Following Chase Haven

A little town and a silent school

I got on the train and it whisked me away. I dropped my phone in the pond on the way out and I made sure to leave no indication of where I went.

I sat silently all night long on the train. Staring out the window.
The shadows danced upon the hillsides as the sun sank below the trees. The night was nearly silent and the only things I saw where the occasional barns or small towns. Farms where swept past my window as the morning grew near.

The morning was cold and I pulled my knees up to my chest. It may not have been the morning just the train but the air was still and silent.

I had long since been the only one on the train. There had been few people when I had got on but they had all gotten out in the country. Towns whizzed by the window.

At sum point Probably an hour back when the city of Chicago had engulfed the train tracks and soared above me I had gotten off the train and transferred to another train, this time a local with no destination in mind. I had chosen the one with the fewest people waiting, that was heading out of the city.

This train was almost as empty as the fist, 2 other people had gotten on but they both got off close to the city. The areas had gotten richer and richer which made me uncomfortable but I still knew I would be better off around here.when I got off the train the wind whipped into my face. A hot sticky wind.

No one was there. It was seven in the morning on a Saturday of course no one was around, I should have known. I stood and stared blankly at the streets. Peaceful silent people getting their papers and going for walks where absent from the setting although I didn't know why I got a creepy feeling from this. The train pulled away from the platform behind me.

Wind carried me hair into my face once again and in anger I tied it up. This is how it is now I thought and entered the station, deserted accepting the man at the dreary looking ticket booth. I could tell from the grim that this place was frequented by men and women traveling in and out of the city to work.

I had landed myself smack dab in the middle of the suburbs. The last place anyone would ever look for me. I turned my attention back to the dirty old station. I sighed at the thought of hundreds of men in uniform black suits and women in form fitting black skirts and colorful blouses. I shivered as I imagined them all huddled on the platform and boarding one of the many soot covered trains bound for the bleary dank streets of the city. I pictured there very average house wives and work-from-home-husbands and there plain old perfect kids waiting at home for them at the end of the day. There kids, kids that would never do what I had just done. I can see their home-cooked meals and huge houses.
I cringed. I Honestly I have no idea why I'm here.
As soon as I had arrived at the station u had turned the page of Chase's journal. It read:
-----
Got to the station?
Good.
Most people don't get much farther than this.
You will. I know it.
1.) Get on a train, go to the suburbs of a city somewhere.
People won't look for you there. Eat.
Don't forget to eat, your human you'll starve.
-----
That was it. All he said. Like I could have dated that night. Yah right. I pull myself out of my trance and straighten up. I glance at the clock for no reason at all given that time no longer really matters to me if it ever did.

Pulling my self together I walk up to the ticket booth. The man I see there is tall and lean of old age, his sharply featured head covered in thin whisps of fine white hair. He smiles slightly, pulling his pale lips thin across his wan face. His eyes are old and pale blue, blue as if they where once bright. This man looks like he has see so much and lives so long. Lived so long he withered away, well of corse, thats what everyone does in the end. His smile is laced with pain. "Hello little lady, where you off too," his voice is quiet and hard despite his attempt to be friendly.

"No where in particular."

"Sounds lonely," his face softens, "Your parents ought to be missin you."

I smile a bit, "Parents, if only I had any," I look up and meet his eyes a half smile on my face. I hate sympathy, always better to put on a touch face even if your interior is crumbling.

He frowns and says nothing more. After a few tense moments I continue, "So, where the hell am I."