Midnight Creek Tales

#3. The Midnight Railroad / Chapter 7

"Guys! I can remember! I know what happened to me!" Gage exclaimed.

He began to replay the scene in his head and spoke aloud as he remembered what occurred.

"Quick Gage, what happened?! It's almost 6:00!" Glenn howled.

But as Gage recalled what happened, his smile quickly changed into a frown. "I remember... I was teaching my class, and when I finished giving my lecture I sat down at my desk... I was grading some papers while my students were doing an assignment on the board, and I heard gunshots firing behind me..."

His heart stopped, "Then that must mean I'm dead? Doesn't it? But that doesn't make any sense? Max cut himself which proves we all have blood! Our organs and senses all work!" Gage stood there in isolation from reality, not knowing what he would become or already was.

"I remember now too! I was called to duty to stop a mass shooting in town." Jack looked down at his uniform in disbelief.

In a weird phenomenon, everybody started to remember what had happened to them, "I was backstage ready to leave for the night, and I heard bullets firing onstage. I saw the shooter! He had a black ski mask on and was holding an automatic rifle shooting away at the staff and me; I think my boss Randall got shot too." Jackie said scratching her head until Rick interrupted.

"You mean Randall Loy?" He asked shocked.

"Yeah he's my bitch of a boss, you know him?"

"Know him? I used to go to school with him! We used to be close buds, so when I ran into him on the street, and he gave me free drinks at his strip club, why would I turn him down?"

"LOOK!" Helen screamed as she unbuttoned Sarah's nightgown. She moved her collar to the side and pulled the dress down revealing a bunch of bruises around her chest area. They were bulging black and blue. "Who did this to you?!" Helen cried in a panic.

"The man in the black mask..." Sarah said crying into Helen's arms.

"Wait so does everyone remember what happened? Everyone recalls a person in a black ski mask with a gun?"

Everyone nodded as Gage tried to put the pieces together. But his concentration was broken when Jackie started screaming her lungs out!

"WHAT IS THAT?!" She shrieked pointing out the window.

The entire train of people looked out the window, and Gage saw a site so unexplainable he could never describe it in its full entirety.

The train was going faster towards it, and as they got closer, he could understand why Jackie was screaming. The railroad tracks ended into a large warping portal! Inside they could see angels and demons fighting and grabbing at each other! There were clouds of Heaven that were fresh and calm and burning balls of fire from the pits of Hell that were roaring with blazing intensity!

All of a sudden the train rushed forward like a roller coaster and everyone jolted out of their seats as the front door flung open!

The door smacked Debbie and Jack in the back, while everyone jumped and ducked for cover!

Gage peered up as more mayhem ensued. He saw the back of the driver... a man in a cape with a golden scythe!

"Holy shit! We're going in!" Rick screamed as he repeatedly kept trying to smash the window down from his crouched position on the floor! The kids and Helen started saying their prayers, 'Our Father, who art in Heaven hallowed be thy name...'

Gage's heart was beating so fast it was about to burst out of his chest! His normal life as a human being was now coming to an end with something he expected out of a sci-fi movie!

Everyone was in a state of madness as they gained closer! The train began to gain more speed until it felt like they were riding on a rocket!

The eerie driver slowly started turning his head around, and as he whispered these haunting words, "Life is nothing but a tessssstttttt..." His head went all the way around showing everyone the grim face of a skull staring at them, as he now was chuckling maniacally!

Gage fell out of his seat and hit the carpet with a thud. He mustered all the strength he had left in his body and pulled himself off the floor to look out the window. He saw the faces of the angels and demons more vividly. A rush of fear began to surge through him as if he were strapped to an electric chair! Gage began to hear screams and music both mixing in bittersweet harmony, which was intensifying the pain in his head! He felt light-headed, and his breath tightened. And as the train went straight through the portal, everything became black!