Then the spirits gathered on the platform, hovering and footless.
They lined up. Then they jumped off the platform, screaming.
Then they reappeared.
Jumped off.
Screamed.
Reappeared.
Jumped off.
Screamed.
“What are they doing?” Destiny asked.
“They're victims,” I said. “They're…the ones who jumped earlier today.”
I imagined these people still alive, walking to the edge of the train platforms, as if possessed. I imagined them jumping to their deaths—their real deaths.
“They came back for some reason,” I said.
Nearby, Rodgers helped Allegra over the platform.
Then Allegra ran for the front-most passenger car, climbing aboard.
“Allegra, stop!” Darius cried.
But she disappeared into the depths of the car.
The train whistled, filling the platform with steam again, so much that I could hardly see.
The spirits made a final jump before evaporating into wisps that flickered away with the snow.
The cab started its loud chugging and the wheels began to roll.
I ran toward the front-most passenger car, but it rolled away.
“Don't board!” Rodgers shouted. “You heard your aunt!”
A handle passed me, barely out of reach.
I jumped, grabbing it and pulling myself aboard.
“Aisha!” Darius shouted.
He and Destiny were running after me.
They jumped and pulled themselves aboard.
“You're disobeying Aunt Letty’s advice,” Darius said. “And you're not gonna do it without us.”
“Sounds good,” I said.
We held hands for a moment.
“This is officially the weirdest shit we've ever done,” I said. “Let's hope it's not the last.”
And together, we crept into the shadows of the phantom train.
31
There were no lights on the train. Just the cracked windows. As the train picked up speed, the city lights shone into the car, illuminating it.
Faded cloth seats filled the room, under blue-striped, peeling wallpaper. The place smelled like steam.
We walked slowly through the car.
I was ready for anything.
But all was silent.
Destiny transformed into a lion and stalked ahead, leading the way.
“This place is weird,” Darius said. “It's like an old time train.”
“I wonder where it's going,” I said.
Outside, tall buildings rose up around us, and the train rounded a bend.
But this time, it wasn't tearing up the tracks.
It seemed to be hovering through the air as it charged ahead.
“Noticed that this train got a lot calmer once Allegra threw herself on the tracks?” Darius asked.
“I noticed that too,” I said.
We opened the door to the next car, crossing outside into the chilling snow.
A spotlight swept over the train.
A police helicopter followed us from above.
We crossed into the next car, Destiny growling as we slid the door open.
The next car was a passenger car too, with a narrow aisle to the right side and passenger compartments on the left.
The compartments were empty.
On the wall next to each door was a name written in bad handwriting.
Smith
Hicks
Mustafa
Alayalowo
And so on. All the way up the car.
“The ghosts came from this car,” I said. “I wonder if they are the ones written on these placards.”
“Still doesn't make sense to me,” Darius said.
“A train carrying the souls of the departed,” I said.
“But it's not carrying them anymore,” Darius said. “You'd think it would be transporting them to the afterlife or wherever.”
“No, it's the opposite,” I said. “It brought them here. From the afterlife.”
“And now they're loose in the city,” Darius said. “Fantastic.”
We reached the end of the second car.
The front-most passenger car lay ahead, dark and covered by steam.
“Allegra’s there,” I said.
Destiny growled. Something in her animal intuition saw something she didn't like.
Darius snapped his fingers, infusing them with magic.
“Nothing is gonna hurt her,” he said.
We opened the door.
This car was a dining car, full of booths.
At the other end was a sitting area with chairs.
Allegra sat on the floor with her eyes closed. Her skin was pale in the shadows and moonlight.
Beyond, the cab let off steam, its boiler burning bright with magic.
We ran to her.
She did not open her eyes.
“You all right?” Darius asked.
Allegra did not open her eyes.
“I asked…the tough questions,” she said.
We waited for her to continue. Meanwhile, the chugging shook the car, and I smelled the distant burning from the engine.
“I listened,” Allegra said.
“I'm glad,” I said. “And now I need you to listen to me—”
“I am not leaving,” she said. “I can't leave.”
“It's not exactly comfortable here,” he said.
And then Allegra opened her eyes.
Her eyelids dissipated.
Her eyes were gone.
Hollow sockets looked back at us.
Darius and I stumbled backward.
“Actually, this place suits me just fine,” she said.
32
I retreated behind Darius and Destiny as Allegra stood. Her hollowed, dark-eyed sockets made her look like a skull with skin stretched over it.
“What the hell happened to you?” Darius asked. “Who did this to you?”
“I did,” Allegra said. Tears dropped from her eye sockets. “I did!”
“The fuck?” Darius asked in a high-pitched voice.
Destiny roared, and Allegra took two steps back. She wiped away her tears.
“I'm not understanding,” I said.
“I didn't understand either,” Allegra said. “Not until just now. And I'm sorry.”
Destiny leaped at her, swiping her paws.
She passed right through Allegra and crashed into a table.
Allegra hung her head.
“Why did you have to board?” she asked. “Your Aunt Letty told you not to board.”
“I told you I wasn't going to give up on you,” I said. “Maybe I was wrong.”
“No, you were right,” Allegra said, smiling.
I had never seen someone without eyes smile before. It sent a shiver through my body.
“When did you die?” I asked.
“Last year,” she said. “I remember it now.”
She stood in one of the windows, facing out as the train rounded another bend. Buildings fell away, and the train charged through a forest on the outskirts of the city.
I recognized the area.
Dragon Park. It wound around the edge of downtown. After it, the tracks swung back into the heart of the city.
“I ran away from it,” Allegra said. “I ran away so well that I fooled myself.”
“Death?” I asked.
“The realization of it,” she said. “What I was asked to do.”
“Why did you lie?” Darius asked. “Maybe we could have actually helped you if you told us the truth.”
“I pushed the truth out of my mind,” she said. “I wandered and wandered, becoming more and more like my…old self. All was well for a while. I functioned. Even had a job. But then the dreams started. When I saw an ad for Dream Readers, something told me to find you. Now I know why.”
She pushed her hands out, and the window shattered, letting in the air and snow.
The curtains next to the window clapped wildly.
“The dreams kept reminding me of my responsibility,” she said. “And I ignored it. But not anymore.”
“Responsibility?” I asked.
Allegra cried. She stood in the window, sobbing.
“To bring upon the world the same suffering as I inflicted upon myself…” she said.
And then she jumped out the window, crashing into the snow.
Her body reappeared, broken and lying on the floor. Parts of her skin were missing now and she reached up a bony hand.
“Please,” she said. “End my suffering.”
“How?” I asked.
“I am reunited with fate,” Allegra said.
She screamed.
Outside, the train seemed to lower. Its wheels dug into the subway tracks again.
A massive explosion ripped across the snow and a vortex of sparks and fire appeared alongside the train.
“One thousand souls for every day I avoided my fate,” Allegra said. “That is my suffering.”
“Well, damn,” I said. “Awfully convenient to tell us this now.”
“I'm sorry,” Allegra said. “Please forgive me.”
“This train’s headed straight for the heart of downtown,” Darius said. “It goes through the football stadium, and there's a concert going on right now.”
He shook his head at Allegra.
“You were irresponsible,” he said.
“I know,” she said. “I know.”
She buried her head into the carpet.
I turned to Darius.
“Thoughts?” I asked.
I looked around for Destiny, but she was gone.
I hoped she had a good idea.
“None,” Darius said.
“I am done,” Allegra said. “But maybe…maybe…you can reason with it.”
“It?” I asked.
Allegra pointed a crooked finger to the cab before collapsing. She took her last breath and became shadow, moonlight, and bleached bones.
33
Darius and I inched our way out of the dining car onto a narrow walkway that led to the cab.
It was so tight we had to press our bodies against the train’s cold steel black frame. The flying sparks and fire were only a few feet away. I broke into a sweat.
“You sure no one’s driving this thing?” Darius shouted.
I tucked my head against the wall of the train as sparks landed near my face.
“No idea,” I said. “But we've got to get to the cab, see if we can stop this thing.”
The train picked up speed and I hugged the wall.
I reached the cab.
“Here goes!” I said, climbing in.
A whoosh of heat almost made me stumble back.
The inside of the cab was bigger than it looked.
The engine beat furiously, purple fire raging inside.
A cluster of voices whispered along the walls. At first, it was hard to distinguish them, but as I listened, I heard Allegra’s voices, layered on top of each other.
“I don't want any more people to suffer.”
“I must fulfill my responsibility.”
“There must be blood.”
“But I don't want Aisha, Darius, and Destiny to pay for it.”
“No choice! No choice!”
“No, please! Oh God no!”
“There is no stopping this train. There is no stopping fate. I brought this upon myself when I jumped off that train platform last year.”
“Maybe there isn't a way to stop this. But maybe there is a way for me to stop others from getting hurt.”
“No chance! No chance!”
Other iterations of her voice argued in Portuguese.
Darius and I looked at each other. The tango of voices was maddening.
“It's her conscience,” I said.
“Sounds tortured,” Darius said.
“How do we stop this thing?” I asked.
“I don't know any spells that are gonna stop that purple fire in there,” Darius said.
I flipped a few levers, but they separated from the wall. I threw them aside.
Allegra’s voices continued arguing.
“Weird idea,” I said. “But can you aim a sleep spell at the engine?”
“Why?” Darius asked.
“This train is Allegra,” I said. “The whole thing. If we put it to sleep—”
“You crazy?” Darius asked. “Destiny’s not here. What if something happens?”
“It's the only way,” I said. “Put the train to sleep!”
Darius shook his head and raised his hands. He fired off a cool blue blast at the engine.
The voices turned off one by one.
The purple fire in the engine stopped raging, slowing down until it became smoldering embers.
The train wheels dug into the tracks even further as the train slowed.
The vortex of fire and sparks stopped, replaced by a wave of snow.
As the train made its final lurch, Darius and I held on to a rail on the wall as a drift of snow flew into the cab.
The cold wetness stung my face and made me cry out.
The train stopped.
The city lay ahead. Sirens wailed.
The helicopter circled overhead.
And then I felt the dream ether pulsing just beyond me.
The train was sleeping.
“Get out of here,” I told Darius as I closed my eyes and jumped into the train’s dream.
The first thing I heard in the darkness was Allegra’s voices. Even though she was asleep, the voices didn't stop arguing.
“This has to stop,” I said.
There was nothing in the mindscape. Just darkness. But I felt heartbreak, sadness, and anger, all in a single swell.
Grabbing a pocket of dream ether, I separated the jumbled voices until I isolated them into four channels.
I clapped, and the channels became sound waves in the darkness, oscillating as Allegra spoke.
I clapped again, and the channels became different versions of Allegra, arguing.
I clothed them in different sweaters according to their voice.
Angry Allegra was in red.
Repentant Allegra was in blue.
Afflicted Allegra was in green.
Evil Allegra was in black.
Now, which one was the real one?
Damn.
They argued and screamed at each other, trying to get the others’ attention.
“Let's start with the obvious,” I said.
I pointed at Evil Allegra and Angry Allegra.
With a swirl of my wrist, I silenced them.
Then I uttered a prayer. Their bodies shattered in a flash of holy light.
Afflicted Allegra and Repentant Allegra argued.
“I can't!” Repentant Allegra said.
“You must!” Afflicted Allegra shouted.
I had an idea.
I pulled a swath of dream ether around me. I willed myself to become another version of Allegra.
Happy and confident Allegra, in a purple sweater. The Allegra that I knew.
I joined in the argument.
“You two are impossible!” I said, modulating my voice into Allegra’s.
Afflicted Allegra and Repentant Allegra stopped and stared at me.
I didn't expect the pause.
“I asked myself the tough question,” I said. “But I'm not listening. I'm just arguing.”
“We’re arguing for a purpose,” Afflicted Allegra said.
“What purpose?” I asked.
“This is about taking care of myself,” Afflicted Allegra said. “I don't want to spend the rest of my life in purgatory.”
“I don't want to spend the rest of my life with sin on my hands!” Repentant Allegra said.
“Listen to her,” I said, pointing at Repentant Allegra.
“There has already been sin,” Afflicted Allegra said. “What's a few thousand more souls?”
“I'l
l never repent for that many,” Repentant Allegra said. “I can only pray that the souls I've hurt so far will be able to forgive me.”
“They have already forgiven me,” I said. “They have forgiven me because I have forgiven myself. No more will I let the sins of my past burden me.”
Repentant Allegra sighed with relief.
“Really?” she asked.
“Really,” I said. “I am forgiven because I am loved. I won't be just a memory. There are people in the world of the living who will remember me for who I was, for the impact I made in their lives. For that, my smiling soul will live on. I have nothing more to be scared of.”
“But the affliction doesn't just disappear!” Afflicted Allegra said. “I have to find a way to atone or I'll never be allowed to rest in peace.”
“Who won't allow me to rest in peace?” I asked.
Afflicted Allegra hesitated. Then she looked away, saddened.
“Me. I won't allow myself.”
“So it's okay to hurt other people to make yourself feel better?” I asked.
Afflicted Allegra began to cry.
“Stop crying!” I said. “Stop it!”
Afflicted Allegra lay down on the shadowed floor and wept.
I put my hands on Repentant Allegra’s shoulders as I transformed back into myself.
“It was nice to know you, girl,” I said.
Repentant Allegra smiled at me.
“I feel at peace now that you're with me,” she said. “I asked myself the tough questions. And I listened.”
“I'm glad,” I said. “And for what it's worth, don't beat yourself up over the choices you made.”
She laughed with me, and as she disappeared, she looked at peace.
Afflicted Allegra whimpered.
I knelt down and caressed her.
“It's okay,” I said.
“No, it's not,” she said.
“It's gonna have to be,” I said. “The rest of you is at peace. Does that help?”
Afflicted Allegra gave a look of disgust before melting into the shadows.
The last thing I saw was the torment and torture in her eyes.
I wasn't sure whether my words had convinced her or not.
Finally, I stood in the darkness of Allegra’s mind, and all was still.
I transported myself out as the dreamscape crumbled around me.
I materialized in the snow, next to Darius.
The phantom train was still stopped on the tracks.
“Any luck?” he asked, shivering.
Nightmare Stalkers (Magic Trackers Book 2) Page 13