'Hey, faggot''�

A flurry of fists stormed upon Colin. Huddled into a ball on the hot blacktop, summer sun beating down, he did his best to shield his face and front, limiting the blows to only his back. Colin gritted his teeth and accepted the punishment, knowing from prior experience that any resistance would only warrant prolonged agony. Searing pain coursed through his body as he received repeated strikes to his kidneys.

Then it was over. As suddenly as they had begun, his classmates became bored with their display of dominance and wandered off to something more entertaining. Colin wobbled as he rose to his feet, wiping his nosebleed with the bottom of his torn t-shirt. Cuts and bruises decorated his thirteen-year-old body. He stumbled off the basketball court and managed to distance himself several feet before collapsing to the lawn, a wave of dizziness overtaking him.

He winced in pain as he leaned his back up against a large oak tree several hundred feet from his school. His legs, stretched in front of him, still shook from the adrenaline rush. He rested his head against the rough bark and closed his eyes, taking several deep breaths in an attempt to calm down.

'Hey, are you okay?'� Nadine asked. Colin hadn't even heard her approach.

'Yeah, fine,'� he replied, opening his eyes to look at her. She wore a plain white tank top and black mesh shorts, an outfit that displayed her strong, toned figure. Beads of sweat glistened on her tanned skin, a result of her daily mid-morning workout.

She leant over for a closer look at his injuries, her head coming within dangerous proximity of Colin's. Colin inhaled, allowing her scent, a compelling mixture of shampoo and sweat, to fill his nostrils.

'That was a stupid question,'� Nadine said, shaking her head upon discovering the extent of his injuries. 'Of course you're not.'�

'We were just fooling around, Nadine. Tomorrow we'll be playing together, like always.'�

Nadine arched her eyebrows.

'Who do you think you're talking to?'� Nadine looked up at Colin's face, brushing her dark blonde tresses out of her eyes. 'C'mon, Colin. I gotta clean you up.'�

Knowing better than to argue, Colin nodded and accepted the proffered hand.

*

'Hey! Take it easy!'� Colin gritted his teeth as he sat on a kitchen chair in Nadine's home, tears rolling down his cheeks. 'That stings!'�

'Cut it out, you wuss,'� Nadine said with a smile, crouching on the floor in front of his bloody scraped kneecap. 'It'll only sting for a second.'�

The last of his cuts foamed as she dabbed it. She threw the Peroxide soaked cotton ball in a nearby wastebasket.

'I guess you're lucky my mom's not home. If she had any idea what happened, she'd tell your mom, and we'd never hear the end of it.'�

'Yeah,'� Colin agreed, attempting to chuckle, but only mustering a hoarse, throaty laugh that ended in a fit of coughs.

'Colin,'� she began, applying a gauze bandage over his busted knee, 'does she know what goes on?'�

Colin avoided Nadine's gaze, instead looking at the kitchen table beside him. Breakfast still hadn't been cleared away; four place settings housed bits of scrambled eggs and bacon remnants. Leftovers grew cold in a large serving bowl.

'I didn't get a chance to clean it up yet,'� she explained, as her stomach gurgled.

'Hey, Colin, why do you still hang around with those guys? They just look for excuses to beat you up.'�

A half empty plastic cup full of orange juice clattered to the floor, its contents rushing over the cold tile.

'Sorry about that,'� Colin offered. 'I must've bumped it.'�

'I was finished anyway,'� Nadine fumed, and he walked over to the sink, grabbed a towel from the rack, and began to sop up the mess.

*

Nadine hunched over, clutching at her abdomen as she emptied her stomach's contents into the porcelain bowl. A feeling of utter helplessness accompanied the spell of nausea; even though she voluntarily crammed her forefinger down her throat, she detested feeling out of control.

She inspected her offerings with contempt. It was a lamentable, but necessary, sacrifice. If she didn't eat so much, she wouldn't have to throw it all up. The entire experience left her feeling drained. She flushed the toilet and exited the bathroom stall.

'Mouthwash,'� she thought aloud. 'I hope I didn't forget my mouthwash.'�

She walked to the line of sinks along the opposite wall and splashed some cold water over her face, running her fingers over her lips, ensuring no residue was left on them. She could hear, from the bathroom, the regular summer crew outside in the locker room.

Michelle and Jennifer and Alexis. Along with Nadine, they all were entering their sophomore year, but in life experience, Nadine felt years behind. The other girls had all ripened into womanhood; those girls had friends; they wore makeup; they went on dates with boys. One of them in particular, Alexis, was even gaining a reputation for dating too many boys.

She looked down at her body, and pulled with disgust at the skin around her stomach. She blinked back tears and fixed her hair, mentally preparing to enter the potentially hazardous company of the other three girls.
Nadine heard the large metal door to the outside slam closed as she entered the locker room. No one else was there; the others had rushed out upon hearing Nadine's approach.

Upon turning the corner into the locker room she noticed her locker door ajar. Someone had been rummaging through her things, again.

A mixture of anger and despondence coursed through Nadine. She neared her locker, and, with humiliation, she identified the object placed atop her bag: a stuffed animal, a pig.

*

'Maybe we should've brought a flashlight.'�

In the darkness, Nadine's voice seemed distant and fragile.

'No, it's definitely creepier this way.'� Colin pressed a small button on his watch, illuminating its face with a bright blue glow. Although still early in the day, one wouldn't know it from their surroundings; the further they progressed into the tunnel, the darker it became, and now a thick cloud of impenetrable black enveloped them.

'I'll say,'� Nadine said, shuddering. 'Are you sure this is safe?'�

'Yeah. I've been down here plenty of times. They stopped running trains through here a while ago.'�

Sure enough, several years before, a teenage boy sitting atop the tunnel's mouth attempted to leap onto the train as it escaped the tunnel, in order to impress his girlfriend. The disastrous results prompted the city to re-route the train to another tunnel further removed from the middle school.

They continued walking through the abandoned train tunnel. The lack of light caused them to walk with an almost obsessive care, feeling each step before setting any weight down. By maintaining constant contact with the track, they could intuit a primitive idea of distance and direction. After shuffling in such a manner for over thirty minutes, at least half of the tunnel's two miles remained ahead of them.

A sudden sound from behind stopped them. Neither of them could have mistaken the grating squeal of wheels on the track.

'What was that?'� Nadine asked, her voice tinged with fear.
Even though neither of them had any personal experience, the sound was distinctive from common cultural inheritance.

'It sounded,'� Colin ventured, 'like a train.'�

The mechanical whirring grew louder as they spoke. The 3:15, absent for over twenty years, was right on time.

'You said that trains don't run through here anymore,'� Nadine accused.

'They're not supposed to.'� Colin wrinkled his brow in confusion. He'd traveled through here before, plenty of times, and never encountered a train, or any sign that the tunnel was still in use.

'Well, 'not supposed to' and 'don't' are two different things,'� she snapped. 'Colin! I don't want to die in here!'�

A light appeared behind them, allowing Colin to see his surroundings for the first time in almost an hour. The appearance of the train's light, while meaning increased visibility, also portended the arrival of a speeding hunk of crushing metal. Natural rock formed the tunnel's sides and ceiling, as the tunnel had been carved into a solid mountain face. Water dripped from the ceiling into puddles on the ground, warping the track's wood. Emptied beer cans and broken bottles littered the landscape, along with other trash from illegal drinking parties, corroborating Colin's belief that the tunnel had been abandoned.

Colin looked to Nadine, standing beside a small puddle. She wore a loose black blouse that flared at the sleeves, and a pair of handed down, mud splattered jeans. Thin creases appeared around the corners of her eyes as she mustered a weak smile.

'Colin,'� she began, as water splashed from the ceiling into a puddle beside her. 'What are we going to do?'�
Grabbing her by both arms, Colin pulled her to the side of the tunnel and pressed her against the damp rock wall, several feet from the tracks. She gasped as the cold spread through her thin shirt.

'Listen,'� Colin cut off any forthcoming objections. 'We've got to squeeze against the walls. There might be enough room for the train to pass us.'�

Colin pressed his back against the wall and slid down to a sitting position. His heart raced at a furious pace, and scattered thoughts flashed through his mind. The engineers had to leave extra room at the sides, didn't they? In case a worker got caught or something, right?
Crazy. This was crazy.

'You've got to sit,'� he instructed Nadine. 'When that thing goes by, there's going to be a lot of momentum behind it. I don't want to see it suck you in.'�

Nadine sat next to Colin, alongside the wall, hugging her knees to her chest.

Both could now see the huge mechanical beast lumbering after them. Colin tried to peer inside the conductor's window, but the train's single glaring eye blinded him. A small hand snaked into his, and he gave it a reassuring squeeze.

He held his breath in anticipation of the worst. The train's primal scream intensified, filling Colin's senses, hurting his ears. The train was big, too big. Colin realized then, with pained certainty, that neither of them could escape its wrath. It moved slowly, however, and this gave him an idea.

'What are you doing?'� Nadine screamed from her seated position. 'Get back here!'�

In a final act of desperation, or perhaps heroism, Colin had leapt to his feet and jumped in the middle of the tracks, waving his arms and yelling.

'Stop the train! There are people in here!'�

Whoever controlled that monster, if anyone could claim such control, failed to notice Colin's attempts. Smelling his fear, the giant metallic beast sped up for the kill and blared its furious horn. The rush of heat from the oncoming train warmed Colin's face.

Crazy. This was crazy.

The train raced towards its target, and Colin braced himself for the impact.

A deafening gust of energy and heat whipped into Colin, knocking him to the tunnel floor a moment before the train was about to hit. As he lay on the tracks, he looked up in amazement as the giant beast ran not over him, but through him, its massive frame merging itself with and superimposing over his body, and then passing through it. The train's awesome momentum kept him pinned to the ground, forcing him to watch as its sheer energy racked his body with convulsions. He curled into a ball, clutching his sides and screaming.

Colin blinked several times, resting his head on the damp tunnel ground. It was over, and with the exception of several cuts and bruises from the fall, Colin was no worse off than before. He had heard of ghost trains, of course, but had never believed in them; while its bells and whistles were all very real, it possessed no physical presence.

He didn't know how long he lay there, but Nadine's voice jarred him from his reverie.

'Colin, are you okay?'�

'Yeah, I'm fine,'� he said. This time, Nadine believed him.

Dazed, he stood with knees wobbling and head spinning. He fumbled for Nadine's hand and pulled her up.

'I guess, sometimes the way you see things,'� Nadine ventured, 'isn't the way they really are.'�

'Let's get you home.'�

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