relax after a hard day, she decided to listen to some music. She pulled her wireless earphones from one of her blazer pockets, put them on, and activated a playlist on her mobile phone. She closed her eyes, laid her head against the backrest, and plunged into the melodies of her favorite band.
She was awakened by persistent patting on the shoulder. Judging by the song that emerged from her earphones, she calculated it would have been ten, maybe fifteen minutes from the moment she closed her eyes, and sleep won her over. She supposed they were the young men, so she gripped her briefcase tightly and, to arm herself with patience, took a deep breath. Then, a foul smell, a mixture of sweat, alcohol, cigar, among other things she did not dare to identify, almost make her puke. She straightened, covering her nose and mouth with one hand.
Even though it caught her off guard, the scene in which she found herself when she opened her eyes didn’t surprise her too much. Standing in front of her, the man in the ragged raincoat looked at her with a tense face. However, instead of a threat, his expression reflected anguish. Wide-eyed and with his lips pursed, he was placed in such a way that he obstructed her view of the other passengers. The man leaned his head a fraction to the window, pointing at it with his eyes. Yet, she ignored his silent instruction and looked out into the hallway, eager to know what was going on behind him.
While in the middle of the corridor the two young men with colorful pointed hair practiced CPR on the old lady, the rest of the passengers were crammed at the opposite end of the wagon and their attitudes varied from disbelief to terror. One of them was filming with a mobile phone.
It was at that moment that she realized something was off. Nobody paid the slightest attention to the drama of life or death in full development at their feet, perfect material to go viral and attract followers on any social network.
They were staring right in their direction.
As she straightened, she noticed her reflection in the window glass from the corner of her eye. Her electric blue hair, which she could only show off when she met her kind and of which she felt very proud of for it was an unequivocal sign of her status, wasn’t doing her any favor at that time.
"Oh!" She whispered, staring at the face of the man in front of her.
"Oh!" She saw him repeat, even though she did not listen to it because the music was still playing in her earphones. Then he blinked a couple of times, his nose flattened and the resulting piece of skin turned silver. After he blinked again, it returned to its previous shape.
She pushed her hand away from her mouth and watched as the neon light reflected on the silky silvery skin of her hand, ending in four long, thin fingers of equal length instead of five human ones, with nails of the same shade of blue of her hair instead of red as less than five minutes ago.
She snorted in frustration, an action she regretted the next instant after taking a breath due to the pestilence coming from the man. The mental fatigue had drained her so much that she had not been able to keep her disguise once asleep.
Her boss was the king of the jerks, but that day he had overcome himself. At the end of the day, she had only thought of arriving at her home, taking a long shower, eating anything she found in the refrigerator, falling like a log in her fluffy bed, and enjoying a night of restful sleep. Unfortunately, her long-awaited plan was a thing of the past.
They had seen her.
This terrible oversight would bring her a lot of trouble. However, it wasn’t time to worry about the consequences, that could wait. She had to keep calm. On the bright side, at least she had an ally.
She followed her unexpected savior’s example and blinked a couple of times. She experienced the customary, unpleasant chill characteristic of the transformation that altered every particle of her body, and then she looked again as she had when she left home that morning. The brother hidden under the disguise of the man with the ragged raincoat nodded in approval.
The train began to slow down. The brother pointed to the nearest access and headed there. She sat up and went to keep him company.
From her new position, she looked towards the end of the wagon where the passengers kept crowding, even though there was no space left. She gave them a smile that didn’t reach her eyes to which a man, no more than thirty years old, reacted with what appeared to be hysterical screams. Then she turned her attention to the young men with colorful pointed hair, who remained focused on their intention to save the old lady –she could not help feeling guilty about the woman's state, she hoped she would recover.
The train stopped, the doors opened, the brother got down and she after him.