Anni had been calm.  Seeing many strangers--and a few friends--gathered at this place had not been frightening.  The Ghost Girl arriving wasn't scary in the slightest; it was rather exciting, in fact, to finally meet the rumor in person.  She wasn't terribly bothered by the reactions of any of the other people; although Ascot's words had been enough to make her consider her actions, her determination to press on was unshaken.

Then a girl jumped onto the train tracks.  Anni's anticipation wavered, confusion pushing against it and worry for the girl flowing in.  The train was coming!  She would die!

All of Anni's eagerness (had she been eager?  Such an emotion felt so out of place now) shattered as the Ghost Girl's words made it plain that was exactly what she desired.  There was no boarding a magic train to another world.  There was no mystical gate to jump through.  There was one horrible impact, then death.  Yes, the Ghost Girl promised life on the other side of that death, and Anni wanted to put faith in that.  She had great faith in a life after death; she just hadn't expected it to come in quite this manner.  She had always imagined growing up, meeting a charming and handsome veterinarian, buying a ranch, raising a family--and somewhere far, far at the end would be death and an afterlife.  Facing death now was, in a word, mortifying.

[color=ff4500][I]'No!'[/I][/color] her mind cried out instinctively.  Pictures of her mom, her pets, the animals at the zoo, the family she wanted to have in the future, even the stack of homework papers she had on her desk all swam through her thoughts.  Her body gave her every reason she had to not die tonight.  All of it tried to press upon her mind with savage ferocity, trying to fuel the survival instinct rooted deeply inside every living soul.  Yet the entirety of it was inadequate to drown out one small thought--born of charity learned through a short lifetime of caring for others (even if most of them were animals).

[color=ff4500][I]'What did she lose?'[/I][/color]

Anni looked back up at the Ghost Girl.  Though she was looking at someone else, Anni watched her face intently.  Truly there wasn't much to read; her face was as cold as death.  But Anni thought--Anni wanted to believe--she could see something in the girl's eyes.  A pain, a sadness, a loneliness and sorrow.  Surely the girl understood loss, so she was here to protect others from it.

But... Death.  [I]Death.[/I]  How many people had already died here, truly?  Rumors said hundreds, though the actual body count wasn't that high.  How many of those people had she made this same offer to?  How many trusted in her promise of life after death in this subway station?

A warm hum in her hands jolted Anni out of her introspection and back to the situation.  Two more stood between the rails--one of whom, to Anni's shock, was Ascot.  The hum didn't allow her time to wonder why he had changed his position so completely; instead, her attention was pulled down to the mask in her hands.  It wasn't making any noise; Anni didn't hear it humming so much as [I]knew[/I] it was humming.  And she knew, looking at that impossibly wide mouth, that it was grinning at her.

A strange memory raced through Anni's mind.  She saw the first time she lost a pet--a hamster.  Anni had been distraught--she was barely six--but Mom had explained how little Huey would become part of the soil, and then beautiful flowers would grow out of the soil.  They buried Huey in the garden bed and went inside to watch The Lion King.

Such a memory seemed entirely out-of-place; nevertheless, Anni grabbed it and used it to pull herself back out of the shock and fear.  Death seemed less frightening--less an end and more another step.  Anni clenched her eyes shut, sent a silent plea to heaven, then opened her eyes and stepped forward.

[color=ff4500]"I'll help carry her!"[/color] Anni cried.  Not giving herself time to back out, to reconsider or second-guess, the young girl quick-stepped to the woman collapsed on the bench.  Sliding one arm under a shoulder and behind her back, Anni looked at her face with some concern.  She knew she couldn't lift the woman by herself--the woman definitely weighed more than a tiger cub--so she waited for someone else to take the other side.  [color=ff4500]"Hey,"[/color] Anni said in a low voice, looking for a response to see if she was totally unconscious.  Asking 'are you okay' in that situation would have been ridiculous, so instead Anni inquired, [color=ff4500]"What's your name?  I'm Anni."[/color]

[@jdh97]