Maine's 7th Railway

So, I'm writing a novel on Wattpad, and I thought it may get a little more attention if I posted it here. Let me know what you think.

Chapter 1: A Splash of Death

I used to think it was blue; the color of the sky. A simple brush stroke of water color would suffice when I was younger. Now, I understand there's more above our heads than meets the eye. A simple streak of generic blue is never enough anymore. It frustrates me.

I slide my brush spraying a light magenta across the page. A brief shading for the premature sky. I dip the wand in a navy blue and strike the paper hard with it. I am beginning to see an evening appear. I pencil in a light crescent moon and irritatedly cover my work with a towel. Yesterday's painting.

The date is December 21, 2055 and my name is Abraham Quincy. I'm 5' 8", weigh 163 pounds, and I'm 27 years old. My hair is a radiant black and to contradict that, my eyes are bright blue behind a pair of thin work glasses. I work at a local Verizon store in Ellsworth, Maine. Most of all though, I've always been a natural artist. Every free second I get is spent at the canvas.

Everyone is bustling about buying gifts for the holidays. I'm not one for Christmas. Call me Scrooge, but I don't think Christmas is what it used to be. A couple years ago, I took a step back from it all, and realized that people are actually much happier nowadays on normal days rather than Christmas.

However, today, I am sitting at the 7th train stop, chewing on my baked pretzel, waiting for my best friend, Terrance to deliver his Christmas present to me. I told him he didn't have to get me anything, but in response, he told me that I was too tight on the holidays and I needed to get some Christmas cheer in my life. I laughed inside when he said that; Christmas cheer had been killed off long ago.

Terrance and I have been friends for as long as I can remember. I used to play one-on-one basketball with him every day after school when I was little out in a little dirt patch that got turned into an apartment a couple years ago. It was a worthless mud puddle, but with space so precious these days, it's very hard to find anything that could be called decent.

Terrance and I went to the same high school; Ellsworth High, Home of the Greyback Wolves. Terrance was our mascot, Grant the Greyback. Even though he was frequently teased for it, he still enjoyed the position. I once tried out for the basketball team, and only barely made it. I was the worst player on the team, but if Terrance the Greyback hadn't been on the sideline pushing me forward, I would have given up basketball altogether.

Terrance has always been one of those hyperpositive people. I've never really seen him in a bad mood before. I guess that's why we're such good friends. In fact, I can't remember any other good friends from high school-only halfway acquaintances and short term partners in class.

I gaze to a small digital clock just to the right of some Christmas cards posted on the train stop wall. It reads "7:18 p.m." Terrance's train should be arriving in about 10 minutes. I look farther to the right and see a small green sign that reads "Train Stop 7." In each city, a company called Worldrail planted 40 to 100 train stops. From one of them, you are able to get to any other trains stop in the city for free. If you want to travel outside the city, you would have to go to a local train station. Train stations are huge buildings, much like an old fashioned airport, where as trains stops are small booths like old bus stops.

My phone vibrates repeatedly in my pocket. A familiar ring tone hits my ears; a song by Terrance's favorite band, Half Empty. I check my phone and recieve the call. "Hey, Terrance."

"Merry Christmas, bro!" Terrance replies in a deep baritone voice, the way he always sounds when he adds "bro" to the end of a sentence. Terrance usually has a strong tenor voice, but he makes it lower to sound cooler.

"It's not Christmas yet. That's in four days, man." I tell him.

"If you think that would stop me from spreading holiday cheer, you don't know me very well, Abe."

I laugh. "Yeah, well what's up?"

"Not much. I'm heading in your direction. I have your present here!" I hear a slight rumbling noise. Terrance is probably shaking it around.

"Why don't you wait until Christmas? I'm fine with the wait."

"Yeah, I know that. You're fine with everything, Abe. No, I'm not fine with it. I bought this thing, like, a month ago, and it's been killing me since! Every time I look at it, I think of the look on your face when you get it!"

I laugh again. "That sounds like you." Terrance can't wait for anything. In high school, I had told him during lunch one day I was going to ask someone out in a couple days. The only reason I was going to wait a couple days was because she wasn't in any of my classes and it turned out we had lunch together in a schedule mixup on Friday. Terrance was shivering for the rest of the day because he couldn't wait to see how it turned out. He had a number of classes with her though, so eventually something in him just snapped and he asked her out for me. She said no. At the time I was furious with him. I look back on my past now and laugh at the memory though.
"Well, how's your work at Verizon going?"

"It's a good job...underpaid...for what I have to deal with, but I enjoy it. Today a guy walked up to me and asked me if I had any Apple headphones."

Terrance chuckles, "Really? What did you do?"

"I said, 'Sir, this is a Verizon store, we don't carry any Apple products.'"

"And what did he say then?"

"He didn't say anything. He slapped me in the cheek, knocked over a headphone stand, then burped very loudly, then left."

"...wow."

Terrance hasn't had a job in a long time. His most recent one was a week at Valentino's. He had been a server, but it infuriated his boss that he had been late to work three out of five days that week. He was fired on the spot. I however, have kept my job at this Verizon store for quite some time. The little Verizon store is actually my first job. I love the way I could use my technological expertise to guide others. I was offered the spot of manager when the previous manager's house burnt down and he passed away. I, however, was in love with my position. I got to meet new people every day, and now I am acquainted with almost every person in the city. I love my job.

"So, what's up?" I ask Terrance.

"Still not much...actually there is this kind of creepy kid in my car. He wears a black hoodie over his face like he'll turn people to stone with his eyes. He goes up to each person in the car and just touches them awkwardly on the shoulder." I picture the kid in my mind. He doesn't sit well with my stomach.

"That's weird...did he touch you?"

"Yeah...his hands were as cold as ice." Terrance shivers.

"Did anybody say anything?"

"I just figure he has some sort of mental illness."

"Huh...sad..." Terrance and I had a long and painful history related to mental illness. Terrance's Uncle Spencer had a serious case of PTSD and had to live in their apartment. I would frequently visit Terrance and his uncle to help take care of him. Then, August 6, 2043, Uncle Spencer dropped dead. Nobody could figure what the cause was.

"Hey, listen-" Terrance starts.

"Yes?" I ask after a moment of waiting for him to continue. Terrance doesn't say anthing, then static roars out my phone. I jump and turn the phone volume down.

"Terrance?" He still doesn't reply. "Terrance?" I ask again, then I shout, "TERRANCE!" No sound is emitted from my phone. I hit the call-end button.

I wait for a few minutes for Terrance to call back. He doesn't. His phone must have died. I hear a loud blaring noise from the left. It's Terrance's train approaching. The train screeches to a stop, and I realize there is smoke in the windows. The doors roll open like they're programmed to and smoke billows out. I start to get more and more worried. I can't comprehend what's happening. My mind is full of questions. What's going on? Why did the phone go dead? I stride toward the car.

Dead. Everyone on the train is dead. Among the corpses, there is no kid with a hoodie.

If you want to keep reading, here's the link. http://www.wattpad.com/story/1757267-maine's-7th-railway