Jessica's Trail

I took the midnight train

I've never been on train ride before. Well that's a lie. I was seven when I went on my first train ride. My mother Rosa had a business meeting upstate in New Hampshire. She didn't want me hanging around the house alone.

See, it's just the two of us. Used to be three of us, me, my mom, and my dog Sparky, he was a yellow lab. He died a few years back. Miss that dog more than anything. Anyway.

Tonight is the first night in nine years that I'm going on a train. The Hamp Express. It's hours run twenty three  hours. From one am to midnight. It'll take you to four places. Central City, Star City, Brooklyn, or Gotham City. From one am to six am, you can get a ride to Central City, from six am to noon, you can go to Star city, from noon to six pm, you can go to Brooklyn, and from six pm to midnight, you can catch a ride to Gotham City. It's currently ten pm, and I'm on my way to Gotham City.

Why am I going to the most dangerous city ever?

Murder.

A thing that can take a duo of two young women, and turn it into a solo act. Secrets. Secrets can destroy things. Secrets destroyed my family.

Well, almost.

Few nights ago I was laying in my bed in my apartment when I heard a gun shot outside my window. I threw out my window and climbed out into the fire escape. What I saw I will never forget for the rest of my life.

My mother was lying on the sidewalk in the front of an alley way. Her shooter standing right there above her. I couldn't scream. I ran down the fire escape and ran to my mother. Her shooter saw me and put his gun away. As I reached my mother the shooter only looked at me with startling eyes. He was wearing a mask and I never saw his face. He knelt down and grinned before walking away.

I checked her pulse but already knew she was dead.

One thing was fore sure.

This wasn't a robbery.

This was a hit.

"Anything to drink dear?" A kind old voice calls.

I turn my attention to a old woman who serves food and drinks on the train. I give her a warm smile in return.

"Tea please." I tell her.

She pours me a cup of rest before walking off to the next person.

I stare out my window and watch as trees and lakes passed by. Kinda like how my life did that one night.

Flashes of the shooters eyes, my tears, her body, and the grin come back into my mind. I did scream that night. But that was when the cops arrived and they pried me away from my mother. She was my life. She was all I had left.

I was forced to stay was my neighbors for the nexts two days before I was sent to court to find out where I would live from now on. The court said I would have to go live with the man of the situation. That was the courts choice and I jumped on the first train when I realized this town has nothing for me left.

I've never met my father before. Sure I've heard about him from my mother. But all I have right now is a name and an address.

Is that all people are to others? Just a name and address?

I drink my tea and look around the train. Everything is quiet here except for a small crying baby who is sitting right across from me.

"What's it's name?" I ask the mother trying to quiet the baby.

The woman smiles tiredly.

"Her names Sarah." She tells me.

"May I hold her? You look like you could take a break." I offer.