Danny

       The first thing to come into focus was the red and gold deco design on the surprisingly plush carpet beneath me. There was a sharp pain in my side. I blinked at the light coming in from the open windows. I pulled myself up and peered out. There were swiftly passing pastures and green fields, as far as the eye could see. The sky was a gorgeous yet eerie smearing of purples and reds, oranges and golds. Where was I going? When had I gotten on a train?

             I heard a noise from the far end of the car. I looked up and squinted, trying to comprehend what I was seeing. A small person, a child it seemed, stood there in a bunny mask that hid their whole face, except for the eyes. They slowly tilted their head to the side, staring back at me. Their eyes were a deep brown, with long full lashes. They turned away from me and vanished from my view.

             “Wait!” I tried to call, but my voice came out weak and hoarse. I cleared my throat and tried again. “Wait!”

             I pulled myself to my feet. My side ached and my legs felt wobbly, but I steadied myself against the rail that ran beneath the windows as I made my way to the end of the car. Whoever they were, they were gone.

             I pushed the button to enter the next car. It appeared empty. The doors to the cabins were open, and I looked into each as I passed. The first had nothing inside; it appeared unoccupied. The second was more of the same. The third had drawings in it, drawings that appeared to have been done by a child, in crayons. They were full of color and life. On each and every one, there was a big “D” scrawled in the corner in red.

             “Danny,” I said, the name hanging in the air.

             Danny was my younger brother. He had been on the train with me, I remembered. But why? Where were we going? When had we gotten on the train?

             The fourth and last cabin on the car had its doors closed. I hesitated outside of it. What would I say to anyone inside? Without sounding as if I’d lost my mind? But I needed to talk to someone else, anyone else. I needed answers. So I knocked on the door.

             No answer. I knocked again, more urgently. Still nothing.

             I turned to continue on, when I heard a voice call out behind me. “Hello?” The word did not sound friendly.

             “Hello?” I echoed, turning back to the doors.

             “Who is it?” the annoyed voice said from the other side of the still shut doors.

             “Sorry to bother you, but…” I was unsure what to say. “Where is this train headed to?”

             “…Is this a joke?”

             “No, I…” I stopped. How could I explain this? “I just need to know where we’re headed to.”

             “We’re in no mood for jokes.”

             “Please, I’m…”

             “Go back to your parents, child, and leave us be.”

             My cheeks flushed with embarrassment. I could hardly blame them for their reaction. Who wouldn’t know where they were going? Where were my parents? My side ached.

I moved on to the end of the car and looked through the door window. I saw no one in the hall. I decided to go back the way I came. As I passed the cabin that had the drawings, I looked back inside. The drawings and the crayons had vanished and the cabin was now empty, just like the others.

             I went back through the door into the car I’d awoken in. The first two cabins had their doors shut. I did not knock on them, still embarrassed by what had happened when I’d last done so, and went down to the third, whose doors stood open. The curtains in this cabin were drawn shut. There was a journal and a pencil pouch on one seat. There were crayons and a drawing pad on the other.  I recognized these things. They were mine, and his. I sat down on the seat next to the journal. This had to have been our cabin, mine and Danny’s.

             I closed the doors, then leaned my head against the curtains and shut my eyes. I would wait here for my brother to come back. Hopefully he could tell me what in the world was going on. Why couldn’t I remember?

             I heard footsteps in the hall and opened my eyes. The doors to the cabin slid open.

             It was the child in the bunny mask. They peered down at me with those deep brown eyes. Deep brown eyes that I realized I recognized.

             “Danny?” I asked.

             He tilted his head slowly to the side. “Danny,” I repeated. “What’s going on?”

He shut the door and I heard his footsteps take off running. Quickly, I rose and opened the doors. He was disappearing through the door to the next car, the opposite way he had gone last.

             “Wait!” I shouted, hurrying after him, not bothering to shut the cabin doors behind me.

             I hit the button to go to the next car. It appeared empty. I could hear very loud and heated arguing from one of the cabins. I approached cautiously, finding myself drawn in to the voices.

             “How could you do this to me?” a female voice screeched.

             “I didn’t do anything!” a male voice shouted back.

             “Liar!” the female voice shouted, followed by the sound of something heavy shattering into a thousand pieces.

             “Stop, what is wrong with you?” the male voice was laced with desperation.

             “Wrong with me?” the female voice was incredulous. “Wrong with me?”

             There was the sound of flesh smacking hard against flesh. More crashes and shatters.

             “What about them?” the male voice asked, softer, weaker, and more desperate than before.

             “You did this! You ruined them! You ruined everything!”

             The stabbing pain in my side intensified.

             The doors opened and a man came stumbling out. He was battered and bleeding, his clothes were torn. His hands were shielding his face. He banged into the window and then slid down to the floor, his face buried in his knees. The doors shut closed before I could see inside.

             “Are… are you okay?” I asked him, not sure what else to say.

             “I’m fine,” he said, not looking up at me. “Just go back to your cabin.”

             “Are… are you sure?” I asked.

             “I said go back!” he shouted, turning his face up towards me. I stumbled backwards.

             His face was a disaster. Covered in bruises and cuts, but that was not the worst part. The worst part was his eyes. His eyes were black pits, collapsing in on themselves. I turned and ran back into my car.

             I stumbled to a halt at the presence of a young woman standing at the rail and looking out the window. Maybe a handful of years older than I, she was dressed sort of old fashioned, holding a white lace parasol in small, delicate hands. She looked vaguely familiar, but I could not place her.

             “Well, my goodness,” she said looking at me calmly. “Whatever are you in such a hurry for?”

             “I… there’s a man…”

             “Is someone trying to hurt you?”

             “No,” I said. “Someone hurt him.”

             “Oh,” she said airily, waving a hand at me, “I’m sure you’re just imagining things, girl. Come now. Let’s calm you down some. You’ve got a bad case of train jitters.”

             I followed the woman through a few cars to what was set up as a dining car. It was empty, aside from one table which was set with tea for two. She sat at the table and I sat across from her. She placed her parasol down in the aisle, upside down, without closing it. She poured me a cup of tea, and then one for herself. The steam curled slow and steady in the golden light. It smelled soft and musky, with a touch of something floral and just the faintest hint of… rotten eggs?

             “Go on darling. Have a sip.”

             I took a sip of the tea. It filled me with warmth.

             “Tell me, then. What has you in such a bother?” She dropped two sugar cubes into her tea and stirred.

             I couldn’t remember well. It was as if the tea had made my mind fuzzy. Something had happened in the hall, but now my mind was drawing blank. Danny. The name whispered into my mind. He was what was important now. “I’ve lost my little brother,” I said.

             “Oh my. That is cause for concern.” She set down her little silver spoon. “What does he look like, dear?”

             “He’s young,” I said. “Ten. Brown hair, brown eyes.”

             “Looks quite a bit like you, does he?” she asked, sipping her tea.

             I nodded. People always said that we looked alike. “His name’s Danny.”

             “Danny,” she said, looking out the window, longingly. “I always liked the name Danny. Is it just you and him on the train?”

             I tried to remember. “I think so,” I said.

             “You think?”

             “I’m having trouble remembering things at the moment.”

             “That can happen.” She poured herself some more tea. “Sometimes I feel like I’ve forgotten my very self.” Two more sugars. “How old are you?”

             This I knew. “Thirteen.”

“So young,” she said, sipping her tea. “Do you two often travel alone together?”

             “No. But I’ve owed him a trip for quite some time.”

             “Really? Why’s that?”

             “I…” The pain in my side intensified. “I don’t remember.”

             “Children shouldn’t be all on their own,” she said.

             “No…” I said. Then I added absently, “He’s wearing a bunny mask.”

             “So innocent.” She sipped her tea. “You know, my son and I used to travel together. I loved him. He was my baby.”

             A cold feeling appeared in my stomach. “What happened to him?”

             Tears appeared in the woman’s eyes. “His father abandoned us, abandoned me.” Her lips quivered. “Tried to blame it all on me. Said I was crazy.” She laughed. An empty sound. The coldness in my belly grew. “I couldn’t bear it.” She sipped her tea, trembling ever so slightly, and shook her head sadly. “I couldn’t leave him alone.” Her voice hardened. “Not in this world.”

             Tea splattered everywhere as the cup crumbled in the woman’s hands and exploded into shards. I jumped back, startled. Tears flooded the woman’s face. A manic look entered her eyes. And her hands, her small delicate hands were coated in blood. The little silver spoon had transformed into a long sharp kitchen knife. The woman grabbed for it, and I turned and ran.

             In the next car, I screamed for help. All the cabin doors were shut. I beat on each as I ran by, begging for someone to let me in. No one answered. Each car I ran through was the same.

             I ended up back in the car with the man. But now he lay face down, still and unmoving on the floor. A dark shadow circled beneath him. Standing over him was the child in the mask, head tilted to one side.

             “Danny,” I whispered. I reached out a trembling hand for him. “Danny.” He looked up at me, sad brown eyes peering from behind the mask. “I need you to come with me.”

             He just kept staring at me.

             “Take my hand, Danny.” A wave of desperate urgency washed over me. I had promised him we would be safe. But I couldn’t shake the feeling, the feeling that perhaps it was too late. “Please.”

             The woman appeared in the window of the door behind Danny. Her face was manic, her eyes crazed. I grabbed my brother’s hand tight and dragged him towards the opposite door.

             One cabin’s doors were open this time. Our cabin. I ran inside, pulling Danny in behind me. I shut and locked the doors. What could we do? How could we escape her? How did we even get here? The sound of soft sobbing reached my ears and I realized it was coming from behind the bunny mask.

             “It’s okay, we’re going to be okay.” I said in hushed tones, trying to convince him as well as myself.

             The dark silhouette of the woman appeared before our doors.

             “Can’t leave you children alone…” I heard her mutter. “It’s a dangerous world…”

             I held Danny close, his small body warm and fragile against me. I couldn’t tell if he was trembling or if it was me.

             The woman’s silhouette moved away. I did not release him. “I promise you. We’re okay, we’re going to be okay,” I whispered into his soft brown hair.

             Warm light flooded the cabin as the doors flung open. The sharp stabbing pain in my side grew unbearable in a sudden flash of blinding pain and the whole world went dark as Danny screamed.

                          The first thing to come into focus was the red and gold deco design on the surprisingly plush carpet beneath me. There was a sharp pain in my side. I blinked at the warm golden light coming in from the open windows. I pulled myself up and peered out. There were swiftly passing pastures and green fields, as far as the eye could see. The sky was a gorgeous smearing of purples and reds, oranges and golds. Where was I going? When had I gotten on a train?