"Where are you taking me?" A young adult woman's voice echoed throughout an abandoned train yard. The young adult man she's following said, "It's up here, I found it by chance."
By his insistence, the young adult woman reluctantly came out here after he claimed he found something interesting, and he wanted to show her before someone finds it.
Around their early twenties, wearing heavy clothing, the young adult woman having her strawberry blonde hair tied back in a tight bun. The young adult man having a knitted cap over his mess of dark hair.
The train yard, littered with abandoned rusted out train carts left behind, overgrown with weed and decay, hardly any reason for anyone coming out here unless they have nefarious dealings that needed doing.
Hardly a surprised that it wasn't torn down, the council couldn't come together and agree on what to do with the train yard. Always ended the same way, without any definitive answers. There were talks of restoring it into a proper train yard, talks of turning it into public housing, talks of turning it into a public park, it just goes from there, and like always, couldn't come together conclusively.
The train yard's been here for decades and likely more at this point, by the time someone finally inks a plan, it'll hardly look like a train yard used to be here.
It's not cordoned off, no money for it, so people tended to avoid it, unless they're two young adults going on a scavenge hunt for something.
Certain it's still there, the young adult man, Kev, led his friend, Anya, through the gridded train yard as he went by memory where he found it.
By chance he found it while looking around the old train yard, hoping for something of value, as there's no rules against poking around it. Nobody cared if they're there, it's an eyesore that's likely to remain as such because the red tape can't lift and something meaningful done with it.
People already picked through the train yard went it closed years ago, anyhow, him taking this wouldn't matter in the slightest.
"It's up ahead, just a little more," Kev insisted as Anya struggled to keep up with him as he excitedly ran through the uneven train tracks riddled with overgrown weeds. The nails that held the rails down since upended and either sold or melted down, as the rails moved effortlessly as they walked over them.
Some trapped by the weeds, stuck in their place for the remainder of the train yard's existence.
Her walnut eyes moving around, Anya saw her breath as the cold air wafted, as she followed Kev as he's leading her around the train yard for a spot he found.
In the corner of her eye, she swore seeing something grey, it looked like a statue. When she moved her eyes to watch her steps and looked back, it was gone, and she continued following Kev until he showed her an opened train cart that once housed ammunition.
Helping her up effortlessly, Kev showed Anya what he wanted her to see. She had to open and close her eyes multiple times, but she sees uneven sized stones littering the bottom of the train cart. Upon closer inspection, she sees they're stones such as amethyst.
Her walnut eyes glistening, Anya asked how Kev found them, and he replied that he found them in an area of the train yard.
Thought they were just regular stones, until he looked at them closely, and when he saw what they were, he had to find Anya and bring her here after collecting enough as proof.
"Why couldn't you just bring these to me?" Anya asked Kev while he didn't think of it sooner rather than bring her here to show them.
Kev gave his explanation, he found even more, but he couldn't get them all, and not only that, he found a place near the train yard.
He reminded Anya that their parents didn't like each other and this' only time they're able to talk without hearing arguments from their respected parents.
Rather than have that, Kev figured this' better.
"Beside, it's peaceful here," Kev brought up as Anya crossed her arms, looking at him questionably, before he mentioned that they don't have time together.
With the feud between their parents, over perceived money owed, they have to hide their relationship. Like 'Romeo & Juliet' with the difference that they're able to go anywhere they pleased, but it's not always easy.
They're lucky they have this spot to spend time together without anyone knowing, because not even their parents come here, and the stories they have of this place's enough to last generations as it is!
"I don't know, I don't think anyone had "-in an abandoned train yard" on their bucket list," Anya held reservation for Kev's plan.
Motioning with his gloved hand, Kev mentioned that plenty of people have "-in an elevator" on their bucket lists, to which Anya sharply responded with, "Definitely not that!"
Shrugging his baggy shoulders, Kev mustered it was only a thought.
Showing her the stones, Kev said that he found mounds of them, which Anya questioned how he found them all above ground so readily.
Kev said he saw them strewn near a gaping hole, like someone digging there, and for whatever reason, they haven't noticed the precious stones they dug out of the ground.
"Why would anyone dig out here?" Anya questioned the strangeness of someone digging near the train yard. There's nothing of value, well, aside from the stones, but it didn't seem like they aimed for those, something else.
No oil, no treasure from a train derailment, anything of value's already taken from the train yard. There's nothing left except the husks of empty train cars.
Holding up a piece of amethyst, Kev replied he doesn't know, but if they're not interested in the stones, then what harm's taking them for themselves. Enough of them's a chance of earning a little bit of money, maybe enough to start a fund.
"I don't buy it, why wouldn't they take these?" Anya wondered what's so important someone's digging out here, they'd forgo the precious stones abandoned on the surface near the gaping hole.
Didn't make sense to her, looking at these stones, and Kev mentioned that there's always a possibility that someone has evidence of a crime and they're trying to get it before someone else does.
"Kev Anas, don't you dare," Anya eyed him with ire in her walnut eyes as he shrugged at her, playfully saying that he's just joking. If there's anything suspect, he would've spotted it. She wouldn't be here if he thought something''s wrong.
Her ire waned, Anya replied, "Fine, if it's not that, then what else?"
Kev had no answers, but he said they better go get those stones while they still can.
Reluctantly, Anya followed Kev after collecting the stones and dropping them in her backpack.
While she's following Kev, yet again, Anya felt a strange urge to turn her head, and when she gave in, she swore seeing a statue in the corner of her eye. When she turned her whole head, she didn't see anything, and turned back to catch up to Kev.
Retracing his steps, Kev found the hole dug, mounds of dirt near it, and he showed Anya the stones mixed in with the lose dirt.
"Look at them, Ay, they gotta be worth a least a hundred or so," Kev showed her the stones as he grabbed them from the loose dirt.
Seeing how huge some of these stones look, Anya agreed to help him recover them, deciding that if no one's taking them, then what harm's taking them for their own use.
They weren't cut stones, either, still whole, some attached to stone, others caked with dirt. The labour in cleaning and cutting these might cut into the money they're making from obtaining these stones, but with some can-do spirit, they're able to get some money from selling them.
"There's like a hundred of these," Anya remarked as she's struggling to grab any precious stone she sees. They're of various sizes and some as big as an ankle joint. It's a miracle that somebody scooped these out without realizing they're there.
She worried by the time they're done, her and Kev's backpacks would buckle under the weight from the stones.
Kev seemed adamant, as he said that when they can't grab any more, they'll move on, and Anya reluctantly nodded before retrieving more upended stones.
No idea why anyone's digging out here, but they dug for a long time, going by how deep the hole looked. The hole looked uneven, some areas deeper than others, like someone went around digging in different spots.
"You sure we're okay taking these?" Anya asked Kev if he's positive they won't face any trouble for taking the stones.
Kev pointed out that the train yard's public and the council didn't cordon it off, made no effort of keeping trespassers away, so the matter of fact's that if they haven't said anything about them taking the stones, then they wouldn't.
"Only if you're sure," Anya mustered before resuming taking precious stones from the loose dirt.
Their backpacks heavy and filled to the near brim, they concluded their scavenge, and Kev asked Anya to follow him. He wanted to show her something else.
"Don't tell me you found the lost city of Atlantis," Anya remarked before Kev chuckled. He explained that he found a treehouse someone built and figured it's a good place for them to look over their stones.
Exhaling sharply, Anya agreed to follow him, and as she did, she's struck by the same urge once more, and she noticed something in the corner of her eye once again.
The statue from before.
Something else, there's another one near it.
When she turned her head, she didn't see anything.
Feeling anxiety, Anya asked Kev if he's sure nobody's out here except them.
Kev replied that he's sure, nobody comes out here anymore, and he didn't see anyone, not even when he found the stones.
"Are you sure?" Anya wearily looked around.
It's one thing she sees something from her imagination, another when she sees it multiple times, and more when there's another one.
Kev replied, "I didn't see anyone, why?"
Anya sheepishly responds with, "I think someone's out here, Kev."
Looking around the closest area, his onyx eyes surveying the unkempt trees, Kev responds he doesn't see anyone, and waved it off as just Anya's nerves.
There's virtually no wildlife here, hardly any audible sound, of course Anya's mind wanders and imagines things that aren't there.
Unconvinced, Anya still followed Kev to the treehouse he found while exploring the old train yard and the surrounding areas.
Ahead, she sees the large tree and above the treehouse someone built sometime ago, left abandoned, and she wondered who built it.
Kev mentioned it might've been the kids who lived on their street, they mentioned having a secret hideaway more than once. It lined up as they left after a few years, moving to different parts of the UK, and then some.
"Bet you we find their old mags," Anya snorted as Kev showed her the ladder nailed into the tree trunk leading up to the tree house.
Carefully with the stones rattling in their backpacks, the two gone up to the treehouse, inside it's empty, and they're able to comfortably sit on opposite corners, looking over the spruce trees near the train yard.
"I wish they do something, anything," Kev exhaled as he looked at the state of the area.
All the council did's complain and argue, but nothing ever done, by the time they're their parents' ages, the train yard's still here and in an even worse state than it is now.
"Maybe they'll just make a new train yard?" Anya shrugged as she settled, her gloved hand going through her backpack, looking through the stones they collected, clattering as they gently fall on each other.
Just tear everything out, flatten it down, make a new one, seemed simpler than trying to do what some of the people on the council suggested.
Kev remarked, "Would anything come through this village, though, that shipped sailed years ago, if they done it then, maybe."
With the train lines restructured following the closure of the train yard, there's not any reason to change them back if the council decided on a new one. Too much money and with it so late, there's hardly any interest in tearing up established lines just to reconnect them.
"Well, I don't know," Anya murmured as she picked up a stone she found in the loose soil, it's translucent and hardened stone covered the top and bottom, would've needed a fine point drill to carefully break them off.
The two discussed random topics while sorting through their collected stones, as they do, Anya catches something in the corner of her eye.
In the pathway they took here, there's something standing near it, and the more she looked on the side of her eye, it's a statue.
Rather than turn her head like she done before, Anya asked Kev to look in the corner of his eye, and he did, he struggled, but he spotted the outline of the statue.
"What the?" Kev blinked.
He turned his head and the statue's gone.
"Where'd it go?" Kev stuck his head out of the open air window, looking for the statue.
Sensing a bad feeling, Anya suggested they leave, they come back another time, but right now, she wants out of here, and fast.
Kev agreed with her, only because of what he spotted.
"Um, Ay," Kev gulped, his eyes bulged at the sight.
Anya looked where he's staring down and saw the statue looking up at them from underneath, near the ladder.
"What the hell?" Anya panicked.
She sees the fine details.
The statue looked like something from a cemetery, wings and all, sans the pedestal.
Looking at it closely, she sees it covered in dirt from the forearms down.
The grey eyes staring up at them, for some reason, Anya swears she feels the statue looking at them.
"What… the hell…?" Kev panicked.
As they're looking at the statue, they heard knocking coming from the closed latch.