Hayden and Anya boarded the train to Brickham Station and together sat down on the side seats near the doors with other passengers coming inside as well. There was about twenty passengers on the train as the doors shut and it started to move away from the station. The two of them sat quietly on the train keeping still and looking around.
“So has been any other assistants that’s done work with you in the past?” Anya asked Hayden.
“Two others and they run off. It’s not really a great job for most people. But you’re still here. I normally work by myself but for some reason people think it’s better to have a partner in crime so to speak,” Hayden replied.
“I hope I can keep on working,” Anya staring around the train.
“Good to know.”
“You don’t do much apart from your work do you?” Anya asked him.
“Nah no social life here. I mean I go to fancy places every now and again but this is my calling. No one else is doing this line of work,” Hayden answered.
The pair stayed quiet on the train while Hayden looked at the time table on the side of the train while doing to keep his mind active when Anya’s face started to change. Her mouth started to open up wide. She started to move in her seat cornering herself in her spot. She crossed her eyes in fear and Hayden turned to see where she was looking at and saw a full blooded spirit looking out the window.
“That’s a spirit if you didn’t know,” Hayden said calmly to Anya.
“I know,” she answered quietly.
“You’re not going to quit on me now are you? Looking for replacements is a pain,” Hayden asked her.
“…No,” she answered with one eye opened to Hayden.
“She’s harmless this one. Just looking out the window. You might have noticed the couple over there have their bodies taken over by spirits,” Hayden casualy told Anya.
“What, how do you know?” Any answered jumping in her seat.
“They’re been talking about the Great depression of the 1930’s for the past five minutes,” answered Hayden.
“What do we do?” Anya asked grabbing onto his arm.
“We just sit and watch. Most of the job is watching what they do and see what happens. We are not here to catch them or to attack them. I can see Brickham Station in the distance through the window.”
Hayden’s scanner started to flash in his pocket. He took it out to check it’s reading, “Detecting abnormal spirit levelling. Never seen this warning before. There’s a few spirits on this train.”
Anya looked at the timetable and leaned in at the finer details of it, “Those time tables look old to me,” Hayden’s scanner started flashing again, “Bloody thing won’t stop now. What do you mean its old looking?” he asked when he leaned in next to Anya to look at it.
“That time table is from 1930’s. Something’s very wrong here,” Hayden said widening his eyes. He jumped up grabbing Anya’s hand and darting around the train. The spirits were moving around more freely and parts of the train was changing into a ghostly white color.
“What’s going on?” Anya cried watching it all unfold.
“This isn’t a real train it’s a ghost train and I have no idea what to do,” Hayden shouted.
“You have no idea? Aren’t you an expert on everything like this?” Anya shouted back at him.
“I’ve never been on a ghost train before! We have to get off the train somehow,” Hayden said looking around.
The lights started to turn on and off as the spirits screamed and carried on with fear. Anya turned around pointed ahead on the train, “Why don’t we try to stop the train ourselves?” she cried.
“That’s a good idea and here’s the kicker, who would be driving the train if it’s spirits on the train only?”
The pair rushed past the spirits moving around as Hayden tripped over and fell onto the floor as a spirit screamed out, “It’s a monster!” Anya helped him up as he tried to get his bearings right again.
“So that’s why they said I needed an assistant,” Hayden replied.
Anya helped push Hayden through the carriages as the ghost train started to speed up.
“Oh god it’s horrible!” screamed another spirit.
As they were rushing through the carriers Anya cried out, “How are we hearing the spirits speak?”
“The scanner can translate electric wave vocals of the spirits from a few metres away from it. Here’s the front carriage ahead.”
Anya turned around to hear a growling noise in the distance. The doors opened up on the train when a spirit frightened Anya and fell half way out of the speeding steam ghost train.
“Anya!” shouted Hayden turning back and heading for the train door. He grabbed Anya’s arm trying to pull her back in the ghost train. Shouting was heard from the driver’s carriage about the speed of the train.
“It’s too fast it’s going to derail!” shouted the spirit driver.
“Just lean towards me abit and I can get you back on board!” cried Hayden to Anya.
Anya’s fearful eyes was shown as she decided to lean in to get pulled back inside the train. She fell right on top of him as the spirits crossed past them and Hayden turned around to see the driver’s door was open.
“Come on Anya we have to go to the front of the train!”
The two rushed into the driver’s room where no one was seen or felt, “What’s happening? Has the spirit disappeared?” she asked him.
“There’s no one here, the spirit has disappeared. I’ll use the scanner and electro spark it to slow the train. More cries from the other carriages could be heard as Hayden quickly sparked the train control stick to slow the train down. The ghost train rushed into Brickham Station and headed for the next tunnel division on the train circuit system.
“It’s eating me alive!” shouted another spirit nearby the pair.
The ghost train started to slow as the scanner started to overheat on Hayden, “Don’t do this to me!” he shouted sweating on the results.
A large joint happened on the train brakes. Hayden and Anya stumbled back as the Parapsychic scanner fell out of his hands from the heating and the ghost train stopped a few metres inside the tunnel after Brickham Station. Hayden and Anya looked at each other on the ghost train.
“We did it. We stopped the train. That was close and very weird. That’s part of the job you know, always weird,” Hayden reminded Anya.
Quick as a flash the ghost train completely disappeared around them and the pair fell a couple metres down to the bare train tracks together with a thump. Hayden and Anya touched their sides of her body in pain after the fall. Hayden pushed himself up from the ground and staggered over to see if Anya was fine or not.
“Let me help you up there,” Hayden said pulling Anya up from the train tracks.
“This was not what I expected tonight,” Anya said.
“Me too. I have no idea what just happened and no clue as to why but you’re ok with all of this. I mean you don’t want to quit now do you?” Hayden asked her.
“Well I was scared of the whole ordeal but I’m willing to stick this one out. I can’t stop now when my life was in danger. I want to find out who did this and why,” Anya replied.
“Great. I still have an assistant. We better get out of the tracks and walk the side wall to the Brickham Station. We’ll go home and have a nice dinner. It’s the least I can do,” Hayden said.
The pair walked along the sidewall tired after their encounter with the ghost train and earlier the Place Memory orb. Anya saw the end of the tunnel to the station and turned right to go to the platform to get back up on it when she noticed a single spirit watching her.
“Hayden,” she called for him waving him to come up to her.
“What is it?” he asked when he jogged up and she pointed out the spirit.
The spirit had a top hat and a briefcase next to him, he looked like an old passenger. He looked at them directly and started to nod his head and smile at both of them. He pointed at the pair and he slowly disappeared on the spot. Anya looked at a confused Hayden, “What the heck was that about? Why was he waiting there for? Let’s just go home and take the rest of the night off. I might have to see an old friend about this. He owns me for the work I did to help him on his case a few months ago. Let’s go home Anya,” Hayden replied.
The pair climbed back up the side of the platform edge and headed away from the train station back up to the safe level ground. This was a night they won’t forget for a while.
