Metro

by Steen Langstrup

WARNING,
PLEASE NOTE.

This short story contains explicit violence. It's not for the faint of heart. It's horror. It contains graphic scenes of violence and rape.

Please also note,
It is a short story which means it is short.


A hellish ride on the Metro train one night in Copenhagen...

Written as a tribute to Edgar Allan Poe, with obvious links to his tale William Wilson, this short story leads you into a cold nightmare of rape and mixed identities.

'Maja calls as I wait for the Metro at the airport station. It's late. I have just returned from yet another business trip. She says, "There have been a number of violent rapes in Copenhagen the last few weeks. Yesterday, the police published a frame from the surveillance recordings in the Metro. The last rape occurred late Monday night not far from the DR-Byen Metro station. The victim recognized you on the recordings from the surveillance camera."
I hesitate a few seconds, looking into my own eyes in the reflection of the glass walls--then I laugh.'

21 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 18, 2012

Reviews

[Dimitris Passas (TapTheLine) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A harrowing short story written by the Danish author Steen Langstrup (writer of ''Russian Dope'') who delves into the disturbed mind of a mentally ill protagonist who is accused of rape and murder. The hero of the novel, possibly schizophrenic, is trying to make sense of the accusations, but his disease distorts his recollections and blurs the frontiers between reality and phantasy. ''Metro'' is not an original story, but Langstrup's writing makes it fun to read, despite the horrible theme and situations that are described in the few pages of this little book. It is recommended for those who have a strong stomach and don't mind gory descriptions.

[Willow Brooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

On Amazon the ratings for this book was all over the place. Some people we're pleased with the ending. Some people were shocked and appaled by the brutality of the rape, I've read worst.
Anyway, I was pissed at first because I have never read about a more wimpy man in all my life. I almost quit reading the story. For the first time I was glad this was a very short read. I was planning on giving this a one or two stars but the ending felt like I had been sucked into the Twilight Zone. For people who may be too young to remember or know anything about The Twilight Zone, it's where the unexpected and most bizzar things happened. The series is still ranked one of the highest in my mind.

Anyway, I could not rate this lower than a three because it reminded me of The Twilight Zone or higher than a three because it pissed me off too bad with the wimpy man, and because it was extremely short. The short stories in readers digest were longer than this. The story actually ends at 74% which makes it even shorter than Amazon has posted.

[Cookie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This falls disturbingly short as a tribute to Poe, in my opinion.
Poe is poetic, haunting and introspective.
This reads like it's trying to shock you with it's vileness. Poe's character, William Wilson, is not sympathetic - and I think that's the biggest error here, Langstrup tries to write his Wilson with a degree of conscience and we have no real understanding of why his Wilson would fall to such levels of disgusting evil.

[Randy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting tale inspired by and a tribute to the Edgar Allan Poe short story, WILLIAM WILSON, in fact the name of METRO's main character. Doppelgangers, a conflicted man, and rape highlight this story.

Kind of liked this one despite the violent nature. Set in Denmark, the author's home town.

[Callie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought it was a good little short story.

[Denise Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

i had seen this free kindle read a few times and skipped past it, i wish i had read it sooner. I really enjoyed it. A good twist and i thought a good ending.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

This started out okay, but then we get the whole doppelganger thing going so our main character can dodge responsibility for his actions, and that annoyed me. Even that, as much as I hate to say it, could have been an interesting premise if the whole thing hadn't been so predictable. From the moment William, or main character, sees the girl in the station, it was pretty obvious what was going to happen.

Merged review:

This started out okay, but then we get the whole doppelganger thing going so our main character can dodge responsibility for his actions, and that annoyed me.  Even that, as much as I hate to say it, could have been an interesting premise if the whole thing hadn't been so predictable.  From the moment William, or main character, sees the girl in the station, it was pretty obvious what was going to happen.

[Chris Caldwell]

I read this and Did not know it was a short story. As I was reading I read on to find I was reading something else. So I bought that book so I can read it. Very good short read. I didn't know that had books like that out. Guess I know now. Lol

[Keith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too predictable.

[Erin Bullis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh

I was expecting something more exciting then a blah story. There could have been a better build up to the end of the story