Out Of The Past

Part VI - One Decision

Feeling Audrey's suggestion to simply stay in his room that day was good advice, Layton took it wholly to heart.

Audrey kept to her part of the bargain, simply telling anyone who came asking that she had no idea where the train's Chancellor or his second-in-command were. Thankfully, for at least one day, things on the train seemed to run smoothly.

Laying in the bed, staring at the ceiling, Layton tried to equally deliver on his part of the bargain with Audrey. Trying to make sense of everything that had happened in the last 48 hours. But the longer he laid there and thought about the events, the less sense anything seemed to make.

He had no idea how things were being handled in the engine. Since there were no reports of any problems, he assumed Melanie had at the very least not abandoned her beloved engine.

Layton understood desperation and fear, and the things people under their influence could be driven to do. But Melanie was the most calm and level headed person he knew. She wasn't prone to giving into either of those emotions.

Why had she resorted to killing someone?

His tired brain thought back over the story she had told him.

She had said something about that part. About having not wanting Josie to die in that room. But he barely heard anything she was saying by then. It was like part of him had shut down and he no longer wanted to hear her words.

And then suddenly she had stopped talking. She wasn't even looking at him anymore. She simply sat in her chair, staring at the table. She wasn't even crying anymore. She just sat there. Looking as devastated and afraid of him as he could ever remember her. Waiting for him to do something. To pass judgment on her.

But instead he had simply gotten up and left. It was the best thing for him to do in the moment. Get out of the cabin. Get as far from her as he could.

But having failed once again to find any answers, that evening Layton had settled into his favorite spot at the bar, a drink already sitting in his hand by the time Audrey noticed him.

"So," Audrey asked as she stepped up to the bar where he was sitting, "did we come out because we found an answer," She shifted her eyes to the glass in front of him, "or did we come out to drink?"

Layton casually raised his glass to her. "Well, it certainly wasn't the first one. You can count on that."

Audrey leaned on the bar with a deep sigh and a pout. "Any progress at all?"

"I wish I could say 'yes', Audrey. But I feel the problem is I don't have all the pieces yet."

The Night Car manager frowned at him. "What other pieces could there be?"

"This happened months ago. Now, I know Melanie isn't the most conversational person on this train, but she had to have told this story to SOMEONE."

"She did, Andre. I told you that. She told it to me."

"Then tell me that." He stated. "Tell me what she told you."

Audrey gave him an affronted look. "Mr. Layton! You know perfectly well I don't repeat things told to me in confidence!"

"Did she asked you not to?"

"Well, no, but..."

"Then what did she tell you?"

Audrey set a solid stare on the man.

"Audrey, you are likely the only other person on this train she told this story to. That makes you my only other source of information."

"To what end, Andre? She told me the same story she told you."

"How do you know that?"

"Why wouldn't she?"

"Because she was as upset and scared as I've ever seen her. She barely managed to get through the story as it was. Maybe...maybe she left something out."

"Like what!?" Audrey leaned slightly across the bar at him. "Andre, from what you say she told you, that's pretty much the whole story. The same one I've heard at least five times."

"Five times." Layton repeated. "Then you know the story as well as she does."

"The answer is still 'No'."

"If the stories are the same, Audrey, what harm is there in your repeating it to me?" Layton reasoned out.

Audrey paused as she pulled back slightly. There was a certain logic in what he was saying.

"All right." She replied after a few moments consideration. "I'll tell you. But first you have to answer a question for me."

Layton looked up expectantly.

"Why is this so important to you?" She asked. "She told you what happened. If my story is, as you suspect, that same, nothing I say is going to change anything. The ending will be the same. Why do you want to hear the same story from me now?"

When he didn't answer her, Audrey answered for him.

"Maybe it's because you're looking for excuses, Mr. Layton."

"Excuses?"

"For what she did. For something...anything that would explain her actions to your satisfaction."

Layton said nothing, turning slowly back to his drink.

"I'll accept your silence as having answered that question." Audrey replied knowingly. "My turn then." She started.

Layton looked up again.

"Melanie always started the story the same way. She said she was desperate to find you after you disappeared out of the drawers."

"Why?"

"Because she was trying to save the last remnants of humanity. And everything along those lines had gone fine for seven years. Until you entered the picture. You say you should have left her in that chair? Maybe she should have left you in the Tail, Mr. Layton."

Layton took a quick draw off of his drink. "Maybe she should have."

"The point is you were missing. And Melanie did something she hardly ever did.

She panicked. All she saw was everything she had worked for seven years to build, preserve, and protect, being destroyed. By you."

"It needed to be destroyed."

"Perhaps. But that wasn't how she saw it then. Melanie had always run this train by order. Pure. Disciplined. Order. It wasn't the best system. She learned that over time. But it worked. I think the problem you have in understanding how things were, Mr. Layton, is that Melanie didn't build the train's system. It built her. The train told her what it needed, and she brought it into being. And now it was all coming apart around her and she was clawing at anything to stop it. And to do that, she needed you. She needed you to understand what was going to happen if you ever revealed her secret."

Layton raised his glass slightly to her. "Happened anyway." He commented with a small smile.

"Yes, it did." Audrey replied in a tired sounding voice.

"So the way I see it so far," Layton put in, "everything was going to happen anyway. She couldn't stop it. So there was no need for Josie to die."

"What happened to Josie was tragic, Andre. I am not going to dispute that with you. But it wasn't all Melanie's fault. Although I'm sure she shoulders all the guilt."

"She SHOULD!" Came the sudden, small explosion. "SHE killed her."

Audrey answered his outburst with one of her own as she leaned over the bar and slammed her hand down hard on the counter. "And she wasn't the only one in that room, Mr. Layton!"

Layton pulled back slightly, taken off guard not only by her action but by the statement.

"What do you mean?"

"What you apparently haven't been willing to listen to up until now. Maybe now you will. I told you before that what happened in that room was a tragic circumstance of events. Yes, one that Melanie initiated. But she quickly lost control of it. And when she did, she tried to stop it. But things had gone too far by then."

"Meaning?"

"Melanie told you...she froze Josie's finger."

"That's where she started. She was going to freeze her whole hand off, one finger at a time."

"Is that what she told you? Or is that your great detective skills filling in the blanks in her story or your memory?"

Layton just stared back at her.

"That's called 'conjecture', Mr. Layton. Now lets get back to the truth. Melanie told you she left the room?"

Layton nodded.

"Did she say why?"

Layton shook his head this time slowly.

Audrey gave a small laugh. "She was probably too embarrassed to tell you that part."

"Embarrassed?" He asked as his eyebrows came together. He couldn't imagine what would embarrass someone who was getting ready to torture another person while they were secured to a table.

"Melanie left because she literally got sick because of what she just did. Maybe that was the catalyst that snapped her out of that madness. Or maybe not." Audrey added after a seconds thought. "Because she said when she was in the bathroom, and she stood up and looked in the mirror, all she saw was WIlford staring back at her, laughing at what she had just done. And she realized in that moment she was as close losing what she felt was left of her humanity as she could come. And that thought terrified her.

She walked back into that room, resolute to put a stop to the madness. To not become the person she professed to hate more than anything else on this planet." Audrey paused to make sure he was listening. "She was going to let Josie go, Andre."

"But she didn't."

"Because she didn't realize she had already lost control of the situation. Josie believed, and rightly so, that Melanie was coming back into that room to continue what she had started. Why wouldn't she? So she made a drastic choice. She froze her own hand so she could effect an escape by breaking it off. When Melanie came back into the room, Josie had the element of surprise on her side and attacked her."

Layton sat for a few moments absorbing the new information. But finally he turned back to Audrey, "How do you know any of this is true?"

"Aside from Melanie telling me, you mean?" Audrey asked in a slightly harsh tone. "Because others were there, Mr. Layton. And others talk. Another person there stated that Josie had the opportunity to leave before Melanie came back from the bathroom. She knew there were people in the hallway who would have helped her. But she stayed in that chair and she waited for Melanie to return. She wanted to kill Melanie as much a she felt Melanie wanted to kill her."

"Kill or be killed." Layton replied stoically.

But Audrey shook her head. "Kill Melanie and set the train free, Andre. That was always Josie's goal. To fight for the revolution. The same reason she wouldn't tell Melanie what she wanted to know."

"She managed to get out of that room. She didn't have to leave Josie behind."

"The whole event had dissolved into chaos, Andre. Melanie came back into that room prepared to let Josie go. Saying she didn't know anything. But when she came into the room, Josie attacked her. They fought, and a tube got punctured..."

"And she left Josie to die." Layton quickly put in before Audrey could go any further.

"Andre," Audrey said, an edge of desperation in her voice, begging him to listen to her, "It was CHAOS in that room. As soon as the tube was punctured, Melanie tried to get out of the room. But she said Josie did everything she could to make sure she didn't. But still she tried, sure that, even in a fury of hatred to kill her, if she got out, Josie would follow her."

"But she didn't." Layton replied dismally, finally turning his eyes back to the woman behind the bar. "So what went wrong?"

"Melanie wasn't sure. She said she believes as soon as she cleared the doorway, the guards closed the door"

"Locking Josie in the room."

Audrey answered his question with a slow nod.

"So she was just collateral damage." He said slowly, staring at his drink again. "Just another Tailie."

"Unfortunately, yes, Andre. That's all the guards saw her as. They concentrated their efforts on making sure Melanie was safe."

"Then why didn't...why didn't..."

"Didn't what?" Audrey asked when his voice simply trailed off and stopped. "Isn't that what Melanie told you?"

Layton paused for a moment, thinking. But then he shook his head. "She...She just said...she left the room, and Josie didn't get out."

"Because that is all she likely remembered happening , Andre. But others, not fighting for their lives at the moment, remember other details."

"But she didn't even try to help her." Layton replied as a tear slowly made its way down his cheek.

"No." Audrey answered, reaching over and carefully wiping the tear back. "No, she didn't."

Layton looked up at her. "Why? Why couldn't she have done that one thing? Just TRIED?"

"Because she didn't see the point, Andre. She thought Josie was already dead."

"She said she didn't even check."

"Why would she?" Audrey gave a deep sigh. "Andre, I'm not trying to make Josie out to be the villain in all of this. She did what she felt she had to do. She didn't know Melanie's intentions. She had no reason to think Melanie was going to let her go free. So she fought. What she had had to do for the past seven years. Fight for her life."

Layton simply stared back at her.

"Andre, it was a tragic...accident. True, it was one Melanie set in motion. But she was scared and desperate as she had ever been. And she panicked. And in that panic, she made a horrible, awful mistake. And she has paid for it every day for the past eleven months. It still haunts her to this day. Now tell me, Mr. Layton," Audrey asked, leaning across the bar until she was only inches from his face, "is there NOTHING you have done in the past, that doesn't still haunt you? One decision? Made solely by you, in a moment of desperation to save this train?" Audrey leaned in a little closer. "Just. One?" She whispered, punctuating each word down to its last letter.

Layton felt himself captured under her stare. Unable to so much as move.

He knew Audrey had her share of secrets. It was one of the reasons so many on the train respected the Night Car manager. Audrey was fair, mild mannered for the most part, reasonable, rational, and tolerant. But push her too far, and your business was the morning gossip on the train.

Layton waited until Audrey left to go tend to another customer at the bar before he quickly pulled himself out of his chair and hurried out of the Night Car.