The Fortune Cookie

The Fortune Cookie


Rick Harrison was a 20’ish male with blondish hair on his way to Philadelphia from Pittsburg. As he stands waiting to board the train, smoking a cigarette, he reached into his backpack and pulls out a fortune cookie from a bag of them he had just bought. He breaks open the cookie using his thumbs and catches the pieces in each hand. As he eats the cookie, he looks at the fortune and says to himself, “When you look deep into the abyss, the abyss looks deep into you.” Rick was pondering the strange fortune, when the conductor yelled, “All Aboard!” Rick stamped out his cigarette on the platform and boarded the train. He found his seating arrangement and saw the seats were the kind were they faced each other, as most commuter trains have now. As Rick leaned his head back and closed his eyes, he awoke to see a man across from him. The man was dressed in a grey jacket with a light blue tie. He had salt and pepper hair and had a slight smile on his face. “Hello,” the man said in a friendly tone. “Um, hi,” replied Rick. “My name is Edmund.” “I’m Rick.” “It’s a pleasure to meet you Rick.” “Um, thanks. Nice to meet you too.” “So what is your business in Philadelphia? If you don’t mind me asking.” “I’m going to see so friends. Why are you going there?” “Travel.” Rick started to wonder why this man decided to strike up this conversation, as he reached into his bag for another fortune cookie. As he broke it open, Edmund smiled and asked, “So what’s your fortune?” Rick opened the fortune and read aloud, “The nightmare you are to enter, is a journey into madness.” “Well that’s certainly a strange fortune,” replied Edmund. “Yeah this whole bag, has been giving me odd fortunes. I guess I just got a writer who wanted to write cryptic messages.” “Well maybe, you have to read into it more, sometimes you never know what can come true.” “Yeah. I actually collect these things. I don’t know why, I just do.” Edmund gave him a quick smile and said, “I collect odd things too.” “What do you collect?” “I collect souls.” “What?” Rick said in a shocked manner. “I collect souls, human souls.” Rick just looked back at him in awe and said, “Well it’s been nice talking to you but I’m going to get some sleep now.” Rick titled his head back and closed his eyes, trying to drift off in the midst of chatting people & the sound of the train. Rick jumped as he was awoken by a strange scraping sound. The first thing he noticed was that Edmund was gone. Rick rubbed his eyes and wondered how long he’d been sleeping. As he looked around to ask someone what time it was, there was only one other person on the entire car expect for him. As he gets up to look around he glances out the window and realizes it’s dusk, maybe everyone went to get something to eat or go to the bar, he thought to himself. Rick looked over at the person again, she was several rows ahead of him and she was facing away from Rick. He decided to go up and ask her if she had the time. As Rick made his way up the aisle he noticed something spilled next to the women, something red. Rick tapped her on the shoulder and she slowly turned her head. Her skin was pale white and her eyes were the color of darkness. Rick jumped back and noticed that both of her wrists were slit, it was her blood that was spilled on the floor. The women let out an ear piercing scream and Rick awoke in his seat on the train. The first thing he noticed was that Edmund was gone. As Rick tried to pull himself together, he realized he was in a full body sweat He proceeded to try and regain control of himself and go to the bathroom to splash some water on his face. As he got up, he noticed that he had something on his hands, it was red, it was blood. Rick was horrified and wondered what could be going on. Rick quickly hurried to the bathroom and washed off his hands and poured water on his face. Rick leaned over the faucet with his arms braced on the sides and his head down, his mind was racing. Rick thought, what is going on? As he looked up, he saw Edmund standing behind him. Rick quickly turned around and there was nothing. Rick goes fast back to his seat and wonders what the heck is going on. How is this Possible? Is this a joke? Many thoughts raced through his head. As he sat wondering, the lights went out, leaving the entire train in almost complete darkness. The only light was from the outside pouring in through the windows. Rick yelled out, “Hello! What’s going on?!” There was no human response, only the sound of the train moving. As Rick catches quick glances of the car semi illuminated from outside lights, he notices that the car has changed. It used to be a decorative pattern on the sides, now it was plain and lifeless. Rick gets up and moves to the next car, as he does he notices the next car looks like is was beautifully furnished once but now, it was a mess with charred remains and destroyed furniture, the carpet was now stained was some dark liquid. As Rick entered he noticed Edmund, sitting in front of him with his back towards him, Edmund was sitting in what looked like an office chair. Rick called out his name, but he got no response. “Edmund, what is going on?!” still no response. Rick slowly crept up to Edmund and grabbed his shoulder and begin to turn his body around. Edmund began to look up at Rick, when Rick jumped back in utter horror. Edmund’s eyes has been gouged out by the looks of it. Rick was paralyzed with fear and was shaking immensely. Edmund grabbed Rick’s neck and Rick could feel the life escaping from him, Rick slide into darkness. He awoke strapped to a bed in what appeared to be a hospital. Rick looked around the room he was now in, and it was all white. A nurse entered, “Oh, nice to see your awake now.” “Where I’m I?” “In North-View hospital.” “How do I get here?” “They brought you here. You wouldn’t stop screaming and they called the authorities.” Rick just stared at the ceiling, thinking that he just had the worse nightmare ever. And as he laid his head on the pillow, the nurse came over and said to Rick, “You’ll be ok now”, and as she looked over at him, Rick was paralyzed with fear again as the Nurse had no eyes, apparently gouged out. As Rick screamed, the Nurse left the room and Rick soon realized as he wondered what’s going on, and what’s real and what’s not… the only truth he knew was the fortune.