Snowy Red Lantern Railway

The Enchanted Railway of Blood-soaked Light

The aboriginal blast of the division blanketed the forest, muting the apple into a quiet stillness. Alice pulled her bandage tighter about her close as she stepped off the baffled path, her boots crunching cautiously adjoin the icy layer. She had heard rumors of the railway that lay abysmal aural these woods—an old, abandoned clue that abandoned appeared to those analytic for article they had lost. They alleged it "The Enchanted Railway," apparent by blood-soaked lanterns that glowed like fireflies in the night.

Alice had absent something, admitting not a affair anyone could name. It was the anguish of her brother's absence, the bite of his dematerialization two winters ago. The authorities had alleged it an accident, but no one anytime begin his body. Article central her banned to let go, as if he were still out there, cat-and-mouse for her to acquisition him.

Her flashlight flickered as she trudged added into the woods, but soon, she didn’t charge it. The faintest blink of red appeared in the distance. Her affection raced, both from abhorrence and anticipation. The aboriginal lantern came into view, its adamant anatomy adorned and gothic, aglow with an awesome blood-soaked light. As she approached, the lantern’s blaze seemed to beam in recognition, casting caliginosity that danced beyond the snow-covered ground.

Beneath it, the railway continued into the darkness, its advance belted with an aberrant red glow. The air about her grew heavy, abounding with a aberrant activity that hummed below her skin. This was it. She had begin it.

Alice hesitated. Every cilia of her actuality screamed at her to about-face back, to retreat to the assurance of the accepted world. But then, she anticipation of her brother—his agee smile, the way he acclimated to aggravate her about her abhorrence of the dark. If there was alike a sliver of a adventitious that this railway could advance her to him, she had to booty it.

She stepped assimilate the tracks. The algid adamant vibrated faintly below her feet, as if alive. The red lanterns advanced lit one by one, allegorical her forward. The aisle arced and twisted, arch her added into the forest. The copse aerial intertwined like ashen hands, blocking out the stars. The abandoned ablaze came from the lanterns and the aside afterglow of the rails.

As she walked, the apple about her began to change. The air grew warmer, the snow melting into patches of clammy earth. She anesthetized things that shouldn’t accept been there: an old beat set covered in vines, a burst clocktower, a doorframe continuing abandoned in the woods. They were bits of places she anticipation she had forgotten, pieces of her accomplished pulled from the base of her memory.

Then, she heard it—the aside complete of a alternation blare alveolate through the forest. It was abroad at first, but it grew louder with every footfall she took. The arena below her anxiety began to tremble, and a access of wind rushed accomplished her, accustomed the aroma of smoke and cinders.

The alternation appeared out of the darkness, its atramentous adaptable aflame like able obsidian. Its windows glowed with the aforementioned blood-soaked ablaze as the lanterns, and its auto hissed adjoin the rails. It slowed as it approached her, endlessly aloof a few anxiety away. The aperture to one of the carriages creaked open, and a articulation alleged out.

"Are you analytic for someone?"

Alice hesitated, her affection pounding. "Yes," she whispered.

"Then footfall aboard," the articulation said. It was neither balmy nor cold, neither affectionate nor cruel. It was simply... there.

Gathering her courage, Alice climbed into the carriage. Inside, the air was blubbery with an adorable stillness. Rows of abandoned seats continued afore her, adipose in aphotic velvet. The windows showed no reflection, abandoned the blood-soaked afterglow of the alfresco world.

The alternation lurched forward, and Alice stumbled into a seat. Alfresco the window, the backwoods blurred past, morphing into article unrecognizable. The copse angled and twisted, their branches basic shapes that looked about human. The lanterns alfresco grew brighter, their ablaze pulsating like heartbeats.

She acquainted a attendance afore she saw it. Turning, she begin a amount sitting beyond from her. It was a man, admitting his face was blocked by the caliginosity of his hood. He wore a continued covering that seemed to blinking like oil on water.

"Who are you?" Alice asked, her articulation trembling.

The man agee his head. "I am the Keeper of the Railway," he said. "I adviser those who seek what has been lost."

"Can you booty me to my brother?" she asked, agony lacing her words.

The Keeper was bashful for a continued moment. Afresh he accomplished into his covering and pulled out a small, beat photograph. Alice gasped. It was a account of her and her brother, taken years ago during a ancestors picnic. She remembered accident it, anticipation it was gone forever.

"The railway takes you not to the lost, but to the truth," the Keeper said. "Are you accessible to acquisition it?"

Alice nodded, admitting abhorrence gnawed at her. The alternation began to slow, and the aperture opened already more. Alfresco was a allowance bathed in anemic moonlight. In the centermost stood her brother, his amount aside and translucent, like a ghost.

Tears abounding her eyes as she stepped off the train. "James?" she alleged out.

He angry to her, his face bendable with a smile. "I’ve been waiting," he said. "It’s time for you to let go, Alice. You accept to move on."

The accuracy hit her like a flat wave. He was gone, absolutely gone. The railway hadn’t brought her to him; it had brought her to the cease she so badly needed.

As she watched, his amount began to fade, aggregate into the light. The alternation blare blew again, and Alice angry aback to the carriage. The Keeper stood in the doorway, his announcement unreadable.

"Thank you," she whispered, dispatch aback assimilate the train.

The railway took her home, but the blood-soaked lanterns backward with her—a admonition that sometimes, the adventure to acquisition what’s absent leads us to acquisition ourselves instead.