The Phantom Train Rides Again

Christi took a deep breath. Her stomach beneath her brown shirt went in as slowly as her boyfriend making a decision that made sense with his career, their relationship, or anything that would make sense. When humble nature demanded her to finish the breath, her dark eyes darted around, growing in curiosity, searching for something else to do besides drift alone in her frightening thoughts in her locomotive seat that was currently traveling through Colorado. She found nothing beside her except the night lights from nearby towns and cities darting past her small window. She didn’t know why it was this difficult for her now to occupy her time but the strangest of feeling of fear. She was known as the little girl that always had something to do with her time while she was growing up, even if it was just a little game she made up in her head involving silly letters and made-up numbers. Big brown eyes, fizzy muddy hair, and a head full of ideas; that was what she was known for, growing up in what appeared at first glance to be the smallest home in Albuquerque when she was young. People loved her beaming smile, along with her kind attitude skipping through the streets. She looked happy where she was, all swore she never was going to leave. She even smiled while her father was yelling at her to not be so careless, “Christiana, I mean it this time!” She thought she lived in paradise, but that was before she started going to college further downtown (where there were plenty of barely recognized legends haunting) and started dating someone who was

from a few states over that had changed her mind. Someone who was as indecisive as I’ll get out but had a nice color to his hair and a perfect winking shade to his eyes. Jayden Brower was a nice man, there was no denying of that anywhere. It was just that no one saw a little New Mexico girl falling for a tall, superstitious Iowa boy ever. The only reason that he was going to school in the state that was a bit southwest from his own was that it was the one he thought had the least bit of fear sprinkled in its cymbals of accepting him. The only reason that he ended up with the dark haired, brown-eyed Christi Garrot was something that everyone swore had to do with hearing the tinkle of her laugh once, before falling deeply, and still falling in love, never again to return to life as he knew it. It probably had to do with the luck infringed in her petite height, or something else nonsensical. As she looked at her light, pale brown watch currently (she wished she could stop it’s relentless ticking), she thought of him, and of how he wished that she wouldn’t go on this slight adventure of hers to Yellowstone, on the edge of Wyoming, with a few of her friends she had had since birth. They made laughs burst out of her like the water out of a geyser every time that she was with them. Yet, Jayden had quite specifically asked her not to go, particularly by train. It wasn’t because he would miss her or anything sentimental like that either. It was because she would be passing several setting of classic ghost stories that took place in a train. Jayden was a paranormal enthusiast. He was the type of man that always had to have a light on in the dark to ward off the ghosts. Usually, the brave man was the one who was ready to protect his woman from anything that might be lurking on the road ahead of them. It was unknown, and that was part of what made it exciting, or so Christi thought. Jayden was more of the man that feared anything that he didn’t know a million times over. Forget excitement. Who knows what’s out there? What if they weren’t kidding when they told that age-old story that somehow turned into a joke today? The rhetorical questions were relentless, and silly in Christi’s mind, but the further she rode on her train to a place she was specifically instructed to be wary of, the more goosebumps showed up on her arm, the darker the hallways to the railway vehicle became, and the slower the train seemed to sputter along. Thoughts of her boyfriend didn’t help her any as she began tracing little circles and diamonds in her pants, since the only thing she had ringing through her ears currently was a warning of someplace in Colorado that she might have been passing through just then. What were the details again? She took her phone out of the skinny, grey bag that she had carried into her compartment of the train. It was small, compared to the sizes of other’s more advanced phones, but it got the job done for Christi. That age-old saying that Christi still lived by today was one that her everything-I-own-is-old-fashioned dad had taught her. Some things never die. Should she call him, or text him now? She was sure that only the sound of his voice would comfort her in her nonsensical fears (certainly Jayden wouldn’t, and couldn’t do that). Suddenly, the train pulled to a stop in a lurch. It sprung Christi’s entire body forward. It almost made her release her small, never-to-be-found-again phone, but she knew better than that and already had a tight grip on everything, including the keys that were bound to burst off any minute now. She held her breath as she put her head out the door to her compartment, looking both ways, as if it was a Stop Sign. There was absolutely no way that they were in Northern Wyoming already. Almost everyone, if not everyone, had the same thought, as they all simultaneously did what Christi had done. Luckily, the ushers, seeing to be in a rush, were closest to Christi’s door, along with the person one door ahead of her. Not forgetting her manners, but forgetting everything in fear at the same time, Christi stuttered out a question to one of the people in matching, dark green uniform that looked like they knew, or was supposed to know what they were doing as they professionally rushed toward the front of the train. “Excuse me, but why is the train stopping? We can’t be in Wyoming already.” The usher smiled, as if on cue, at her (though there were plenty of nerves dwelling in the grin). “We’re sorry, ma’am, but things like this always seem to happen at Marshall pass. It is probably nothing. The train always seems to stop on the icy track, or the conductor is nervous. There is no such thing as a Phantom Train.” Christi cast her eyes down, mid the dimly lit passenger train. Phantom Train? Why did that sound so familiar? She had no time, when she meant to look forward to thank the usher politely for his slight information, he was gone. It was as if he had never even been there. It was as if no one had been there, all the curious heads were back in their compartments. She looked behind and forward, before letting out another breath that she felt she should have been able to see, she was cold as death suddenly, and growing colder by the second. What has happened to the train’s heater? She wondered. Her shoulders moved, but in less of a shiver, but more of a concerned shrug. She probably had nothing to worry about. Why did the Phantom Train sound so familiar earlier? Suddenly, the train made movements like a lightning bolt, toward anywhere but the track. Christi didn’t even bother to let out a scream. She was afraid that someone might hear her that she didn’t want to. Her eyes darted toward the window, where she thought she saw a small light, for a glimmer of a second, as if there really were another train, dueling with hers for the railroad. Her thoughts weren’t even quick enough for her body before her soul passed on from what she supposed was the simple cold to join all the others on board the Phantom Train in either the first state or the second. “I could’ve sworn there was another train.” The conductor would argue with everyone who claimed that he could’ve saved the passenger’s lives by not going off the track in between the crossing divide. “I could’ve sworn I saw…something.” His voice still rings today, as loudly and as quietly as the dreaded bells of demise on one train, in one pass today. Listen. Do you hear them?