"The seed of an urban legend finds fertile soil at the corner of tragedy and imagination." - 'We Shadows' by Thomm Quackenbush

"The hell kind of name is 'Rail Tracer,' kora?"

Colonello is the first one to break the silence when Luce announces the newest mission and Skull just grins that Cheshire grin as he snickers from his current lounging spot in the chandelier. They've given up on trying to understand why he lounged in such places, not even considering the ways he got to them in the first place.

"It's an American urban legend, a ghost story," comes the German accented response. "Heard about it while in the circus. The story started sometime in the early 20s, maybe earlier, who knows." He does, actually, but he's in character so technically, he isn't lying. "According to the ghost story, the Rail Tracer is a monster that chases trains under the cover of moonless nights, merging with the darkness to take on all sorts of appearances, such as a wolf, mist, or even an identical train to the one it is chasing. There is no way of knowing when it first catches up with the train; rather, one can only know that it has caught up with the train after one realizes that something is amiss. By then, it is too late to stop the phenomenon: a caught train's occupants will have already started to vanish, one by one, until there is no one left. The train, now empty, fades out of existence."

The longer he talks, the more excited he gets about this ghost story. And very animated, making the chandelier sway, to everyone's discomfort.

"Telling the story of the Rail Tracer while on a train is tantamount to summoning it, as the Rail Tracer will target the storyteller's train next. However, there is one way to prevent the Rail Tracer's arrival: one must believe in the legend. If the Rail Tracer has already come, one must do whatever they can to avoid it until sunrise, at which point it will vanish with the morning light." Skull smiles at them, and it's got a manic edge to it they haven't seen before. "It was a very popular story around the fires."

The stuntman's grin only got wider. "Of course, the story came true. The Flying Pussyfoot was the first train to be hit, even the story had been around for a bit by that point. So either the story was given life, or someone took the name and gave it life. Either way, most of the passengers were dead by morning including most of the crew."

They all blink.

"What."

Skull looks normal, no manic grin or glowing eyes. "Well you asked. My money is on it being a person. You hear all kinds of things in the circus."

Reborn punches the bridge of his nose. "So we have an American ghost story going on murder sprees across Europe. Wonderful."

Luce, of course, pipes up with her own grin. "Whoever this Rail Tracer is, they've only been targeting the more morally corrupt famiglias."

Lal cuts the Donna a look. "Then why should we bother?"

Of course, having looked over Luce's shoulder and seeing the reward offered, Viper all but demands they take it and Skull is the only one who doesn't argue so Luce lays out the information that is known, or rather suspected, about the Rail Tracer. Lately, there's been an unknown conductor on the targeted trains, but said conductor was never seen boarding or exiting the trains, even as a customer. Though someone managed to snag a picture and Skull bites his tongue to keep himself from laughing because the face of his primary Claire is staring out of the picture with a grin and riot red curls. He recognizes the head of dark hair behind the riot red curls and can't help his smile.

"The hell are you smiling for, kora?"

"How often do you actually get to meet a real life ghost story?"

"Tch. You're weird, Skull. So when do we leave, kora?"

Skull stays long enough to grab the time frame and when no one is looking, drops from the chandelier into a handstand then strolls up the stairs to his room. Only once he's in his territory, behind his wall of flames, does Skull begin to cackle. Because, good god, they have no idea what they're getting into and he can't wait.

Reborn stares at the face in the photograph, annoyed at the echoes of familiarity because he feels as if he should know the face grinning at the world. But the hitman shows nothing on his face, taking in the facts and already mapping out plans in his head. This is his arena where he's made his name. He'll get Viper to track down more information and then corner Skull, the slippery stuntman, to find out how many stories there are about this urban-legend-come-to-life. He doesn't believe in ghosts, not in his profession, because then he'd have so many of his own, one for each drop of blood on his hand.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Luce looks up at Skull.

"They're going to deliver. Once I have it, it's all yours."

Why was Skull lounging on the window sill two floors up?

(Checkerface blinked and looked around him. It felt like the world was dumped over and everything put back just left of where it was supposed to be. For the life of him he couldn't understand why. At opposite side of the world, a woman with blonde hair and dark skin grins.)