Ghost Train

(Photo Credit - iStock aapsky)

Miah is aware of a sickening feeling in her stomach, and a pounding in her head, as her eyes slowly open. Feeling panic begin to overwhelm her, she looks around, confused about her surroundings. She is laying across two seats and can see the scenery flashing by outside of a train car window. Across from her there is an elderly couple glancing at her with confused looks on each of their faces.

"Where am I? What's happening?" Miah asks in a strained voice.

The couple continues to look at her strangely, almost as if they are afraid of her. Finally the elderly gentleman stutters out a truth that he can barely believe, "Y-Y-You j-j-j-just ap-appeared from thin air. This train is out of control! They told us to stay in our seats and then you just appeared. Who are you?"

Miah is confused; she tries to think but her head keeps hurting. She was home wasn't she? An exam in the morning prompted her to go to bed around ten. There is no memory of waking up. "My name is Miah," she offers. "I don't know how I got here. I think I was dreaming. I saw the train. Someone asked me to help. But I don't understand how I got here."

"Are you an angel? Can you stop this train?" The lady's face suddenly lights up with hope in her eyes.

Miah looks at the woman in disbelief...an angel? No, she is just a girl. Suddenly, Miah sees a bright white light emanating around herself. The light is so bright she can hardly keep her eyes open.

A deep voice surrounds her. "Help them," it says. "You are gifted. You can stop this train. You can save hundreds of lives with your thoughts."

Somehow, Miah knows deep in her heart that the voice speaks the truth but she struggles with understanding.

"You are an Angel!" the lady exclaims. Seeing the bright light around the girl she pulls a rosary out of her pocket and closes her eyes to pray.

Miah doesn't know what to say or do. She looks out the window again and sees the sky and clouds moving by quickly. The countryside is almost blurred as the train hurtles along. There is no time to figure out where, why or how. Miah closes her eyes too and prays for a miracle. All of a sudden, an image of this train surfaces in her mind. The memory is faded; she is not even sure it is real. In it, she's only ten years old, but she can see her parents in the seats beside her - parents she has never met, but she knows they are her real mother and father. Tears well in the corners of her eyes and she gasps out loud as she understands the truth all at once.

Her parents are alive - the old couple - she can see the resemblance. But how can this be possible? The sole survivor of a train wreck so many years ago, she couldn't remember anything before the accident. Her identity and even what her parents looked like were a mystery. The police put the puzzle together. There was a malfunction: an explosion. There were no brakes, and the train built up so much speed that it derailed on a treacherous corner. No one understood how the little girl had survived. She was found sitting beside the tracks, the wreck around her on every side.

"My wife, Maria, believes in you! Heck I believe in you!" says the elderly gentleman. "You appeared out of thin air. Do what the voice said: focus your thoughts to stop this train!" He is excited and sincere. He knows a miracle when he sees one.

Miah looks at the man and remembers his name, Henry, and the sound of his voice when he read her bedtime stories. The memories come flooding back to her. "Dad? It's you!" Miah wraps her arms around her father and feels just ten years old again. She sobs into his shoulder, feeling so many emotions rush over her.

Henry looks at her in disbelief...his Miah? But she has been gone for nine years...just a young girl the last time he held her. He remembers the accident like it was yesterday. She had been standing between the train cars when the derailment happened, everyone in their seats had survived. Miah was the only one to die. She had snuck away from her seat. Her mother, Maria, had been sleeping between them and he had been reading. He had blamed himself for showing her that special place between the cars where you could stand and look at the tracks moving beneath you. It was earlier on the day of the crash that they had done it together as the train passed over a bridge. Miah had been exhilarated.

"Dad! I know it's you. I don't know how this is happening, but you are older...I am older." Miah looks her father in the eyes and instantly they both remember that the train is moving very fast.

"We have to stop this train!" they say in unison.

"We can't try to understand it right now," says Henry. "Let's just live through this. Miah, focus your thoughts and imagine this train stopping."

Miah doesn't want to let go of her father. She sees her mother praying beside them and knows that those prayers are needed. Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath her thoughts begin to clear. In her mind's eye, she sees a white light glowing around her forehead and as it gets brighter it starts to glow amethyst purple in colour. She can feel energy around her on all sides and knows that there are angels surrounding them. This kind of energy and presence had happened before in meditation and she had always believed in the power of her imagination. She focuses again on the amethyst light and begins to see a beautiful field of poppies with the shadow of soldiers standing in it. Somehow she knows that her ancestors lost in battle are helping her too. The field in her vision begins to change until she starts to clearly see the train tracks ahead of them and a sharp corner.

Emanating more and more light, she sees angelic and ancestral energy building up in front of the train. Beyond the curve the tracks move up a steep incline into the mountains...she knows they have to make this climb to slow down the train and survive. She keeps focusing on the light and begins to feel an immense love for the magnificent complexity of the world. She had always known that there was much more to this world than the physical plane, and as she continues to focus she can see the different dimensions around her.

Maria opens her eyes and sees her husband and the girl in a tight embrace. They both have their eyes closed as a white and purple light swirls around them. She confidently places a hand on each of their shoulders and begins to see a vision of their lost daughter. She no longer feels any sadness and is able to focus on happy memories of them together: the day that Miah was born, her first steps and first words, and of course the first song...oh how she loved to sing. All at once, Maria knows the truth too. This girl, the angel, is their daughter. Miah has somehow come back to them.

Reunited, the family clings to each other. Miah keeps her focus on the light and the energy continues to grow. A gateway opens at the corner and a crossroad forms from the light. Miah begins to sense a second train. Letting go of all fear she trusts that divine intervention is real. Somehow these two trains will not collide but will merge, and leave her with her parents forever. A smile forms on her face as she remembers her past live: the life where she was the only one who died instead of being the sole survivor.

The train enters the gateway, merges with the ghost train, and enters another dimension: one where Miah and her parents all survive.

The story continues with the first Chapter of a Science Fiction book for the New Worlds Contest - A Conspiracy for Good: Guardians from Another World Intervene.

Melanie Noullett is a Songwriter/SoulCoach with Tiger Lily Transformations. Listen to her first song ever written Evolution here on Vocal.