Chapter Two - Flickering Lights

He sat there looking solemnly at his phone with a sense of shock and disbelief. No good news comes from a late-night phone call. It never could.

A shiver cascaded down his spine. He couldn’t tell if it was from the chill in the late-September air or the chill of his estranged brother’s voice. It was the first time they spoken in five years; the first time they’d spoken since he moved to this God-forsaken city in the hopes of escaping from a life that had been determined for him against his will.

Numb, he stood and walked into the living room. As he flicked the lights on, his eyes were taken towards the station where the midnight train was slowly rumbling to a halt. Who, he wondered, would want to travel so late in the night? His gaze moved towards the figure of a woman whose soft features were made angelic by the glow of the station’s bright lights. He was mesmerized by her frame and felt a sense of familiarity in the way she carried herself. He felt they’d crossed paths before, but he couldn’t make out her face through the dimness of the night. But there was something about her that kept his attention.

He watched her board the train with a mix of curiosity and sorrow. He couldn’t tell, however, if the sorrow was from watching this angelic creature leave his sights – never knowing if he’d ever meet her – or if the sorrow was for himself and his newly-acquired orphan status.

Turning off the lights, he stumbled sleepily to bed. He tried in vain to shake the thoughts of sorrow from his head. In the morning, he would need to book his own train journey. He would need to return to the family’s estate where his mother would be laid to rest next to his father.

He knew he should be thinking of his family duties; of arrangements with the funeral director; of meetings with solicitors; of his beloved mother, for God’s sake, but his mind kept returning to thoughts of the woman from the train station. He felt a sense of guilt in his infatuation with her every being, when he should be despondent with grief.

As he drifted off to sleep, he dreamt of the stranger boarding the midnight train.