Shinigami-cat: I have a new poll on my page. It's not that I'm wrapping this up anytime soon or anything. I just want an idea about what you guys think. It'll be open until I finish Maple & Birds… I OWN NOTHING!
The Midnight Train
An owl glared at Gilbert with its wide eyes, and a cold wind swept through the trees. The snow stung when it hit his skin, like little shards of glass in the air. He hated it. Snow among many things held a horrible sense of dread and foreboding. As they walked along Canada looked to his left and stared at a shadowy tree for a second.
Gilbert took a moment to also look at the tree; strips of bark were hanging off it and jagged rocks, pointing up at odd ankles at the bottom. Canada noticed Gilbert's curiosity and sighed sadly. "The Hanging tree." Gilbert frowned and took a closer look at the tree. What he assumed was bark was actually rope, and the rocks were bones. Gilbert was glad it was night so he couldn't see it properly.
They continued to walk through the snow. A few meters ahead they came across a brick fence. It came up to Gilbert's head in height and was about as large as a football field, it was cracking in places but it was still sturdy. 'Wonder what's in there?' Thought Gilbert.
He didn't have to wait long to find the answer. There was a huge iron gate, rusted red from the weather. Canada easily pushed the gates open and walked inside. They had walking into a graveyard. The tombstones were cracked and decaying. Up the back were a few fancier tombstones near the back wall shaped like angels.
Canada walked up to a tombstone near the far right of the graveyard and crouched down. The tombstone itself was covered in dead weeds and had a kind of fungus growing off it. Canada pulled the weeds away from it to revile the Russian underneath. "What does it say?" Asked Gilbert.
Canada shrugged and ran his fingers across the inscription. "Once were many now are few. Two score, one score set us free. Four score, three score let us be. Music sets the heart on fire. Poke the flame, inspire desire. For service play the flute."
Gilbert raised an eyebrow. "What is that supposed to mean?"
Canada shrugged. "Just means we have to find a flute and play it. Simple as that."
"I don't get it." Said Gilbert. "Why do we need to do that? Why are we in a graveyard? I thought we needed to find a train station or something?"
Canada shrugged and stood up. "We are at the train station. This graveyard is the train station." Gilbert frowned and looked around. There was no train track, ticket booth or anything to indicate that they were at a train station. Canada chuckled at Gilbert bemused expression. "It's a secret train station. No one uses it except for demons, magical creatures and countries."
"That's pretty cool." Said Gilbert. "It's like your own personal train."
"Apart from the magical creatures and demons." Said Canada. He looked over at the angel statues at the very back of the graveyard. "Now… I wonder which one has a flute." He walked over to said angel statues and started to look around. "I'll start on this side you look on the other." Gilbert shrugged and walked over to the other side of the graveyard. He wasn't sure why they needed to find a flute. It was probably some kind of magical thing. He wouldn't have been surprised if it was.
He looked up at the statues and frowned. Most of them were half naked women holding harps, birds and flowers. Not a single flute among them. Perhaps Canada was having better luck. He leaned against tombstone and sighed. "A flute… Damn it why would we need to find a stone statue with a flute? It's not like we could even play it if we even found it. It's made of stone."
He leaned back and bumped his head against a statue. Gilbert groaned and rubbed the back of his head. He turned and had a look at the statue. He was looking at the back of a stone angel; she was holding violin bow behind her back. Gilbert's eyes went wide. 'I've only been looking at the front of the statues… I never even thought about looking behind them.'
He grinned and quickly ran behind a row of angels and looked at them. Several of them were leaning against flat rocks or mounds made to look like clouds or flowers. But behind one of the angels was a crouching cupid holding a little flute to his lips.
Gilbert grinned at how awesome he was, but now that he had found it, what was he supposed to do? Gilbert frowned. "Well… Canada said we needed to find the flute and play it…" He leaned forward so that his lips ere almost touching the stone flute and gently blew across the top. A haunting note rattled reverberated around the four stone walls.
A few seconds later Canada was standing next to Gilbert. He looked at the little cupid figure and frowned. "So this is where the signal was hiding…" He looked over at Gilbert and smiled slightly. "Okay let's head back to the gate. The train should be here soon."
Gilbert sighed and just followed Canada. 'Trains can't run without train tracks… Screw it, I bet it's a magic train. That runs on magic. That makes tracks magically appear in front of it as it moves… I feel like I'm living in a badly written teen fiction.'
They exited the graveyard and leaned against the brick wall in silence. A thick fog was starting to roll in. Against his better judgement Gilbert stood close to Matthew. He realized that there were things out there that he wouldn't be able to defend himself against and he would need Canada to help him. Anything could be living in that fog.
Gilbert looked down the road and saw something glowing in the distance. It was so small he couldn't really tell if they were really there or not, but soon the light got larger and brighter. He looked at Canada to see what he thought about the light. Canada was just calmly standing there smiling at the light as it drew closer and closer. The scream of metal against metal cut through the air as the speeding object came to a grinding stop. The hiss of the pistons indicated that the object had come to a halt.
This was the Midnight Train; a gaudy skull adorned the front of the train, its jaws opened to hold the light, a sliver chimney modestly placed behind the skull puffed light grey smoke, the coal train was pure black and sleek black carriages accented with fine silver trim completed the train's elegant look.
"Awesome." Whispered Gilbert.
A skeleton in a tattered conductor's suit stepped out of one of the carriages and walked over towards the duo. Instinctively Gilbert shifted slightly behind Canada. It wasn't as though he was afraid or anything. He just didn't know how to kill a skeleton because he had the mind set of 'If it can bleed you can kill it'.
But Canada made no such move. Instead he walked towards the skeleton and smiled. "Two tickets to Berlin please." The skeleton nodded, his loose teeth rattling in his skull. It tilted its head slightly and looked past Canada at Gilbert. Canada coughed uncomfortably. "Um… I'm paying for his ticket to."
Gilbert raised an eyebrow. Ukraine hadn't given them any money so he had no idea how they could pay for it. The skeleton nodded and held out its hand. Canada pulled his sleeve up and sunk his teeth into his wrist until he bled. He held his writs over the skeletons palm and let several drops fall into its bones, colouring them red.
When enough blood had collected on the bones the skeleton pulled two emerald tickets out of its tattered front pocket. The tickets indicated their destination, which carriage they would stay in and the approximate time they would get there. Canada quickly pocketed the tickets and looked over at Gilbert. "Come on then."
Gilbert nodded and quickly followed Canada onto the second carriage. The interior was amazing; red velvet carpet lined the floors, oak panels lined the hallways and golden candles eliminated them. All in all it gave the whole place an inviting, homey feel. It was relaxing. He followed Canada into a room; it was small but had two beds, two seats, a closet, a small table and a little window.
Gilbert sighed and flopped down onto one of the beds. It felt nice to relax a little. Even if the bed linen smelt like moth balls. He looked over at Canada, who was sitting by the window. "So… We're going to Berlin?"
Canada nodded. "Yeah… I want to see Prussia. I haven't seen him in years."
Gilbert's eyes lit up with excitement. "Awesome! I'll finally get to meet him!"
Canada smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. "Yeah… I'm sure he'll be interested to see you too."
Gilbert smiled happily and tapped his fingers against his chest. "Berlin… I wonder how different it is from the Berlin in my world."
"It's crawling with Plagues." Deadpanned Canada. "And most of the buildings have been destroyed."
"And now I'm less excited to see Berlin." Muttered Gilbert.
Canada shrugged and walked over to his bed, taking off his boots. "Well we're going to be here a while. May as well get some sleep." Gilbert nodded and kicked off his shoes before crawling under the covers.
XoXoXo page brake oXoXoX
The jaunt and jolt of the train slowly brought Gilbert out of his sleep. Hey yawned and slowly sat up. Light was pouring through the window. He looked around the small room and frowned. Canada was gone. He wasn't sure if he should be worried or not. He quickly put on his shoes and walked over to the window. What he saw shocked him; sand and tall grass, zebras and lions. The train was now in Africa.
Rather than question how it was even possible he opened the window and enjoyed the view. Hot air billowed through the room. Gilbert sighed contently. It was nice to feel hot air against his sink instead of the bitter sting of snow.
After a while he closed the window. "May as well try to find Canada." With that thought in mind he opened the door and was face to face with a bunch of coloured lights; they hovered and zipped around his head like flies before quickly moving away. One of the lights, a green one, flew right up to Gilbert's nose and just stayed there. Gilbert squinted at the light and was surprised to see it was a little naked woman with wings fluttering in front of him. It was a fairy.
He blushed a little at the fairy's naked body, after all he had been brought up on Disney movies and in all of them fairies had clothes. Suddenly the fairies zoomed down the hall and disappeared. "Well… That was… Odd…" Said Gilbert. He slowly walked to the next room and knocked on the door. After a few seconds a Japanese woman wearing a fox mask opened the door. Gilbert smiled nervously. "Um… hi there. I'm looking for my friend. He's got blond hair, violet eyes, has a random hair curl and is pretty quiet. Have you seen him?"
The Japanese woman shook her head and closed the door. Gilbert just looked at the door for a second before slowly turning around. 'Maybe I should go back to bed… I'm obviously way too tired to be up. Hell I might even be on drugs… When I get home I'm checking myself into a mental hospital or something…'
Suddenly two little ghost girls ran down the hall laughing like crazy. Instinctively Gilbert moved out of the way to let them pass but ended up tripping over his own two feet and smashed his chin into the floor. "Ouch…"
"What are you doing down there Gilbert?" Asked Canada.
Gilbert looked up at Canada; he was carrying a sliver plater, on it were two stacks of pancakes and a jug of orange juice. Gilbert narrowed his eyes and growled. "Making a cake, care to join me? Where the hell were you?"
"I went to the dining cart." Said Canada. He stepped over Gilbert and opened the door to their room with one hand. "So do you want breakfast or not?"
Gilbert sighed and stood up. "You could have left a note."
Canada rolled his eyes and put the food on the table. "With what paper Gilbert? Besides I thought you would still be asleep." He grabbed a stack of pancakes and started to eat. He looked out the window and smiled. "Oh look, Africa."
Gilbert sat across from Canada and grabbed his pancakes. "Yeah I noticed. Why are we in Africa?"
Canada shrugged and chewed some of his pancake. "Well the Midnight Train only runs for those who can pay the price… So I guess someone out here needs it. Makes a nice change from snow doesn't it?"
Gilbert nodded in agreement. "Yeah. Anyway I ran into some fairies out there."
"What colour?" Asked Canada. "Red, green, yellow, blue, purple, pink?"
"Malty-coloured."
"Probably a whole different assortment then." Said Canada. "Most of the green ones live in forests and the blue ones live near water. A lot of the coloured ones hang out around flower fields. Yellow ones usually stay in desert areas, unless they are light fairies. They usually drift around in dark places offering people they like a light to guide their way." He took a sip of orange juice and thought for a moment. "But light fairies usually emit a white light and can be confused with spirit lights."
Gilbert frowned. "Spirit lights? What are they?"
Canada shrugged. "When a person is in a coma their spirit can leave the body. They emit white light too, but don't interact with anyone at all, like light fairies would."
Gilbert shrugged and ate his pancakes. "So when are we getting to Berlin? Africa seems like a major detour."
Canada pulled out their tickets and looked over them. "Well it says that we'll be there in twenty four hours. So we have about sixteen hours until we get there."
Gilbert sighed dramatically. "Sixteen hours? What am I meant to do for sixteen hours?"
Canada shrugged. "Why don't you have a look around? The dining cart is the one back there. Just don't bother anyone. There are a lot of ghosts and demons and magical creatures on this train."
XoXoXo page brake oXoXoX
The dining cart had a very different décor from the carriages; oak panels painted black, a sleek bar filled with expensive cups and bottles of wine and beer was pressed up against the side, black velvet carpet on the floor and small silver tables and chairs were dotted throughout the dining cart.
Gilbert was sitting at one of these tables watching people come and go. So far he had seen several ghosts, fairies, animal hybrids and some creatures he didn't even know of. He looked over at the bar and smirked at the fairies passed out by a bowl of cream. It was like tequila to them.
A little blue fairy stumbled off the bar and fell to the floor. A buy with dark chocolate brown hair and goat legs picked up the fairy and put it back with its friends. He looked over at Gilbert and quickly pulled a note pad and a pen out from his shirt pocket and walked over to him. "Do you want something sir?" he bleated.
Gilbert shrugged. "Well… Not really. I'm just people… demon… creature watching… Yeah…"
The goat boy giggled. "I'll take it that it's your first time on the Midnight Train?"
Gilbert smirked. "Is it that obvious?"
"Painfully so." Said the goat boy. "Um I don't mean to be rude but are you a demon?"
Gilbert frowned and shook his head. "No. I'm human. I'm just albino."
The goat boy nodded and extended his hand. "Well I'm a Faun. My name is Capricornus. But most people call me Corn."
Gilbert shook his hand. "Cool. Well I'm Gilbert. Do you work here?"
Corn nodded happily. "Yeah, I've been riding the rails for almost seven hundred years now! It's so much fun seeing all the people come and go."
Gilbert was shocked to say the least. Corn looked about fifteen. "Wow seven hundred years… You age pretty well."
Corn giggled and shook his head. "Oh stop it. You're just saying that because you're human. I look terrible for a Faun! I mean come on my hair is too silky and I have no hair growing on the back of my hands yet. Heck I don't even have a beard yet!"
Gilbert shrugged and leaned back in his chair. "So… why did you start working here?"
Corn shrugged. "I wanted to get away from Pan. He's like the leader of our tribe and he's pretty crazy. Why might you be here?"
"My friend and I are heading to Berlin." Said Gilbert.
Corn's eyes went wide in pure horror. "Berlin? No, no, no! You can't go to Berlin! That's suicide! Everyone who has gone there has ended up dead and everywhere! As in on the walls, floor, roof and anywhere else!" He looked over his shoulder briefly then leaned in close to Gilbert. "They say Hunter has black listed that place. As in anyone who goes in there will die. B-Plagues and G-Plagues patrol that place twenty four hours a day!"
Gilbert's eyes went wide. Canada hadn't told him that. "Why so many?"
Corn shrugged. "I have no idea… But I have heard rumours."
Gilbert leaned forward. "I'm listening."
"It's rumoured that Berlin is a prison." Whispered Corn. "A prison for a very dangerous person. Probably a demon. Many of us think that Hunter black listed it because whoever he has imprisoned in there has the power to stop him."
Gilbert's eyes went wide. 'Didn't Canada want us to go to Berlin to see Prussia? Holy crap we're going to bust Prussia out of Berlin! Never thought I'd use that phrase before.'
"But it's just a rumour." Said Corn. He pressed his pen to his note pad and smiled happily. "So do you want a drink or something? Hot chocolate perhaps? Lemonade? Cordial? Water? It's on the house."
"Um… lemonade please." Said Gilbert.
Corn nodded and quickly jotted it down. "Okay I'll be back with your order in a tick." Corn quickly turned on his heels and skipped over to the bar to get Gilbert his drink.
When Corn was gone Gilbert sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. 'Holy crap. We can't really be going to Berlin to break Prussia out are we? Okay I admit it sounds awesome, but I just know I'm going to get killed!' Corn quickly came back and placed the drink in front of Gilbert before going to serve a Troll at the bar.
TBC
Shinigami-cat: Yay! Rumours are fun! Please review!
