The Middle Ground

Chapter Three

The wind fiercely blows the cool morning air through my hair as I make my way to the entrance of the station. It's a small place that's been here since trains were created. It's so small that only one train can be loaded or unloaded at a time.

As we enter I notice that the wood walls have faded and molded several times over. So much so that I notice that the station has started making a game out it. They're having a raffle to see who can guess the number of times they've had to replace this piece of junk. We enter through screechiest and heaviest doors that ever existed, and I thought my wardrobe was bad.

As soon as ours eyes adjust to the buildings lack of lighting, it's as if we've teleported in time. In the corner stands a saddle stand and hanging on the wall are tons of horse medallions and awards. On shelves that are scattered around the place are random beer bottles from the mid 1800s. If you were to look up you would see several large support beams that hold the ceiling in place. The entrances to other rooms have ancient saloon swinging doors. We've teleported to the era of cowboys, bandits, and old train cars.

"Yeehaw," Luke whispers in my ear. I snort in response.

We head to the back center of the room where a authentic southern bar stands. Behind it is one of the stations workers ready to give us Luke's tickets so he can board the train.

"Hello. My name is James. Welcome to the wildest station in all of the west, Lilac Station. How may I help you?" the worker asks monotony.

My brother fishes his papers out of his pocket and slides it onto the table. James takes it and quickly scans over the pages and then stamps them a bunch of times before grabbing the papers and putting them somewhere behind the desk. Then he grudgingly takes two tickets and hands slides them towards my brother.

"Two for a one way trip," he sighs.

"Umm..." my brother stares at the tickets not moving.

The worker sighs again, "Is there a problem?"

He doesn't look up, "It's just she's not going on the train and-"

"Then don't use them both," he says cutting my brother off.

He finally looks up, "Alright." It seems that time slows as my brother starts to raise his hand to grab the tickets. Suddenly my competitive instincts kick in and I swipe the tickets from the table and stuff one in my pocket and hold the other one out to my brother. He looks at me in the eyes, "You're not using the ticket."

"Oh I know," my smile slowly creeps into a scheming grin, "There's no reason for you to have two though." He raises an eyebrow at me. I pull on his arm, "Come on we're holding up the line." I pull him along before he can notice that there was no one waiting in line behind us.

I'm getting on that train. Once I get on there I'll have to ride to his stop (as my ticket says) and then he'll be mad, but the next train home hopefully won't be for a while. Even if it is I can delay. Then I'll offer to help him with his bags (take his bags) and then he'll have no choice, but to bring me to The Academy. All I want to do is see the place. What's wrong with that?

Suddenly I stop and look at Luke, "Aren't you forgetting something?" I point to his hands.

"Shit," he curses and take his arm out of my grasp, "Stay here." I nod and watch as he leaves.

Fuck that. I wait a few minutes and then text him a message saying, "Hey I have to use the rest room. It'll probably take me a while, so don't worry about me. Board your train. Just text me telling me you got on and when you arrive. I'll see you when you when you come home for Christmas. Bye!" I hit send and then turn around and head towards the place where you get on the train. I push myself through the swinging doors and l have a quick glance back before continuing.