Chapter Two: The Beginning of Spite's Terror

The next day, everyone was chatting about the mysterious engine like wildfire as everyone talked about their nightmares and their interaction with the bad engine. Just talking about her made their boiler go cold as their wheels felt like jelly. With them all discussing the mysterious engine, Philip was the one to discover her name as he was chatting to Toby and didn't stop rambling at her, "Toby! That engine in the dream I meant has a name! She claimed that her name was "Spite"! Does it sound scary? It sounds so scary to me! I honestly thought I was going to die!", he recounted his dream while he didn't stop talking, "Did you see her? Was she mean or nice to you?"

As the two talked about Spite, Thomas overheard the conversation despite Philip being the main one talking as he thought to himself, "Spite? What an odd name for an engine, yet it does suit her well."

However, Thomas wasn't the only engine to gather some information about the engine. Edward and Rebecca were also collecting information as Edward added information to make sensible theories that didn't sound wild or too uncanny. At the same time, Rebecca would ask engines about Spite to get a better picture of her, even though she knew that the Spite Engine was malicious. Even The Fat Controller began to hear the conversation about Spite, and he thought it was both odd and interesting. Yet, since he was a very busy man who ran a very busy railway, he thought nothing of it as he continued his work, hoping that no engine would talk about Spite the next day.

…

Night-time came, and as usual, all the engines returned to their respective sheds and discussed their days. However, they didn't share about their days about their work, "Did you hear that many had the same dream with Spite involved?", Thomas asked his friends.

"Yes, and it honestly made my boiler cold.", Rebecca shivered at the thought about the bad engine.

"It didn't help that Philip wouldn't shut up about it and keep making the situation worse.", James groaned, "He kept believing that it was some kind of "evil spirit" that's trying to end us all. I say it's nonsense."

Gordon and Emily agreed, "I believe it was just a scary phenomenon of us having that engine in our dream.", Emily spoke her opinion.

"Philip always has to make things more dramatic.", Gordon rolled his eyes.

With everyone still blabbering about her, Edward was still putting some puzzles together about the dream that the engines were receiving, and he even shared his thoughts with Thomas and Rebecca. They both seemed keen on hearing his theories. As he tried to get a solid answer, Gordon, at this point, had enough of hearing it as he tooted his whistle, "Alright! Enough talking about her! I kept hearing about it while pulling the express, and it got on my nerves! I suggest we all pipe down and forget about it! It was just one-off time!"

This made everyone silent for a moment as some of their wheels wobbled and trembled from Gordon's harsh words and his thundering tone. Edward was also affected by Gordon's loud voice as he was still in the middle of trying to figure out the idea of who aspire could be or the reason why everyone was getting a nightmare that seemed so real. Once everyone was quiet, Gordon sighed in relief as Nia spoke, "I think Gordon is right. I think we have gone too far, and I think we caused confusion and delay."

"Yeah, and The Fat Controller wouldn't be pleased about it.", Henry agreed.

"All because of that Spite engine.", Rebecca added.

With the engines agreeing on never mentioning Spite, Edward decided to push all his theories and ideas aside so he could help his friends, "Now. I agree with Gordon. We have gone a little too far about her, and I say it was just an odd coincidence. I think we should all get some sleep, and everything will be settled."

Just hearing Edward's caring and assuring tone, everyone started to feel safe as Thomas agreed, "Yeah, I agree. I'll admit, I feel so exhausted.", he yawned.

There, all the engines felt sleepy as they bid each other goodnight as one by one, they allowed their weary eyes to win so they could go to sleep. However, three engines felt a bit bothered, "I don't know why I got this feeling, but all this information got me thinking that there's maybe more about Spite.", Edward sighed as he tried to keep his eyes open.

"Is Spite even real, or is this some odd occurrence?", Thomas questioned himself as he kept yawning to keep himself awake.

"I sure hope she doesn't come back.",Rebecca sighed as finally she, along with Thomas and Edward, fell fast asleep, allowing those worries to be put to rest.

…

"Edward? Edward!", echoed an eerily voice at a near distance.

The blue engine was slowly waking up, still in his sleeping mode, wondering if that voice was coming from his head or not. Once he adjusted his tired eyes, he spotted a silhouette of an engine that looked awfully familiar as it stood on the turntable, being covered by the smoky fog, giving Edward an unpleasant vibe, "Don't you remember me?", the voice asked in a fake innocent tone.

When Edward heard the voice more carefully, his firebox went cold as his eyes went wide, "That voice? It can't be!", he gasped to himself.

"I know what you're thinking, but I'm here again.", said the voice sinisterly as it revealed itself.

There, as the engine slowly puffed forward, the eyes began to glow in a rotten milky blue colour hue as it glowed like a spotlight but more faintly. Once the engine fully revealed itself, Edward couldn't believe his eyes, "Spite! What do you want?", he cried as he narrowed his eyes, trying to show no fear.

"Well, I'm surprised you know my name.", she taunted as she spoke, "I just wanted to apologise that I couldn't save you from your biggest fear. I felt so bad that I couldn't be there for you."

Edward raised his eyes as Spite chuckled evilly. Edward had so many questions to ask, hopefully, to understand more about her as some information he received from the conversation from the others might be proven false, "Why are you inflicting us with fear and trauma?", he questioned.

When he asked that simple question, her face began to twitch into different facial reactions. Edward's mouth dropped in shock and awe. He had never seen an engine acting so erratic, yet he frightened him as he could tell she was unpredictable. Once she was down twitching, she didn't answer his question, as if she didn't hear his words as she asked, "Have you ever wondered why many of your "friends" tease you about your age?"

This hit Edward hard as he now completely forgot about his motive as small silhouettes that shaped like familiar engines with white eyes began to float around him as they began to taunt him, "It's a shame that you're such an old engine.", teased the first silhouette, which was Gordon.

"Edward is impossible!", another voice grumbled, which came from the silhouette of James.

"He should give up and be preserved before it's too late.", grunted Silhouette Gordon.

"Old Iron!", snarled Silhouette James.

Edward closed his eyes shut as he gritted his teeth, trying to ignore the voices but all his attempts were all in vain as he whispered to himself, "Please stop.", he begged.

"Just pathetic!", Silhouette Gordon spat.

"Positively painful!", Silhouette James spoke in disgust.

However, what affected Edward when he heard a voice from a certain engine that he loved and cherished, "Did you see him straining?", asked the silhouette that came from Henry.

As Edward felt the anguish, Spite sneered as she was satisfied with her actions as she made one more silhouette that she knew would damage him significantly. With Edward looking at the engines with tears of fright, the last silhouette of a slightly overweight man with a top hat and glowing white eyes appeared in front of him as he spoke harshly, "Honestly, Edward. You haven't disappointed me. You have been so slow, you're not strong enough to pull or shunt coaches and trucks, and more importantly, you're too expensive now to be fixed. I think it's time for you to be… scrapped."

The word "scrapped" made Edward scared as he tried to think positive, but it didn't work. Once the silhouettes were done with taunting him, they all vanished into thin air as Spite spoke cruelly, "Face it, Edward. You're getting too old, and you know that being scrapped is hard to escape. Everyone is going to die at one point, one way or another."

With that, Edward tried to fight off his thoughts, but before he could, he was immediately transported to an area he knew too well. The place was hot as fire, with the room being red as the stoplight with fizzling and cracking noises came loud and creepily behind the background with a bunch of pipes and scrapped metals scattered across the room. This made his eyes wide, "But don't worry. You have worked very hard for years, Edward and those energies deserve an award for working so hard and effortlessly.", Spite grinned nastily as she laughed menacingly, "By being scrapped!"

There, she disappeared in a matter of seconds as Edward attempted to reverse back. However, he felt like his wheels were stuck on tars as every attempt to get away was proven unsuccessful. He huffed and puffed as hard as he could as he tried to stay strong. This can't be real. This can't be.

Just before he felt like he could free himself, he suddenly felt a violent grip on him as he knew a metal claw carried him. He screamed in horror as he begged for mercy as he was taken away into the darkness as his voice echoed in pure terror, "No!"

…

With that, Edward opened his eyes and cried in horror as he cried with two other voices. This got his pupils dilated as he looked to his left and right. There, he saw the frightened Rebecca and Thomas. He couldn't believe it. He experienced Spite once again, and he assumed that Her terror and hate also inflicted Thomas and Rebecca. There, the wise engine tried to compose himself by taking deep breaths and taking the role as the comforting engine, "Thomas? Rebecca? Are you okay?", he whispered to avoid waking up the other engines.

"No.", Thomas sobbed quietly, "I saw… her again."

"And she was much more violent and aggressive.", Rebecca added as she looked pale as the full moon.

When he heard that, Edward knew precisely who they were talking about, yet he didn't want to jump to a conclusion as he asked kindly, "Who?"

"Spite.", the two answered simultaneously as they looked down at their running plate.

Edward sighed sadly as he closed his eyes. He had never expected Spite to show up again, let alone come out as more terrifying and intimidating. His experience with her was horrible, but what intrigued him was her complex personality. It's like she had twenty or more personality traits in one engine, but all of them seem to have the same goal. When he was in his own mind, he then remembered that his nightmare. He attempted to ask a question, but Spite seemed to be either triggered by it as she acted erratically, or she seemed to have a way to manipulate and belittle him to achieve her goal. He felt like he was outsmarted by her and felt like he failed.

Once he collected all those thoughts, he smelled the aroma of the peaceful night as he opened his eyes and saw the two engines crying quietly. They looked like a frightened child that got lost in the woods. He could feel their pain and fear, and it hurt him a lot. There, he whispered, "There, there. It's alright. It's just a nightmare."

"N-no, no, it wasn't.", Thomas trembled, "It felt so real, like as if I was in a different world."

Thomas's words had caught Edward's attention. Hearing that Thomas said it felt so real made him realise that this Spite engine was more than just a nightmare engine. There must be more about her, "And it feels like I'm still hurt physically.", Rebecca added the detail, despite her experience being entirely different to Thomas's.

Edward took note of it as he thought harder, "Spite seemed to come to taunt us by showing our past trauma or our biggest fear. It seemed like her goal was to show terror and fear. How come it felt so real that we can feel everything, and it remains with us? What kind of sick engine takes pleasure to see us in despair?"

However, as his thoughts went deeper, Rebecca and Thomas kept throwing more details at him, and the more he collected it, he realised something he seemed to neglect. Her appearance. She didn't look like the other engines as she looked like she was ready to be scrapped herself, and her eyes seemed unnatural, and she wasn't blind for sure. What's more, she flowed faintly, which was odd as no engines can glow and no engine can poof like magic, "But her looks… she looked so torn and damaged. Yet, she seemed to like to see us in pain. But how did she come to be? Is she real, or is it just some kind of scary phenomenon that no engine hasn't experienced for years?"

Just before he could think more, he heard more screams coming from other engines. This got him startled, yet he knew what had happened, "Not again!", James panted as he kept examining his surroundings frantically.

"I can't take it!", Nia cried, "It's horrible!"

Edward once again asked the same question but to the remaining engines that got recently woken up, "Are you okay? What happened?"

"It's that Spite engine.", Emily sighed, "But this time, she was more aggressive."

"And she was both a crazy engine and a bully.", Percy added.

With that, all the engines talked about their experiences with Spite on their second encounter, and at this point, Edward knew that this was not a coincidence but something more sinister. He observed their behaviour and interaction as he noticed that Thomas and Rebecca were collecting information, yet they seemed to struggle, especially with their recent nightmare.

Once he had enough information, something clicked when Henry asked the engines nervously, "D-do you think that s-she's a g-ghost?"