Can't Wait To Tell This Story To My Grandchildren

We left for the train station just after three in the afternoon, the woman driving us out of the town at my command. The station itself was in the next city over, an hour and a half from Austerlitz. The sight of the dwindling gas gage made me cringe with pity, knowing she probably could barely afford what she had, let alone what we were taking.

So I took the risk of stopping at a gas station and commanding the retailer to fill the woman's tank, free of charge.

"You, Miss Aja," Eli sent me a glare as I climbed into the back with him again. "Are pushing your luck."

"Good thing I have lots of it to push."

Speaking of pushing luck, I'd been hoping the washing machine would've ruined the glow-coats. That way we would've had no choice but to take the risk of getting new ones that would actually help us blend in. But alas, they were machine washable.

Because of course they were.

For now we had them turned inside out as we wore them. It wasn't as warm, but it eased the eye-catching blue. At least a little.

When we arrived at the station, I commanded the woman to buy two tickets from the dipositer out front, then to drive back home and forget she ever met us.

We hid behind the gates of the station, ducking beneath the cement hold as I watched her walk away. I almost saw a hint of tears in her eyes as she vanished down the road. It wasn't until I looked down at the tickets that I realized why. Scrawled over the top were the words: STAY SAFE

"She knew you were mind-melding her," Eli said over my shoulder.

"And she helped us anyway," I muttered.

We both went quiet for a moment.

"You know who this reminds me of?" I finally asked.

"Who?"

I smiled. "Señor Uhl."

He laughed back. "Guess the world isn't so bad as long as people like that stick around."

"Yes," I looked back down at the tickets. "I guess."

Sneaking around the back of the train, we climbed up the cargo hold and slipped in through an ajar emergency exit. The car was long, booths of seats on each side of the aisle. It was starkly warm compared the snowy air outside. And, fortunately, completely empty.

I tugged at the front of my hat, making sure it fully covered my scar before Eli and I situated ourselves into the corner booth. Within ten minutes, a man in a police officer's uniform entered the car, signaling for Eli and I to lower out heads beneath our hats.

His footsteps got slower as he approached, suspicious. "Ticket?" He asked, one hand on the bulge on his belt.

I extended my hand, holding out the slips of paper. Just as he went to grab them, I snapped my hand at him like a fly trap, diving into his mind. The tickets fluttered to the floor.

"We are two, ill adults," I said.

"You are two, ill adults," He repeated.

"No one else should be allowed in this car to prevent the illness from spreading."

His dilated eyes nodded with his head. "No one else should be allowed in this car to prevent the illness from spreading."

Behind me, Eli waved his hand. "These are not the droids you're looking for."

I elbowed him.

"Continue your routine and have no one come to check on us," I said. "Now go."

The man turned away from us stiffly, continuing down the aisle and stepping into the next car.

"Are you sure that'll last this time?" Eli asked.

I stared at the closed door in the man's wake. "Yes, I'm sure."

The train ride was long and quiet, but also warm and comfy. The soft hum of the moving train eased my shot nerves, almost lulling me to sleep the longer we sat. The first few hours we did sleep, in shifts of course.

Eli took a few hours first, then allowed me a few of my own. When I woke up, it was around three in the morning. The only light was from the dim rafters above us, our lone reflections glaring against the dark windows.

Eli was in the bench across from me in the booth, putting his feet up on the table between us as he stared blankly at the ceiling.

"Eli?" I peered at him from across the table. "Are you asleep with your eyes open?"

"No." He didn't even blink. "I'm just watching a movie."

"You're doing what now?"

He squeezed his eyes shut for a second, giving his head a small shake before sitting up to face me. "It's a Green thing," He said. "When you watch movies - or anything really - you memorize it. Beat for beat, word for word. So you can kinda watch them in your head if you concentrate enough."

My eyebrows rose a little. "Lively. What were you watching?"

"Space Invaders," He adjusted his glasses. "It used to be my favorite show, you know, before . . . all this. Did you ever have a favorite TV show?"

I shrugged, leaning back on the cushions. "Not really. Growing up, Varvatos was the one ruling the television."

"So you're well-versed in, what? Infomercials?"

"Game shows."

"That was my second guess."

The train jostled a little, as if passing over a rough part in the track. We bounced in our seats, the light still coming from beneath our coats shimmering out in the dimness. I frowned down at my collar, wondering who had the bright idea of making a coat glow anyway.

Ha, 'bright' idea.

"These kinda remind me of something," Eli muttered under his breath. When I looked up, he was playing with the end of his sleeve, picking at the sparkling fabric. I wondered if he realized he'd spoken aloud.

"You mean that 'cosplay' thing you were talking about?"

His eyes shot up, looking like a deer caught in headlights. "Uh . . . no," He ducked his head. "Something else."

I leaned my elbows on the table. "What?"

He scrunched his shoulders a little. "Just this . . . urban legend, I guess."

I raised an eyebrow. "Another cryptid, Cryptid?"

"Wow," Eli lowered his brows. "Never heard that one before."

I kicked his foot under the table. "Tell me about your legend of urbans. Is it like all your other legends?"

"You mean my conspiracy theories?" He shook his head. "No, those aren't legends. Those are based on facts."

"Sure they are."

"The point is," He shot me a glare over his glasses. "It's this old story Steve used to tell me about."

I tilted my head. "What kind of story?"

Eli thought for a moment, rubbing the back of his neck. "Have you ever heard of the Blue Lady?"

My eyes darted to the side. "You mean like Claire?"

"No," He replied. "Like Santa Clause. Kinda. Like I said, it's an urban legend. A story kids in shelters would pass around to each other. Whenever things got especially bad with his dad, Steve and his mom would go to this women's shelter for a while. That's where he heard it."

"What is it?"

He lifted his eyes in thought, exhaling through his nose. "Have you ever been to church?"

"Let's assume not."

"Well, there's this thing they talk about there," He said. "The war in heaven? It was basically God and Satan throwing hands until all the devil guys got thrown down to Earth to make people miserable."

I squinted. ". . . Okay."

"According to the story, the Blue Lady is one of God's angels that decided to follow the devils to Earth - to balance out all their bad with good, you know?"

I nodded.

"It's said the Blue Lady protects children from all evil," He swallowed. "In . . . whatever form they come in. Sickness. Hunger. People. 'Banish the devils from your presence' and stuff. All you have to do is call out her true name."

"What's her true name?"

Eli lowered his eyes, picking at his sleeve again. "It's just a story."

I pursed my lips. "Did kids in the ring talk about her?"

"No," His voice became a whisper, tight and in the back of his throat. "But kids at Leda Corp did."

I felt myself tense.

"They'd say that's why they muzzled us," Eli muttered at the floor. "So . . . you know . . ."

Neither of us said anything for a moment.

"Did you ever try to call out for her anyway?"

Eli paled. Freezing where he sat like he'd been turned to stone. The second I saw his face I wished I could take the words back. I wished I could erase the pain etched so deep into his eyes.

"I gotta go," He blurted, bolting from the booth and scampering into the bathroom across the car. I caught the sight of his hand itching the side of his head before he slammed the door shut.

For a moment, I almost saw Davaros disappearing with him.

Is it strange I wanted so desperately to have something to remember her by? Something more than memories? More than the last excruciating words she said to me?

I guess she called out for angels too, then.

I sighed, burying my head in my arms on the table, the twisting in my stomach making me want to retch. Hadn't Steve said something like this to me? Wanting to take away people's pain? 'Fix it', that's what he'd said. That some of us had been broken, in a way that no one could fix.

Steve had. And Davaros had. And the whole world had. There was no fixing what Psi destroyed. No undoing it.

The Chatter in my pocket has suddenly very heavy, the coordinates of Krel's last known location flashing through my mind.

But that didn't mean we were without hope.

Thud.

I lifted my head, glancing back at the train bathroom. It sounded like Eli had kicked the door. I lowered my head again.

Thud-thud-thWAP.

I bolted up a second time. That - that sounded like slapping. The sound a fist makes when it meets skin.

What was Eli doing?

Rising from the booth, I crossed the dim car to the bathroom door. It was locked, so I couldn't have opened it if I wanted to, but at least it wasn't connected to the other cars.

. . . Was it?

"Uh, sir?" I rapped my knuckles on the door, lowering my voice a little. "Are you okay in there?"

No answer.

Leaning towards the entrance of the car, I peered down the window on the closed double doors. Each car was connected by a short set of stairs. Was the bathroom double sided? Could someone else have gotten in -

"Sir!" I knocked harder. "Answer or I'll kick the door in!"

Silence.

Until . . . until . . .

What was that?

I pressed my ear to the crack in the door jam, straining my ears for the sound. Like how busted speakers sound. Or -

Or muffled screaming.

"Don't move."

I froze. Icy horror went down my spine like someone had poured water down the back of my shirt. Something hard and metallic pressed into my side.

"Put your hands behind your head."

I could smell cigarettes as I raised my shaking hands. Cigarettes and tobacco.

"Now turn around - slowly."

My serrator was still hooked onto the waistband of my pants, hidden beneath my coat. If I could get out of gun point, even for just a split second, I could get us out of here. We were already this close to Krel -

The man standing before me could be summed up in one word: unnerving.

His face was so boyish, I almost believed he wasn't any older than me. But his unshaven jaw gave his age away. That and the yellowness of his teeth. The grime under his fingernails and collar. The crazed crow's feet around his eyes.

"Now don't you move, darlin'," He licked his lips. "I got no problem with blowin' your insides right out."

He was wrapped up to his neck. Gloves. Scarves. Even a hat. His bare, greasy face was my only shot. But it was also next to impossible with his gun still stabbing at my ribs.

"Billie!" The man's shout grated from years of smoking, whistling through his chipped teeth. "I got the girl!"

The lock on the bathroom door clicked open, a woman with a greasy ponytail appearing in the wake. She was holding Eli against her, one hand clamped over his mouth, and the other burying a gun in his hair.

Both of his eyes were filled with tears when he looked at me, one of them colored red and purple from bruising. But it was his cold glare that made me want to disappear.

"And I got the shrimp here!" The woman snickered, her voice just as gravely as the man's. "Ha, I knew there was something off when they wouldn't let nobody back here."

"Yeah," The man grinned. "Don't know how you got those assholes on your side -"

With one move, they shoved us forward into the nearest booth. Eli and I collided on impact, collapsing onto the cushions of the bench.

"- but you're not their problem anymore."

The woman lowered her gun, letting the man come forward to corner us as they laughed. I pulled Eli behind me, squishing him between my back and the wall to bar him from the attackers. My eyes were darting back and forth, searching for a way out. But until we reached the next stop, there wasn't even a way off this train.

"I'll go get the others," The woman said, nodding towards the door that lead to the other cars. "You'll keep 'em here?"

"Oh don't you worry," The man gave me a sick grin, coming to kneel on the edge of the bench. "I've got 'em."

And the woman disappeared.

If I was going to do something, I needed to do it now.

My eyes darted back to Eli, feeling him tremble behind me. "Gnomes," He whispered, barely even audible against my ear.

"Hey!" The man cocked the gun. "Keep your mouths shut!"

My eyes burned as I raised them back to his, the barrel of the gun barely six inches from my chest. "Or what?" I spat.

I had a split second to get ahead. The moment where I watched his finger slip towards the trigger. Where I felt Eli duck against the wall of the booth. The moment adrenaline took over.

I shot forward, diving head on into the man's chest. He tumbled down onto his back beneath me, his shot going wild as I knocked his hands to the side. He was scrambling to re-aim, but I managed to kick the gun out of his hands, pinning his wrist down with my foot.

"You little -"

I crammed my hands over his face, and I was in.

"You will take your gun," I rasped. "And carry it to the next car. You will not let anyone near the door no matter what. It is a matter of life and death to you, do you under-"

"Aja!"

Eli's warning came a split second too late.

Blinding, white pain exploded against the back of my head. Next thing I knew, I was sprawled out on the carpet of the car, spots blurring in and out of my vision.

I tried to struggle when I felt hands on me. I tried to call out for Eli. But all I could see was darkness, until it swallowed me whole.

(A/N): fun fact, 'the Blue Lady' is based on an actual urban legend i've heard of. there's a thousand different versions, but this is the one i finagled (can ya guess why?) if any of you have heard of her - or anything like it - tell me in the comments! oral and urban legends are *legit*