"The Man on the Train Keeps Getting Taller" by Fabulous-Bird-3018 | CLANCYPASTA

[00:00:00] I doubt anyone is gonna believe me, but I don't care. I recently just opened a convenience store. I've spent over a year trying to open it. Since we just opened and I only have one part-time employee right now, I pretty much work seven nights a week. I have to take the last train every night at around 1am to get home. With this being so routine, I start to see the same people on the train every night.

[00:00:27] One man in particular I have seen every night for the last two weeks. He's a middle-aged man with a beer belly and always wears the same Dodgers baseball cap. These last few nights, something has changed.

[00:00:42] It started last Saturday. He came on the train and sat on the other side of the train car as normal, and I know this sounds stupid, but I swear he was a few inches taller.

[00:00:54] Not terribly noticeable, but I swear on my wife's grave his head usually goes to just below the handlebars on the ceiling, but that night his head was the same height as the handlebars.

[00:01:08] At first, I just shrugged it off. Maybe he was slouching before, or I was just misremembering.

[00:01:16] Monday night was when I knew something was wrong. He was at least a foot taller. He now had to duck under the handlebars just to sit down.

[00:01:26] I wish I had pictures of before and after so you knew I wasn't seeing things. I don't know how he's doing it, but he's getting taller. Day by day. Night by night. Inch by inch.

[00:01:39] The mere thought of this impossible scenario had been eating away at my mind like a termite.

[00:01:47] I didn't see him Tuesday night, but when I was taking my kids to the park that morning, I could have sworn I saw him at the park so tall he towered over the swing set. He had to be over two feet taller at that point.

[00:02:02] I tried telling my part-time employee that night, but he looked at me like I was telling him I saw an alien.

[00:02:10] I don't even blame him. Your boss you just met starts ranting to you about how a man is getting taller on the train.

[00:02:18] Why would you believe him?

[00:02:20] What if it's just a different guy? He said as if I hadn't considered that at all.

[00:02:26] On Wednesday, I spent my entire day looking up ways people could become taller.

[00:02:32] All I found were bizarre stretches and extremely sketchy surgeries.

[00:02:38] And even then, the most they could give you was a foot.

[00:02:40] And when he got on the train that night, he had to duck his head so it didn't hit the roof of the car.

[00:02:47] He had to be at least three feet taller now.

[00:02:50] For the next few nights, he didn't get much taller.

[00:02:54] But he did get lankier.

[00:02:56] His arms became stretched to the point of almost touching his ankles.

[00:03:00] His neck became horribly outstretched to the point of being disgusting to just look at,

[00:03:06] with the bumps of his spinal cord showing through his skin like a hairless, starved dog.

[00:03:13] His hair became longer as well.

[00:03:15] His dodger's cap barely able to contain the mess of long black strands loosely falling off either side of his crazed face.

[00:03:23] The worst part, however, is every night, despite how monstrous he looked,

[00:03:29] he would walk on the car, sit in his same spot, and patiently wait for his stop before calmly walking off.

[00:03:37] I can't focus.

[00:03:38] How am I supposed to even rationalize this in my mind?

[00:03:43] My mom thinks I am just distraught over my wife's death, but how am I supposed to explain what is really happening?

[00:03:52] I won't go into detail about every day, but trust me, he changed every single night.

[00:03:59] Sometimes noticeably, like gaining a few inches in height.

[00:04:03] Sometimes he barely changed at all.

[00:04:05] But every time, something was a little bit different.

[00:04:10] All the time I spend at the store, I'm distracted.

[00:04:14] I have gone onto different train cars, and he still gets on.

[00:04:18] I have even switched cars after he gets on, and he's on the other cars as well.

[00:04:22] He's in every car at the same time.

[00:04:27] I tried to explain this to my mom when she came to pick up my kids.

[00:04:32] She is worried about me.

[00:04:34] No one believes me.

[00:04:37] I don't even know if I believe me.

[00:04:40] This man has entered my life and poked and prodded at my sanity until I feel my grip on reality slipping like a bar of soap through my fingers.

[00:04:51] What's stopping him from approaching me?

[00:04:54] Attacking me?

[00:04:55] Why does he just sit there?

[00:04:57] I have started a nervous shaking that stays with me all day.

[00:05:02] The thought of what the man will look like tonight stays in the back of my mind like an itch I could never scratch.

[00:05:09] Last night, he walked in, bones cracking like thin ice with every step.

[00:05:15] His skin so tightly pressed against his bones you could see every ligament on every visible joint.

[00:05:23] After seeing how monstrous he became and his complete lack of any sort of reaction to my presence once again, I decided to do something I had never done before.

[00:05:34] I decided to sit in a different seat.

[00:05:38] I usually stay near the back of the train car because he usually sits at the front.

[00:05:45] Just three stops away from where he usually gets off, I decided I was going to sit in the seat that is right in front of him.

[00:05:54] After taking three deep breaths and leaving any worry behind, I got up and made my way to the empty seat across from him.

[00:06:02] As I sat down, he didn't even register my existence.

[00:06:07] I had never seen him at this angle before.

[00:06:12] Getting a better look only served to fill me with heart-pounding fear and regret.

[00:06:18] His eyes were sticking out from the sides of his head, his pupils milky white like a blind old dog.

[00:06:26] What used to be his nose now extended outward like a deer's snout.

[00:06:30] His teeth were sharp as bare teeth and were always snarled like a threatened lion protecting their youth.

[00:06:39] I sat there, just staring deep into its eyes.

[00:06:44] I'm not a religious man, but looking at this haunted figure in front of me,

[00:06:49] I knew in my heart I was staring at some unholy creation that crawled from the depths of hell just to torment me with its uncanny presence.

[00:07:00] As we left the last stop before the creature's usual destination, it finally spoke.

[00:07:09] Sandy, Luke, Jonathan, Christine, Mark, Liam, Melissa, Alexander.

[00:07:21] It was saying my family's names.

[00:07:26] From my late wife and children to my mother and cousins I haven't seen in years.

[00:07:32] Unmoving, unflinching, and without so much as a twitch in the ice of its eyes, it listed name after name.

[00:07:39] My grandparents, my brother, my nieces, nephews.

[00:07:44] When it ran out of family, it even began saying the names of friends from college and old high school crushes I had.

[00:07:52] I felt my fists curl into a ball on my knees as I sat there and listened to this alien creature list off everyone I could ever hold dear to me.

[00:08:06] Until finally, it was its stop.

[00:08:09] Like every night before, it got up calmly without saying another word and walked off the train into the black void of the night.

[00:08:18] Whatever I had left of my mind was broken into pieces.

[00:08:23] This needed to end one way or another.

[00:08:26] When I first started noticing these changes, I immediately tried to hire on more help at the store so I didn't have to take the train anymore.

[00:08:35] I even interviewed a few candidates.

[00:08:37] Some of them were very good for the position.

[00:08:40] But every time I went to call them to tell them they got the job, something came over me and I told them they didn't make the cut.

[00:08:50] As if someone was puppeteering my words, I would open my mouth to say you got the job and by the time I closed it again, the call was over and they weren't hired.

[00:09:03] I can't do this.

[00:09:06] After last night, this cannot continue.

[00:09:10] With my kids staying with my mom now, no one questioned me getting a Glock G19.

[00:09:17] I hate guns.

[00:09:18] They terrify me, but the thing at the other end of the train car terrifies me even more.

[00:09:24] I spent my entire shift today looking at the gun in my desk drawer, preparing in my mind as to what I was even planning on doing.

[00:09:33] Getting on the train, I still had no idea.

[00:09:37] When the creature stepped back on, it looked the same as yesterday.

[00:09:41] The first time in days, it hadn't made a noticeable difference.

[00:09:45] At the next stop, before I could even think of a plan of action, I got up, ran up beside it, pointing the barrel at its impossibly deformed skull and fired.

[00:09:59] The creature made no noise as it slumped to the side, its nightmare-inducing body falling limp on the seats beside it.

[00:10:08] For a split second, I know I saw the figure turn back into the man it once was, just for a fraction of a second.

[00:10:18] I bolted out of the train.

[00:10:20] As I ran down the station, I caught glimpses of the other cars as I ran.

[00:10:26] There were hundreds of the creatures in each car, motionlessly staring directly at me as I ran.

[00:10:36] I write this on the bridge just three miles away from the train station.

[00:10:42] I write this not as a justification, but rather an explanation, and one last chance to say I love you.

[00:10:49] I love you, Sandy.

[00:10:50] I love you, Luke, and I love you, Jonathan.

[00:10:53] I love you, Mom and Dad, everyone who will demand an explanation.

[00:10:57] I hope this provides you some clarity.

[00:11:00] I'm sorry the hurt I have caused.

[00:11:02] I hope I have defeated the man on the train and God can look me with grace as I did all I could to defeat this embodiment of hell that crept into my life.

[00:11:12] But one thing I know for certain.

[00:11:14] If he doesn't hear my prayers tonight, that won't be the last I see of the man on the train.