CHAPTER EIGHT

NEXT STOP?

She sat by the window even though she couldn't see out of it clearly, what with the darkness and the steam and the speed of the train. She was trying to remember something terribly important, but as luck would have it, it eluded her. She suspected that it was the name of her stop, but that didn't seem very important—if she missed it, she could always get off at the next one. Couldn't she? Perhaps the name was on her ticket. But where was her ticket? She must have dropped it under her seat. No, it wasn't there. Perhaps in the aisle? No, not there either.

I hope no one asks to see my ticket, she thought, continuing to search the immediate area. But what was it that was so terribly important? She didn't know. But she had a nagging notion that if she didn't figure it out in time, she'd be in trouble.

What made matters worse was that there was an obnoxious man who kept trying to make eye contact with her. He sat a couple of seats ahead on the other side of the aisle and kept turning around and looking at her. He had long blonde hair, tied back, and a broad, muscular build.

"Oh great, he's getting up," she said to herself, turning towards the window and discontinuing her search for her ticket.

"Is this seat taken, my dear?" said the man.

She sighed. "I guess not."

"It's a shame to see a beautiful young woman going on a long journey by herself."

"I'm not on a long journey," she said shortly. "Listen: while you're here you can help me look for my ticket. I think I dropped it."

"I would be delighted," he replied.

Thus they began searching the whole car for her ticket, under seats, in the aisle, overhead in the baggage rack.

They were searching on their hands and knees when the man said, "By the way, may I have the pleasure of your name?"

Exasperated, the woman replied, "I don't know! I'm sure it's on the ticket!"

There was a pause. "You don't know your own name?" he said in a note of alarm which caused her to sit up. They stared at each other in horror. Then finally:

"Edgar!"

"Terra!"

It all came back to them, and they jumped to their feet.

"I'm afraid we've been under a spell, my dear," said Edgar.

"Yes," said Terra, "We've wasted so much time. We have to get off this train!"

"Certainly. Where are the others?"

"They're not here?"

"They don't appear to be in this car."

"Then we have to go look for them," she said with great urgency, but had not yet moved. "But shouldn't we find my ticket first?"

"Yes, of course!"

They searched again, this time even more desperately than before. Again he asked her her name, and they came to their senses.

"Edgar, King of Figaro," said Terra, "Who am I?"

"Captain Terra Bradford."

"Edgar, I think we have to keep talking to each other. Otherwise we'll slip back under the spell."

"Okay, Terra, my dear. Now lead the way."

Thus they went in search of their friends, talking about their travels and reminding each other who they were. And it grew easier to master themselves as they went.

They went from car to car towards the engine. The cold blast of wind they met between the train cars did much to keep them lucid.

The first two cars they passed through appeared to be empty, though, truth be told, whether it had been two or two hundred, they had no idea. But eventually they reached an occupied car.

"Wait!" said Terra. She and Edgar had just entered and shut the door behind them. This car, like all the cars on this train, left something to be desired with regard to lighting.

"What do you see, my dear?" asked Edgar.

Terra looked and saw a ghostly figure sitting at the other end of the car, semi-transparent when she looked at it directly, invisible to her peripheral vision. Now Edgar saw it too. They approached slowly and cautiously. The Shade was sitting with her back to them.

When Terra was close enough to get a better look, she saw a dim blue light where the Shade's heart should be. The light of her soul illuminated the Shade from the inside and caused her form to be visible. But her soul was so weak that it projected her image faintly and made her difficult to see. She looked rather cold and unsubstantial. Moreover, the light was not diffused proportionately throughout, so her head was fainter than her middle, and her legs faded into nothing.

When the Shade saw Terra and Edgar, she looked them up and down, rolled her eyes, scoffed, and turned away sulkily. Her soul fluttered so passionately that, at times, it looked to Terra as if the Shade had disappeared.

Bewildered, Terra and Edgar moved on. When they entered the next car (if indeed it was the very next car; it might have been an infinite number of cars later), they saw more Shades. The Shades varied in transparency. Some were nearly invisible—some were invisible, all but their faint spirits—others were fully formed, but dark as if under a shadow. Terra felt a chill and shuddered. She had a feeling that these were bad characters, and so she quickened their pace, sensing that they were being watched by unfriendly eyes.

At some point they found Calogrent. He was sitting by himself, bemused.

"Calogrent!" cried Terra. The spell was broken. He jumped to his feet and they all continued towards the back of the train.

At another time they found Sabin, but whether they had found Sabin or Calogrent first no one remembered, not so much because of bad memory as because on this train time worked differently—and, like infants, they had not yet got their bearings.

It was a terrifying sight—finding Sabin. (Terra felt an evil presence in the room the moment they entered.) They found Sabin in a dining car, in a private cabin with a long dining table set for a banquet. Sabin was running frantically back and forth, threshing the table with his mighty arms, knocking the wine glasses to the floor, and yelling, "The wine is poison, Father! It's poison!" All Sabin's efforts were in vain, because for each glass that he broke upon the floor, another appeared to replace it. The carpet was covered in broken glass and red wine like blood.

They tried to subdue him, but Sabin overpowered them all and went on futilely sweeping the table with his arms and breaking the glasses. Then, in the middle of Sabin's rage, a figure appeared sitting at the head of the table.

"Father?" Edgar said. "It can't be!"

Sabin dropped to his knees (on the broken glass) and pled with the ghost: "Father, please stop! Don't drink the poison!"

But the figure of their father raised a glass to his lips, drank, dropped it the floor, and proceeded to die a gruesome death, vomiting and jerking in spasms of pain. Then it disappeared and the horrific scene began again, now with both brothers knocking the glasses off the table, heedlessly running into each other with great violence. Blood ran down Sabin's legs from the shards of glass embedded in his knees.

Terra wept and prayed desperately to prevent the twins from killing themselves. When the evil spirit showed itself again to drive the brothers further into madness, Terra reached out her hand and cried, "AWAY, EVIL SPIRIT! BE GONE!" The power of her voice was deafening. A mighty blast of wind accompanied the sound; which swept off the entire contents of the table, including the tablecloth, once for all; and caused the phantom to vanish in an instant with a loud bang; but not before it showed its true form, that of a hideous demon in the likeness of a boar.

The brothers, free from so great an evil, embraced as if for the first time. Edgar pulled the shards out of his brother's knees and bandaged them. Sabin had lost some blood and was a little sore for walking—he walked by the support of his brother—but had sustained no serious injuries.

"I'm afraid some demon has been playing tricks on me," said Sabin.

After this the Returners were on their guard. And they needed to be. After the party had passed through who-knows-how-many cars, Calogrent whispered to Terra.

"Looks like we picked up a friend," he said ironically.

Terra looked behind and noticed a Shade following them at a distance. His soul was in his belly and his upper portion was only just visible, and only for a moment. But in that moment Terra noticed something familiar...and grotesque. There was a knife in his head.

"Let's just keep moving forward," she said. "Maybe he'll stop."

But not only did the Shade keep following, but it was joined by three more. And now they were getting close.

"My dear," said Edgar, "Any chance of your deterring those ghosts with your particular talents?" Of the whole party, Edgar seemed to be the one who was most apprehensive.

"I don't know. Maybe," she said. "It kind of comes and goes."

"Any sign of Syan?" said Sabin. Terra had almost forgotten about him.

The four Shades seemed all to have died violently. One's throat was cut, another was slashed across the middle as with a broadsword. Still Terra couldn't think how they were familiar.

The Returners, still with the ghosts in tentative pursuit, were stopped short in the middle of a train car when a demon appeared—the boar-faced demon that had tormented the twins—in front of them, blocking their way.