by Cameron Jace
Entering the train, he saw it was empty inside. It had an eighteenth century vibe to it; dim lighting, brown color motifs, and old decorations. Loki walked the aisle to take a seat, noticing that he couldn’t see outside because of the condensing fog on the windows. He didn’t bother wiping one off; all he wanted was for the train to depart from this freaky sideshow and take him to Sorrow.
Igor appeared again inside the train.
Standing closer now, Loki saw that Igor was blind. He used his cane to find his way through the aisle. Loki took a better look at him and saw that he had three eyes; two were in the normal places and one in the middle of his forehead. Igor had been blessed with a third eye, one more eye than most people, but cursed because they were all blind, which made him worse off than most people. Loki didn’t want to comment. Charmwill had told him that Sorrow was a special place, but he’d never mentioned anything about it being like a freak show.
“Tickets please,” Igor said to Loki.
“What tickets? You didn’t say anything about tickets. Didn’t you say the train moves forward with the power of intention?”
“Yes, I did, but I never said that it was free. Have you ever taken a ride without paying a price?” Igor said. “Everything in Sorrow comes with a price.”
“Tell me about it,” Loki said, remembering how he’d struggled paying for his schooling, and the price he’d paid for falling in love with a demon girl. The problem was that Loki was penniless—he was counting on the town’s council, or Lucy, giving him a down payment.
“I see you don’t have money,” Igor said, and his three blind eyes twinkled.
“You see right,” Loki nodded.
“That’s fine,” Igor said. “The price of the Train of Consequences isn’t paid with green bills and silver coins.”
“It isn’t? You have some other currency?”
“You pay with consequences,” Igor said. “It’s the Train of Consequences. Isn’t it?”
Loki said nothing. Things were getting weirder and weirder.
“You just have to agree that by riding the train, you will accept the consequences that’ll follow,” Igor explained proudly.
With all this nuttiness, everything Igor said rang a bell. Eventually, Loki will have to the pay the consequences of entering Sorrow. Either he would succeed in killing the vampire princess and go home, or fail and stay here.
“I accept,” Loki nodded.
“Then it’s a deal,” Igor turned around.
Reluctantly, Loki closed his eyes to use his power of intention to move the train forward. His heart skipped a beat when the train started moving.
“See? I told you,” Igor said, standing next to another seat on the left, whispering to someone Loki couldn’t see.
“Who are you talking to, Igor?” Loki asked curiously as the train took off in full speed.
“Just collecting tickets from another passenger,” Igor said, still not looking back, “a first comer like you.”
“But there are no passengers on this train but me,” Loki said, turning around to see if he’d missed a passenger.
“Oh, there are,” Igor stared back at Loki. His irksome silver tooth flashed, sending shivers through Loki’s spine.
It occurred to Loki to wipe the fog away from the window to look outside at the Missing Mile. Although he was curious, he didn’t do it. He told himself there was no need to know because whatever secrets this town held, he didn’t want to get involved. Besides, he wasn’t ready for whatever lurked beyond the mist-covered windows.
He laid his head back and closed his eyes, wishing this ride would be over quickly.
Half an hour later, the Train of Consequences halted to a stop. Loki walked back to his Cadillac and drove it down the ramp.
“Almost there,” Igor appeared again with that annoying grin on his face.
“Almost?” Loki tilted his head out of the window. Something about the air Loki was breathing told him he’d already left the Ordinary World behind and it felt good in a wicked way.
“All you have to do now is follow the Snow Red Road,” Igor said, resting his chin on his cane then winking at the road ahead.
Following Igor’s blind eyes, Loki saw a road covered in thick white snow.
“Why is it called the Snow Red Road?” Loki said.
The answer came even sooner than he’d expected. Red snow started falling from the sky, snowflakes splashed against his Cadillac’s windshield, leaving traces of oily liquid on the glass, trailing down slowly and leaving thin threads of reddish stains that shaped a word on his windshield. It said:
Welcome to Sorrow
East of the Sun West of the Moon
Loki rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn’t imagining this, but the words were gone, leaving trails of undecipherable curvy lines on the windshield.
Snowflakes fell onto his Cadillac’s roof, sounding like a woodpecker pecking on a tree. The snowflakes fell slower, almost hanging in the air like the angel hair—which people call dust—you see floating in the air on a sunny day.
Looking back at Igor, Loki saw him tilt his head back and let the snowflakes fall into his mouth.
“Yummy,” Igor grunted, licking his reddish lips. “This one tastes of strawberries.”
Loki raised an eyebrow. The red snow looked like drops of blood that spattered on Igor’s face, but maybe that was what strawberries tasted like to Igor the Magnificent.
“Oh, this one tastes of cherry,” Igor stretched his hand out at Loki as if inviting him to taste ice cream. “Do you have any idea what it means when it snows red?” Igor looked a bit worried now. “It means she is busy entertaining herself.”
“She?”
“She who lives in the castle,” Igor said. “When Snow White feeds, it snows red in Sorrow.”
“How does she do that?” Loki wondered. He still couldn’t understand why everyone called the vampire he was sent to kill Snow White, and thought it was all nonsense.
“That’s where the mystery lies,” Igor said. “Maybe she is sending us a warning to keep us in line and remind us all that we could be her next victim. Didn’t I mention on the phone that it wasn’t going to be an easy job? Follow the Snow Red Road to Sorrow,” Igor pointed ahead.
“Snow Red Road it is,” Loki sighed, looking at the road. “I know it’s been short, but I think I’ll miss you, Igor. Don’t forget to write,” Loki said, adjusting the rear-view-mirror and checking out his hair. He gunned the Cadillac into the night as he mentally prepared himself to kill the vampire princess.
It was past midnight when Loki drove through the streets of Sorrow, which looked surprisingly like a normal town. It was so quiet that Loki could hear a fly as it buzzed to death at the hands of a purple-lit insect-o-cuter.
The red snow had stopped.
“I guess she’s finished her meal already,” Loki said, tapping the wheel, “bon appetite, vampire princess.”
Deeper into the town, most of the streets were curvy, rising up and down like steep hills in a way Loki had rarely seen before. Still, with all the ups and downs, Loki saw the tips of two high turrets from behind the hills. The turrets were incredibly high, almost reaching for the midnight clouds. Loki thought they must belong to the castle where the princess lived, but no matter how many streets he crossed, they still seemed far away, as if they changed places or something. This whole thing about the curving streets made him fell as if he were driving in a maze.
A flying newspaper spiraled in the air and landed in front of the Cadillac’s windshield. It fixed to the glass with its edges fluttering like a small bird. Loki was able to read the headline written in big read letters:
Welcome to Sorrow.
“Welcome me too much and I start worrying,” Loki muttered, leaning forward to read the paper’s date. It read July 26th, 1812; which didn’t make sense. He didn’t have enough time to make sure he read it correctly because the paper flew away as if it was a bird, flapping its wings in the air.
“It’s alri
ght, Loki. It’s just a flying newspaper. Nothing to worry about,” he mumbled. “Remind yourself to tell Pickwick about it later.“
Loki noticed Carmen hadn’t played any music yet, which meant she was still scared.
He wondered if he should call Lucy so she could tell him how to reach the castle, and maybe ask her if there was a pet cemetery he could sleep in, but he decided it was too late in the evening. He checked the card Lucy had given him once more. It had an address of a school scribbled on the back: Rumpelstein High. He couldn’t help but wonder if Lucy’s family owned the school.
The address read 1812, Straw Street Nefilheim, but there was no one awake Loki could ask for directions. He assumed people in Sorrow went to sleep early, and decided to drive around, hoping he’d find the school so he could get some sleep in its parking lot—perhaps if an old woman attacked him while he slept and tried to hit him with a frying pan, he’d have a better excuse to call Lucy.
Loki heard faint humming voices in the empty streets, but no one was visible anywhere. There was something irresistible about the unseen voices, and it peaked his curiosity. Listening carefully, he heard children singing somewhere in the distance.
Loki hunched over the wheel, trying to make out the words to the faint song. They were definitely children; mostly young girls, he thought, but he didn’t recognize the song.
He tried to distract himself by reading the names of the scattered shops here and there. A restaurant’s sign caught his eye. It was called The Belly and the Beast.
“I feel hungry already,” he said as the singing voices returned.
He wondered why the children were out in the streets when everyone else was asleep. Were they practicing for a choir maybe?
The singing was accompanied by the sound of clicking shoes. It came from the narrower side streets, which were dimmer with a few flickering lamp-stands. It didn’t seem like a smart idea to investigate the narrower streets. What scared Loki the most were the things he couldn’t see. They frightened him, although he knew they were usually just a figment of his imagination.
The voices grew louder. Loki wondered if they were getting closer to him. He couldn’t make out the words, but it sounded something like:
One two,
Blah, blah, blah
Three four,
Tat, tat, ta
Loki’s curiosity peaked. He started looking for kids jumping rope. Why would children be jumping rope in the middle of the night?
Three four,
Taps on the floor
Five six,
Clicks, clicks, clicks
Instead of locating the children, Loki found himself in front of Rumpelstein High’s parking lot. It was a weird coincidence, but he parked Carmen nonetheless, forgetting about the singing girls. He needed to sleep so he rolled up the windows, locked the doors, leaned his seat back, and hugged his Alicorn ready to dream the night away.
***
An hour later, Loki’s eyes flipped open to the voices outside his Cadillac. He thought it was the squirrels and cats trying to talk to him again, but it wasn’t them. He was too tired to sit up and look outside—a little bit worried as well.
It was the singing children.
They sounded close enough they could knock on his window, but he decided to forget about them. If he looked outside and didn’t find them, he was going to freak out and keep searching for them all night. If he did see them, there was no way to be sure of what they would expect of him. He already had his share of goose bumps for one night.
Loki started counting sheep in the moonlit sky, preparing to sleep and snore the night away. He imagined sheep playing in a green field in Heaven, making their happy sounds: baa, baa ever after. It was a lovely image, and he wished it were true. He thought he wouldn’t mind if he were a sheep as long as he was forgiven and allowed back home. As he drowsed off, he spotted two black sheep, which the other sheep avoided. Closer, he discovered he was one of the two sheep, but he was already asleep before he could see who the other sheep was.
While snoring in his sleep, the song the children were singing slipped into his dream. He could finally hear the words while the kids clicked their feet to the beat:
Snow White one, Snow White two,
Sorrow was coming out for you.
Snow White three, Snow White four,
Black as night, go lock your door.
Snow White five, Snow White six,
Blood red lips and crucifix
Snow White seven, Snow White eight,
White as snow, don’t stay out late.
Snow White Nine, Snow White ten,
Snow White now killed Snow White then.
6
Rumpelstein High
In the morning, Loki woke up to a knocking on his Cadillac’s window.
“Are you singing in your sleep?” Lucy asked with her nose pressing to the window from outside, her face blocking the sun.
Loki straightened up in his seat with drowsy eyes, shooing her nose away from behind the glass. Lucy backed up as he rolled down the squeaky window.
“Good morning to you, too,” Loki said, sticking his neck out to look at the parking lot. It was blooming with cars and students, and seemed utterly normal in daylight. “I was singing? What was I singing?” he wondered with one eye closed, his other eye trying to make peace with the glaring sun. “What is with the changing weather here in Sorrow?” he whispered to himelf sleepily.
“Some silly rhyme,” Lucy remarked. Her face glowed with energy, and her blonde hair was marvelously waist-long. Even now, Lucy didn’t look like she was dressed for school. She looked as if she were going out to another party. Loki wondered if the demon girl he’d been in love with before looked as pretty as her. “You were singing something like: One-two-I-love-you. Like a nursery rhyme, you know? And you were also snoring. I detest boys who snore,” Lucy added.
I was singing a song I learned from little girls who I couldn’t see?
“Who said I want you to love me?” Loki rubbed his eyes with both hands. “Besides, don’t blame a guy who comes from a place called Snoring when he’s snoring. It’s like our national anthem.”
“Do all people in Snoring look so scared in their sleep? Nightmares much?” she folded her hands before her.
“I’m a Dreamhunter. I eat nightmares for dinner,” Loki said, running his hand through his hair while looking into the rear view mirror.
“A day ago I would’ve lent you my comb, just to try to impress your pretty green eyes,” Lucy said.
Loki didn’t reply. He knew Lucy was a spoiled kid, and was disappointed with him after failing to kill Dork Dracula. He was occupied with one big hole in his sock, trying to put on his shoes.
“Is that a hole in your sock?” Lucy shrieked as if she’d seen a cockroach worming out of it.
“Relax, it’s just my toe, saying ‘good morning’ to you,” Loki said, wiggling it.
Lucy bent over and whispered in his ear, “We both know you’re the lousiest vampire hunter in the world, so save your comebacks. And if you’re not good to me while you’re here visiting my father’s school, I swear I’ll—”
“Wow,” Loki stood up, forcing her to take a step back. “I think we’ve started off on the wrong foot. Let’s forget about that night at the party and start all over again, shall we?” Loki smiled and held out his hand. “My name is Loki Blackstar, and I’m here to save your town. Thank you very much.”
Lucy didn’t shake his hand so Loki brushed her away and started stretching his arms and legs in the parking lot. A couple of girls walking by, holding books to their chests, giggled at him over their shoulders.
“Morning aerobics anyone?” Loki mumbled, not staring back.
They could be demons, Loki. Remember Pippi Luvbug? Stay cool until you kill the vampire princess.
“So you don’t happen to know anything about little girls singing creepy songs late at night in Sorrow, I assume,” Loki asked Lucy.
“What girls?”
&
nbsp; “I thought so. Never mind. How about a Train of Consequences?” Loki assumed she wouldn’t have heard of it either and he doubted others knew about the crazy things he’d seen last night.
“Train of what?” Lucy wondered.
Before he could explain, the earth underfoot started rumbling. It started with a faint drone as if there was a giant burping underground and then the drone turned to a rattle. Loki’s eyes widened. He saw the cars in the parking lot shaking. Teens stopped in their places but none of them looked surprised. It felt like an earthquake that was about to start but changed its mind.
When it stopped, everyone went back to their business, as if this was normal.
“Phew,” Loki blew out a sigh, noticing Lucy had been amusing herself with the scared look on his face.
“You’re such a pancake,” she laughed.
“Why am I the only one worried about the earthquake that just happened?”
“Because it happens all the time,” Lucy said. “We’re on an island. It does that almost every day, anytime of the day. Now, follow me,” she signaled for him as if he were her private butler. “My dad left you something in his office.”
“Left me something? I’m not going to meet him?”
“He is very busy; so busy I almost never see him,” Lucy said without turning back.
Loki kicked the door of his car to close it, and followed her into Rumpelstein High.
Lucy was incredibly popular, waving to friends and high-fiving others while she strolled down the hallway. It occurred to Loki that he was the one who was saving the town from the vampire, yet Lucy got all the fame.
The school looked different from what Loki had imagined a school in Hell would be like. He’d imagined it full of wizards, witches, vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and the whole nine yards. He’d imagined cobwebs on the windows; blood spattered on the walls, teachers with horns and large forks, and girls drinking their ex-boyfriend’s blood and wearing it as lipstick for fun.