Tales of Terror: The Train
The train was sultry, a dank heat that infested your thoughts and crept under your clothes as Dr. Jumba Jookiba sat down in his disguised form, the four-eyed alien glancing left and right. It was unusually empty for a Saturday, save for a single woman sitting next to him looking at a black book that had a grinning skull on the cover. She nonchalantly turned the pages as the tubby alien twitched his fake mustache, looking down at his watch.
11:04. The train had been slightly late...ah well. He lifted up the suitcase he had, opening it up and looking down at the contents. A photograph of himself with Pleakley at the zoo, a few dissertations on Experimental Design theory, one or two on STRING theory, and another photograph of him with his precious ohanafrom Hawaii. He held it up, smiling slightly before putting it back down and looking for...
Ah, there it was. His computer tablet. He would have gotten a smartphone, but his fingers were just too big and bulky to press the keys. Sighing slightly at this realization, he flicked his fingers across the Ipad, beginning to look over his extensive ebook collection. He shivered a bit, surprised suddenly at the...odd chill that filled his form. What was going on, why was it suddenly so hot in the middle of the day in Hawaii-
"Ahhhh, Hitchens." The black-haired woman sitting next to him remarked, raising the sunglasses she had on up to her forehead, resting them there as she raised an eyebrow up. "I see you're a fan of Humanist writing?" She inquired, Jumba noticing she too had a briefcase with the golden crest of "Keala P" on the clasp to the lock at the front.
"Oh, quite. Jumba is most fascinated. Is not as good as writing from MY home, but...adequate." He admitted, the woman giving him a little Mona Lisa smile. "And you are...what is that book exactly?" He asked of her.
"Oh, it's a collection of ghost stories." The woman admitted. "My daughter is a huge fan of them. Can't get enough of them, really." She added, her deep green eyes dancing slightly with a faint glint to them.
"My, ah...niece is also quite heavily into them." Jumba admitted with a small smile of his own. "You are reminding Jumba of her. Little Lilo is ADORING the ghost stories. All so spooky and creepy..." He remarked, wagging his thick fingers in the air. "OOOOOOH! All voodoo hoodoo and everything. She even asks one of her...COUSINS...to help with a haunted house every Halloween." The portly alien intoned with a nod of his head. "The town really seems to adore her little attempts to making it more colorful."
"Oh, would that be the abandoned mansion down the back roads of Main Street in Kokaua Town? I'm from there. It was freshly abandoned when my husband and I were growing up. We'd play in the living room at night, see how long we could take being there." She added with an almost hushed, conspiratorial tone.
"Oh, really?" Jumba asked with a little chuckle. "Is that being so?"
"Definitely." The woman admitted. "He'd say "Keala, I'll bet I can stay here 'til MIDNIGHT"! But he always freaked out exactly around 11:11. Every time." Keala insisted with a giggle in her voice. "Poor Eric. He got so spooked."
Jumba snorted slightly, putting a thick hand on his chest, holding his head up high. "You would never be getting JUMBA spooked."
"Oh, is that soooo?" Keala asked with a grin.
"Definitely. Jumba is not believing in ghosts." The alien said proudly.
"No scientific evidence WHATSOEVER. Have never seen a ghost in entire life and never will!"
"Oh, haven't you?" Keala said...
...and vanished.