Nico took a bite out of his peanut butter & jelly sandwich. He looked out of the train window, even though there was not a lot to see - not that he had expected to see much. This was a train riding through the afterlife, not through the luscious forests and mountains of Austria.

However, what was not interesting outside of the train, was more than made up for by everything that happened inside of it. Nico had been seated for about five minutes now and already he had seen six devils, three people whom were so covered he couldn't even tell what they were, two hellhounds accompanied by two sweet looking ladies (Who were, underneath the layers and layers of mist, actually two vampires), a very confused Egyptian Ba and a few other characters that he had already forgotten about.

Nico yawned, with part of his sandwich still in his hand. During the yawn his eyes closed for a second. Just a second, but it was enough for one ghoul who had been floating up and down the aisle to snatch the rest of the sandwich straight out of Nico's hands, before booking it down the aisle. Nico jumped up as quickly as he possibly could. He pushed one of the vampire ladies away in his attempt to catch up with the ghoul. It was no use. The ghoul jumped through the side of the train, with Nico's sandwich. All Nico could do was stare longingly out of the window.

But not for long. He felt a tap on his shoulder. Nico did not look around, but he pushed the person behind him straight in the stomach. The vampire lady hissed, but when she cowered because of the push, she left an opening between herself and the aisle. Nico sprinted past her, dodged her giant hellhound and ran to the door of the compartment.

Just as Nico sprinted out of the compartment, the train doors slid open. While saying a small prayer to Tyche, he jumped out of the train and bolted down the platform, to the station hall. He ducked into a small café. Only then did he dare to look over his shoulder. He did not see the snooty vampire lady, no huge hellhounds, no other people looking for him. He took a deep breath. Great, now he had no sandwich, he was in a weird café and he needed to wait for the next train to Hades. Man, he should have just gone via the entrance in his cabin.

While he was ordering a cup of coffee, he wondered why he went by train in the first place. Did he think it was easier? A bet against the Stolls? Excitement? he completely forgot. Well, no way back now. With his cup of fresh coffee (Which tasted like garbage. What did you expect from coffee from a ghost kiosk?) he walked back to the platform. He slowly sipped the warm substance while checking the time the next train would arrive. Forty-five minutes.

He sighed deeply while he walked back to the station hall. He did not feel like staring at the ghostly shop windows in the cold station hall, surrounded by everything that hung out in the station in between multiple afterlives, so he went back into the café. At least it was a little less cold.

After a few minutes of waiting (which felt like a few hours of waiting) he suddenly noticed two familiar ghosts walking into the café. He jumped up.

'Castor, Lee, what are you two doing here?' He asked, while walking towards them. He noticed that the two ghosts looked like they had been caught while doing something they should not be doing. Nico could not help but compare their expressions to those of children who stole cookies from the jar, only for their mom to walk into the kitchen and catch them.

'... Oh, hey Nico!' Lee smiled the most fake smile Nico had ever seen. He sighed deeply.

'I won't rat you two out to my dad, you know. I will not get anything from that.' Lee and Castor looked at each other. 'Yeah, you are right,' Castor agreed. 'Honestly, I don't even know why we thought otherwise.'

'So, what are you two doing?' Nico took another sip of coffee. He gagged. 'Ugh, how can you drink this?'

'We can better ask you how you can drink it. This stuff is made for ghosts, of course it tastes weird to you. Oh, and we needed to get a new throne for your dad, after we sort of destroyed the last one.' Nico nodded slowly. He had heard that.

'There is a 'but' there, I can feel it.'

'...but the person who manufactured the throne was not at home - he lives in Yomi - so we had to... improvise.'

Nico looked at Castor and Lee. Castor had turned towards the barista and was ordering coffee with muffins. Lee had an expression in his eyes that was a mix of intense joy and fear, which was an interesting combination. Nico knew what they had done. He could feel it.

'Did you two go to the afterlife equivalent of IKEA?'

'Might have!' Castor turned around with two cups of coffee, a chocolate muffin, a raspberry muffin and a big, almost mad grin on his face. Nico felt a grin growing on his own face. 'Wonderful. Let's get it back to the palace in...' he sighed when he saw the time. '...in thirty-five minutes.'

Thirty-seven minutes later, they were seated in the train, with a box that was unusually big next to them (and about seventeen small plastic baggies with stuff that wasn't exactly necessary, but let's be real, what in IKEA is truly necessary, aside from the meatballs?). Nico was scanning the hallway like a hawk. In this train, there were also multiple random souls wandering around the aisle. Some looked like they wanted to steal food, others looked like stealing other souls was more their speed. A lady, completely covered in a big black dress, a black hat with a veil and black gloves, was sitting close to them. Nico could not tell because of the veil, but he felt like she was staring at them.

'I am starting to think making this Railway conecting every single afterlife might have been a bad idea,' Lee mentioned, 'Because everyone seems to be hostile towards everyone.' Nico shrugged.

'Heaven is not attached to it. Hel is, though.'

'As in, Helheim or the Christian Hel?' Castor asked. He sounded half asleep.

'Both,' Nico answered. Castor slowly nodded. His eyelids closed (which looks... really weird on ghosts, not going to lie. Like... it is a little see-through... okay, you don't want to know this).

Nico sighed dramatically. 'How long is this going to take!?' Lee looked at the small clock that was hanging in the train. 'I think about forty five minutes longer.' Nico sunk deep down into the chair. 'Man, I should have brought more food. I had a sandwich, but that was snatched out of my hands by a ghoul.' Lee laughed.

'By a ghoul? How did that even happen?'

'I don't know! It also jumped through the side of the train with my sandwich! I guess I wasn't paying attention, that is something you shouldn't do around ghouls...'

Castor jerked his head up. 'Howlateitiswherearewe!?'

'It is half past three and we are at... station Helheim.' He shivered. 'Which is probably why it's so ridiculously cold.'

Nico looked at the box with the 'throne' in it. 'Alright, honest question: do you guys know what a Björg is or did you two just pick something random?'

Castor and Lee shot each other uncertain looks. 'We... sort of know what it is,' Lee answered.

'I believe it is black,' Castor added. Nico turned around, so that he could look these two in the eye. 'You really should have waited until the manufacturer was done.'

Castor and Lee grinned. 'Nico, imagine the look on Hades face,' Castor said, softly. Nico knew exactly what Hades would look like when he saw the Björg, but the son of Hades had a weird suspicion that glee while he finally banished those two to Tartarus was not what Castor was thinking of.

They arrived at Hades central station. They managed to get the box out of the train just in time (Lee had to duck away from the closing doors). When Nico saw the escalator, he groaned. 'You two did not think this through.'

'Maybe not,' Castor agreed, while he and Lee begun to haul the box towards the escalator. Nico looked at it. He was not going to help - they got themselves into this situation, they could get themselves out!

'Nico, a little lower!'

'I am trying my best and a moment ago it was a little higher, Castor!'

'Please just shut up!' Lee added. Nico had looked at it for three seconds and just could not let the two ghosts figure it out themselves. That would probably cause way to much damage to the station that Hades would not be to pleased about. Luckily, they were now passing the gates of Hades' magnificant palace. The skeleton warriors that were on-duty stared at the three people hauling a big box (and seventeen small baggies) into the castle. This was possibly the most hilarious thing they had seen in all their years of being forced to guard Hades' castle.

The lord of the dead himself saw the three kids yelling at each other while carrying the box into the three room and immediately concluded that if you wanted something done correctly, you should just do it yourself. There was no way his throne was called a Björg, and if it was, he wanted to have a word with the throne maker in Yomi. He put his hands to his temples, which he slowly massaged.

'Alright. Put the box down right there...'

'But the old throne stood more to the left...'

'Just put it right where I am pointing you, blondie! As I was saying, put it there and build it up. We'll see what you kids got and in the meantime I will send someone to get the actual throne.' Hades strided out of the throne room, leaving the two ghosts and Nico to do their work.

Of course, the manual said it should only take fifteen minutes, but Hades had given them three hours. He figured that might just be enough for them to figure out how to make the 'throne' and put it together. In the meantime, he could do some office work.

After two hours, he went to take a quick look at the progress. To his surprise, the 'throne' was already up. And he had to admit - it looked sort of comfy.

'Well, that went a lot better than I thought it would,' he said, while looking at the Björg. Castor saluted. 'We tried our best. In a few days, we'll check if the throne from Yomi is ready.' Hades mentally rolled his eyes. He knew they would forget (Also, he had already found some skeletons to do that).

'Yes, yes, well, thanks for the work. This... will do, until the real throne arrives.' Castor, Lee and Nico turned their heads around in unison. Nico's mouth fell open. He had never expected his father to react so... relatively positive.

'No, go away! I have more work to do!' Hades clapped in his hands while he said it. Nico, Castor and Lee got up and ran off - Nico towards his room so he could get back to the upper world, Castor towards the Dionysus' house in Elysium and Lee to the isles of the blessed.

Just as Nico stepped out of his cabin when remembered what he actually needed to do in the Underworld: get the ring of the dead from Duat and bring it to Hades. Oh. That was why he took the train, too. He sighed deeply, before tiredly turning around, to emerge on his trip back down into Hadestown.