(?`) Their Heads Are Made of Iron!
Think about it carefully: the subway system in this city, N City, had been shut down for a very, very long time. No one knew exactly when it had stopped running.
But anyone who took the time to look through the records would find it wasn't hard to notice that the shutdown seemed to have happened after an employee from some subway system revealed, two or three years ago, that a terrifying forest of steles made of mycelium had sprouted deep in the tunnels. The inscriptions on them were written in glowing moss in an unknown language, and anyone who saw them immediately went mad.
Anyway, by now it was common knowledge that the subways in this world were no longer safe. No one wanted to go near them, day or night.
Perhaps it was because they were underground, beyond the reach of sunlight, allowing evil spirits and malevolent ghosts to flourish?
Whatever the reason, in this world, nearly every subway system—whether in N City or anywhere else—had ground to a complete halt. Even the longer tunnels had become unsafe due to all sorts of strange incidents. Everyone knew this, even elementary schoolchildren!
Of course, that common knowledge didn't include one troublesome little girl.
Well?
(ω)
Annie had eaten her fill and gone back out to wander the streets. By the time it was a little after six in the evening, the crowds were hurrying in every direction and growing thinner by the minute. When she wandered up to a subway entrance littered with trash, one that clearly hadn't been cleaned in ages and was cordoned off with several lines of caution tape, her attention was quickly caught by the notices plastered on the walls around the entrance.
"What's this..."
(⊙o⊙*)
When