Human Decoy
When I was about 19, I was coming back from seeing my grandparent from the hospital and had to take the last underground train back home. I arrived at the station which was completely quiet, but I assumed it was something normal, as it was very, very late. I don’t remember seeing anyone at all. So, I pay for the ticket, arrive at the departure platform, which was also silent, and wait.
And then I feel something off in the ambiance. Something just felt wrong, and even if it was summer, the ambiance was weirdly cold. So, I take a seat and start looking around because my phone was almost dead and didn’t have anything better to do. And then I see this girl. You know, the typical cliché lady, in a ragged white dress, with long and black hair, looking at me from the tunnel entrance.
I look around and think that maybe she is a worker, and I just need to change my glasses because a girl so young can’t possibly be alone at that hour. Still no one on the platform with me. I look at the girl again. She smiles and waves her hand as if she is calling me. Something clicks inside me. I blink several times, with a really bad gut feeling.
At the same time, I was mesmerized and unable to look away from her. I didn’t feel horror, just the feeling that I was seeing something I shouldn’t. I blink again, and then the image gets more vivid, and I start seeing more details of her face—and I’m suddenly struck with terror. Her eyes are empty. Not just black, pure empty. Her smile was off, her teeth were like white needles attached to the skull.
And worst of all, she kept waving to me. 15 minutes have passed since I came. By now the train has come but I haven’t heard anything. The worst part is yet to come, though. The train enters the station as though it was breaking the black mist that was floating behind the girl, and I didn’t even see the front lights until it had gone through her. I am still a bit confused.
Apparently already standing, I enter the train and leave her sight. Of course, after a few seconds, the doors close, and suddenly all the chill and the cold disappear. The train starts moving again and then I look one last time to the girl’s position, and that is when I make a horrifying realization. She was just an empty shell—a decoy.
A huge figure—black and horrific solid mist, or some kind of semisolid black liquid like oil—pulls the girl in the air. The ‘girl’ moves in front of my window like a rug, horrifying and amazing me in equal parts. The creature, or whatever that was, was angry. I was absolutely sure of that. And I was absolutely sure It was afraid of the light, as it crawled to the side as soon as the illuminated windows touched its figure.
I have spoken with many people about this, and I’m 200% sure I wasn’t asleep. There was something in there, something that expected me to come closer and actually made me do it with that ‘human decoy’ in front of him, waiting in the shadows. I still marvel at it, and it hasn’t been my first paranormal phenomenon but it’s probably the one I have felt least safe, by far.
What would have happened if the train had just arrived a bit late…? It still gives me chills.