The train 'station' turned out to be more of a train stop in the middle of nowhere. It had been tucked away at the end of a sad, overgrown dirt path. The trees seemed to be deciding if they should bother swallowing the entire clearing and it was in such a neglected state that would have probably been a mercy.
Even at a distance, Haru could see the small wooden platform had wood rot in every single one of its weather-warped boards. It boasted only a single covered bench to offer protection from the elements and as if an after thought, two sad little red lanterns had been hung on the posts facing the tracks. They offered little in the manner of light – what they did spit forth only served to make the darkness forbidding.
Out by the tracks, under the weak light of a waning moon, things rustled and huffed, shifting and darting in the shadows of which there was no shortage. From the corner of her eye, Haru swore she kept catching movement but no matter how quickly she turned her head, there was nothing to be seen.
In short, the place was all that was creepy.
"Good luck!" Called the frog as he disappeared back down the path. "Don't take this the wrong way but I hope I don't see you again!"
"The feeling is mutual!" She called back, softly. "Those candies should have warning labels." She finished lamely to herself. The frog was already long gone.
In the silence that followed, Haru glanced over at the man in the white suit to make sure he was still there. He had never moved except to follow after her, never uttered a single sound. It had all happened so fast and now Haru was stranded in a strange land with a cursed man.
A loud 'crack' sounded off in the woods and without hesitating, she grabbed hold of a gloved hand and rushed him to the top of the platform. Only after her the adrenaline high peeked did Haru realize she had put herself between him and the handful of stairs that lead back down to the spooky forest.
Because, sadly, in his current state she was the better bet against a threat.
"Ok, this is not how I imagined today would go." She tried not to think about how tired she was, all the while trying to ignore how massive and threatening the surrounding woods were. "I thought, at worse, I'd be turned in to a cat… kind of puts things in perspective when the thought of being turned in to a felineis the happy one."
Beside her, on the upper corner of the bench, was a sign. It was visible only to passengers once they had moved in to the enclosed area of the stop. Right now the sign read, in chipped red paint, 'On Time.' She could only hope it was referring to the train.
"I guess I better try the name out that teen at the bathhouse gave you." Haru carefully unfolded the paper in her hands, the weak light from the lanterns revealing a short name written within.
She winced when she read it over. "Wow, that guy must not have liked you much. Maybe it's a spirit thing. 'Boh' isn't much of a name either."
"Gikk." She almost managed to say it to the man without shuddering.
Almost.
The man seated next to her on the bench stirred awake, the distant look in his eyes melting away as he glanced around with confusion until his eyes rested on Haru.
"What a horrid name," He answered with a wary smile, "I do so hope it isn't mine."
~.~
By the time the train puffed up, rolling out of the fog, the moon was low in the sky and about ready to give in to the dawn.
With a graceful bow, the gentleman offered his arm and led his companion up in to the passenger cart.
In a truly strange turn of events, the 'click' of the train door closing happened to wake the spider spirit that had been sleeping in the rafters of the stop covering. The double headed spider with three glowing red eyes gave a startled chirp when it noticed how late the hour was. Without wasting another second, it raced down the post, hooking a few of its legs around the side of the 'On Time' sign as it quickly pulled out a miniature paint set and went to work.
The 'On Time' was erased and painted over in a matter of seconds. Sighing with relief, the little guy tucked away the paints and retreated back up to his nest with a yawn. Truth be told, he should have changed the sign days ago. It was a lucky thing no one ever came to this stop.
He fell back to a deep sleep having done his job. The sign now read 'Out of Service'.
~.~
The train was empty but well lit and inviting. It could have held a hundred passengers in comfort and it seemed a little eerie that it should only be the two of them riding in all that empty space.
"What an amazing story I find myself in." The man who was formally a cat, who was now being called 'Gikk' said. "Not even a dream could harbor such flights of fancy, to think that I was a cat statue with a human soul. What fun that must have been."
The two sat across the aisle from one another. The booths that ran down each side of the train faced out, so that two people, if they were in such a mood, could face one another in a polite conversation.
Gikk was sitting like a proper gentleman, cane and hat tucked to the side with an ankle lain casually across his knee. Haru, in contrast, had her head propped up with her hands. Inside, her desire to sleep was raging with her desire not to fall asleep on what was most assuredly, a haunted train.
"You did seem to be enjoying yourself." Haru agreed. So far, she had been very careful not to use his new name more than she had to. The name 'Gikk', besides sounding terrible, felt terrible to say. It didn't fit right with the man sitting across from her and every time she said it, her mind screamed 'Wrong!' but for the life of her she couldn't find the one that rang 'Right!'
"You seem to be taking this all pretty well, considering." She commented. "I freaked out when I thought I was going to turn in to a cat forever."
"I don't see what choice I have, really." Gikk said. He lifted a hand up, flexing each of his fingers one at a time, inspecting them. "I don't feel like I've changed in to something not…myself." He dropped his hand back to his lap and smiled at her. "Not having my name is very troublesome; even so, I can't seem to overly fret about with such a fine companion at my side. I know we shall set it right, one way or another."
"If you don't have any memories, how can you know that? I might be a witch in disguise." She joked, halfheartedly. It sounded forced.
"You could be but I don't believe it. It is the oddest thing, the oddest feeling. I know you without remembering you. All the emotions are still here, inside. I look at you and I recognize you, I even knew your name but the memories that would be connected with that recollection are locked far away." His tone grew distant. "I trust you."
"Well, if you want to be fair," Haru said with a touch of guilt. "I was the one that sort of got us in to this mess." Outside the window, the landscape raced by. The trees that had seemed so menacing were quickly be replaced by low lying plains, looking grey and flat in the poor light right before the sun rose.
"Do you think you'll be mad?" She asked in to the silence before she could help herself. "When you remember being a cat and your old life?"
Gikk seemed to consider the question. "Highly doubtful," He answered finally. "I am still me, even without my memories. Unless the person I am now seems to you as strikingly different from the person you know?"
She shook her head. "No, you've been acting very much like you."
"Then no." He answered, very sure. "I shan't be upset. This is a most wonderful adventure."
"Be yourself." Haru repeated the phrase from memory. "You told me that when I was in danger of being lost. I guess you were speaking from experience. Even as a cat statue, you always seem so much more."
"Did we spend much time together before this?" The man asked with a curious tone, as if something had just occurred to him.
"Mmm, no." Haru said, not picking up on the subtle change in the conversation.
She turned so that she was facing the view on the horizon beside her, resting her head against the plush back of the seat. She reached up a finger and started to trace it against the glass, still chilled from the night.
"We only had a day together, really. You're a stranger to me, if you want to know the truth. You hardly know me and I hardly know you. It's very," Her voice dropped lower, unfocused. The more she tried to stay awake, of course the harder it became to keep her eyes open. "It's very silly, if you stop and think about it. A single day, a handful of hours, it's nothing, really."
Her voice had dropped to a thoughtful whisper, "But when we danced together, just for a second, everything else seemed so… so very, small, so very trivial." Her half opened eyes watched the approaching ocean but her mind was a million miles away, slipping away in to the fragile place between dreams and the waking world.
For a dreamy second, she felt lost the memory of dancing with-
From across the way, Gikk has listened to her thoughtfully and finally decided to ask, "Pardon if this question is too forward but is there something between us?"
That woke her up.
Haru jerked up from her seat, a denial stammering from her lips. When she felt a fierce blush start to work it way up her neck, she looked at the window and wondered if she could squeeze out it.
"Forgive me," He said, with a smile and a bow of his head in apology. "That was entirely too forward. It's clear from your embarrassment I have made you uncomfortable."
"No, it's not that I mean, I do and I would," The red of her cheeks could rival the rising sun, she was sure, "I mean, you were and I am – there was…"
The laugh broke through her ranting, warm and short. "I was a cat figurine and you are a beautiful young woman. I think I get it."
A gloved hand was offered to her, which she took with the lightest returning pressure possible. She feverishly hoped he wouldn't notice her sweaty palms. A tug later and she was resting beside him on his side of the train, tucked against his chest. No words were exchanged, just the sound of the train huffing away, the steady clicks of the tracks and her heart pounding. Even that faded as the embarrassment gave way to fatigue and forgetting to feel awkward, Haru was soon sleeping.
~.~
As soon as they exited the train, it rushed away with a 'huff huff' of a goodbye. Like Gikki had predicted, having cleared the last platform the line, it did what all magical trains do. It kept right on going, the tracks and the train vanishing under the sea. After the last cart had been swallowed by the waves and Haru had shoved past the uncomfortable thought of how close she had come to drowning, the pair began to search around the train stop.
"There should be a sign around here directing us to our next destination." Gikk commented, having taken the sheet of directions from Haru. "Only, I don't see one."
The pair began to search, neither wandering out of the other's sight.
"We fell for it!" The girl declared loudly. There was no sign or even an indication that there ever had been a sign. "I can't believe we fell for it! 'Get on the spooky magical train that will take you far from here with no chance of coming back.' I'm pretty sure that's a textbook villain trick. Dang it!"
"Do you really think we've been tricked?" Gikk asked dubiously. "Because I'm not sure the fault lies with Boh. I think we needed to get off over there." He pointed in the direction where the train had just vanished. Way, way across the sea, was a distant landmass, little more than a green smear on the horizon.
"Really?" Haru asked, confusion quickly replacing anger. "But the train went under the water." She pointed up at herself. "I can't breathe underwater."
"Maybe it was spelled to allow the passengers to breathe or maybe we missed a connection? Or, maybe you're right." He shrugged. "In the end, we're strangers in a stranger land and all we have is this to go on." He motioned at the directions in his hand. "I say we favor that the mistake was ours, not due to malicious intent and try to remedy it."
"So what you're saying is that we need to get across the ocean." Haru scanned the horizon. "You wouldn't happen to know any flying spells or have the power of teleportation?"
The man smiled. "If I do, I don't remember how to cast them or any other spell. I'm not entirely sure I can swim."
"Walking it is." She smiled back. She couldn't help it. "So, right or left?"
Both directions sported the same view - a valley that stretched on and on bordered by a thin strip of beach that had gritty brown sand. Neither way offered much encouragement.
"This way." Gikk said after considering each way. He was pointing to the left. "Our best bet would be to find a town along the coast and seek out transportation. Not all spirits can fly or breathe underwater. Some actively avoid it. Not to mention human servants and the like. That means there must be a ferry that services that island."
"Ok, so looking for a coastal town. That makes sense. Why this way though? You have some magical feeling? Or you're seeing a otherworldly sign that tells you what we seek is that way?"
"Afraid not." Again his hand was offered. "If you want to know why left instead of right," He smiled and there was a playful mischief in his eyes. "Why not?"
Haru blinked, taking his hand, this time without blushing. There was no way to argue with logic like that.
"If it helps," He offered as they started down the left path, "I do have a good feeling about this way."
And the pair disappeared up the valley and over the ledge.