The Death of Revenge

She ran. The train whistle blew, announcing that it would soon be departing from the station. She had to make it on that train. There was no other chance for escape. If she did not leave now, she never would.

Running up to the ticket counter, she slammed all the money she had down upon the battered and scuffed surface. “I need a ticket for London, tonight’s train.” She gasped heavily. The rickety old man looked at her over his spectacles with a suspicious glare. “London ticket is two pounds.”

She was just five pence short! She pushed the money towards him with a pleading look in her eyes. “Please! I have to be on that train! This is all I have!”
For the first time in ten years, tears dropped from her eyes. For longer than she could remember she had borne every word, every abuse, and every heartache without a sound. She could face this no longer.

The man stared at her, surprised by her sudden outburst. Most likely because she was still disguised as a young boy. Then, by the grace of God perhaps, the man sighed and took the money. “One ticket to London.” Evangeline hastily wiped the tears from her eyes and took the ticket. With a smile she could barely muster, she nodded to him. “Thank you,” she whispered, and then turned and ran for the departing train.

She jumped onto the last stairway as it pulled away from the station platform. Wheezing heavily, she made her way to the standard carriages and fell onto the first open seat she found. The train steadily picked up speed as she glanced out the window at the disappearing landscape she had known all her life.

Her gaze drifted back to her reflection in the window and she swallowed. Her normally dark, black hair looked dirty and brown, cut to just above the tips of her ears. Her face was unrecognizable, covered with mud and grime. And her eyes…she turned away from the haunted orbs set deep into her thin face.

The conductor walked up and looked down at her with a harsh glare. “Ticket.” He barked at her, possibly believing she was a stowaway. Nevertheless, she produced her ticket and he punched it before moving on.

She breathed a sigh of relief and laid her head back. This was real. She was finally leaving it all behind. She knew not what awaited her arrival in London and simply did not care at the moment. Evangeline shifted in the uncomfortable seat, closing her eyes as the dizziness of sleep washed over her tired and worn body. Before all consciousness left her, a final thought drifted across her mind.

Life is a continuous adventure on which the passengers have no choice upon the destination.

She could not remember where she had heard the phrase before, but it always made her laugh because people often choose their own destination. They travel the world or stay in their homes and live life as hermits. They fall in love and have many children or merely live life alone if they wish. Life can be lived in prosperity and with honor or by deceit and treachery.

Nevertheless, people can never escape the final choice that lays beneath the surface each and every day. The matter is simple - heaven or hell. There is no in between.

While she may not know the future that lays ahead her, Evangeline Alarie will set upon a path that will consequently lead to the latter destination. Only time will tell if she can find the path to heaven before it is too late.