The Engineer Said Eight Words That Put Me on the Tracks

i watch her train race toward a missing bridge. The only working switch stands outside the cab

The brakes are gone

The bridge ahead is missing

The safe tunnel is one switch away,but its lever is outside

She looks up

“I wish someone out there could help me”

You are standing outside the signal box. The switch lever is in your hands—cold iron, worn smooth by other fingers,

other choices.

Behind you, the rails sing. The train is close.

Artan—can you reach it from there?

Her voice comes through the cab window above you, tight with something that might be hope or might be the last thing

before despair. The tunnel mouth is dark behind the switch housing. One way leads through. The other way leads nowhere.

Your hand closes around the lever.

The metal is real. The choice is real. Everything that comes after this moment will know what you decided here.

You look up at Christine one last time.

Do it.

You pull.

The switch moves under your hand with a

sound like bone breaking. Metal screams

against metal as the tracks shift beneath

switch pulled

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