by Callie Stone
“What are you talking about? Who was offered a helping hand?”
With a heavy sigh, it was time for me to tell the truth. But I could not, not yet. Without another word I walked alone back to the sleeper car, and into the empty sleeping compartment closest to the door.
With the train continuing to practically fly over the bumpy tracks, I laid staring at the ceiling, with nothing but the pale, blue glow of the sleeping compartments control panel lighting the whole room.
There was nothing for me to do that carried the least bit of appeal when I considered it. I did not care to look out the window, and there was certainly no falling asleep.
With my head fixed down towards the carpet, I strode back into the cramped corridor, outside into the whipping wind between cars, and at last back to the observation car where Natasha was sitting still, staring through the window.
There wasn’t anything to see out there but the blackness of the night and the occasional streak of lightning. It was just a source of some light, I suppose. But it wasn’t enough to give a good look at her face. Even so, I knew what the expression she wore was going to be.
“What’s up?” she asked at last, her voice flat and emotionless.
“Not much. Just bored.”
She shrugged. “Me too. Actually, no, I’m not. The moon is getting dimmer, and I can’t help thinking about my mother, about Gatriel. Am I even supposed to be here?”
My instinct was to respect Natasha rather than try to immediately comfort her. So I provided my real, honest thoughts. “I do not know,” I said, and after Natasha turned around to look at me, I added, “But I don’t know what this team would do without you.”
Natasha just stared for a moment, no longer smiling as she had been earlier, and not exactly showing any clear emotions of any sort. Her eyes just softened very subtly before she asked the question I had been dreading.
“Why do they think you are a disgrace? Back in your old kingdom, the Kingdom of the Fae? What could you have possibly done, Troy?”
After taking a deep breath, I gave the briefest answer I could. “I was born half human. That was enough to do it.”
Natasha stared with her sort of poker face for another long moment as the moon became brighter again through the train’s observation car windows.
“That’s not something you chose, though,” Natasha began, and I knew I would have to do her the courtesy of a longer explanation.
“Well, I guess not,” I said. “I mean, it was just the luck of the draw. But I wasn’t exactly treated fairly once my… hybrid status came to light.”
Natasha kept looking at me with her serious face, so I decided to tell her everything. My entire story—from my earliest memories until this very moment on this speeding train—poured out.
“I was born into royalty, as you know,” I started. “While the Kingdom of the Fae is largely an egalitarian society, the royalty is still considered important symbolically, and for morale overall. My father was not just a mere king; he was also the lord of all the land. All the forests and fields, rivers and oceans, animals and people that existed within his borders were under his domain. He ruled them all fairly and with wisdom.
“It was a good life,” I continued. “I grew up with the best of everything. Food, drink, shelter, luxury. I had tutors to teach me reading and writing, mathematics, science and history, music, art, and a dozen other subjects. I had fine clothes—silk and velvet and pure gold lace—whatever I could want. The end.”
“What did you want?” Natasha asked.
“What do you mean?” I asked back.
“I mean, I am sure you must have had some dream, some ambition, some desire. Did you want to be a doctor and help people? Did you want to play the lute, like in those fantasies of chivalry where the peasant boy becomes a bard and saunters into the royal palace?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I’ve never thought about it.”
“Everyone thinks about it,” Natasha said, her green eyes looking deep into mine. “Even if they don’t realise it. Otherwise, their lives are meaningless and wasted.”
“Well then, I suppose I wanted to find the person I loved, and spend the rest of my life with them.”
“Did you find that person?”
“No,” I admitted. “I found my friends, but not that one special person.”
“Ideally, who would you want that to be?” she asked. “A blonde-haired princess?”
I laughed.
“One thing is for certain,” I began, without even knowing what that ‘one thing’ was. Fortunately, I thought of it fast. “The royal life was never for me. That was decided for me, true, but it was never in the cards, whoever is shuffling that great, cosmic deck.”
“Then?” Natasha prompted gently.
“Just someone who I could trust, someone I could love, and someone who loved me too. It’s not much to ask for.” I was hoping Natasha would get my subtle facetiousness.
“What are you on about now?” It seemed like she got it, or maybe not quite.
“The team! Look at us! We’re all friends here, and we all care for one another!” My words were still a bit ironic, in some way, but it was clear I felt that way regardless.
“I’d rather not,” she grimaced, her smile twisting into a frown.
“Rather not...what?” I asked, regretting whatever it was I was trying to say.
“Rather not look at us and see what we have. We just all spend too much time together not to have to form some sort of affection. But…that is all that there is really.”
“That sounds horrible,” I said, playing at being genuinely aghast. “Why would you not want to be friends with the people you work with?”
“I meant exactly what I said.” I watched Natasha’s expression to see how genuine she appeared to be. While she was stone faced for a second or two, she could not keep that up for long and a gentle smile, along with a few quiet yet sincere laughs, escaped her expression. I tried to hide my relief while laughing lightly myself.
There was tension for sure. But it was not between Natasha and I, and I would have liked to say it was not between anyone on our team, but rather from the relentless forces of darkness and chaos that seemed to have their sights trained on us at all times.
I could hardly blame Natasha for letting off a bit of steam.
There was a moment of silence as the train seemed to almost slow for a moment, in spite of the fact that we still seemed to be somewhere in the middle of Nowhere, France at an hour approaching what seemed to be the middle of the night. It was a moment positively loaded with questions Natasha and I both seemed to be keeping to ourselves. One question seemed to be how serious either of us were being. Another seemed to be what I was really trying to say, and what she was trying to say, and if they were the same things at all. As the train began to pick up speed again, and the blanket of stars bathing the eastern French countryside began to blur by through the observation car windows, I knew I could not let that especially pregnant silence last much longer.
“I do like everyone on the team just fine,” I chuckled. “Just for the record.” Natasha’s reflection in the train car window, as clear as it had been the entire trip, showed a mild yet unmistakable hint of a smile crawling across her lips. “I guess I just think with the demons and everything else going on, it’s probably best to keep work and personal life separate.”
“But what if you’re...” She seemed to stumble over her words for a moment. “What if you find someone...?”
“Then I’ll deal with it,” I said. “On an individual case-by-case basis.” There was a brief pause, but then Natasha continued.
“You are aware that the demons can take many forms?” I didn’t turn my head from the window, but instead gave a nod. “Good.” Her tone seemed to grow more confident when she spoke again. “I’m glad you understand that. You seem like a nice guy, but one can never be too careful.”
“So I’ve heard,” I said, my gaze still fixated out the window, watchi
ng the dark countryside zip by in the distance.
It took another pregnant moment before we both, at once, began to laugh lightly, then more than a bit heartily at that slice of banter. It was the kind of repartee I do not believe Natasha and I had shared between just the two of us. It was, after all, the kind of blather the others on our team seem to be fond of more often.
After just a few all too brief seconds of laughter, Natasha turned around so I could see her face and not just her expression.
“It really isn’t your fault, Troy. And it really isn’t fair.” Natasha’s eyes caught mine as she tried her best to convey her sentiment. Yet, all I could do was look down at the faded pattern of the train’s carpeting. There was not much for me to say, it had been so long since the banishment, and it was not something I felt it would do me any good to think about or consider more than I had ages ago. However, since I could not just let Natasha’s kind attempt to heal some wound which I would just as soon forget existed, if it even existed, I needed to give her some response.
“I think it may be time for me to go get those sandwiches I packed.”
“Yes, please, I’m starving.” Natasha nodded with convincing sincerity.
“I’ll be right back.” I moved toward the door, but then turned to look at her one last time. After all, she had saved me and I could never quite get enough of her company.
“Hey, Natasha?”
“Yes?”
“I’m glad our team has an asset like you.”
Her face widened into a smile. “Me too.”
The train began to slow, and I headed off to get our food.
Walking back through the sleeper car, I saw mostly empty compartments at first, followed by two compartments with curtains drawn over the windows, likely occupied by two of our teammates as we seemed to be the only passengers on what must have ordinarily been a quite busy intercity route.
Finally, just before I reached the luggage rack where I had left the bag with our sandwiches, I spotted Alexander in his compartment.
His curtain was open, and he was sitting on the meagre chair provided to sleeper car passengers. He was facing the window, just staring. Alexander, like the rest of us, was processing everything in his own way, and I left him be. After grabbing the bag with the baguette sandwiches, I walked as quietly as I could back to Natasha in the observation car.
I handed her the bag, and we ate as we watched the countryside go by. I found it incredibly fascinating. Even through this route through the thick of the European continent, there was this atmosphere of stillness. There were no cars on any of the roads visible through the route, and there were very few lights on in any windows. It felt as though we were traveling through the eye of the storm.
Eventually, my curiosity got the better of me, and I began to ask questions. “Do you think Zavier found what happened to my old kingdom after he departed?”
“I don’t know,” she responded. “What do you think?”
“He will find out.”
“Of course,” Natasha nodded, confirming that I had not asked anything worthwhile, before taking a bite of her baguette.
Indeed, whatever I really wanted to ask or say to Natasha that was not it. And I did not even know what it was I wanted to say. So I watched the night become deeper over France in silence for a while, while Natasha appeared happy to do the same. Eventually, I decided to try a new tactic, and began watching the trees and wildlife outside my window instead. It was dark enough now that I could see their silhouettes being cast against the darkness of the sky behind them.
Whatever any of it was, most of it was likely figments of a mind and an imagination that had been stretched beyond the limits of what it had been accustomed to over what had already been such a long, long lifetime. After closing my eyes for a long moment to try and reset my perception to something closer to reality, I noticed Natasha looking at me again, her eyes locked on mine as they had been when she tried reassuring me earlier.
“You are quiet tonight,” she mentioned, her lips twitching upwards slightly as her eyes narrowed just the tiniest bit. “What have you been thinking about?”
“I was just looking at all the trees out there,” I said. “And the animals. I could have sworn I saw a wolf prowling around out there just now.” Her eyes moved past me for a moment, scanning out the window behind me and then back to my face.
“I know what it’s like,” Natasha said, scooting along the bench seating and ending up slightly closer to where I was. While I was not sure what she meant by that, I did not ask. And while I was not sure if she intended to then lay her head softly upon my shoulder and let her eyes close, I also decided not to bother her about it and let her drift off into slumber. I had had enough rest already. The gentle rhythmic motions of the train and the soft glow of the moonlight drifting down through the windows was more than enough to lull me into a deep sleep, my own head soon nestling itself against the side of Natasha’s.
And as I fell asleep, I dreamed that night of happy times in my life. The times which I only seemed to remember in the haze of dreams.
8
Last Train to Zurich
Alexander
It had seemed like the train’s journey from Paris to Zurich had barely begun when I had made a semi-conscious decision to sit and watch the scenery, just for a few brief minutes maybe, as a way to relax my mind and further tire my eyes for a few hours of sleep before we arrived.
However, those few minutes turned into much longer than that as I took in what appeared to be a peaceful yet bleak landscape, knowing not what lay ahead. It reminded me of my pre-vampire days in the English army when we headed to the continent for the Great War. It was a peculiar feeling then, and I sensed something akin to that for the first time in a century. As I witnessed the train crossing the Swiss border, I gave up on the idea of getting whatever few minutes of sleep would be possible before we got to Zurich. And after we sped through the city of Basel, I stood up at last to check on my teammates.
The two compartments next to mine, where I knew Kieran and Michael were sleeping, were both still closed with their curtains drawn. Taking a few steps farther down the corridor, I was alarmed to see the compartments next to those not only empty, but it looked as though they had not been used. The bed in one compartment looked as though it had been sat on, maybe, and the other compartment was completely untouched. Rationally or not, I was filled with apprehension for Natasha. While Troy also seemed to be missing from the sleeper car, I knew that Zavier still had an especial interest in Natasha.
Without considering how our entire mission may have been again thrown into chaos, I made my way through the door to the next car, which was slightly ajar. The next car over was made almost entirely of enormous glass windows, letting in the witching hour moonlight. At first, I saw nothing but two empty rows of benches facing the windows. Walking tentatively further into the car, I felt a reflexive sigh of relief as I spotted Natasha’s blonde hair. I heard the wispy breaths of her sleeping, not quite snoring, and it was then that I saw her head was resting on Troy’s shoulder.
Next to them was the insulated bag I recognized as the container Troy sometimes used to transport food for the team. Standing still for a second, I had to wonder how such a thing had happened. Perhaps they had both awakened, hungry, or Natasha did and asked Troy where the food was. And that somehow led to them sleeping next to each other. Somehow. Could not she find the sandwiches herself, I wondered. Yet there was no use in wondering, as we would soon be in Zurich with little time to spare. I decided to let Natasha get whatever sleep she could, and that meant not bothering Troy either as she was sleeping on him. For some reason.
I did let out another sigh as I watched them. It was not a sigh of relief. In fact, I was not sure what caused it, but I tried not to sigh too loudly as not to wake them up. Sighing loudly was not my style anyway.
I decided to stop concerning myself with it and headed for the exit of the car. Maybe some fresh air would wake me up, despite having
not slept. Sleeping could happen in the congregation flat in Zurich, I figured.
I almost instantly regretted opening the door as the cold air hit me. Also, and I was not sure why, but there was something unpleasant in the air. It seemed like all the tension and darkness that had built up inside the train was now outside it.
As I looked out into the night, I saw a horde of creatures running about on the other side of the tracks. They were far away, but I could see them very clearly. They resembled the demons I had seen the day before, but these seemed to have more of an animalistic quality to them.
“Holy shit,” I heard Michael say from behind me, and I turned around to see that everyone except for Natasha had joined me in the doorway.
“How could something like this happen? Who is driving the train still?” asked Kieran, hovering just behind Michael.
“What’s going on out there?” asked Natasha, still sitting in the other car as Troy stared out at the ghastly scene.
“Can’t you see?” Troy yelled back to her, seemingly frozen in place.
“No, I can’t see anything except for yours and Alexander’s back. The windows have all fogged up all of a sudden. Like, really quickly.”
“Well just come out here and see for yourself,” he replied, exasperated.
Sensing something was wrong, Natasha got up and made her way over to us. As she did so, the train started slowing down as we entered a tunnel. The lights in the tunnel flickered on and off making it hard to see the other side clearly.
“What’s happening?” asked Natasha, looking through the windows, wiping off the condensation with her sleeve.
Suddenly the train came to a complete stop and what we saw was nothing short of nightmarish. From every direction, people—and I mean people, not creatures—were running toward the train tracks as fast as they could. Most of them were falling and getting crushed by the people behind them. Noises of shock and terror erupted from hidden speakers in the tunnel. What we were seeing could not be real.
