Christmas Train Chapter 6, a castle fanfic

Christmas Train

Chapter 6

December 30th

Kate had listened to Castle as he talked about ghosts. While she actually did enjoy his various stories, in no way did it help with finding her killer. There were two chairs for them to sit on and though she didn't remember how, they'd ended up on the bed side by side as she listened to Castle while he wove his ghost story.

She'd been listening to one of his stories when suddenly all of the Christmas lights went out, plunging them into complete darkness. "GHOST!" Rick had yelled then suddenly she was being tickled. She shrieked with laughter. Between his story and being tickled she'd never been happier.

Then suddenly the Christmas lights came back on and Rick was just sitting there. "Don't do that again, Castle." She had enjoyed it but that didn't mean she wanted him doing it again.

He feigned ignorance. "I didn't do anything. It must have been the Ghost!"

"Riiight!" Kate didn't believe a word of it. Still the event was now burned into her memory and it was a good one. "You're sweet, Castle." She'd leaned across to kiss his cheek. He'd started to turn his head to look at her so her kiss hit the corner of his mouth instead. It was almost a kiss. Kate hadn't wanted to start something so she had claimed it wasn't ghosts and had gotten out of bed.

Now she was sitting in the security room going over video of Will's cabin. He was a politician and the two dead men were involved in politics. They weren't senators by any stretch of the imagination, but they might've gotten there some day.

"Nice list." No sooner than she had said it she was shaking her head. Castle was rubbing off on her and she hadn't yet decided if that was a good thing or not. However, this trip was actually turning out to be fun because of him.

She almost missed it, daydreaming about Castle and what it would be like to date him after this trip. Dating him might be amazing. It certainly wouldn't be boring.

Kate backed up the recording. She watched the door open for a moment then close. While it was possible, she didn't see anyone do it. No hand, or arm, or body. "What the hell!" She backed it up and played it again. Next she noted what day this was and what time it was. "An hour before the first vic's door opened by itself." Question was, was that significant? "Will was the first target but didn't find him there?"

Kate kept watching and saw it happen again. The door of the cabin opened then closed once more. No one went in and no one came out. Again she didn't see how it opened or closed. The doors weren't automated. You had to apply force to get them to open and close. "An hour before the door to our second vic opens." The entire thing was baffling. "He targeted Will again? Didn't find him so he moved on to his next target?" It was all she could think of.

She knew senators were not well thought of as a whole. And when it came to being elected they always got re-elected no matter how badly they were thought of. It didn't make any sense but that was how it usually worked. So having Will be a target of some killer certainly made sense. She had no idea who he'd pissed off so badly. "Naughty list." Kate sat back and shook her head. Castle was in her head and she needed to find a killer.

"KATE!" Rick's voice was right behind her. She jumped and laid her hand over her heart to hold it in place.

She willed her heart to slow down. "Don't do that, Castle!"

"Sorry, I was looking all over for you and finally thought of here," he said.

"What do you want? …Did you bring coffee?" He was her coffee guy, after all.

"Oops. I will right after this. There's another Christmas party tonight. I wanted to make sure you were going. Please say that you'll come." He really wanted her to come with him.

"All right, I have the dress for it." Kate was actually looking forward to wearing her new dress again. It really was lovely.

Rick shook his head. "Oh, you can't use that dress. This party's one where you're supposed to dress so that you look like Christmas."

"Look like Christmas? How do you do that?"

"Leave that to me. I'll get you a dress to wear. I heard an implied yes so you're coming. Thanks." He stepped in closer and kissed her cheek. "I have Christmas songs to sing, see you later." A beaming Rick left her.

"Christmas songs and another new dress. …Naturally." Kate rolled her eyes and went back to looking at all of her video. But now her mind was on the party with Castle instead of what she was doing.

"If you weren't in your room to be killed where were you, Will?" Kate wasn't looking forward to trying to find him on all this video and matching up the timing of it all.

Kate had barely remembered to leave the security room to go to her room to get ready for the party Castle wanted her to attend. The second she opened the door and turned on the Christmas lights she saw a dress waiting for her, spread out on the bed. With it came shoes and a necklace and earrings.

Kate went over to it and didn't fail to notice that it was another green dress. "Have a fixation on green, do we, Castle?" She still smiled as she lifted up the dress to see it better.

To say it was one weird dress was putting it mildly. "Look like Christmas, huh?" She wasn't really sure it was a dress. It had what looked like evergreen branches attached to the outside. It at least had a lining on the inside that looked and felt really soft. The evergreen portion was obviously fake, but it still looked really weird.

"What are these?" Kate touched one of the little red things that looked like berries. They were all over the dress.

It was strapless and had a red satin belt. Lifting it up also showed her that the gown flared way out as it reached her feet. It reminded her of one of those Elizabethan gowns that royalty wore long, long ago.

"He wants me to wear this!?" Kate wasn't sure if he was nuts or if this just might be fun.

Kate had put on the dress she was given. She'd pulled her hair back up again and re-used those silver sticks from last time. Thankfully these shoes didn't have 6-inch heels. The necklace reminded her of the one she had worn with the previous dress.

Thanks to the size of the dress she took up a lot of the space of the cabin. Then she walked over to the mirror to look at herself. She sucked in a breath and stared at her reflection. "I look like a tree. With little red berries. …I look like an idiot!" She decided right then and there that Castle was going to get a piece of her mind.

There was a knock on her door. Kate moved to open it. "I look like a…" She stopped and knew her mouth had fallen open. "Castle?" She really couldn't tell since he didn't look anything like the Castle she knew.

He placed his hands on his belly. "Ho, Ho, Ho! You look amazing! Oh, the lights aren't on." Whoever it was reached over and touched something at her waist where the red ribbon was.

When she looked down, her dress was suddenly filled with soft green lights that made the garment practically glow. "Oh my god!" If she looked like a tree before, now she looked like a Christmas tree.

"You're perfect! Ready to go?" Rick held out his hand.

"You're Santa." Kate looked at someone dressed in a very realistic looking Santa suit.

She watched him grin as his rosy cheeks actually got larger. "Pretty cool suit, huh!" It was his pride and joy.

"You're wearing a Santa suit." Kate still couldn't believe the transformation. He looked exactly like a Santa should look. Not at all like those fake Santas that were all over the place. He was even wrinkled. She had no idea how he did that. He was even wearing these little reading glasses perched on the tip of his nose.

"Yeah, the best suit I own. Ready?" He was still holding out his hand.

Instead of taking his hand she reached out and yanked on his fake beard. Except it didn't come off. "OW! …I think I used the wrong glue. Might have a little trouble getting this off later. You coming?" Rick put his hand back out for her to take.

"I suppose." This was not what she'd been expecting. She looked like a tree complete with lights and she was going to a party with Santa.

"How long have you had this suit?" Kate asked as she realized that the train corridors were really narrow especially while wearing this dress. Everyone who was going the opposite way had to find a way around the voluminous skirt and Santa's belly. That was another thing she had noticed. He was fat, like really fat.

Somehow the room they went into to have this party had still more Christmas decorations; she didn't see how that was possible. Two children she hadn't ever seen on this train rushed both of them.

"SANTA!"

Kate stood there like a Christmas tree and watched Castle behave like Santa did with kids on his lap. He actually looked like he was right where he was supposed to be. He was smiling broadly, what she could see of it under all that beard. He was laughing his, "Ho, Ho, Ho," and the kids were both really happy.

They went zooming past her to get back to their parents. "They're great kids." Kate turned to find Santa standing next to her.

"Nice list?" she inquired since he seemed to love saying that.

"Ho, Ho, Ho, definitely on the nice list. …Just like you," Rick told her.

Kate knew she was blushing. "Thanks. So what made you think of going as Santa?" She looked at him and saw those same eyes that she'd gotten lost in earlier. It reassured her that it really was Castle under all that.

"You're supposed to come dressed as Christmas. What more Christmas is there than being dressed as Santa? …Except maybe as a Christmas tree." Rick beamed at her.

"Yeah, I feel like a tree lost in the forest. With no other trees." Kate spread her arms wide to show that there were no other trees.

"You mean all those trees over there?" Rick pointed and she turned to look. What she saw was a fake Christmas tree that was filled with decorations. Behind it were still more Christmas trees. They simply happened to be a whole lot smaller but no less Christmas-y looking.

Kate laughed. "I stand corrected."

Rick held out his hand. "Would the prettiest Christmas tree on the train care to dance? …With Santa Claus?"

She smiled, something she noticed that she was doing a lot more of lately. "This tree would love to." Kate took his hand and followed him to the dance floor.

She wasn't as tall as last time but Castle was a lot bigger this time and her dress was a lot bigger, too. Still she was enjoying dancing with Santa. "Santa." Just because he looked like Santa didn't mean he was Santa. Especially when Santa didn't really exist.

"Yes?" Rick replied.

At that moment Kate realized that she'd said his name out loud and hadn't meant to. She just needed to get him being Santa out of her head, so she needed to think fast.

"How did you get all of this on this train? Your Santa suit, my tree dress, the beautiful gown, shoes, jewelry. Both of these garments fit me perfectly, like they were made for me. So how did you do that? And then there's the Christmas decorations and all the lights. The room I had with Will didn't have any of those things." Their room had been really nice but there wasn't even a whisper of anything to do with Christmas in it.

"You want to talk about that now? …Here?" Rick asked since he just wanted to keep holding her and dancing. They were already halfway through their vacation, it was going to be ending soon. Far too soon to his thinking.

"I…no, probably not." But her list of questions for him was starting to add up. Nothing was making sense.

She let herself to get lost in his eyes again. It allowed her to look past the costume he was wearing, portraying someone who didn't exist.

Kate had lost track of time and was still lost in his eyes when suddenly a lady screamed bloody murder. It took Kate's attention off of Santa and onto her. What Kate saw was a woman who was terrified down to her very core.

Then she started pointing while still screaming, "NO! PLEASE NO!"

Kate looked where she was pointing but she didn't see anything. Yes, there were other people in the room but they had all stopped moving and talking and were looking at the woman who was screaming.

"PLEASE HELP ME! SOMEONE, HELP!" She was backing up like whatever or whoever was getting closer. But other than her no one else was moving.

"NOOO!" Suddenly she dropped to the floor. Then a small puddle of blood started to form.

"What the…?" It just didn't add up. Still she was on the floor bleeding. "Call the doctor." Kate stared at her Why she was bleeding didn't make sense.

Then out of nowhere it started to snow inside the car. It was heavy; it was sticking to everything and collecting fast. Kate had only taken one step toward her so far. "Snow?" Kate held up a hand and watched it collect in her hand.

Another woman started screaming and pointing. Kate snapped her head around to where she was pointing. This time she saw snow collecting on…nothing? There was no one standing there and yet the snow was collecting. As it continued to snow heavily it began to take the shape of a person. It had a body, arms, legs, and a head.

"Castle, do you see that?" Was she really seeing something? Perhaps an illusion of some type. Then whatever it was ran for the far door; the door opened and it was gone.

Kate rushed over to the woman who was on the floor still bleeding. "She's been stabbed. We need the doctor!" Kate screamed out the last part.

Then Santa was next to her and used his white gloves to cover her wound and apply pressure.

Suddenly Shrom and Vile were standing next to her. "What happened here?"

"She's been stabbed, we need the doctor," Kate told both of them.

"He was invisible. The snow forced him to show himself," Rick said to him just as Kate noticed that it had stopped snowing completely.

"Invisible." Shrom looked at his wife who immediately began thinking about what the killer was.

"An assassin suit," Vile offered as her husband nodded his agreement.

"A what?" Kate had never heard of such a thing.

"An assassin suit. It renders the attacker invisible except to his target. His target sees… well, Death. A ghostly apparition that represents death. It's been said that it's terrifying to see it," Vile explained.

"Where did he go?" Shrom queried.

Kate pointed toward the door. "It, whatever it was, went through that door to the next car." She at least now knew her killer was at that end of the train. She just needed to make sure he didn't make his way past her. Which was going to be a challenge if he was invisible.

Shrom looked at his wife. She nodded and said, "I'll get our stuff." Then she ran off the opposite direction.

"Stuff? What stuff?" What were they talking about?

"You really didn't think we would come on this train without being able to defend ourselves?" Shrom didn't believe her. She was a detective, surely she was armed or could be.

"Weapons are forbidden on this train." Her weapon had been confiscated before boarding.

"Where's Pink Skin?" He saw Kate and some fellow in a red suit who was really fat.

"That would be me, Shrom." Rick was busy keeping pressure on the wound.

Shrom looked at him with shock. The change was amazing. He even reached out to pull on his beard a little. "Too much glue," Rick stated with a wince.

A lot happened in the next few minutes. The doctor and more train employees showed up as did Vile who was wearing something and carrying something. She handed a vest to Shrom who quickly put it on. Then she handed him a weapon. It was really small and almost disappeared in his hand.

"I'm going with you," Kate declared; they were not finding her killer without her.

"Not dressed like that, you aren't." Shrom had no intention of taking the feisty detective with them.

Vile agreed with her husband. "You almost glow in the dark, Kate."

Kate looked down at her dress. Her tree dress really wasn't something she should be wearing while hunting down an invisible killer. "Fine!" She stood up and started stripping. She wasn't bashful and she had a killer to catch. She was down to just her strapless bra and her panties in seconds. "Let's go!" She was going even if these two didn't like it.

"I'll catch up as soon as the doctor takes over," Rick told them.

Rick watched the three of them head for the door the killer had gone through. He really needed to follow, but how was he going to do that with all these people around AND make sure this lady survived? Kate didn't have much faith in this doctor, even though he wasn't one either.

"YOU, stay behind both of us!" Shrom pointed at Kate. "Remember, if you see Death, that's the killer. His suit's extremely dangerous. The sight of him can render you almost motionless. Unable to defend yourself." Shrom looked at his wife who nodded at him.

Shrom opened the door and the three were off after a killer in a suit that rendered him invisible. A killer that they weren't going to see unless they became a target and if they were a target they would be frozen in place.

Only Shrom and Vile were armored and armed. They left behind a very worried and frightened Rick. He needed to save Kate and stop a killer, but he was trapped. He needed something so he could slip away.