Runaway Train

Act III - Scene 1

Funny how nothing was ever how it seemed on this train. Not even Death.

When that dreaded spectre disappeared and Johnny was released from the now familiar grasp on his soul, he was stuck between two very different states of mind: dark fear and complete wonder. Death—he'd met Death. Rather than being someone to shrink away from, he'd been kind—sort of kooky, even! Most mystifying of all, though, was the simple fact that he'd saved him and everyone else from his own hands. Of course, that was only for the time being though; one glaring threat still stood in the way of certainty on the matter of keeping the old man away. In fact, she was standing right there, in the middle of them all. In all honesty, Lillian didn't really seem so threatening now. Her fists clenched, sure, but in such a way that she seemed... small, somehow; more of a pout than a glower.

Slowly, awkwardly, she turned on her heel. Her eyeholes didn't quite glare down at Johnny, but they sure were looking at him in a funny way. "Ugh, okay, just... get up. Get up," she sighed. Johnny just sat there (obviously; he couldn't very well hop up with his leg ripped apart), dumbstruck. It really just astounded him, her whole manner. What a puzzle she was! Just like that, she moved along from one thing to the next; brusquely, she flicked her hand, dissipating the pink storm that danced around the dock. As she did, she looked back to the other passengers, likely to think of what to order them all to do. She didn't really get the chance to, though, because she was suddenly shoved off the edge and into the ocean by a certain sailor who'd just been freed from his petal storm bindings.

"Wh- C-Curtis!!" Johnny exclaimed, more than a little shocked. He scrambled closer to where she'd fallen, but Curtis' guarding grasp pulled him back. All the same, he could see the water and, luckily, he caught sight of Lillian emerging from the dark waves relatively unharmed. She gasped as she rose, indignant as ever. She was only made more so by Ed's raucous laughter at her situation.

"HEY!! VERY rude, especially considering I'm supposed to be helping you idiots now!" she said. She promptly swam back to the wooden ledge and pulled herself up. Everyone rushed over in response; Sally and Orla pulled Johnny back and away from the emerging girl, Curtis took his defensive stance between them and her, and the two kids ran to protect Ed where he was disembarking from the dinghy. Lillian, though, didn't move a finger against them; after all, she was much too preoccupied with grumbling about how soaked she was now. Still, everyone watched her like a hawk.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say you don't sound very pleased to be doing so," Sally said with just a hint of contempt in her tone.

Though Lillian turned to her with a scowl, she was cut off before she could say anything. "Oh, Miss! Was that man who I think he was?" Anne asked. She seemed more excited than ever before—why, she was beaming brighter than the sun! "He could do things I can do—they say Death can do them too!"

Ed chuckled from where he was, being helped onto the dock by Salem. "Yes, that'd be Death: my real aim in this hunt," he said. "If this one"—he flicked a calloused hand toward Lillian—"hadn't gotten in the way, I might've caught him. Heh, probably not; he has that hold over souls, like you said, Anne. Could've stopped me or anyone in their tracks- ah, thanks, Salem." A hold over souls... it sure feels like it, too, Johnny thought. So that's what it was; that force, it really was strangling his very being. He rubbed his neck as a shiver chilled it.

"That's old Donn then, isn't it?" Orla remarked with a whistle and a grin. "He's much sillier than I'd expected, huh?"

To Johnny's surprise, Lillian huffed at that. "Whatever," she said. "You're all going to be under his power some day. Just like me. Just like everyone else. It doesn't matter how 'silly' he is." She was defending him, regardless of... whatever tension they seemed to carry. The strangeness of it moved Johnny, it really did. Lillian must've noticed the look on his face because she quickly repeated, "Get up already."

"He can't very well do that with his leg snapped in half, you know!" Sally shot back.

"Yeah, we're gonna need more than duct tape to fix that," Salem added. "Like, even I couldn't tape that back together. And I'm pretty good at taping stuff!"

The rabbit girl let out an especially long and loud "ugh." "Fine! We'll get it fixed, just shut up!" she groaned. Another of her sighs followed. "I know someone who can help. We'll go there. It'd be nice to visit her anyway, she's cute." She started for the door right away but, as she stepped through the threshold, she hung back and glanced over her shoulder. "Keep up, by the way; you'll get lost fast if you don't stick with me. Death wasn't being 'silly' about that part." Then, without waiting a moment longer, she left.

All the passengers looked from one to the other. No one really wanted to go with Lillian—that much was very clear. Everyone, even Orla and Anne and the like, had reluctance written on their faces. Reluctance, though, not rejection; even if they didn't like it, all knew that this was their only choice. If they wanted to move on, if they wanted to make it through the train, if they wanted even a chance of escape—if they wanted to meet the Conductor—they had to follow her. Besides, no one had any better ideas.

Johnny tried to push himself up. Much to his gratitude, he was soon helped on his way by the other three gathered around him. It seemed, along with realizing that this was their only way out, they'd all realized something else too: if they were all going to do this, if they were going to get up to the locomotive, the only way they could was together, and that was true no matter what. Despite everything, it was a comfort.