Ash Keifer Eternity

The footage begins in an empty station. In one corner is the time elapsed since the video began. In the other the current speed of zero metres per second.

Ahead lies the darkness of a tunnel.

Beneath are rails.

The footage is from the perspective of a train.

It continues in silence. No movement disturbs the station. Only the changing grain of noise and the time in the corner suggests you are looking at anything other than a static image.

At first it is unremarkable, but the longer the footage continues, the more time you have to consider: is it not unusual for trains to sit at the platforms of empty stations? Why are the lights on when clearly no one is here to see by them?

Hours go by.

Eventually the silence is broken by the hum of motors springing to life and quickly clipped audio of train wheels beginning to turn over steel. No driver approached the train. Perhaps they had been in the cabin all along?

The speed slowly increases. Seven metres per second.

The station becomes a halo of glaring white at the edges of the image before disappearing, replaced with the blackness of the tunnel. Only a narrow strip of track that reaches perhaps some ten metres ahead illuminated by the headlamps.

At first the sleepers go by at a modest pace. For some reason, you find yourself thinking, were you to need to stop, you still could. You still feel in control.

But the speed continues to increase. Twenty metres per second.

The sleepers begin to blur together. You barely have time to register the arrival of each metal beam in the narrow cone of light before it disappears beneath you.

The perspective begins to shudder violently.

No. It’s too fast. Thirty five metres per second.

You need to slow down. You feel trapped, unable to stop, unable to look away.

You can’t keep up. Fifty metres per second.

A man. Lying beside the rails.

His arm laid out across them.

And then he is gone.

The scream barely more than a moment of static.

And the footage continues…

Security footage from the Jubilee Line .

Ash looked at the gravestone, and wiped the dust away with their robotic hand, revealing the words, HERE LIES GLAMOUR BROWN. Ash smiles, wiping away a tear from their eye. The irony of the fact that the hand used to help cause Glamour’s own death was the one cleaning his gravestone made Ash chuckle a bit, even if the pain of losing Glamour was coming back.

20 years. It had been 20 years since the day Glamour died in the town meeting. Since Lisa Faust beat him to death. If only Glamour could see how far his work had come. How the Underground had expanded to the Overground - how his cause had become a reality. How Adaptationism wasn’t a thing anymore. How all of his enemies had faced the karma and died horrific deaths for the pain they had caused him.

Ash thought how proud Glamour would be of them. Despite all that happened, Ash was loyal to Glamour and stayed that way even after his death. Ash looked down at their arm. As strange as having Edwin’s arm was, Ash loved the power. The arm which had caused Ash so much fear at one point in time was now the reason they were so strong. Ash had won and their arm was proof of this.

Ash thought about their grandfather. How proud he would be. Ash was the last Keifer alive, before Lisa and Edwin… Lisa Glamour Keifer and Edwin Wolfgang Keifer. What perfect names. Ash was proud of their idea to immortalise their greatest achievements in their childrens’ names. Even if those children are adults now.

Ash left a flower on the grave, and slowly walked out. After giving Amandine their monthly joblot of mushrooms and rotten wood, Ash headed home.

“Look who’s home early!” Lisa shouts over at Ash from the next room.

“Yeah - was a quick trip. Only to see Glamour and Amendine.”

Ash sat down next to Lisa.

“Lisa,” Ash was serious. “You’re 23 now. That’s how old I was when Glamour died.”

“I know.” Lisa replied. “It’s horrible to think that you were only my age when you lost everyone.”

“The thing is Lisa, losing everyone made me grow. There’s a reason I named you Lisa. You see, Lisa Faust and Glamour Brown, the people you were named after, taught me a valuable life lesson.”

“What lesson?”

“Sometimes, in life, in order to achieve your goals, you’ve got to go to great lengths to do it. Glamour went to great lengths to expand the Underground. He was vocal until the very end… and his goal became a reality. Lisa… what I did to Lisa was my greatest achievement in life. I realised that in order for the Enforcers to be stopped, Lisa needed to die. And I don’t regret it. One. Bit.”

Ash paused, and said seriously.

“Know this, Lisa. As you grow into the amazing young adult that you are, make sure that when you believe strongly about something, to do whatever it takes to get it done. That’s the only way to get where you want to get and to obtain the best things in life.”

Ash showed Lisa their arm, and pointed at it. It was their war trophy. They were so proud of it.

Ash had won. Ash had killed all their enemies and was living the life of their dreams, and now their children were off to do the same. What a success. What a victory.

Heather C.