Thomas' Terror Tales

Tetsudō no Masami: Masami of the Railway

Ever since the incidents where Percy and Thomas scared each other, the two tank engines had decided to bury the hatchet, and started pulling Halloween pranks on other engines instead. At first, Toby was fairly pleased that the two were finally not arguing over silly things like ghosts and dragons. However, that started to change as Thomas and Percy's tricks became even more annoying. Making matters worse was that Toby himself was the most frequent victim of these pranks.

One morning, Toby woke up to a horrifying sight. When he looked at Thomas and Percy, he realized both their faces were missing, and instead there were only smoke-box doors.

"Thomas! Percy! Can either of you hear me!" Toby asked in horror.

No response came at first. But then he heard ghostly whistling, and all of a sudden, the smokebox doors fell off to reveal Thomas and Percy's face, and both of them screaming with grotesque expressions.

"CRIKEY!" exclaimed Toby in terror.

Thomas and Percy both laughed, and Toby just frowned.

...

Later that day, Toby was at Ffarqhuar when a young girl came up to him. She had brownish-red hair, gray eyes, and a height that suggested she was a pre-teen. Toby immediately recognized the young girl as Lucy, his driver's daughter.

"Hello, Daddy." she said sweetly, "How was work today?"

"Very well," said her driver, "Did you have a good day at school?"

"I sure did." squeaked Lucy. Then, she turned to Toby, and noticed he was somewhat downcast.

"Hello, Toby." she said, "Is something bothering you?"

"It's Thomas and Percy's pranks during Halloween," Toby sighed, "I was glad when they were no longer ribbing each other about ghosts and dragons at first, but know I really wish that they'd find someone else to pick on."

"I see..." said Lucy.

Toby looked at Lucy's backpack and could make out the cover for a book called "The Complete Encyclopedia of Onryō."

"What's an on-rye-o?" asked Toby curiously.

Lucy was confused for a moment, then realized that Toby had noticed her book.

"Oh, an Onryō?" said Lucy, "That's a ghost in Japanese stories, usually of someone who wants revenge on people who tormented them in life - or humanity itself. There's actually one that has railways in it too. Would you like to hear it?"

"I don't see why not," said Toby, "I have an hour or so before I leave. What do you think, driver?"

"How long should your story take, Lucy?"

"Only about five minutes."

"Go ahead."

When Lucy had finished, Toby chuckled.

"Lucy, I have an idea for how we can pull our own prank on the tank engines." he snickered as Lucy giggled and her father chuckled.

...

When Toby returned home that evening, Thomas, Percy, and Daisy were all sharing ghost stories.

"... And every year on the date of the -"

"BORING!" shouted Thomas sarcastically, "NEVER HEARD THAT BEFORE!"

"What do you mean 'never heard it before', may I ask?" asked Daisy angrily.

"We kind of figured it was similar to previous stories," replied Percy, "but the fact you tried ending it that way proves that you were ripping off mine!"