“There goes the ghost train.” Vance was the reigning champ when it came to supernatural events. If a ghost rattled chains or a face appeared on toast, he knew about it. It was impressive nose to the grindstone kind of work; he was a real hard-boiled detective about the whole thing. So, if he pointed at a train and told you it was piloted by ghosts you believed him. Not that the train in question needed any help. Just eyeballing it gave you all you needed to know. It was an old timey locomotive with a single passenger card hitched behind the engine. It chugged slowly and smokeley across the web of tracks that connected all The Twilight Islands. It was a beautiful old thing, in the ‘They don’t make them like that anymore’ kind of way. The passenger car was painted and had wood paneling while the engine looked like a solid piece of metal had been carved into a shape.
“I heard about this.” I stapled the flier in my hand to a nearby telephone pole, then dedicated myself fully to watching the little locomotive lazily ride the rails. “They say it just showed up a few days ago, no one knows where from. It just does laps around the islands.”
“No no.” Vance shook his head. “It’s got its own schedule. It goes from station to station, but no one can seem to figure out the pattern. It’s not for people because no one ever gets on or gets off.”
Hayden eyed the train suspiciously. He was the type of guy who always looked like he was trying to fight you. He just had that scrappy kind of energy to him. I doubt he wanted to fight the train, but it did capture his interest. “Maybe the mayor got himself a private little set up.”
“Stop.” Victoria punctuated the command with two quick bursts from her staple gun. “No bad talking the boss. He’s the reason we’re doing all of this.” She gestured kind of everywhere. We’d been hard at work all morning fliering the island from toe to tip. If there was an 8.5 x 11-inch space where a piece of paper could be glued, stapled, or stuck we found it. You couldn’t eat, sleep, or walk your dog in that town without one of our fliers grabbing you by the shoulders and telling you about the upcoming festival.
“And we’re so thankful for his generous patronage.” Hayden dated Victoria as a sporadic kind of hobby. This meant he was either immune to the fear she inspired, or he liked it. Victoria was scary in an impressive way. Smart, pretty, and while the rest of us were drinking our summer away, she had an internship with the Mayor’s Office. That’s what landed us with the early morning labor.
The mayor was throwing a party and needed his least expensive lacky to spread the word. The lucky man had no idea that she came with three unwilling lackies of her own to boss around. I can’t even remember how she’d convinced us to do it, but I think shame had something to do with it. “I keep telling you, the internship leads to a job, the job leads to my election, and my election means legalizing weed.”
Oh yeah, that’s how she’d convinced us.
“Ah you’re all talk.” Hayden saddled up next to her, hands in his swim trunks. “You’ll forget about us little people once you’re on top.”
“If I’m lucky.” She smiled down at him. They were not a cute couple. Hayden was a slacker in flip flops, she was wearing a pant suit to perform manual labor. She was tall, he was short. They went together like water and oil. I swear sometimes they just dated to psychologically torture one another, but what did I know? If you counted non-consecutive days, they’d still been together longer than any of my recent relationships.
I cast Vance a sympathetic look and the two of us turned away from the blooming romance. Vance was Victoria’s opposite just as much as Hayden was. The two were twins, but only due to some weird sense of cosmic irony. Unlike his tightly wound sister Vance was a cool customer. Fat, relaxed, and quick with a smile. You could always count on the man to laugh at a joke, and breath through his mouth. He’d been a linebacker in high school and had the wide confident waddle of a man who was both spiritually and physically unstoppable. “Looks like it’s heading to Commerce Station.”
Vance got my meaning immediately. Years of getting into trouble with a guy will establish that kind of bond. “You think we could make it?”
“It’s just over the bridge.”
“What are you two whispering about?” Victoria, our self-appointed mom glared at us from over Hayden.
“We’re going to go ride the ghost train.” I said casually, already stuffing my staple gun and spare fliers into my backpack.
“Yorick.” She scowled and held up a fistful of fliers. “We still have work to do.”
I gestured wildly around the town square. The warm brick walkways and trolley lines were as always bathed in an orange twilight glow. “This is already an environmental hazard!” A breeze caught the nearest hundred fliers and made them flap like a crowd applauding my argument.
“We should move to the commerce district to get some coverage there.” Vance said calmly. “The mayor will never forgive us if we leave the train station bare.”
She nodded slowly, laundering the logic through several shell companies within her brain before it could be properly processed. “Plus, since the ghost train hits every station, it just makes sense to ride it so we can get them all.”
“Thank you, Mayor!” Hayden slapped me on the back and took off towards the bridge. The rest of us faithfully followed our leader in his charge.
The Twilight Islands were nine roomy islands connected by foot bridges, and rails. Me and the other slackers lived on Cilla the fourth daughter island. The sun facing side of the island was all residential, while the dark part of the island was a big forest surrounding a lake. Menaya was the mother island, biggest of the whole chain and home to most of the people. All of its orange bricked little towns had long ago merged into one big beast. At the center of it all was Twilight Tower, the highest point in the world. It was a big clock that chimed the hour, very handy in a world where the sun never set.
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None of us realized it, but the twilight islands were a moment frozen in time. It was always a cool seventy degrees, and the sun forever threatened to seep beneath the waves, but never quite found the courage. It was a beautiful place, everything was bathed in orange, and there was a sunset whenever you needed. I can’t think of a place that deserved an apocalypse less.
The four of us, even Victoria, ran over the connecting bridge that led into the Commercial District. We had no clue that our rival gang was spending their morning loitering on the bridge, skipping rocks across the water. Thay maybe sounds worse than it was. Neither of us was really a gang, we were each just groups of slackers with a few healthy disagreements. Disagreements which occasionally ended with Hayden and me bruised and on the floor. Vance was too high-minded a being for violence, and who would dare touch Victoria?
I didn’t even see them until Cyrus stretched his foot out and sent me sprawling onto the ground. I yelped, grunted, rolled over, and saw that handsome bastard still leaning against the bridge’s railing arms crossed. If smug were a human being it would have been Cyrus. The guy had it all, looks, respect, a really cool beanie. Compared to him and his gang we were nothing but the local slackers. “Watch your step.”
He and his minions shared a good laugh as I tried to get up. “Cyrus so got you!” Carter laughed and pointed at me. The lovable giant was Cyrus’ second biggest fan, second only to the man himself.
“Pathetic!” Kat agreed in her usual laconic manner. The lavender haired girl was the type of danger whose contempt for you only made her more appealing.
“Not cool!” Hayden shoved Cyrus in the chest and nearly threw him off the bridge. Hilarious as that would have been, Mr. Perfect maintained his balance and rose to all six feet of his intimidating stature.
“Hands off blondie.” Cyrus glared down at Hayden who matched his gaze. You had to hand it to the guy, a blow to the head and never taught him a lesson.
“I can’t believe we’re getting into this again.” Victoria sighed and stepped away. She was a well-practiced spectator of these little grudge matches.
“Stop.” I got to my feet, feeling flushed with embarrassment. “We don’t have time Hayden; we’ve got a train to catch.”
Hayden gasped. “You’re just going to let him get away with that?”
“Yes.” I sighed, people were watching. “There’s not enough summer left to waste on Cyrus.” Hayden usually couldn’t be swayed by reason or data, but he knew as well as I was that we were on a clock. Sure, fighting Cyrus and his crew was a worthy way to spend a morning, but not if it kept us from becoming supernatural legends.
“Next time.” Hayden turned and joined me, Vicky and Vance on the other side of the bridge.
“That’s right, Chickens. Walk away, and don’t even think about bailing on the tournament. I want to whole town see me wipe the matt with you slackers.”
“We’ll be there.” Hayden promised
“That was so stupid.” Victoria tutted.
“We wouldn’t lose to them if our girl knew how to fight.” Hayden said.
“Like I’d fight Kat.” Victoria scoffed. “That girl has a nose piercing. You don’t touch that kind of crazy.
“You really think you can beat him in the tournament?” Vance asked. Part of the festival was ‘The Painting of The Braves’ it was kind of a fight, kind of an art display. I’ll explain it more later but suffice it to say we were more excited about the fight, and the prize money.
“Of course.” Hayden’s eyes were steely and determined. “You get me one on one with that guy, and he’s mine.”
“How romantic.” Victory teased and looked to me. “And if you fail, we’ve got Yorick as our back up. Might be nice to go back to school a champion, huh Yorick?”
“Couldn’t hurt his chances with Andie either.” Vance joined in on the teasing.
“Stop.” I laughed. “I mean, who even knows? I might be so busy riding the ghost train I forget all about this.”
“Nice dodge.” Victoria led us the rest of the way to the train station. Commerce Stations was always busy, as the heart of our island chain it always had a car incoming or outgoing to each of the islands. The trains on The Twilight Islands were sleek, white and silent. They arrived with a cool hiss and left just as politely. They brought businessmen back from deals, shoppers with empty bags and summering students by the fist full.
None of these descriptions applied to the train stationed at platform 16. It was black, blocky, and came to a halt with a loud screech. “There it is!” The four of us scrambled through the crowd to get to the old thing. When we arrived, the doors to its single car hung open, and if anyone had gotten off, we hadn’t caught them.
“It’s empty.” Hayden cautiously inched closer. There was no need to worry about crowds because platform 16 was deserted. It was like there was a forcefield around it. People swerved around us just to keep away.
“Think it’s an antique?” Victoria asked. Not a strange question, it seemed to have more in common with the trollies around town than anything else. Maybe it was just old, but why was it here?
I was looking the thing over myself. There was no one in the conductor’s seat. The door to the engine was marked with a seal. I didn’t recognize what it was supposed to be, but I could make out a string of words. “Railroad Commission.” Not very helpful. Along the dark metal working of the engine were faded gold starts. It didn’t look like the lost design of a machine in disrepair. The faded stars were like grey hair, a distinguished look on a wise old operator.
“It’s definitely ghostly.” Vance whispered, hitting upon something that we were all feeling. There was just something about the train that was off. More so than it being old, noisy and abandoned. There was just this otherworldly sense around it, that put our hair on end. It didn’t belong here, not in this station, and not on The Twilight Islands.
“I don’t think this was a good idea.” Victoria took a step back.
We’d been looking at the open doors for some time. They couldn’t have been more welcoming, the interior inside seemed to promise comfort, if not the luxury we’d been expecting. It also seemed to promise privacy, and complete loneliness. No one in the crowd got in, no one needed to be anywhere it was going. Most didn’t even look it’s way.
Not that it cared. It just stood there, doors open. It was a patient mouth, waiting for a fish to just swim on inside.
“Come on, this is stupid. It’s just a train!” Hayden made to jump inside, but fear caused me to reach out and yank him by the belt.
“We can’t!” I blurted, instantly regretting it.
As if the train had been found out, it shut its doors and just a few moments later began rolling out of the station. I had the sense that something had just slipped out of my fingers, and now I know I was right.
I should have gotten on that train, I should have gotten everyone on, things would have been a lot different.
Alas, all stories have an original sin, and this was mine. I let fear stop me, and as a result we would all be punished in the days to come.
“What the heck?” Hayden looked at me, betrayed. “Why did you do that?”
“I couldn’t, I…” I babbled, trying to articulate just how wrong that thing felt. Watching it flee up the tracks, I was more sure than ever that there was something not right about it.
“It’s just a train.”
“A ghost train.” Vance leapt to my defense. “For all we know it was going to take us to hell.
“And we didn’t even hang any posters.” Victoria said, unzipping her back. “It’s the whole reason we came here.”
Hayden just shook his head and looked at me. “I can’t believe you man.”
“I’m sorry.” I couldn’t meet his gaze, there was too much disappointment in it. “I was afraid.”