Trapped on a train and can’t get off (Part 1)

I don’t understand what’s happening and I can’t quite explain it. I was supposed to get off about twenty stops ago but I can’t get off. It’s not that the train isn’t stopping. It is. Looking out the window, I see people getting off. And new people keep coming into my car looking for a seat. But every time I try to get off the train, it’s like I’m walking back on. And by the time I realize I’m stepping onto the train again, it’s on the move.

A couple stops back, I even got desperate enough to pull the emergency brake. The train screeched to a halt and everyone looked around confused, with a couple angry glances in my direction. I ran to the door, and by the time I reached it, the train was moving full speed, as if it had never stopped to begin with. And when I turned back, no one was looking my way, like I hadn’t done anything.

Even the conductor seems to be part of this…whatever is happening. He’s come by at least ten times now, each time punching my ticket and placing it in the ticket holder on the back of my seat. And each time he picks it up, it’s fully intact, like it was never punched.

I know how this sounds. Probably going to get comments about me being on drugs or crazy or something. I don’t blame you. I started to get worried about that myself after the first couple stops. But then I started paying attention. I watched the same woman leave using the door in front of me, watched out the window as she sprinted across the platform onto another train. And sure enough a few seconds after we started moving, the same woman walked past me, coming from the door behind me. The first two times I thought maybe I was imagining things. The third time, as she walked by, I swiped my Sharpie across the side of her purse. And now the same woman with the same Sharpie mark on her purse has left and come back five times.

My phone’s also acting weird. I tried calling my wife. She answers, and it sounds like she’s talking to me, but not to what I’m saying. It’s like she’s talking to a me who isn’t there. I tried with two friends and the same thing happened. I tried texting too and it was the same. They responded, but it seemed like non-sequiturs, but still familiar. It seemed like they were responding to things I would have said, but not what I was actually saying. It’s like…there’s the me who’s stuck on this train and a me who made it off. I guess part of posting this is me hoping it will be different.

I don’t know what I’m going to do if it keeps up like this. I’m not usually claustrophobic but I’m starting to feel the walls of this car closing in. I’m becoming increasingly aware that I’m breathing the same stale air over and over again. I have no food, and my water bottle’s almost empty. At 39 weeks, my wife could go into labor any second.

I have to get off this train.