At this hour, the trains were packed with people squishing against each other; there was barely enough room for her to breathe. For safety precautions, she stayed behind the platform line where people normally stood to sneak glances at the tunnel. Whenever she spotted someone leaning forward and bending their bodies to squint at the dark side of the tunnel, she would have her guards up - ready to pull the person back in case they fall.
The humid air, rusted ceilings, and heavy perfume fragrance blended together with the already poor air circulated station - making it unbearable. A loud whirlwind strength fan blew warm air from above. Black garbage cans filled with filth and flies stood at sections of the station, waiting for more trash to be mixed in. Brown wooden benches carrying eight awaiting passengers sat beside the garbage cans. Primrose covered her face with a face mask as she walked to an area with enough space to let her wait for the train. Looking up to the side, she saw the notice that flashed in numerical order for the next train's arrival: 4 minutes.
As always, these long minutes of waiting were second to most painful when compared to squeezing into the incoming train.
While Primrose scrolled through the app she's been obsessively checking for novel updates, she noticed the lady behind her wasn't acting in her best behavior. Though she was carrying her book bag, she felt the zippers being pulled slowly opened. Frowning, Primrose took off her bag and hugged it against her chest. She gave the lady a suspicious glare while making sure her wallet and other valuables were still inside her bag.
Shaken by Primrose's stare, the lady turned around and picked up her nonexistent phone call. Poking her fingertips into one ear, the lady acted as if she couldn't hear what the person was saying and walked away.
Primrose played along and didn't make a fuss about the attempted robbery - or so that was what she made the lady believe. In the split seconds of making eye contact, Primrose remembered the lady's portrait and made a quick sketch of her distinctive features on her sketch pad. She also wrote down what the lady was wearing and sent it to the emergency app for subway station crime reports.
Due to the high crime rates, many citizens installed the app. Within a minute, her post was verified as someone testified the lady for being related to previous robbery incidents
Soon, people spotted the lady and prevented her from leaving the station. Officers also arrived quickly to separate her from the crowd. Since the officers patrolled around the area, it took them a few minutes to take the suspected criminal away.
Seeing that many people stood up to stop the lady and someone's belonging was dropped from her bag, Primrose thought that it wasn't necessary for her to report her. With the evidence in their hands, it was already enough to charge the lady for theft.
Fortunately, the trains were delayed by several minutes today. If not, the lady could've escaped into one of the train's carts, leading to extra delay.
Soon, lights flashed and two rats could be heard squeaking while running away. In the middle of the dark tunnel, two circular lights emitted brightness, warning passengers of an incoming train.
At this hour, the conductors knew how packed the subway stations would be; therefore, the conductors have a habit of honking sometimes to alert people.
The wheels of the train rumbled on the tracks. As the train braked slowly, the collision between metals sharply pierced a screeching noise into onboarding passengers' ears.
Staring at the blurred blobs that reflected from the metallic silver train, Primrose shook her head and stepped aside to wait for everyone to enter first. Since she had to get off at the next stop, she didn't want to have a war with people in the train carts. Despite the empty space in the center of the carts, people seemed to enjoy the sandwiching game by the doors - nobody stayed in the center.
Until the conductor spotted the openings in the center and made the announcements, passengers behaved as if that space didn't exist in their eyes. After some harsh shoves and lousy screams, everyone fit in one cart, and Primrose also took the spot by the door. Once the door closed properly, the train started running again. In this tightly packed space, armpit odors, heavy perfumes, drenched stinky socks, and weed scents suffocated the cramped space. The windows were designed to be kept closed at all times.
During these moments, Primrose always tried holding her breath or breathing small breaths so she won't suck in the disgusting smells. Thankfully, her stop was next and it takes five minutes to reach the next stop.
As if it wasn't bad enough, the woman standing next to her kept flipping her hair-sprayed hair, attacking Primrose with the residues from the spray. Feeling uncomfortable by her behavior, Primrose brushed her arm and cleared her throat as a warning to the woman. Perhaps the woman understood the warning Primrose gave her, she nodded awkwardly and stopped combing her hair.
In approximately five minutes, the doors to the train opened once again after stopping at the station. The first thing Primrose did when she rushed out of the train was rush upstairs and breathe large breaths of fresh air.
From the station, she had to walk a little over fifteen minutes to get home. With her hair dropping on either side of her face and her palms on her knees, she took loud gasps of breaths until her breathing steadied. Once in a while, she would blow her lips outwards because her hair would get blown into her mouth.
"Phew. I thought I was going to die on the train today!" She exclaimed, walking further down the street while wearing her book bag properly.
Although it was considered early, stores were already closed for the night. Some stores had double gates and locks to prevent thieves from breaking in. Cars were parked and once in a while a few cars would pass by. Only the night sky with sprinkle-like stars, a full moon, and streetlights accompanied her home.
The neighborhood was ranked one of the safest, but because of its location being close to a high crime area, people were still extra careful when locking their stores.
Lifting her chin, Primrose's smile spread. Her hand reached for the moon as if she wanted to catch it. "Hi! It's me again. Looks like you'll watch over me until I get home again. Hehe."
In her eyes, the moon glowed brighter for a split second as if it was responding to her statement. She chuckled, shaking her head in the process. "Silly me, how could a moon know what I'm saying?"
In the meantime, Axle had a plastic bag in his hand with his head stuffed in it. Sounds of his lunch rushing up his throat could be heard as the content landed in the plastic bag - filling it up.
Eros, the culprit who caused this mess sat with his legs crossed and hands on his GameBoy buttons. His eyes reflected flashes of the car racing game he was playing. As he finished winning another round of the game, he gave Axle a glance and showed him the results.
"See! My driving is the best. You must've had something wrong for lunch. Some human foods aren't meant to be eaten by crows. Are you sure the things you ate were edible to begin with? Remember that time you took Medusa's candy that she used to feed her snakes? She warned you, but someone didn't listen and ate it anyway. At the end? You had the head of a crow and the body of a snake for a whole week."
"Yeah... master. It's a great question to ask, but it should be the other way around. How the heck did you go 150 mph on a highway that clearly said 65 mph and still be fine without the urge to vomit? Holding back is bad for your health. I won't laugh at you if you threw up too. And that time was Medusa's fault! Those candies were for snake nourishment and to help renew their skin. I told you I just wanted clear skin!" Axle refused to admit his fault in the previous incident. However, he had to admit that being a snake gave him perks in escaping much faster from Eros' chambers when necessary.
"Also, the random symbols you saw on the GPS screen wasn't showing enemies surrounding us. You ended up going faster and driving in the opposite directions of what the map showed! Finally, we are closer to the apartment building I prepared. Geez, half my crow's life is taken from this one car ride." He complained in a mumbling voice, afraid to speak up his thoughts.
He wasn't scared of Eros' punishments. However, he was afraid that Eros would suggest late-night car practice. Hence, he could only mumble slurred complaints to himself.