Read Red Widow (Vivian Xu, Book 1) for Free Online

sunlight.
    Vivian glanced down at the ticket stub
in her hand. She had no intention of using it.
    She found the usual characters
populating the station; boorish men anxiously watching the
monitors, salivating for a taste of freedom before they were due to
return to work. Mothers clung to their rambunctious children,
assuring them the trains would arrive any moment now. Even a few
security guards trailed off to the side, studying the passengers as
if they were little more than cattle.
    One of them met Vivian’s eyes and she
instinctively pulled away.
    The last time she boarded a train, she
visited her aunt at a small nursing home. Her aunt had since passed
away, shedding the needles poking her skin and catheters that
sustained her frail body.
    She closed her eyes for the final time
only a week before Vivian ran away. But before that fateful day,
they would visit a nearby lake, where her aunt joyously recalled
stories of her youth in Peking. A spark like no other reflected in
her eyes when she described meeting her husband on the pub-strewn
shores of Houhai Lake.
    Ever since, Vivian dreamt of returning
to her homeland and exploring those wonders her aunt so vividly
described. Maybe she would find her own happy ending. If only the
next train would take her there.
    She inched closer toward the edge of
the platform, clutching the ticket so tightly that it crumpled in
her palm.
    Was that guard still watching her? He
kept his eyes trained on Vivian as though he possessed a heightened
sense for trouble.
    The guard turned away and she plunged
onto the rails.
     
    * * *
     
    Strange noises bounced around her as
she followed the tunnel’s twists and turns.
    Graffiti obscured the walls in a
testament to the vagrants who once dwelt underground. Like
untouchables banished from the earth’s surface, they holed up in
the forsaken recesses of the metro. Only a fool would trespass on
their lairs.
    Something snapped in the distance and
a flyer slapped against Vivian’s chest. It fluttered away and
landed on the rails. Vivian couldn’t help but chuckle when her
heart stopped pounding. She was poised to move when something about
the pamphlet caught her eye.
    Phreak of Nature, it read in jagged, bold lettering. Dancing across
the rails, she picked it up.
    She was instantly struck by the image
of two gorgeous women, not freaks by any stretch of the
imagination. She couldn’t immediately tell whether they were
promoting a cyberpunk gig or a new nightclub, perhaps even plastic
surgery. Their faces mesmerized her, as if those smiles portended
something far more insidious than the naked eye could
see.
    As she puzzled over the image, a
threatening sound rang out—one that sent a sliver of ice through
her. Lowering the flyer, she saw something sparkling at the end of
tunnel.
    “ But this tunnel was
supposed to be abandoned!” she cried. No amount of protesting would
save her now.
    Vivian had only seconds to escape
before the massive train would shave her down to a few inches. She
spotted a crevice in the wall and mindlessly hurled herself at
it.
    “ Damn it!”
    Her shoulder burned as she tried to
wedge herself into that space. Just a few inches more and—the
bellowing yawn turned into a mechanical scream. A chain of booths
whirred by, wisps of human faces reflecting from the glass panes.
None of them even spared a glance in her direction as they careened
into the depths.
    The sound hammered away at her brain,
scattering her thoughts in every direction. When she tried to curl
up into a ball, she felt herself falling.
    “ Oof!” The air blasted out
of Vivian’s lungs as she hit the ground hard. She opened her eyes
to find herself on the other side of the wall.
    As if oncoming trains weren’t
ill-fated enough, the ceiling had collapsed ahead. She peered over
her shoulder as the growl of another speeding train pierced the
silence. The map Daniel provided didn’t reveal anything about
hidden tunnels. There was no way she was wedging herself