Unplanned stop

 I tell it from my father's words, he likes to tell this story a dozen times to everyone who is happy to listen. He was teaching physics at the time and rode the subway every day. It was a long time ago, when our metro was still called Leningrad.

He was driving after work one day, and then the train stopped in the tunnel. Passengers are not panicking, everyone is doing their own thing. Only a sound began to be heard, as if water was gurgling somewhere, or a tunnel draft. They said over the speakerphone that the train would resume movement soon.

And then the lights went out.

There were no mobile phones to light up, and people in the dark began to worry. Someone lit a lighter, but it was of little use. A girl started crying in the carriage. People gradually began to worry and grumble, saying what an outrage. Through the grumbling, my father could make out the sounds from the tunnel: the murmuring had become louder.

"The tracks are flooded," a passenger said knowingly. — We'll be standing for a long time.

People started to worry, someone had already panicked and started shouting that the tunnel was going to flood up to the ceiling, and they would all drown here.

The train had been waiting for ten minutes. The water was gurgling quite clearly now — it seemed as if it was flowing directly under the carriages, and in a rather violent stream. In addition, there was another sound — as if someone was slapping wet palms on the glass and rubbing the glass with a characteristic creak. You never know what anyone does in the dark from idleness — my father did not pay attention to it at first, but then realized that the sound, firstly, was moving - the "flip—floper", invisible in the dark, moved from one end of the car to the other, faded away, and then returned back. And secondly, the sound was clearly coming from outside.

Even my father felt a chill here. Other passengers also began to notice something was amiss. At first, an aunt told them not to bully, but then a more attentive citizen whispered, "It's outside," and everyone fell silent at once.

Soon, the sound began to come from the other side of the car, as if this bully had easily bypassed the car and walked on the other side. The train was standing in pitch darkness in a tunnel in which water was clearly gurgling. The invisible minx easily reached the windows with his hands, although everyone can imagine the height of the car. At the same time, he jokingly walked around the car in a circle, as if the coupling between the cars was not a hindrance to him.

The guy with the lighter decided to investigate what was going on there. When the sound got closer to him (he was standing at the door), he lit a light and held it up to the glass...

Everyone who saw who was outside jumped to the other side of the carriage at once, so that it swayed. A face was staring at the glass. White, even bluer. It was difficult to see the details through the glass, but this creature had small dark eyes framed by thick dark circles, like those of a terminally ill person. His mouth was wide open, and the skin around it was sagging and flabby. It was only visible for a couple of seconds, then the guy dropped the lighter, and the car plunged back into darkness. Now the slapping on the glass has become more frequent. Someone screamed, "Close the windows!" People huddled together in the center of the car in a panic. Then the splashing of water was heard already inside the carriage, as if someone had knocked over a bucket on the floor...

My father doesn't remember much about what happened next, but for about five minutes there was complete confusion — people were screaming, clinging to each other, no one understood anything. And then suddenly the lights turned on. People looked at each other and at the black windows. The splashing stopped, the murmuring of the water subsided. The train started moving slowly. When the doors opened at the station, people rushed out so quickly that those on duty at the station even became worried.

And when my father looked back, he saw that the sides of the car and the windows were all wet, although, as it turned out later, there was no flooding of the tunnel, there was just a wiring malfunction, which was repaired in ten minutes.

The subway incident

 I went down to the subway. The time was about eleven o'clock in the evening. As usual, there was a lot to do at work on Friday, which is why I came home so late. Very tired, I entered the last carriage. Ignoring everyone, I sat down on an empty seat, turned on the player at full volume and closed my eyes. Fortunately, it was necessary to go along one branch — however, to the very end.

I must have dozed off. When I woke up, the train had already stopped. I noticed that there was no one near me. Looking around, I saw that I was the only one in the carriage. This alarmed me, but then I looked into another carriage and calmed down. A large group was sitting there and discussing something. The train began to accelerate, and I finally calmed down. But then a song went through the player, followed by another one... I knew that we had a long commute between stations on the line, but it was only for a little over two minutes, and both songs lasted at least three minutes. The train was still traveling at the same speed.

I went to the glass between the carriages and looked at the company from the front carriage. They looked calm, but something about them seemed strange to me. There were three of them—two girls and a guy. One of the girls was sitting with her back to me, facing the others. Suddenly, I realized what had confused me: the girl sitting with her back was moving her arm too rhythmically. Every fifteen seconds, she raised her hand, twirled it, explaining something, and lowered it again, like a wound-up mechanism — with precision to the second. Then I noticed the same pattern in the guy. He nodded his head with the same frequency. I knocked on them, but they were doing the same thing at regular intervals.

"I like trains," came a voice from behind.

A chill ran through me. I forced myself to turn around. A boy of about six years old stood near one of the doors and looked out the window.

 I could barely manage, being absolutely sure that there was no one in the car a minute ago.

—Alexey,— he introduced himself seriously, looking at me with green eyes. Then he turned to the window and stared in fascination.

— Why are you alone, where are your parents?

"My parents left without me," he sighed. — Mom was crying, but they couldn't take me away...

The boy sighed again and continued:

— The station is coming soon, and I'll go for a ride, — he looked at me and smiled. — I really loved riding the subway and on the train to visit my grandmother...

Suddenly I woke up, sitting in a crowded carriage. I stood up, giving way to a lady, and stood all the way home, looking at the people crowding around me. When I got home, I poured myself some hot tea and went online. I spent an hour typing queries for the name of the station, stage, and nearby stations — until finally, on one of the news feeds, I found a mention of the boy's death right in the train carriage on the stretch between stations. There was a picture of a boy on the side. Alexey was looking at me from the monitor screen.

Since then, I have been unable to sleep on the subway and, driving along the stretch between these stations, I always remember the boy with green eyes who loves to ride trains.