Midnight Creek Tales

#3. The Midnight Railroad / Chapter 4

Debbie's screaming caused the kids to break out wailing and crying! The sudden increase of noise made Gage's head feel as if someone was driving a sledgehammer through his brain, "That's enough! WE ARE NOT IN HELL!"

Everybody stopped.

"How do you know?" Jack questioned.

Gage stopped for a second to gather his thoughts. He felt like complete utter shit. "Well, why can you say we're in Hell just because the temperature changes from time to time?"

Gage stared up at the clock and was astonished at how much time had passed. It was 3:20, and the last time he looked at the clock it was only 1:30. It seemed like time was going faster in a matter of minutes to hours.

"Hey Rick come over here." Gage beckoned to him.

Rick looked up at Gage with a confused expression and then stood up and walked towards him. "What is it?"

"You are the strongest out of us all, so I need you to try to rip off the clock from the wall." The boxcar peered up at the clock, which stood atop the locked door.

"Have you gone insane? If we do that, we are going to lose all sense of time!" Debbie chided.

"Does anyone have a cell phone with them?" Gage asked.

"None of us do," Jackie replied.

"How can we not have our cell phones? I can understand the people who went to bed, but myself for instance, I always have my phone in my pocket!"

Then it hit Gage, "This could be a dream! I'll admit I was a tad tired during my lecture, so maybe you're all just an illusion!"

"No, life is an illusion in general and nothing is real," Max said very glumly.

Rick barked at Max, "Boy shut your fucking mouth! You're starting to make the kids cry, and I can't stand their Goddamn yelling!"

Max closed his mouth.

Gage looked over to Helen and the kids; they seemed so tired to the point where they were on the verge of collapsing.

"Are you tired Helen?" Gage asked.

At first, she wasn't paying attention; she was just caressing Jojo gently. So Gage asked the question again, "Helen are you tired?"

She chuckled, "I wish. I wish I could just fall asleep and leave this nightmare."

"Well, wait? If she can't fall asleep, that must mean this isn't a dream?" Asked Glenn.

But Gage didn't respond. Instead, he was distracted by Jojo and the kids. They were clinging to her like she was their long-lost grandma.

"You seem to love kids, can't say I do," Gage said trying to understand Helen better.

"Oh yes, I love children. They are the sugar in my tea and the light to my life."

"Oh God I'm jealous of your kids, I bet you're a hell of a mother."

But to his surprise, there was a pause. Helen stopped rocking the baby. She didn't look at Gage, hell she didn't look at anyone. As her head drooped, all she cared to see was Jojo.

"I once had a baby." She managed to choke up.

"Well, what happened to the baby?" Max asked.

"Boy didn't I tell you to shut the FUCK UP!" Rick threw a punch at Max's shoulder.

"Ouch!" He said rubbing his frail banana-bruised arm.

However, to everyone's surprise, she went on, "Well when my husband and I went to the doctor, they told us we were never going to have a child. I cried for weeks straight without a glimpse of happiness. Having a baby of my blood to care for was always my biggest dream. To create someone and nurture him or her throughout the highlights and obstacles of life, seemed like a mirage to me.