Sodor's New Worker (Semi-Hiatus Due to an AO3 rewrite)

View from Afar

   All while the lives at Tidmouth and around the island took a turn for the worst, a ghost was always watching them, pleading to themselves that they could intervene in some way, but to no avail. It was already set in motion, and there was nothing the ghost could do but float around and watch.

   The ghost mostly stayed at Tidmouth, watching a broken family try and manage without a father, since the littler engine always said something about wanting his father back.

"I miss Papa, Mama Mavis..." the little boy said.

"I'm sure he misses you too..." the ghost said to no one but themselves.

   It was useless. The ghost could hear everything, but no one can hear the ghost. It was sad, as the ghost just wanted to help a grieving lot of engines.

   Though, one of them wasn't quite grieving correctly. Driving this girl into the ground, cursing her name, and judging by the reaction of all his friends, he was shunning the name of his own wife, who was an apparent murderer.

   The ghost understood just a little, as they themselves were a victim of murder, but it still wasn't right to just keep at someone who wasn't even there to say anything.

"James! Just drop it!" an engine said. "It's over and done with, leave her alone!"

   The ghost saw a dog whine at James, also wishing he'd shut up. A cat too, who was hissing at the red engine, scratching at his tender.

"Ow! Stupid cat!"

"Leave Snickerdoodle alone!" a little green boy pouted, picking up the cat, who just melted in his arms. "Shame on you! Don't yell at animals..!"

"Hope she scratched his paint.." a darker blue engine said, rolling her eyes at James. "Serves you right, pompous fucker."

"You-"

'You're being quite the baby, James.." a big blue engine spoke. "Speaking about someone who can't even say anything.."

"Pah!" he hissed. "She doesn't deserve to say anything."

"She's your wife! Why are you being so mean!?"

"Oh I'll tell you-"

   The ghost listened and listened to all the horrible, horrible things that the red engine had to say. Maddy was her name. His own wife that he spoke such horrible, awful things about. The ghost could only assume her motives from what he, and the other engines at the sheds said. It wasn't right, per se, but in some strange way, she wasn't wrong either. She was hurt, hurt very badly, but she also didn't quite handle her situation correctly either. It seemed to not matter to the red tender engine, who just kept talking and talking.

"I wish you would shut up.." the ghost murmured. "It's done and over, and I'm sure she's already hurting herself worse than what you think she deserves.."

   They sighed heavily, and wandered off to see if he could find this girl. It wasn't hard, since there was only one human casually on the rails. They followed and followed, taking in everything the girl did. They'd been following the girl for a while, and the ghost knew that how she was acting now wasn't normal.

   She was quiet, kept her eyes on the rails, and spoke to no one who passed her by. Not so much as a wave or a smile. Her hood was always up, ears always covered or blaring music from her ear buds. Keeping to herself. The ghost knew that this wasn't what she was like. Hotheaded and outgoing, she once was.

   The epitome of engine creation, even if it was artificial. Favorited and beloved by a group of engines both on the ground and in the sky. An anomaly, they'd call her, something she had once grown to love. She was unique, there was no one else like her. Yet, that may have been part of her downfall. There was no one like her, no one she could relate to with her struggles, so she had to keep it to herself. Her engine friends could never fully understand what it was like. Not even the ghost could understand, and they probably never will.