Acela Express
The electric spark of wheel on rail scattered stars into the twilight settling beyond the glass. Her eyes, foggy with exhaustion, stared bleakly out at the steady stream of black forest that pulsed beyond. She let them drift shut, forehead rolling against the cool glass with the rhythmic rocking.
It was in the space between the sparks that you could see it if you wanted. The vague, fuzzy outline, the static imprint across from her, crouching on the seat across, slitted eyes watching, tongue darting, licking the air.
Across the aisle, the small boy's cornflower blue eyes widened, his fingers tangling in his mother's wool coat. The thing dripped. A steady plop, plop, plop hidden in the folds of the clacking train, disguised in the disco carpeting. But he could see it. Could see the bunched shoulders trapped beneath skin-too-tight, folding upon itself, screaming for release, the slender claws dragging the backwards elbows down, down almost brushing the carpet, reaching for her toes, caressing the patent leather. He frantically pulled on his mother's hand, and it shifted. Lightning fast it's head whipped round,staring right at him, through him, tasting something inside him, tongue running along the shape of his heart. Its smile split its face, flopping the hideous, bulbous head back in silent laughter, cavernous torso shaking. It lifted one long arm, the slender claw yellowed and streaked, reaching, reaching, an inch from his nose until boop! The pinprick moment of an injection, the stabbing sensation of a needle, then gone. His eyes squinched shut, his lungs heaving in air, but nothing more. Eyes peeling open one at a time he looked. The creature's head cocked to one side, the claw still hovering an inch from his face, unmoving against the rocking of the train until it whipped to the sleeping form, slicing through her heart between beats. She spasmed, eyes flying wide, horror as she took in the smiling creature, then shut again as he body slumped back against the seat, her last tiny sigh disappearing between the screech and clack of wheels.