Hayden eventually found it within himself to forgive us. It was around the time he discovered that almost getting on the ghost train was just as good as a story as actually doing it. Better actually. It still left a shimmering coat of mystery over the whole thing.

He made this discovery later that night. There was a party at Shadow Lake, us and three other groups of slackers were coming together to drink beer and swim. It was like our summer moot. Cyrus and his goons were there too, as much as he liked to believe he was above the rest of us, the beer tasted the same.

When I say night, remember that there was no night on Twilight Island. It was only night in the sense that the clocktower rung twenty times before the party started. Shadow lake was the closest thing we could get to night though. It was on the shaded part of this island, the whole lake was hidden behind a series of hills, which meant it was cool and moody.

“I of course wanted to get on, but Yorick and the others were too scared.” Hayden was working on this third retelling of the story by this point, each time the train was more menacing than the last. Soon the train would be swallowing victims whole and Hayden’s heroic’s would deserve nothing less than a medal from the mayor.

This was fine by me because it made my cowardice seem more sensible every time he told it. We were no longer dealing with a vague sense of otherworldliness, but a demonic entity spewing green fire from its smokestack. “He’s a hero.” I agreed taking a swig from my cup. “I hope to be just like him when I grow up.”

“Well you can start by signing up for classes.” He said, with all the subtlety of a lawnmower.

“This again.” I groaned. “I’m still just trying to get my schedule straightened out.”

“Uh-huh.” Hayden was unimpressed with my lies. “I know you’re juggling that promising career at the hardware store, Vance and I could really learn a thing or two from you.”

“I hate it when mom and dad fight.” Vance shook his head, as he leaned against a nearby tree.

“We’re not fighting honey.” I said. “Sometimes grown ups just disagree, except this time there’s nothing your father and I disagree on.” That was a lie. Hayden and I were both fruit from the same low hanging branch. We were both slackers, but we had different interpretations of this noble profession. Hayden thought it meant skipping class and getting away with straight c’s. I had grander aspirations, the ultimate slack off. I was going to drop out of school entirely.

“Well, you’re running out of time.” Hayden sniffed. “If you miss signups, you’re gonna have to work full time at the store. Pretty soon they’ll make you manager, and then you’ll never escape.”

The three of us shuddered in unison. Our manager Nathan treated his dominion over the hardware store like was given to him through a pact with God. The thought of becoming like that was a fate worse than death. “That is a frightening alternative.”

Vance gave me an evil look. “Of course that means you get to spend more time with Andie.”

I turned to the other group we’d been interacting to. “You guys can feel free to stop their bullying whenever you please.”

Grace laughed, and took a drag on her joint. “Well, a haunted train is pretty good. But we have some haunted house news.”

Vance cocked an eyebrow. “The plantation?”

“Bingo.” She blew a slow cloud out from her lips. She had our attention and was going to savor it. The Plantation was an ancient building not too far away from where we were. It used to grow bananas, but they’re were long gone by the time our grandparents were born. The land that’d been cleared out for it was reclaimed by the island and all that was left was a two story mansion in the middle of nowhere, overgrown with vines, and filled with rats. Not to mention the ghosts. “I heard a group of guys from out west bought it, or moved in or something. Suzy Lyons said she saw a group of guys heading back and forth from there a few days ago.”

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

That’s a thing about living on a small island. You can’t do anything without the whole town finding out. “I wonder what they want with it?”

“Who knows?” Grace shrugged. “Housing is always tight. Maybe they figure they’d have themselves a pretty nice pad if they can fix it up.”

“Hey Cyrus!” Hayden waived his mortal enemy over from a neighboring circle.

The beanie wearing hero sauntered over. “What do you want?” Ever in character.

“Have you heard anything about people moving into the plantation?” Cyrus liked to think of himself as the prince of the Twilight Islands. He knew a little bit about everything, and just about everyone. That’s why he felt like he could knock around us lesser slackers with impunity. He was just trying to keep order on the island.

“No.” That admission had hurt him more than any of our last scuffles with him. “When did that happen?”

“Bout a week ago.” Grace said.

“Same time the ghost train showed up.” Vance said in his best ghost story voice.

Was that true? The thought of that thing teaming up with a creepy mansion from my childhood made my stomach churn.

“Maybe I should pay them a visit.” Cyrus said, meaning I don’t know what. Whatever it was I’m sure he thought it was suitably cool and heroic. Maybe he was going to punch a few ghosts? Maybe ask to see the land title.

“Maybe you should leave a few homeless people alone?” I offered, then looked around for Victoria. “Maybe Vicky knows something.”

Hayden rolled his yes. “She works at town hall, she isn’t the mayor.”

“Where is Victoria?” Grace scanned the lakeside for a partygoer in a power suit. “She came with you guys right?”

Hayden, Vance, and me all realized that our self esteem hadn’t been attacked for several minutes. “Victoria?” Hayden poked his head about.

“Maybe she’s using the little girls room.” Grace suggested, and we all bought it for several more minutes. But eventually the wait grew so long we couldn’t afford to believe it any longer. We stayed calme and asked everyone else at the party, when they hadn’t see her we started to panic.

She wouldn’t have gone near the lake in her suit so we spread out across the forest looking for her. We really didn’t have much of a plan before splitting up. Who knew twenty high, and drunk nobodies couldn’t form a good search group? Before long we were bumping into each other and treaded ground others had already covered. Everyone helped, even Cyrus and his crew. Grace and Matt rendezvoused on a dolphin shaped rock and spent the rest of the night necking so I’m not sure how much help they were.

My own efforts weren’t all that impressive either. I got so lost I ended up wandering back to the lake. At least I thought it was the lake.

I saw what I thought was water. A kind of rippling liquid that caught the light from the orange sky. Only it was wrong. The liquid was black, and absorbed the light like matte paint. There was no clean sheen to it. It was thick too, I thought it might be oil. As I got closer I realized it wasn’t nearly as big as a lake. It was only a small pond of the stuff. “Victoria?” I asked, creeping closer.

The oil rippled slowly, like a rock had been dropped into it. I stood at its edge and crouched forward. It didn’t produce a reflection; it was like I was looking into nothing. Because I’m an idiot, I reached down to touch it. I don’t know why everyone was making a big deal about me dropping out, I clearly wasn’t smart enough to finish on my own anyway. I reached into the oil, and my hand went right through it. It was a substance like water, but wasn’t nearly as thick as I had thought. It was somewhere between water and air, and when I pulled my hand out it wasn’t wet at all. “What the?” Nothing clung to my skin.

I couldn’t say or experiment anymore. I hadn’t noticed but the puddle of the substance was expanding. The ripple was as if more of it was bubbling up from some underground spring. It touched the tips of my shoes and seemed to erode the ground beneath me. Without ground to stand on I pitched forward into the drink.

There was no splash. I simple fell through the surface of the liquid. I flailed about as you would in water, but I could never find enough purchase to push myself. I didn’t float either, it was like I was a rock. I sunk faster than I could believe. It was like a slow fall from a great height. I just kept sinking and sinking, the light from the sun very quickly became hidden from me. There was no noise, no light. I held my breath for as long as I could, but there was no need. I don’t know if I breathed the liquid in, or if it stayed out of my body but I found myself breathing just fine all the same.

It was as if I just fell through the world, and would sink into the darkness beneath forever.