I Met You on the Train
Uncanny #68, January/February 2026
This is a deeply unsettling story about obsession, consent, and the abuse of power, told from the perspective of Jake, a narrator who can rewind time by up to a full day and night.
Jake meets Natalie on a train and notices they both have patches from the same TV show on their backpacks. When Jake fails to speak to her before she exits at her stop, he rewinds time to try again. What begins as social anxiety quickly spirals into something far more sinister.
Jake has had this time-rewinding ability since childhood, initially using it for small corrections—fixing hurtful words, adjusting food orders, giving extra hugs. But now, with the ability to rewind an entire day, Jake uses this power to manipulate his encounter with Natalie. Each time he rewinds, everyone in the world must relive that day, including people dying, getting injured, or experiencing trauma—though they remain unaware of the repetitions.
Through countless loops, Jake tries different approaches. He smiles at Natalie—she hates it. He ignores her—she leaves anyway. He compliments her backpack patch. He fakes a fainting spell to get her sympathy and more time with her. He learns her name and gets her to a diner, though she remains polite but distant. He pretends to know her from a convention called Anicon to establish false familiarity.
Eventually, Jake gets Natalie engaged in conversation long enough that they both miss their stops and reach the end of the line. But when Jake offers to help her get home, Natalie mentions her wife. Jake is stunned—he never noticed her wedding ring because she doesn’t wear one due to sensory issues. They’ve been married five years, marrying young while it was still legal.
This revelation doesn’t stop Jake. Instead, he becomes more determined, rewinding again and again.
He acknowledges the suffering he’s causing—people dying repeatedly, experiencing pain over and over—but dismisses it as “theoretical” compared to his immediate desire for Natalie. He rationalizes his selfishness while showing awareness that what he’s doing is monstrous.
The story takes a horrifying turn when Jake admits he wishes he could rewind years to before Natalie met her wife, to when they were “lonely kids” who could have found each other. He’s trapped them both in an endless loop, unable to accept that Natalie is unavailable and uninterested.
In the final scene, after countless repetitions, Natalie finally experiences déjà vu strong enough to realize what’s happening. She whispers Jake’s name with recognition and looks at him like he’s a monster—which he is. But Jake, now fully embracing his monstrosity, simply resolves to continue trapping them on this train forever, blaming Natalie for “keeping them here” rather than accepting responsibility for his own actions.
The story is a chilling exploration of entitlement, harassment, and how someone can rationalize increasingly abusive behavior while maintaining a veneer of being sympathetic or wronged.