Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural, Dean or Sam, I'm just borrowing them and I give them back when I've finished
I've been playing around with this story for a year now and unfortunately it gets pushed to one side when another idea for a story comes along, so if I don't start posting it I don't think I will ever get it finished
GHOST TRAIN
Chapter One
On a dark moonlit evening in West Virginia, a lonely black crow sat in it tree ruffling its feathers as it looked down on a black impala moving swiftly down the country road.
Inside the two occupants were tired and tense.
"Face it Dean were lost?" there was a hint of frustration in Sam's voice as he looked out of the passenger side window not even bothering to look at his brother
Dean shot a look at Sam and said "Ok so I took a wrong turning somewhere, it's no big deal."
Sam now turned to look at Dean "You do remember that Bobby's waiting for us?"
Dean didn't miss Sam's annoyed tone "Loosen up Sammy; don't get your panties in a bunch we'll get there" when he didn't know
All of a sudden the Impala's engine died and the EMF meter in Dean's duffel bag which was laid on the back seat went berserk. "What the hell, what going on?" Dean looked at Sam and then reached over into his duffel bag and pulled out the EMF meter.
"Well wherever we are it pretty active?" Sam replied
"Sam, you stay in the car, I'm going to take a look around" Dean ordered as he reached for his shotgun and torch, he exited the impala.
"What, not on your own you're not?" Sam started searching thru his own duffel bag for a torch, a minute later he was climbing out of the impala
"God damn it Sam why can't you follow a simple order?"
"You can't give me orders Dean"
Dean looked up and down the road "older brother here"
"Just cause you're older doesn't but you in charge"
"Yes it does"
"No it doesn't" Sam replied as he took out his cell phone to find there was no signal, he shoved it back in his pocket
Dean started to scan the area with the EMF meter, he took a few more steps up the road and saw ahead of him a light; it was swinging backwards and forward in the dark. Sam wrapped his jacket around him against the cold breeze as he approached his brother; Dean pointed towards the swinging light "Want to take a look?"
"Yeah sure" Sam replied
They made their way towards the light on foot. As they approached Dean saw it was an old fashioned lantern swinging in the breeze, not far from a railroad track. Following the track they eventually came to an old rundown railroad station. It was obvious that it hadn't been used in a long time. Walking to the main entrance Sam noticed that the outside wall was covered in missing person posters. Reading them he noticed that some spanned over thirty years and the last one was a year old that day.
"Hey Dean take a look at these"
Dean walked over "Wow, that's a lot of missing persons, why put posters out here in the middle of nowhere?"
"That's strange their all males and look here two brothers went missing over fifteen years ago" Sam queried, he wrapped his jacket even closer around him as he felt a sudden chill run down his spine.
"That is strange?" Dean replied as he pushed the door to the ticket office open. It creaked open a little but it wouldn't move any further, they managed to squeeze through the small gap. The small ticket office walls were covered in graffiti, there had been a small fire at some point as one of the walls had been badly scorched.
"That's odd!" Dean pointed to the large old fashioned clock on the wall "It's still working" he checked his watch it was two minutes to eight "and it's the right time".
They left the ticket office, through another door into the waiting room. Wooden benches lined the once cream coloured walls and there was a small open fireplace. "I bet it was really cosy in here?" Dean said sarcastically.
They walked through the open doorway onto the platform. Sam looked up and down the platform and moved towards the edge, the line was overgrown with weeds it was obvious it wasn't in use; walking along the platform Sam stopped when he heard a distant noise "did you hear that?"
"Hear what?" Dean questioned he didn't hear anything
Sam listen for the noise but all he heard was the creaking of the waiting room sign in the breeze "nothing, I thought I heard a whistle from a train; my ears must be playing tricks on me?" Sam replied
The clock in the ticket office struck eight. There was a flash of light and the rundown station came to life, it was as if they had stepped back in time. Now it was a well maintained and fully working station.
"What the hell" Dean looked around at the transformed station he glanced over at Sam who was doing the same, then Dean hear voices coming from the waiting room which they had just left, he went back to take a look, Sam was now at the far end of the platform when he heard the whistle again turning towards Dean he saw the old stationmaster coming out of his office on the opposite side of the platform holding a flag.
"Dean!" he shouted pointing towards the stationmaster
Dean was looking thru the window of the waiting room at the group of people dressed in period costumes. The women wore bonnets and long dark dresses and coats while the men were dressed in suits with long jackets.
"What's this fancy dress night?" he said aloud to himself.
Dean turned when he heard Sam, he looked to where Sam was pointing and then he heard it the faint rumbling on the lines of a train approaching. He saw Sam turn and look down the track at the steam train coming into the station. The train slowed to a stop, the people from the waiting room came out and started to climb aboard. Dean lost sight of Sam for a moment in the steam bellowing from the train, when he saw him again Sam was heading towards one of the observation platform steps of a coach car, Dean started running towards him shouting out "Sam, don't get on the train".
Dean's heart missed a beat as he saw Sam climb aboard leaving him no choice but to follow him. The Stationmaster blew his whistle and waved his flag. The engine driver leaned out of the glassless window and waved. As the train slowly started moving nine US Marshals carrying rifles discreetly jumped aboard the train, once the train had left the station it disappeared into the night.
The stationmaster came out of the ticket office with another missing person poster and pasted it on the station wall. It read
MISSING TWO BROTHERS
SAM AND DEAN WINCHESTER LAST SEEN 18th JANUARY 2007
It showed a photograph of them stood together on the rundown platform of the station. As the old stationmaster walked alone the platform he faded away and the station returned back to it rundown state.
SNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSN
Dean moved amongst the passengers looking for Sam, he couldn't see him anywhere. People kept nodding their heads and saying "howdy Marshal" Dean didn't take much notice; his only thought was to find Sam.
When he saw Sam ahead his mouth fell open in shock. "Sam, why did you get on the train and what are you wearing?"
"What am I wearing, why are you wearing a US Marshal's badge and that suit?"
"What! "Dean looked puzzled and then followed Sam eyes down. He was wearing a black suit complete with waistcoat, and a shiny tin badge, white shirt and a black bootlace tie, hanging from his hips was a double draw side gun holster complete with two guns and he had spurs attached to his cowboy boots "Holy crap!"
"At least I'm not the ticket attendant" Dean replied jokily pointing at Sam.
Sam also looked down and saw he was wearing a badly fitting Baltimore and Ohio railroad uniform. "I'm a guard" Sam informed him
"If you say so" Dean was now serious and repeated his question "why the hell did you get on the train?"
"I don't know, I didn't want too but I couldn't stop myself" Sam explained
"So now what?" Dean asked
"I don't think we can get off" Sam replied
"Why not!" Dean yelled
"Keep your voice down, we don't want to attract attention to ourselves" Sam noticed passengers looking their way. He smiled at them "I think we've gone back in time and if we can get off we may be stuck in this time"
"Oh that just great" Dean replied
"Something happen on this train and we need to find out what?" Sam said
"Ok Einstein, if you haven't noticed this is a ghost train so it doesn't take a genius to work out that it crashed" Dean replied
Sam glared back at his annoying brother "We have to find out why it crashed and stop it from happening again"
"And how do you propose we do that?"
"We investigate keep our eyes and ears open, we play the roles we been given"
"Awesome, just freaking awesome" Dean replied
Coming down the carriage Dean noticed another US Marshal. He was about six foot three, properly in his late forties; he had black hair with streaks of grey and a drooping moustache; he had two guns stuck in his belt with ivory handles. As he neared he called out "Hey kid, what's your name?"
"Winchester" Dean replied
"Come with me kid" Marshal McKay ordered
Dean cocked his eyebrow at the use of the word kid, he shrugged his shoulders and he turned to follow "Get to work Sherlock" he said to Sam.
TBC