It was the night of October 31st 2021, the day they were supposed to set the clock back with one hour, when Ashley was waiting at the train station for her train, to go visit her cousin at college. She fished out the ticket from her backpack and started looking impatiently at it and then at her watch, it was 11:20 pm. She soon realized that the train should have arrived 20 minutes ago. She looked around and noticed that she was the only one at the train station.
After a few minutes, the loud horn broke the complete silence, and the announcer reported the arrival of her train. She gladly approached the door, when suddenly, a guy jumped out of it.
Ashley jumped up in fright, noticing some of the boy’s features. “The tall, thin-figured guy must have been in a hurry,” Ashley thought, and then she got on the train. She was looking for her seat when the conductor told her that in her cabin there was an old lady who had scared off the other passengers. Ashley could not care less, she went and sat down in front of the lady.
The old lady wore a long, black dress and lots of gold jewelry. Her pompadour haircut and appearance gave Ashley a witch vibe. She supposed that the old lady was going to visit her grandchildren, so she had dressed up as a witch for Halloween. The lady was writing on scraps of paper all the while and humming something. After a while, she started crocheting, while Ashley admired in secret the old lady’s mystique.
Soon, a guy was knocking on the cabin’s door. The lady said, “Come in, come in, we’ve been waiting for you!” with great pride in her voice. Ashley looked up surprised, as she wasn’t expecting anyone, not to mention someone the old lady was waiting for. The more she looked at the guy, the more familiar he seemed to her. He was the guy who had jumped off the train. Now, he was just as confused as the Ashley was.
“I am sorry, I think you confused me with someone else! My name is Adam,” said Adam.
“I might not be as young as you are, however, I can assure you that my mind it is as sharp if not sharper than yours, young man!” claimed the old lady.
The boy sat down in front of the lady and looked at Ashley. They were so confused that they could have burst out laughing, but the lady looked too serious to even giggle around her. She started talking about a love story between two soul-mates, while lighting some candles.
“This story is about Amber and Alexander. These two met at a village event in Salem. The lass was a natural beauty and had a lot of passion for healing with herbs. Unfortunately, the time period did not appreciate her passion for science. She was taken to a witch trial. Alexander couldn’t stop them, so he promised that he would find her on the other side, or in another life. Sadly, their souls still haven’t found each other. What do you young birds think, will they ever find the other?”
“I don’t know, but this is getting too weird, so I am going to the soft-drink vending machine. Do you want something?” asked Adam.
“No Dear, I am fine. Thank you!” said the lady calmly.
“Wait for me! I would like to go with you,” said Ashley in a hurry.
They went together to the vending machine while they talked about the crazy old lady’s words. What was her intention with telling this story to two complete strangers? Something was utterly off with this elderly woman. Something just didn’t sit right with her.
Suddenly, the lights went out for a minute and a strong wind current entered the passenger car. A powerful force shook the train. Ashley and Adam fell to the ground. After this, which seemed to be some technical difficulties, the lights were back on, they were frozen with terror. The old lady’s candles and scraps of paper were there, and an odd symbol was drawn on the floor. The mark was made with wax. The door was jammed, so they were not able to exit the cabin. Ashley looked at the watch, it was 00:00 am. They started yelling, but nobody came to help them.
Adam put his hands in his coat pockets and stumbled upon an envelope with his name written on it. He looked around and opened it, there was a note in it which looked exactly like the scraps of paper on which the old lady wrote.
“It is you…” Adam immediately showed the note to Ashley.
“You are kidding me, right?”
“I wish I were…”
They were freaked out, and still chose to remain calm and talk to each other. After a while they both sympathized with the other, moreover, they felt like they were childhood friends. It was like they had one soul, which was divided in two. They realized that they were heading toward the same destination and should continue their paths together.
After one hour of being in the cabin, at 00:00 am the conductor walked into the cabin for a coke. When he saw Ashley and Adam on the floor, reading the scraps of papers, talking and laughing, he asked: “What in the name of all the spirits happened here?!”
They looked up surprised, then asked:
“Did you not feel anything when the train shook? Was the door not closed properly?”
The conductor thought that the two of them were joking, so he made them clean up the mess on the floor. There were amused and confused at the same time. When they wanted to get off the train, they asked the conductor where the old lady was, as they would have liked to say goodbye to her. He looked at the two of them and said:
“There was no elderly woman tonight on the train, you kids had imagined something, you should consult a doctor… I am getting concerned for you guys!”
Ashley and Adam got off the train and walked together to the nearest open coffee shop…. It was 01:00 am and November 1st. They spent one special hour traveling between two dull days, and the connection which had been waiting for more than 300 years was finally completed.
Jakab Andrea Zsuzsanna XII.R
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