Picture by @f3nix
Source:https://steemit.com/finishthestory/@bananafish/finish-the-story-contest-week-50

Here is my entry for Finish The Story Contest - Week #50!

You can find the contest at:

https://steemit.com/finishthestory/@bananafish/finish-the-story-contest-week-50

Original Story

The Abysmal Biscuit

by @F3nix

The awareness of the box's contents dripped slowly in Joelle's mind, coagulating like a graceless Rorschach's blot. Bones. Tiny tapered bones, standing out against the mahogany bottom.

The unusual item jolted on the worn chair, reacting to the vibrations of the old diesel-powered train. The convoy, the last of his lineage, still fulfilled its duty along the Brașov-Sighișoara route allowing students to return to their homes every weekend. To the rhythm of joints and sleepers, the whiteness of the remains continued to dance tremulously before the eyes of the young woman as the frames of her glasses slipped slowly from her nose.

In a tinkling clink of bracelets, the student closed the lid of the box and moved away as far as possible from it, crushing herself against the seat's padding. The lazy air of the air conditioner stuck to the bottom of her dry throat an acrid plastic taste.

And then she saw him. The old passenger had returned and was staring at her through the windows that led from the corridor of the car to the cabin. She listened to her own scream erupting and fill the cramped cab.

"I didn't want to scare you, young lady."

"N-not scared. No worries, sir." Somehow, Joelle managed to gather the few polite words her manners demanded. She could not have said how long he had been watching and if he had seen where curiosity had taken her. The glasses, temples up in the air, laid on the seat beside her.

The old man was tall and lanky, his burnished skin resembled the ancient scales of a dragon. Dressed in work trousers and a raw cotton shirt, he gave the impression of being one of those peasants whose families had inhabited the Carpathians for centuries.

Joelle's gaze passed involuntarily from the man to the funeral urn disguised as a biscuit tin: the representation of a merry-go-round in a lacquered colored wood and graceful workmanship. The children were swirling with their bent busts, perhaps because of the speed of the carousel. Their mouths were wide open and their hands clung to the poles skewering the horses. With a lump in her throat, she remembered the fleeting memory of just a few hours before, when a train was huffing at the central station and a gentle old man asked her help because he couldn't open the cabin door. She felt like something ruined down from her lungs to her guts.

"I see that you like my craft." In the silence, she could detect the old man's fingers caressing the box inlays.

"It's adorable. A gift for a grandchild?" Joelle realized only now that the object was his only baggage. In the warm twilight, the colors of lacquered wood seemed even more lively. The conifers thickened on the sides of the train, sliding quickly to the edges of her field of vision.

"Oh. A gift, says the young lady. Like a toy, perhaps?" The old man's eyes were two black bottomless pits. His gaze had slowly become vitreous like that of a deep-water fish, yet at the same time penetrating.

"Yes, a toy. I like how you see it, miss." The passenger continued, his voice getting thinner.

Only then, Joelle realized where they were heading: the train had just passed the old mill and would soon pass through the tunnels beneath the mountain.

"You may have noticed how I depicted all these children. Observe, miss, between a horse and the other: they are not alone." By pronouncing the last vowel, which he abnormally prolonged, his voice tone had become a slow and drawling rattle.

It was still too early for the wagons' lights to turn on and the tunnels were preparing to swallow the convoy.

A sound of nails carving into the wood tore the thoughts of the young student.

---

Here is my ending

The presence of small bats (which were actually butterflies) among the depicted children alerted Joelle. Corroborating the theory that was forming in her mind from the beginning.

The old man discreetly moved away from the girl when he perceived a very familiar nauseating stench.

Joelle, seeing the almost imperceptible movement of the old man and his sudden change of voice and strange behavior, made her stand guard. She knew that her garlic collar had driven back the demonic creature.

Suddenly Joelle gave a strong kick to the old man's chest. He fell on the ground like a sack of cement, dropping his wooden box and scattering all its contents everywhere.

They were indeed bones, possibly of the victims of this hellspawn.

Joelle opened her eyes even more and shouted

"BACK OFF SATAN!", she screamed very loudly

She jumped out of her seat, running to the exit of the car while it was dark because of the tunnel.

The old man moaned in pain. So the girl decided to take speed from where she was and give him another kick even stronger. She prided herself on being a champion in kickball

The kick made the old man lift a few inches of ground for a few seconds.

"TAKE THAT! SPAWN OF THE DEVIL!"

Joelle's screams were heard outside the car. Immediately calling the attention of the train's officer. Who entered worried.

"What happens here!?" Shouted worriedly the officer

"STAY AWAY MY FRIEND, I HAVE DOMINATED THIS CREATURE OF THE UNDERWORLD, BUT IT IS DANGEROUS," warned loudly Joelle

The elder as he could, asked the officer for help

"Please help! I think she's broken a rib!", the old man said

The girl took out a cylindrical container and sprayed a liquid over the eyes of the old man

The old man howled again in pain, rubbing his eyes with the sleeves of his shirt.

"BEHOLD!" Joelle shouted back to the officer

"I HAVE JUST PUT BLESSED WATER TO THE EYES OF THE DAMN BLOOD SUCKER AND HE IS TWISTING IN PAIN!"

"WATCH! HOW THE EYES OF THIS MALEVOLENT ABERRATION OF HELL HAVE SWOLLEN!" The girl shouted again

The old man protested again, so the girl pulled a wooden stake out of her purse. At that moment the train's officer stopped her by grabing her both arms

In the commotion, the train had already stopped at a station. The whistles of the train's officer had made the officers of the station go into the wagon immediately.

"Let me go! We have to kill him. He's a Vampire!"

The girl was still struggling to drive the stake into the old man's chest and the train's officer struggled to avoid it. Finally, the officers came through and arrested the girl for assaulting the world-famous archaeologist Sir Frederich Yaguzhinski Sergeievich Sheremetev The 3rd, who had just been awarded the title of knight by the Queen of England.

The girl protested in her defense to the officers pointing to the bones scattered on the floor that the aforementioned archaeologist had hidden.

The bones were the possible remains of a family of Russian royalty that would reveal the possible fate of the duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova, and were personally transferred to a forensic laboratory in Transylvania to be identified.

Joelle claimed to be part of a religious organization that exterminated demons and as proof was the effect of holy water sprinkled on the eyes of the old man.

After carefully examining the contents of Joelle's purse, in addition to finding a gun with silver bullets among other things, the officers only found a pepper spray.

The girl surprised by her mistake in the heat of the situation, responded with a smile

"My Bad!"

---

I think I certainly would also wear a purse with similar things in case of traveling to Transylvania ;)