Ghost Train

Priscilla's head jostled softly side to side with the vibrations of the train, her head rested against a window that had a cream colored curtain drawn closed. Slowly Priscilla opened her eyes and rubbed away the sleep. Where am I? She wondered. Gaining her focus Priscilla realized she was on a train. How did I end up here? Priscilla thought to herself. The more Priscilla tried to retrace her steps she realized the more she couldn't remember. In what town did she currently reside? Did she live alone or with others? Had she ever become a school teacher? Priscilla couldn't remember. She knew where she had grown up, she remembered the city she moved to when she was 20. But after that, nothing, two whole years of her life... gone. Priscilla started to feel panicked with all sorts of disillusions starting to flood her mind and decided she had better look for help. As she looked around the train carriage for the first time Priscilla was startled to notice that she was the only one there.

On the windows lining the train carriage were cream colored curtains attached at both the bottom and the top, all of them were drawn closed giving the windows a soft flickering glow as the sunlight hit the curtains as the train steadily chugged along. The wooden benches sat empty, vibrating together in harmony with the movement of the locomotive. A whole passenger carriage, empty. How could this be? Pricilla thought. Priscilla struggled to stand up, it was tricky with the constant moving of the carriage and her bustle making the small space between the bench she was sitting on and the bench in front of her feel that much smaller. Priscilla held onto a metal bar that connected the bench to the ceiling of the train as she attempted to steady herself and pull her enormous backside out from between the seats. Bursting into the aisle as her bustle finally gave way and steadying her, now free self, Priscilla straightened out her dress and fixed her hat with her hat pin to make sure it was secure. Walking over to the front of the train carriage, Priscilla pressed her face up to the tiny window on the door and cupped her hands around her face to block out the obstructing light. The carriage directly in front of the one she was in was another passenger carriage arranged similarly to the one she was on. The windows all had the same kind of curtains drawn closed and the carriage was void of any other soul.

Priscilla turned around and put her hands on her hips indignantly. To wake up alone on a train without any recent memories is worrisome enough, but to be the only one on the train? There must be something more going on. Priscilla regarded the sunlight flickering through the closed curtains of her train carriage. Well, I may not know how I got here or where I'm going but I can at least try to figure out where I am. Priscilla thought to herself and marched over to one of the bigger windows under a sideways sitting bench. When Priscilla pulled the curtain aside she was expecting to see a bright sunny afternoon with fields passing by as the train chugged along its tracks. However, when Priscilla opened the curtain of the window the sight before her was something completely out of the ordinary. There was nothing but a bright white light as far as the eye could see. No sun, no fields, no sky, not even any buildings. There was the train, there was Priscilla and there was nothing, nothing except light. As Priscilla blinked and rubbed her eyes a few times, her brain having a hard time comprehending what her eyes were telling it, she started to see something forming in the window. As the forms started to take shape Priscilla realized that it was her parents. Her mother and father, looking young, smiling at her. Priscilla's heart ached, seeing her mother and father's faces caused Priscilla to feel just how much she missed them. Priscilla reached up with her black-lace gloved hand and touched the cold hard glass where her mother's cheek was. Her mother and father weren't really there it was just an image, a figment of her imagination. Speaking of which, Priscilla had decided that this whole train experience must have been a dream. A very vivid dream, where she could experience everything just as if it were happening in real life. However a dream was all it was, there wasn't anyway this could be anything more, it wasn't possible.

When Priscilla was young she had many dreams that were as vivid as life, and once she realized she was sleeping she was able to control her dream and do anything she wanted. Priscilla smiled as she remembered the feeling of floating in the air as she flew across her dreams. Priscilla took a few steps back until she was in the middle of the aisle. Closing her eyes she bent her knees and pushed off the ground.

Clank.

Just to come right back down to the ground. Priscilla opened her eyes. That was odd. She could always control her dreams before. Priscilla closed her eyes and tried again. She bent her knees a little lower and pushed off even harder than before!

Clank.

Again she came right back down to the ground managing nothing more than a hop. Disappointed, Priscilla looked back at the image of her parents to find that the image had changed. Her parents looked older now, more realistic to their actual ages. They looked at Priscilla now with disgust and disappointment. Shaking their heads, Priscilla's parents turned away from her.

"Wait! Don't go, please!" Priscilla begged as she ran back up to the window. Unfortunately, her parents could not hear her or did not wish to hear her. Whichever the case, Priscilla could do nothing but watch as her parents walked further and further away, disappearing into the void. As Priscilla's parents disappeared, so to did the bright light in the window which ended up fading to black.

As Priscilla stayed at the one darkened window, hand pressed longingly on the cold stubborn glass, two wet streaks ran down each side of her face, she started to hear a sound of children singing coming from her left. Priscilla looked over her shoulder unsurprised not to see anyone there, but instead the melody was coming from the last window on her side of the train. Priscilla got down from the bench where she was kneeling and walked over. She shuffled into the seat next to the window the children's voices were coming from and pulled back the curtain. A whole group of children ranging in different school ages were sitting outside a school house on a bright early spring day singing a song Priscilla had taught them. As Priscilla watched the children sing she remembered that she indeed had become a school teacher, and these were the children she had taught! Priscilla put a hand up to her mouth as she smiled wide, both laughing and crying at the happy memory. Her heart swelled with pride and joy, out of the two missing years from her memory she was glad to have been gifted this one. Priscilla sat and watched the children for a long time, singing along to the song she had taught them. Sitting there, enjoying the company of her school children, Priscilla eagerly awaited waking. She wanted nothing more in that moment then to head off to another splendid day of teaching them. Oh what songs she would teach them tomorrow! However, to Priscilla's distain, the bright spring day turned dark, and the children with their song faded away to a much more sinister scene. Priscilla was viewing this memory from the perspective of a woman laying on her back, a dim lantern being the only light in the room, and there was a doctor at the foot of the bed.

"Ready?" The doctor asked, holding a strange looking metal device.

"Just get it over with." Priscilla heard her own somber voice say from the scene in front of her. The doctor nodded and walked to the foot of the bed to begin his procedure. As the doctor began his work out of view Priscilla heard an agonizing scream come from the woman in the scene, however Priscilla did not have to wonder what was causing the scream because as the doctor worked on the woman Priscilla could feel a most horrible pain in her own abdomen.

What is this? Priscilla wondered clutched over in pain wanting the agony to end. However, deep in her heart, Priscilla knew the cause of this pain. Without having to have another memory flash across the window she knew, this pain was her attempt to salvage her career as a teacher.

Women didn't have many options in terms of a career. Teaching is one of the few careers a woman can take. Priscilla did not desire to get married yet. Someday, maybe, but she felt far too young to devote herself entirely to a man just yet. However, that didn't mean Priscilla was against a man's companionship and regardless of the precautions she had taken, Priscilla had found herself with child out of wedlock. As soon as the father found out he denied any responsibility and left Priscilla to suffer alone. Priscilla was left very few options. She either had to try to discreetly rid herself of the child, or be doomed to the streets. Priscilla chose discretion, however her doctor did not. Shortly after the procedure Priscilla was met one day, in the middle of teaching her class, by an unwelcome visit from the principal and her replacement.

Priscilla laid on the train's floor feeling hopeless and dejected, the pain in her abdomen having finally subsided after a long grueling time. She had given up everything for her chance at a normal life, and still what did that get her? Her parents turned their backs on her, her life's dream of being a teacher shattered, she had been kicked to the streets after everything she risked to save herself from such a fate. The windows of the train now loomed over Priscilla without even a glimmer of light, leaving Priscilla alone in the darkness.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

Priscilla jumped at the sound of someone banging on the door at the front of the train carriage.

"Cilla!" She heard someone call.

Priscilla warily got to her feet. Through the small window of the train carriage door she saw a familiar face. His black hair whipped wildly in the wind, his strong chin covered in a short beard giving him his rugged looks to match his personality, his pricing blue eyes meeting hers pleading to be near her. It was Michael. Priscilla ran to the front of the train car as fast as her pinching shoes would allow as the memory of Micheal, her Michael, was restored to her. After she was kicked out to live in the streets she had met a man who took her in. He was an outcast too, however Michael was brave, tenacious, charismatic, and intelligent. Everything an outcast like them needed to be to earn a living on the streets. Michael might have been a criminal but he was also the only man Priscilla had ever met who lived truly honestly to himself and his values.

"Mic-ha-ha-el!" Priscilla sobbed as she got to the door. She was both relieved to finally see someone else on the train and desperate to get to him. Priscilla pulled on the door handle desperate to get it open but it wouldn't budge.

"Cilla! Wake up!" Michael pleaded.

"I can't! I don't know how!"

"Cilla! Cilla, please. Please don't leave me." Michael said, pounding the door less and less as if giving up hope, his eyes getting more and more damp with every second that went by.

"Michael! Michael!"

Priscilla continued to jiggle the door handle trying to get it unstuck. When Priscilla noticed that Michael was starting to fade away.

"NO!" Priscilla yelled hoarsely, with all her might Priscilla pulled and finally the stubborn door swung open. Priscilla reached out to grab Michael but all that was in her trembling hand was a gun.

"Ahh!" Priscilla exclaimed as she threw the gun away into the abyss.

Priscilla's once perfectly pinned hair now had strands whipping around her face as she stood in the open door way. Michael was gone, Priscilla had acknowledged that he was never really here to begin with, but still Priscilla stood motionless at the open door numb to having lost her love. Priscilla thought about what Michael had said, begging her to wake up. How does one wake from such an impossible dream? Priscilla questioned. Through the painful process of regaining her memories of the past two years Priscilla had felt every emotion one could possibly imagine; joy, remorse, peace, pain, loss... Having Michael so close just for him to be ripped away at the last moment was simply too much for Priscilla to handle. She wanted to wake up, she needed to wake up now! All of her memories had been restored and yet, the train chugged on past the dark nothingness save the strange lights that swiftly passed by. By this time Priscilla figured that the only thing that could wake her from her dream was stopping the train. Priscilla decided that she was going to find the driver of this ghost train and force them to stop it. Feet teetering over the edge of the train carriage Priscilla took in a deep breath and stepped off the ledge.

The doors of each carriage that Priscilla flew open on her way to the front of the train opened with ease as if even they did not dare to impede her. Every step Priscilla took increased the determined fire that had started inside her. The visions that the train had showed her swam around in her mind. Her parents, her school children, her devastating procedure, and Michael all circled about swirling all around her. However, Priscilla felt a calm the likes of which she had never felt before. She was focused, grounded, and for the first time in her life, she felt strong. Priscilla had faced her brightest dreams and darkest nightmares and what came out on the other side was her, and her alone. Having been refined by fire she was ready to not let anyone or anything get in her way, not only here in her dream but also after she woke up. Priscilla swung open the last of the passenger carriage doors and came face to face with a solid iron one. This was it, the front of the locomotive. Through this door she would find whoever it was driving this train and wake up from all this. She took a deep breath and opened the door.

Priscilla couldn’t imagine what she was expecting to find behind the iron door but it certainly wasn’t this. In front of her was a man on the floor, he had a red mark on his forehead showing that something solid and hard had recently hit him there. He was pushing himself backwards with one arm while holding his other out in front of him as if to ward off an attacker. Terror filled his eyes as he looked directly at Priscilla begging her to stop, but stop what Priscilla didn’t know. Instead Priscilla stood in the doorway confused as to what she just walked into. Suddenly Priscilla’s arm raised on it's own, and in her steady hand Priscilla firmly clutched the gun she had previously thrown away.

“No!” Priscilla whimpered as she tried with all her might to lower her arm or drop the gun, but her arm stayed steady until it was aimed directly at the poor man’s head.

BANG!

The man’s body slumped back resting on the boiler, a bloody hole imbedded in his forehead stole the life from his eyes. He was dead.

BOOM!

Before Priscilla could wrap her mind around what she had done the boiler exploded. Priscilla was dead. Priscilla felt herself floating backwards, back along the countless train carriages she had just run all the way through. It was only with that blast from the boiler bringing her her last memory that she realized, she had been dead all along. This ghost train was her afterlife, her purgatory. It showed her the events that had led her to her last moments. It was awful, what her life had become. Swept away in love with a criminal, turning into a criminal herself. Michael and her were going to do this one together. Take a train full of people hostage and run away together richer than their wildest dreams. Where they would then live out the rest of their lives together somewhere far away. Priscilla didn’t realize when she was alive the kind of monster she had allowed herself to become, and that became her downfall in the end. She really did kill that man, and without him to release the steam on time she caused the boiler to explode which killed her. Not to mention all the other people the blast struck and however many people would have been killed in the inevitable crash. All of it was too much, it was too hard. Priscila wanted to forget, she wanted to forget all of it. After spending hours fighting for nothing more than to wake up, Priscilla wished more than anything to go to sleep and never wake up again. As Priscilla drifted down into that same seat she was sitting in when she first awoke in the train, she did start to forget. Her ghostly eyelids flittered shut overcome by sleep, and she leaned her ignorant head against the window that had the cream colored curtain drawn closed, and Priscilla fell fast asleep.

Priscilla's head jostled softly side to side with the vibrations of the train, her head rested against a window that had a cream colored curtain drawn closed. Slowly Priscilla opened her eyes and rubbed away the sleep. Where am I? She thought…

End