Chapter Five, The Train Ride

Emma's house was quite a long journey to go by train.

According to Emma and the twins, it usually takes twenty-four hours just to arrive at the town station, then they will face a two hour walk home.

"But then why would you come to this school? You should've just gone to a random school that's nice enough and close to your home!" Sophie cried.

"Well, first of all, NHH isn't an easy school to get into, second, we aren't royalty, so it's completely lucky that we got into this school," said George.

"So," Fred tried to change the subject, "when are we going to set off and return this precious Guardian back to the island?"

Sophie slapped her forehead. She had almost completely forgotten about this whole Guardian-and-secret-island thing over all that reviewing and worrying about being kicked out.

"Well, we might want to leave that for someday else to discuss, we can't just leave with a whole pile of school stuff and no equipment. Probably in the middle or middle of the beginning of summer break will work." Emma said thoughtfully.

"Yeah, that makes sense." agreed Fred, "As long as we have the scroll, we'll be fine."

Sophie nodded. She still didn't want to tell anybody about Emma and her strange action way back in the middle of school.

"So." George rubbed his hand, "Have our precious Guardian had a train ride before?"

Sophie felt a nasty twitch in her stomach.

"No," she bit her lip, "I've never really traveled somewhere further than the coffee shop somewhere near a train station. But I do know how it works. Kind of." she added once she saw the smirk on Fred and George's face. "And also, don't call me that ever again."

"It's okay, Sophie." Emma shot a nasty look to the twins, "taking a train ride is basically picking up your ticket, finding your station, waiting, and board. That's all. Here, mom drew this for us."

It was something like a map, except with the words, "pick up", "stations" "go here; your station" labeled all over in certain places.

Sophie gaped down at the hand drawn map, then finally, she blurted out "Your mom is not quite good at drawing, isn't she?"

"Nope." the three of the Yearwood children chimed.

"Anyways, I'm starving, do you guys have any money with you?" George yawned.

"Only got about thirty NHH bills." replied Sophie. NHH bills are the school bills in NHH, used to buy a lot of fancy stuff in the school shop. Sophie is saving her money for the cute night light shaped like a round, small deer. Which she purchased at the very last day of school. In the end it broke, which she sort of expected, considering that most of the stuff in the shop was junk. But she still hoped that Mr. Yearwood knows how to fix it. After all, it is pretty cute.

"The sad thing is, NHH bills can't be used in other shops." Fred also joined the yawning party, "I'm fresh out of money ever since we went to get the fireworks."

"What fireworks?" asked Emma.

"First look at your pocket for money; I don't want to starve for a whole day."

"Oh, fine. I saved a hundred mom gave me on the day she took us to school. Now will you spill it out?"

"The answer is no. You'll see soon enough."

The twins took the money to the food court right beside the shop that sold stuffed animals. Sophie let out a sigh.

"Next time," she said to Emma, "they ought to make sure that someone really doesn't have any money." she drew out another hundred dollars.

"Where did you get that?" Emma was clearly impressed.

"Got it from Kate. She mailed me some money that my stepmother was going to give me at the end of term."

"Well, you should save it for our journey; we don't have much money for us to spend. I'll try to find a job during break, just in case we need some more money on the journey." Emma looked down at the empty wallet she was holding.

"Nahh, I was thinking the same. I wanted to use some of it to buy something for Kate, since she probably didn't get any new toys for a while." Sophie pointed at the cute toy panda in the stuffed animal shop, "how about that one?"

For the next ten minutes, they were wandering in the sea of stuffed animals in the shop.

"Oooh, how about this one? I like it." Emma was hugging a pink little hippo.

"I'm sticking to the panda." Sophie was imagining the baby panda eating bamboo.

"Sure. I wish I could buy one too." Emma looked down sadly at the "stuffed animals, $20 each" sign.

Sophie hopped over. 'Hmm, we can buy five if this bamboo doesn't cost extra (she had found a little bamboo at the "food for the animals" area). How about we each grab one and maybe get some little toy or other stuff for it?'

"I like the idea." Emma did like it, although she felt a bit uncomfortable, after all, she didn't even have the money to buy anything.

Sophie, who must have seen the discomfort in Emma, said "It's all right, it's just a little gift from me that will and might remind us of this place for… I dunno, a while?"

Emma looked at her wide eyed, "You mean that you aren't going to the island by yourself? You're taking us with you?"

Sophie looked surprised. 'Of course I will." she said, "Do you think that I'm the type of person who'll just lose their mind and leave everything behind just for a stupid secret island? I didn't even agree to go find it, I just thought that maybe, maybe I'll finally get rid of school, that's all. And there is certainly no way I'm not bringing you guys to the fun!"

Emma was still very surprised.

As soon as they sat at a crowded waiting place in front of their station (barely even hiding their new dolls), Fred and George came back with some minute edible cooked noodles and some juice. It also appears that George had found a way to sneak some cookies from NHH. "So now, we just have to skip lunch and leave the food for dinner, then take a short (and uncomfortable, thought Sophie) nap on the train, and have a much better breakfast next morning at home." said Fred cheerfully, trying to lighten the mood a bit.

"You'll love the bacon and fried eggs mom makes, they are delicious." Emma simply beamed at the emotion-mixed Sophie.

And the exact emotions that were mixed in Sophie were quite complicated. It had a teeny bit of disgust (she did NOT look forward to a whole afternoon starving), some happiness (she was with her friends), some excitement (she was going on her first and last train ride), and some sadness (for that she will be leaving her home, her school, Kate, and a lot of other things that she loved here). Isn't it strange how people could have so many things that look the opposite in their heart?

And little did Sophie know that this train ride started her first step into her quest of finding the secret island. And more importantly, awoke the darkness.

A normal, happy train ride could lead to certain doom of this little secret-island search party. You see, isn't fate artistic?

Suddenly, a sound interrupted Sophie's daydream of the sweet meals her stepmother usually cooked for her. "Train HQ560 has arrived, customers that board this train, please have your tickets checked and be on time." Then the cool female voice said the same words in some forigen languages.

"This is ours," whispered Emma.

Sophie gluped. She still couldn't imagine a train ride. She knew it couldn't be as fancy as NHH, and she didn't mind that, but she wondered how much space there would be for each person. Hopefully enough to stretch my legs, Sophie thought.

Emma and the twins walked very calmly to the waiting line. Sophie hesitated at the look of so many people.

"You guys mind if you… wait a bit?" she asked, then, without waiting for an answer, ran off.

It felt strange to her that a train station has a mailing station, but Sophie wasn't feeling picky at the moment.

With a hasty scribble for a note, she filled in all the information asked on the package sticker, then mailed it to Kate.

Then, she took a deep breath and, trying not to make a fool of herself, followed her friends.

The waiting line was even more crowded than it looked. Sophie felt like she was being choked by the smell of so many people packed together. Her mind started drifting away. Was it her imagination, or is it that the world had gone dark?...

Then she heard it. The thing she had been dreading ever since the day she had the dream.

The voice of the horrible smoky, black figure.

"Yes, yes. On the quest. The foolish children have no clue… the Lords will be pleased to know that I had killed the Guardian. And perhaps the others too… and about the boys… so powerful, that feeling… so good… that girl would be perfect…."

"Sophie, Sophie! Are you listening?"

Sophie's eyes snapped open. She was in front of the ticket checker, and behind that, Emma, Fred, and George were standing in front of the door that led to the train.

She felt herself blush. "Sorry." she murmured, and then, realizing that she was blocking people's paths, she looked up.

"What am I supposed to do again?"

Emma rolled her eyes.

"You didn't listen to a word I said didn't you? Put your ticket in the silt and go forward. Remember to take your ticket when you come out."

"Tuck your elbows; they hurt when you bump into them."

"Also walk fast, we've wasted enough time. You don't want to let the doors get you too."

Sophie's head spun with the instructions. She put a shaking hand on her ticket, went through a quick prayer that the words the smoke figure said were nonsense (hopefully made up) and, if not, talking about them. She did as told, and thank god they didn't waste time being rescued.

"Now let's hurry, we're about to miss the train!"

Without time to have a breath of relief, Sophie got pulled through the hallway, along the long train, and then, finally, stopped in front of their cart.

"Now in." Sophie was shuffled forwards, into the cart, and got steered over to their seats (which, thank god again, was together).

"Since we all know each other, we don't strictly need to follow the seats we were assigned to. If someone comes to check the tickets, we'll just say that we switched seats."

Sophie nodded. She wasn't that stupid to say if she can sit at the first class sections just because she knew her friends. She wondered where she'd like to sit in the line. Maybe besides the window?

"Right now. Here, these are yours." Fred handed Sophie her dinner, "You'll be comfortable beside the window, then at least you won't smell other people's sweat."

George made a wrinkled face beside Fred, and he sat at the seat next to the corridor. Fred sat next to him, and then, since there was nowhere left for Emma to choose, she sat next to Sophie (while muttering something like "never knows that girls go first").

The night fell quickly. Soon, the whole train seemed to be asleep, even the train itself. A moonbeam shone over Sophie, and she too dozed off…

With a horrible dream.

In the dream, Sophie was walking down a damp, dark corridor. "Snap!" she stepped on something, but she seemed to be used to it, and just kept on walking. The corridor soon became a tunnel, and the tunnel twisted and turned, eventually leading her to a room. And what an unpleasant sight it was.

The room was large, or rather, humongous. In the center, there was a statue, a horrible, terrifying statue of a skeleton. The eyes of the skeleton had a snake slithering through it. It gleamed red and blue (the eyes), each seemed to be packed with rooms and people. Or shall we say, the smoke figures. The hooded, smoky, black figures. Demon minions, her brain told her helpfully.

The statue continued down, and its arms wrapped around a platform. In the middle of that platform, stood six thrones, six unpleasant skeleton thrones. Each had someone sitting in there, but Sophie's vision seemed to be half blind.

She felt herself speak.

"My Lords… I have found them… shall I kill the other companions too?" Sophie was surprised that her voice was cold and deep, also with the sound of evil.

The figures on the throne seemed to be the ones she was speaking to. The one in the middle shifted, and answered. His sound was rather high pitched, but even colder and eviler than Sophie's (dream) voice.

"Where are they?" it asked, "Where is this chosen one? I could feel her… oh, so powerful indeed."

"They are on a train to the land of the village of (static sounds). No sign of finding the Kingdom of Light yet. But still, the quicker they die, the better. The only good Guardian is a dead Guardian."

"Very well… you shall kill them all, but you will do it in the hands of the other girl, the one with the hippo. We are the Demons of the Dark Kingdom; we make people suffer. Especially the ones that are filled with hope and love. Oh, no, a better plan… bring them to me, we'll make them suffer, then kill, but part first of the plan will still work…"

"Yes, my Lord. I'll do my best. I'll try to slow them down, so we'll…"

But Sophie didn't hear the rest. She screamed (in her head). The searing pain came. She woke up.

Everything was the same. People had ordinary dreams. No one was holding their hand on their forehead. And on Sophie's forehead…

There was a mark.

A mark that was so beautiful that Sophie wouldn't want to put down the mirror she had seen it from. It was a lotus flower, with something that looked like a string circling around it. It was the most brilliant light blue, so beautiful that it was shimmering in the cart. Blue light filled the place. Though no one woke up.

Sophie slumped back to her seat. She now knew the sound of screaming she heard a long time ago, when she first met the scroll. It was Emma. And in that dream, she was the smoke figure. The one that dived.

She sighed, and looked out the window. Hopefully, the dream was not real at all…