Blinded

5. A Train

A train

The train ride was everything I had expected. Cam seemed shocked that I hadn't ever been on a train before, saying that he had been on trains all of his life.

"I can't believe it. You really haven't left New England? Ever?"

I shook my head. "Never. This is a first. I mean, Disneyland doesn't count, right?"

"Of course not. That place doesn't count." He sighed. "I've lived in Florida, and still I don't think it counts. Don't you get bored of this place? I've lived so many places I can barely name them all. And you've never EVER left?"

"I get bored, yeah. But my parents have stable-ish jobs and I never really thought about leaving. Except for New York, and that was always more of a vacation thing. I like it in New England."

"New York state is nice." Cam rifled through his bag, and I noticed his knuckles were red and scraped. From breaking the window, I thought.

"You need to fix up your hands once we get off the train." I rummaged through my bag, looking for the first aid kit I swore I had left in there. As per today, it wasn't there. I sighed. I had basically no medical knowledge, but I knew for sure that punching through glass wasn't the way to get a clean bill of health.

He stopped looking through his bag and winced, like he just remembered the pain. "Yeah. I guess so. We have a lot to do once we get to the city, and my hands better be the least of our worries."

Cam fought to stay awake. I decided to stop talking, and soon after, he fell asleep.

While Cam slepd, I could barely blink. I ended up on my phone for what felt like hours, researching even more of the city. Alleyways, out-of-the-way spots where my sister could be. I only used to research the fun parts of the city, now it was the exact opposite. Then, my phone died. I sighed and plugged it into the outlet next to my seat. The train has literal chargers. OMG. Ecstatic as I felt, I had one goal and one goal only.

Outside the window, I could see that we were close to the city, but it would still be awhile before we got there. We had passed through a field and were currently going through a patch of grassy land, a farmhouse in the distance.

I felt something strange. The train had been creaking along this whole time, shaking and swaying in the wind, but then it got worse. A huge jolt came through the traincar and almost immediately, the train lurched to the side. People yelled, and so did I.

The train's side hit the ground off the tracks, throwing people and luggages through the traincar. I slammed against the roof and then hit the window. It cracked under my weight, but didn't shatter. Luckily. Cam had woken up, but struggled to take off the seat belt that tethered him to the seat. He finally got it loose, and rolled up to his feet. We looked at each other and then up.

Out the window now above us stood a figure in a red suit with terrifying eyes, like the ones of the imposter officers. It had long, insect-like legs and an almost-human face. It jumped from where it stood and as it did so it screeched the same way the officers did. Every passenger around us fell limp, their eyes and ears dripping something almost ink-like. My vision doubled further, and I fell to my knees. I screamed as a noise, piercing as a siren, drilled into my brain. I tried to force it out, and after a moment, it worked. It stopped. Cam stumbled to his feet first, his eyes flickering red.

I put my hand to my face and when I pulled it away, it dripped in red. I didn't know if it was that bad, but they felt pretty okay for now. Soon, everyone on the train but us was unconscious and bleeding except us.

Maybe he's Maet, I asked as I pulled myself up and out of the train car through the window to the sky. Cam followed and soon, we were face-to-face with the demon. I'm just going to assume this is Maet. He doesn't exactly have a name tag. Maet turned to look at us and grinned. He had thin features, tall and very creepy. He reminded me of those human robots- the ones that look very realistic, but behind all that is just wires. He had something at his belt- a sword, probably, since he took a swing right at us. I jumped, the blade going right under my feet.

Cam jumped back and took something from his belt too: a gun. He didn't make it, as Maet made a throwing motion, a bolt of red flew from his hand and wrapped around the gun. Maet pulled, the gun falling in the grass ten or twenty feet behind us. I conjured a big illusion, almost too big. One of Cam and I just standing there, readying to fight him. I set it into action, another me jumping at Maet. He put out a fist to defend himself as I kicked him behind the shin. He yelped and fell to one knee.

Before I kicked him in the face, Cam ran in for the final blow. However, Maet had other plans. He threw out another rope of energy that smacked Cam on the chest and knocked him into the air. He fell on his back ten feet away. The rope now seethed with red fire, and Maet tried to flick it at me. I hoped I knew what I was doing as I put out my hand and a similar rope- in green, not red- came out, tangling with Maet's. I used it to pull him to the floor. I kicked him in the head and that was it.

He laid there, out cold. I smiled at my first victory, feeling practically elated, but then three things brought me back to reality. One was the pain in my shoulder, which I now realized had a glass shard stuck in it. I yelped and pulled it out, not realizing I just broke yet another random medical rule I knew. Keep the object in the wound, because it will help stem the blood flow. I felt the blood soaking through the arm of my coat and thought of the second thing: If that was Maet, where were our siblings? It couldn't have been that easy. I somehow knew that the demon we fought wasn't Maet, it was just a henchman. I shivered in the frigid air, my breath steaming, and the final thing came to mind: Cam.

He had fallen down onto a boulder, the only one in the field. He wasn't moving.