Charity.
Only weirdos get the train at night, her mother’s voice bounced around her mind as she sat at the platform waiting for the 22:34 train back to her part of town. Be careful.
Sonia checked her watch. She had been waiting at the station for nearly an hour, and it was almost midnight. She rubbed her gloved hands together, the winter air biting into her skin. Her Starbucks had gone cold, and she finished the dregs with a reluctant slurp.
“Excuse me.”
The voice made her cough and choke on the frozen coffee. She turned. A woman dressed in a thick dirtied parker coat holding a polystyrene cup. Her lips were chapped and her skin filthy. A bob hat with the emblem of some rugby team hung from its stitching.
Sonia eyed her with contempt.
“Yeah?”
“Got any change for something to eat?” Sonia hesitantly turned from the bum and cracked open her purse. She had several coins and even some banknotes. She clasped the purse shut and shook her head.
“Sorry,” Sonia smiled apologetically. “Nothing on me. Go bother someone else.” The bum‘s facial expression crumpled before she slipped away to the darker edges of the platform.
Sonia sat for another fifteen minutes. Still no sign of the train. She would have to call an Uber or something.
“Excuse me.” Sonia’s heart backflipped. She turned. It was the woman again, the cup still in her hands rattling the few tiny coins she had collected that day. “I’m hungry.”
“I told you,” Sonia snapped. “I don’t have anything. Now piss off!” She turned her back to her and listened as the footsteps shuffled away. Placing her headphones in her ear, Sonia let her Spotify playlist occupy that absence of noise on the empty platform.
A tap on the shoulder. Rage ignited like a well-used furnace. Sonia snapped her head back.
“I said –”
The same woman stood there. However, this time she was dressed in a long flowing coat so fresh Sonia could taste the leather. A pair of expensive-looking sunglasses covered her eyes. Her shoes were blood red heels with golden clasps. A designer handbag hung from her shoulder, and her hair was sleek and blonde. She smiled at Sonia.
“Here you are,” she said, leaning forward, and placed a coin in Sonia’s chipped Starbucks cup. Confusion wrapped her, then horror smothered her like a heavy blanket filled with spiders.
Her clothes were filthy and torn. Her hair matted and filthy. Sonia’s phone and purse were missing, and her hands were covered in dried mud.
The train rumbled down the tunnel and the woman stood by the platform as it docked.
Sonia stood, her body frozen stiff. Her throat was so dry she could hardly speak. She shuffled clumsily to the woman as she stepped onto the train, the doors about to close.
“Excuse me…” Sonia croaked. The woman eyed her with contempt. She pulled down her sunglasses, and Sonia saw her eyes were as black as the night sky.
“I’m sorry,” she said, an impossibly long sneer stretching along her face. The train doors closed. The woman mouthed through the glass. “I’ve nothing on me.”