It wasn’t as ominous as you would expect. It was just as normal as everyone described it. The trail started just behind an old apartment building. During the fall it was quite beautiful. It had a wooden sign with a picture of a train on it. Below the picture there once had been the official name of the trail. The words were long gone now. A new name had been spray painted and then carved into the wooden sign.

“The Suicide Trail.”

Lamar Brezk was sitting on his bike with one leg on the ground. Some people came to the trail for one specific reason. To kill themselves. The town lore was that anyone who travelled down the trail with suicidal intentions never returned. Police and friends would go out searching for their bodies but nothing was ever found. Nothing remained of the lost souls who gave their lives to the trail. Without any evidence of foul play, it was near impossible to shut the trail down. People jogged down it daily without any problems and the logical people in town would never admit to the trail being anything other than just that, a normal trail.

Lamar was one of the believers. He had come to the trail to do away with himself in what was believed to be the least messy way possible. No head with a bullet in it. No broken neck body hanging from a ceiling fan. This was an elegant way to go out. Plus he could take his trusty bike with him.

He rode his bike daily. When everything else in life failed him the pedals never did. His feet worked them and they gave exhilaration back. The feeling of the air flowing by him is what kept him going for years. He had once lived for the American dream. A family, a house, and a manageable amount of debt. The debt was never a problem. The house was replaced by an apartment. The family on the other hand, that was the one he missed. He had been with his girlfriend for years. They had tried for years to no avail. The doctors couldn’t find anything wrong in either of their tests. Sometimes things just weren’t meant to be.

On his way home from work he had decided to take a detour. He turned out of the bike lane and headed for the sound. The trail followed an old set of train tracks down by the water. The tracks were no longer used. A relic from the older times. Much like the trail.

His girlfriend wouldn’t be expecting him home. It was normal for him to hit the local pub before heading him. Seeing her these days only reminded him of his inability to create the life he wanted. She could tell how he felt. She would never bring it up though. It hurt her also but she was easier to please when it came to life. She had him and that was enough. Lamar wished he could feel that way. He had given up on trying.

The sun was going down. The dirty frame of his once shining white bike was touched by the sun. It reflected nothing back. The muck on it just took in the sun and used it to cake on harder. Lamar mounted his bike fully and peddled forward. He entered the trail just before sunset.

The train tracks were to his right. On his left an endless row of trees fenced the trail in. they all dropped leaves of autumn. He kept a smooth pace down the trail. He wasn’t in a rush to die. He wanted to be relaxed when the time came. There were countless stories on how it happened. Some people said you saw a light at the end of the trail and when you reached it your life just ended. Other people believed that the trail would curve down into the bowels of hell. Some just thought you just kept going on the trail until you turned to dust. None of these things happened to Lamar. What did happen started like a slight change in the wind.

The sun had been setting when he started down the trail. He was maybe a few minutes into his ride now but the sun was gone. It wasn’t below the horizon. It wasn’t creeping behind the moon. It was gone. The sky was still present and still had a glow about it, but the glow wasn’t coming from the sun. The sunless sky was the first sign that the trail had already started to take him away from the beaten path. He stopped and took a second to examine the sky. It wasn’t every day you got to see it like this. Empty. It was eerie and beautiful at the same time. He thought of what the world would look like if there was nothing on it. No people. No buildings. Just the world, empty, like it must have been at some point in eternity.

He turned to continue his ride but something was in his way. Someone was in his way. The man standing in his way was long and gangly. His arms hung down to his side with a flaccid slump. Something about his body stood out. Lamar looked closer and realized that his arms were barely arms. They were bones. Skin sagged from them but they were void of any muscle. The man’s face sagged too. His facial features were grotesque and sad. His worn and patched eyebrows hovered over hollow eye sockets. His lips didn’t exist anymore but his mouth still formed a frozen frown.

“Don’t. Turn. Back,” The man whispered.

“What? What did you say? Lamar asked.

“DON’T! TURN! BACK!”

The man was running at Lamar now. Lamar turned his bike and used a quick jog to get his momentum going before jumping on his bike and riding off. He looked back to see the man watching him. The man had his boney arm raised towards Lamar. He was pointing. Not at Lamar, but at the direction in front of him.

Lamar kept riding. He had no intention of turning back now. He was going to see this through. No one needed to tell him not to. He kept his comfortable pace. The trail in front of him looked the same as behind him. The trees also looked the same. The wind had changed though. Actually, it had stopped altogether. The trail was close to silent. There was a low humming that filled the vacancy the wind had left. Lamar felt like the sound was familiar but couldn’t place it. The humming continued. It resonated in his ears. Then in his shoulders. Then in his chest. It wasn’t just humming. It was vibrating. The ground was vibrating.

Lamar knew in that moment exactly what was coming. He looked to his right just as the train came blazing down the tracks. It wasn’t just going fast. It was actually on fire. The train was engulfed in flames. Every passenger car had fire shooting out of the windows. People were reaching out at him also. Horrible burnt people with charred skin and smoke coming out of their mouths. They were screaming. Lamar didn’t have time to be in shock. Before he could process anything the train had passed him and flown down the tracks like a fireball. He didn’t know where it was going. But he knew it was going in the same direction he was. For the first time he started to second guess his decision. Then his phone rang. He came to a stop and checked it. It was his girlfriend.

He had never planned on leaving a note. He made this decision in a spontaneous moment. All his depression just happening to line up together and drove his hands to turn his bike towards the trail. He wanted to just disappear. The train had made him really think about that. It didn’t look like it was heading to a pleasant place. That didn’t mean it was going to the same place as him. Still, it wasn’t something that inspired a positive outlook. His phone was on its second ring now. He could leave it for two more and then it would stop. He didn’t have to talk to her. Would it be worse to pick up and tell her he wasn’t coming back? Or was it worse to just disappear and leave her wondering. By the third ring he had decided closure, however quick and small, was better than nothing at all. He answered on the fourth ring.

“Hey honey,” He said.

“Lamar.”

Something was in her voice. He didn’t know what it was. Uncertainty? Fear? No. It was something else.

“I’m pregnant.”

It was relief. The feeling that filled Lamar was something else though. It was something that was only sort of creeping in after he saw the train. Now it had broken in and confronted him. It was regret.

“That’s wonderful,” he said.

“When are you going to be home?”

“Soon. I’ll be home soon.”

Lamar hung up the phone. He truly meant what he said. The two words she said to him changed everything. He only hoped he could make up for his mistake. He raised his head and saw a sign had popped up in front of him. The wooden sign was much like the one at the start of the trail but with a couple important differences. It had two arrows. One pointing towards the way he was going. The writing above it said “The End”. The other arrow pointed back the way he came. The words above it said “Something Else”. What that something else could be wasn’t on his mind. His girlfriend was back that way. His baby was back that way. He was going back. He got on his bike and started riding.

While the trail was the same when he was first going down it, the trip back wasn’t. The trail had picked up a grey hue. The ground wasn’t smooth anymore. It was jagged and uneven. Not a trail that any bike should be on. Lamar didn’t care. It was obvious the trail was trying to stop him from going back. Nothing was going to stop him though. He sped up. He was flying over the cracked trail. The sky was no longer empty above him. It was now filled with black clouds. A storm was brewing behind them. His breathing was almost uncontrollable. His eyes were filling with sweat. His heart was trying to rip itself from his chest. Then he saw the beginning of the trail. He saw the back of the wooden sign. He was going to make it. Then the clouds opened up, and lightning came down upon him. His hair burst into flames as the bolt coursed through him. He went flying off of his bike and hit the ground hard. His eyes had been burned from his skull. His sockets now empty and sizzling. He was on the ground trying to crawl but his body was toast. He could only wait and listen. He heard footsteps approaching him.

“I told you. Don’t turn back,” the old man said.

Lamar was reaching through his messenger bag. He pulled out a sharpie and popped the cap off. The bike was still in his reach. His body was still pulsing with electricity. He did his best to write something on the side of his bike. His energy was spent and he collapsed after only a couple words.

“Please,” Lamar said.

“It would be easier for them without this.”

“Please.”

“As you wish.”

The old man picked up the bike and set it up right. He gave it a push and it wheeled its way forward just enough to escape the trail before falling over in front of the entrance. From the other side of the wooden sign, the bike was alone. The sun was still setting over the trail. Two kids walked up to the trail and saw the dirty white bike on its side. One of the boys inspected it. It seemed to still be in okay condition. On the side of it he noticed some scribbled words. They looked like they had been written by a child who was still learning to write. It wasn’t pretty but he was able to read enough of it.

“What’s up?”

“It’s says something.”

“What?”

“For my kid. I love you.”

“I wonder why someone would just leave it here.”

“Don’t know. Their loss. Let’s go.”

The kids picked up the bike, then walked past the sign and down the trail.