Helena and the Rings

Chapter 13: The Abandoned Train

The next day, the two of us got ready to go into town. Instead of smearing myself with alcohol to keep off the enemies, me and Bishop decided to get day drunk. Crazy right? We didn't drink a lot though, just enough to cover our tracks if you know what I mean. Bishop gave me some old sweat pants and a shirt that used to belong to her mother. They were both too big for me but I was used to wearing clothes I couldn't fit in. Honestly, looking back, I don't think I ever had clothes that fit me perfectly.

"Alright, you ready for this walk?" Bishop looked at me before heading out the door.

I nodded. "Sure!"

I was very excited to go into town. I wasn't sure why though. I was both scared and looking forward for the long adventure. I wanted to see new things. Maybe some trains, people on their porch, people trying to sell me things, musicians playing their instruments. I wanted to see the things other people saw that I really never got a chance to. The simple things in life. I didn't care if it'd take us forever to get there either.

We started our walk past the trees and onto the gravel road into that led on for some miles. Luckily it wasn't too hot and the wind treated us nice today. The birds chirped above us and the bugs danced around our faces. I didn't swat at them though. I let them do their thing. Bishop on the other hand was annoyed by them.

"Ugh," she moaned, swatting at her face and arms. "So many gnats and for what????"

"They're just giving you a kiss," I joked.

She frowned. "Not the kind of kisses I want," she then looked at me. Her face turned soft, causing me to blush a bit.

I didn't know what to say next and things got quiet.

The two of us skipped, raced, took little breaks time to time and sat in the grass away from the road. It was so heartwarming. Eventually we both started getting tired but finally, I began hearing industrial sounds and people yelling and cars. We were entering the town.

Yonderhills.

The town was called.

There was an old train track coming up with an old abandoned train still on it. "That's so cool!" I said.

Bishop smirked at me. "Should we check it out?"

I shrugged. I didn't want to get in trouble but I was curious. Before I could say anything, Bishop grabbed my hand and pulled me in the direction of the train. The people that were around probably looked at us one time. A very carelessly glare.

Walking up to the train, I was more intrigued. I wondered how many people waited for that train, sat on it, fought inside of it. I imagined a man collecting tickets from passengers. The rusty metal looked so cool and some parts of it had metal but most of it was rust. It definitely wasn't safe to go on. The rust was pointy and dangerous if were to get cut.

"Wish we could go inside," Bishop shrugged. She looked at the ground and stared pretty hard at something. "Look." She said.

I watched her pick up a small notepad and a pen. The front page had writing on it. She looked at the pages hard while flipping through the pages. "These pages...have your name on it."

"No way," I stood beside her to get a closer look. Sure enough there were attempts to write a message to someone named Helena. And for sure...it was my mother's handwriting. The attempts were like the same message on the paper she left me written over and over.

The hairs on my body went up and I swore I heard her calling my name.

"Helena."

A faint whisper.

"Helena."

Just tad bit darker. Another voice. Another voice with my mother.

"Someone's with her. Do you hear that?" I asked. Bishop looked at me and seemed overly confused by my panic. I knew I was starting to scare her. I heard the voices in my head over and over again until suddenly...it paused.

Bishop remained frozen, looking at me. She was terrified. I stumbled slowly over to hug her. "I'm so sorry."

"It's okay," Bishop breathed.

I felt her heart beating fast. Faster than I've known. I looked at her. "Are you okay-"

She stopped me in my sentence. "Can we keep going?"

Without questioning her any further, I didn't bother to ask her. Bishop was being weird though. She kept looking at everyone we passed. Looking passed everything like she sees something I don't. And who knows.

Maybe she did...