touched one of the sterling booths. It was solid to his touch, so he sat down.
“Maybe older because of the gas lamps.” So far nothing on this new version of the train made sense.
“It’s a ghost train,” Peter said simply. “We don’t have electricity in this reality. And the train goes wherever we steer it. If it happens to go through a home with a ghost, the ghost comes along with us.”
A ghost train. Of all the… “So, do you have any idea how we’re on here with you?”
Peter shook his head. “All we know is that we were hit with a massive wave of magic a little while ago and the train we’d been paralleling suddenly went to the right and when we went straight, you came with us.”
“How long ago, exactly?” Drew asked.
Ah...I had a feeling where Drew was going with that question.
Peter furrowed his brow. “It’s hard to keep time now.” He closed his eyes but then looked to the right suddenly, sucking in a surprised breath. He nodded then turned back to us. “About a half-hour. Maybe not that long.”
“Were you just speaking to someone?” Olivia asked, looking around.
“Of course.” Peter looked at us like we were utterly daft. “I’m not alone here.”
Drew leaned over and whispered in my ear, “It was about the time you orgasmed.”
Oh, geez. Now I had to worry about my magic doing insane things if I had an orgasm? Nothing crazy had ever happened when I gave myself one.
Then again, the ones I gave myself were nothing like the one Drew gave me. And I opened up my powers… Crap.
“Okay, Peter, so, we were on a train. I accidentally let some big magic out, and it shoved us onto your train. Does that mean this train is now visible? Can other humans see us?” I walked closer to him. “Are we in danger here?”
Peter cocked his head at someone beside him. “No, he says he doesn’t think so. We’re staying on the tracks just in case, and if we approach another train, we’ll steer off long enough for it to pass.” He nodded a couple of times. “Captain is going to go drive the train himself.” Peter turned his attention back to us.
“Trains have captains?” Olivia asked.
Peter shook his head. “No, he was a captain in the Army.”
“Oh.” Olivia gave me a wide-eyed look. “Okay, then.”
“Peter, dear.” I put my hand on his shoulder. “Would you like us to try to help you move on?”
He blinked several times. “You can do that?”
We all nodded vigorously. “We think so. You’ve got unresolved problems that prevent you from going on to the next great adventure,” Drew said. “If we can help you resolve them, you can move on.”
Peter furrowed his brows again, his little button nose wrinkling. “I’m afraid of what comes next. I think I’ll stay here for a while.”
“Okay, sweetie. We need to figure out how to get off this train, though,” I said. “Any ideas on that one?”
Peter shrugged. “Your train is long gone. And while Captain can steer this train, he can’t make it stop or go backward or anything.”
“Does your crew even know where it is going?” Sam asked.
A woman appeared beside Peter, suddenly. All of us jumped a little. “Hello,” she said. “I’m Sue. Can you please help me?”
Chapter Seventeen
Somehow, this was Luci’s doing. He knew this was going to happen. I didn’t know how he knew. But he did. He’d planned this.
Dang it. I was going to make him pay. Preferably by sending him back to his home in Hell.
“Okay, Sue. Tell me what I can do for you.” I smiled encouragingly at her and sat down in one of the booths. “How can I help you move on?”
She wore contemporary clothes. Her jeans said nineties, as did her poofy, teased hair. “I need to tell my daughter I’m proud of her,” Sue said.
I raised my eyebrows. “Is that it?”
She nodded. “But she lives in Australia. The ghost train won’t go over water. So, we can’t travel to her so I can try to talk to her.” She sighed and blew a breath up. Her bangs didn’t even move. Hairspray? Or a ghost thing.
“Hey,” Olivia said. “Touch her so we can see and hear her, too.”
“Oh, sure. Do you mind, Sue?” I held out my hand.
The woman nodded and grabbed my fingers. Once she was visible, she repeated to Olivia and Sam what she’d told me and Drew.
“Would it work for you if we called her?”