[LUCKY] Ch. 2 - A real hero?

‘So you don’t remember anything?’ Chuck said and raised an eyebrow. They’d just hit the road and the engine wailed as if it was about to give up any second. The teenager had told him about his little story; how he’d woken up without memories, met a crazy and glowing old lady and at last, how he’d flown out of the wagon and almost got overrun by Chuck.

Chuck sat silent for a while, trying to melt down the teenager’s story.

‘That sounds crazy, man’ he said and laughed nervously ‘What are you on?’

‘Hey, dude!’ The teenager snapped ‘I haven’t taken anything! It’s true!’                  

‘Yeah… sure, man’ Chuck said and bit his lip. They sat silent for a long time and the teenager decided to take a look around in the car. It smelled of pizza and old socks. It was full of fast food-junk, pizza boxes along with dirty underwear. It maybe wasn’t the coziest place to be on, but it was far better that Madame Luck’s Fortune Teller-wagon.

‘Seriously, man! Where are you from? You can’t just like pop up in the middle of nowhere just like that…’ Chuck asked, but the teenager had turned his attention on something else. They had reached the place where he had woken up. It crawled with ambulances, policemen and fire trucks. They saw some ambulance-men carrying a black bag that contained something that looked like a man, from the train. A bunch of men circled something to the right. It was a big wreck of red painted metal. A tingling chill ran down the boy’s neck as he realized what it was. ‘I was in that car’ he said and stared at the wreck.

‘You, what?’ Chuck gave him a doubtful look

‘I don’t know’ the boy said ‘I just… got a feeling I was in that car when it collided’

He wasn’t sure how he knew, but he got a creepy feeling that he’d been sitting in that car. It was like a déjà vu, he didn’t remember it, but he was 100 percent sure it had happened.

‘That’s impossible!’ Chuck said and looked at the car-wreck ‘No way that you survived that!’

The boy sat silent and stared at the men around the wreck fishing out a lifeless and completely crushed body.

‘Well, maybe it could explain your amnesia, no one survives something like that without wounds’ Chuck said ‘Let’s go, I don’t know what to think about you, man, but you need to see a doctor!’

‘But there are doctors right there…’ said the teenager and pointed through on the ambulances.

‘eehm, No, they aren’t… trustable’ Chuck sounded nervous, almost scared. The fourteen-years-old raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything.

The car sped away and soon they had put the scene of the accident far behind them. They sat in silence for a long time before Chuck suddenly laughed and shook his head.

‘What?’ the teenager asked

‘No it’s just…’ Chuck bit his lip and searched for the right words ‘You’re weird man. And you scare me’

The teenager raised an eyebrow.

‘Don’t get mad, ok?’ Chuck said ‘Everything’s just weird. You show up on a road in the middle of nowhere, claim that you’ve survived a train-accident and then there are those scary eyes of yours’

‘What’s wrong with my eyes?’

‘I don’t know, man’ Chuck said ‘They’re scary. As soon I looked at them, all my worst memories and my biggest fears came to me’ he swallowed ‘It was weird. Man, It was like they did it. You must be…no… I think you’re a…’ He made a little laugh, like he didn’t believe his own thoughts.

‘I’m a what?’ the boy asked. What was Chuck babbling about?

‘I think you’re a…’ Chuck repeated and swallowed ‘a mutant’

The teenager sat silent in a few seconds and then he laughed.

‘No, really man! You’re special’ Chuck explained ‘And there may be people like you out there. I’m sure of it, there’s never only one special guy’

The teenager didn’t know what he would think about the things Chuck had said. He was a mutant, like in X-men? That sounded crazy. But Chuck what had said made some sense. He didn’t feel normal, even for a guy with amnesia. He may not remember anything from his past, but he got this feeling that he’d never felt normal, that he always had been an outsider. The teenager turned his back towards Chuck and leaned his head against the car door. He was too tired to think, his brain felt like a big cloud of confusion. He gasped and closed his eyes, and soon he fell into sleep.

His dream didn’t make much more sense than the reality. He found himself standing alone in the dark, surrounded by purple fog. Barely hearable sounds came from somewhere in front of him. He walked towards it and it grew to whisperings and later a soft melody; wordless but beautiful melody. The teenager’s neck started to tingle, like it did when he recognized the car. He knew this song, but he just couldn’t remember from where. His memories felt close, just enough far away that he couldn’t reach them.

Suddenly, something appeared on the dark ground. It was a fortune cookie, like the one he gotten from Madame Luck. He picked it up and broke it open. Inside was a little green keychain in the shape of a four-leafed clover saying “you’re LUCKY” with big golden letters. He found it a little difficult to read it, but in the end he managed to get out the words. So I can read after all? He thought and looked at the keychain.

‘Many choose to seek luck’ a familiar voice spoke. The teenager looked up and suddenly Madame Luck stood there only a few decimeters from him, with her purple clothes and white eyes. ‘You…’ he growled, but the Madame cut him off; ‘But the ones who seek it will never get it’. She spoke with a robotic voice, like she was chanting. She lifter her hand and pointed at the keychain in the teenager’s hand.

‘Take it with you on your journey’ she chanted ‘Don’t lose it, it may be of importance in the end’

‘What do you mean?’ the boy asked, but Madame Luck had already begun to faint away. ‘Hey, wait!’
He saw her mouth something and then she was gone.

The teenager snorted and looked at the keychain. “You’re LUCKY”, yeah, sure he was. Just got hit by a train and lost his memory and all, so lucky.

He looked into the dark, and a pair of yellow eyes stared back at him. The eyes glowed at him and seemed to come closer. He heard a whistle and the thundering sound of a train, a train that was coming straight at him at full speed.




He woke up with a scream, cold sweating and with a racing pulse. A train was just whistling near them.

‘Morning, sleepyhead’ Chuck said and smiled ‘Dreamt sweet?’

‘Not really’ the teenager mumbled and looked out the window.

They stood in a tailback on a bridge; beneath them were lots of railways, overhead lines, more bridges and streetlights. They must been in the middle of a really big city. The sky was dark blue, but the many streetlights and cars’ lamps made it so bright that it couldn’t have been in the middle of the day.  

‘Where are we?’ he asked

‘Boston, took a little bit longer that it should have’ Chuck answered ‘Got some problems with the car and we were stuck for a while’ he scratched the back of his head and laughed nervously. ‘And then I was hungry, so I stopped to eat. You were sleeping, so I bought a burger from a drive through’

He handed the teenager a paper bag with a burger inside and a can of coke ‘it’s a little bit cold, but I have a microwave at home, just fifteen minutes from here if you want to warm it up’

‘Where’s that train heading?’ The boy tried to follow the railway with his eyes, but it was too many of them and they disappeared behind buildings.

‘Eeh, I don’t know’ Chuck said confused ‘Why you wonder?’

In his dreams, Madame Luck had said something that he then didn’t hear what it was, but at that moment it came up to him. The words echoed inside his head: “Follow the trains”. Did she mean that train? What should he find there? Probably nothing, it had just been a dream. But what if it was a part of the weird stuff that was happening with him? The curiosity was overwhelming the teenager, he just had to go and at least check if he could find something there.

‘Thanks for everything’ he said to Chuck and jumped out of the car, bringing the food with him. Chuck protested, but the teenager closed the door and walked away, leaving him behind in his dirty little Volvo.

It was harder to get down to the railway tracks than he thought. The bridge-roads went crisscross and didn’t at all go where he had hoped or thought they would. When he finally reached ground-level, his hands couldn’t stop shaking and he breathed heavily, almost like he was having a panic attack. He thought it was because of hunger and he sat down on a cement block to eat his burger. The teenager had been hungry, indeed, but it didn’t stop his hands from shaking. As a reflex, he checked his pockets and brought out a package of Camel blue and a lighter. His whole body relaxed when he lit the cigarette and filled his lungs with smoke. That was the one missing thing, smoking. He didn’t know how often he used to do it, but he hadn’t done it for at least a day, so no wonder he’d almost gone nuts.

The teenager smiled, he was full and satisfied. His brain felt relieved and he could finally think clearly. He tossed the fast food-junk on the ground and looked at the railways. It had been really dark now, it was probably night time. That made it easier for him to go unnoticed; he felt like he’d done that before, but at the same time it freaked him out. He noticed that he didn’t see well in the dark, with or without the sunglasses. And he thought about his day, waking up on a train track and the dream where he got overrun by a train. He just wasn’t that tempted to walk these tracks, but he knew he had to. He maybe could find a clue of who he was or what happened to him.

The train tracks were lined with fence and barbed wire, but how hard could it be to climb it? The amnesiac rubbed his hands and made an attempt. It was hard. He fought the wire for hours before he finally fell down at the other side, full of scratch-wounds.  The teenager got up on his feet and started to follow the tracks. He didn’t need to know which one the train had been driving on, because they all seemed to go the same way.

The boy hadn’t walked for long before he heard voices. He could see figures of three guys fighting, one big and beefy guy and two small boys around the age of ten. He stopped and watched. The bigger guy was holding one of the boys by his shirt, lifting him a few centimeters above the ground. The other one jumped around and between his legs and tried to save his friend, no, probably brother, by kicking the big guy. They looked almost identical, with red curly hair, round faces full of freckles and both had gray-brown fuzzy pants and no shirt. The teenager found it hard to decide if the big and beefy guy was a man or woman, until he saw the bouncy balloon-like boobs under the guy’s shirt. The woman was twice as big as the teenager, and seemed to like to train due to her quantity and quality of muscles. She had a broad chin and strong jawlines and piercing allover her face. She wore leather jacket and slim leathery pants full of nits and chains. Her pearl-black hair fell down as curtains around her face and she wore dark and gothic makeup.

So, Miss Goth kicked the bouncing boy and pressed him towards the hard ground with her foot. The boys screamed and she laughed. Anger started to boil up inside the teenager. That was low, really low. He clenched his fist. He couldn’t just stand there and watch while a big and beefy guy beat up ten-years-olds, still it was a really big and beefy guy and the fourteen-years-old knew he wouldn’t stand a chance. He argued with himself, he was tired, weary and weak, walking straight up to a big bully and hit her in the face wouldn’t be the wisest thing to do. He just wanted to stay in the shadows and walk past them; he wouldn’t be that good help anyway and he just wanted to get his memories back, not dying for some kids. The teenager slowly backed away, but suddenly, one of the boys saw him.

‘Help us, please!’ he pleaded

Miss Goth turned around and looked straight at him. Goddamn it! The teenager thought and swallowed.

‘Well well, what have we here?’ she said and twitched her head. She had yellow, creepy eyes that stared hungrily at him. The teenager wanted to run away from there, but her eyes nailed him at place, he couldn’t manage to move a millimeter ‘Another naughty boy being out past curfew?’
She loosened her grips around the two boys and walked over to the teenager. He could feel the smell of rotten flesh mixed with caramelized apples from her; he didn’t know which smell was the creepiest one. Miss Goth sniffed the air like an animal and a big grin exposed pointy, dangerous fangs, like a vampire’s.

‘Oh, my! You’re a hero, aren’t you?’ she said with a hissing, but eager voice ‘Here to save your little goat slaves?’

The teenager had no idea of what she was talking about and he was too busy looking at her hungry eyes to even try to figure it out. Miss Goth licked her lips and looked at him like she was going to eat him alive and slowly.

‘Um… Yeah…’ the teenager said, not really away what it was she asked.

‘Yes, he’s going to save us!’ The boys cried happily. The teenager had completely forgotten about them. He blinked and looked at their way; Miss Goth took her chance and slung herself at the teenager. He had no time to react, and soon, he landed on the hard ground with Miss Goth sitting on his chest. She hissed satisfied and licked her lips.

‘You demigods has the best blood’ she said and smiled cheerfully ‘Not as dry as these goats over there’

Miss Goth looked at the place where she had left the boys, but they were gone. They’d probably run away from there, leaving the teenager there to his fate. Well, you’re welcome, he thought and sighed. He was completely stuck. Miss Goth’s weight pressed him hard against the concrete and made it painful for him to breath. She turned her attention to him again, giving her a wide grin. She leaned forward and gripped his sunglasses.

‘I like to watch the fear in the eyes of my meals’ she whispered and grinned.

She removed the sunglasses and their eyes met. Miss Goth froze. The teenager smiled widely as he saw the fear grow bigger in her eyes.

‘Merry Christmas’ he said, and as on command, two red-haired boys jumped on her; kicking her and head-butting her. She flew up in the air, waving with her claw-armed hands. The teenager rose but before he could join the wight one of the boys kicked her legs and she fell to the ground and hit her head on a railway track. She stopped moving and hissing, she had probably passed out. The teenager picked up his sunglasses. Fortunately, they seemed unharmed and he put them on after he wiped them off with his shirt.

‘HAHA! That was AWESOME’ the boys screamed and jumped up and down. They turned towards the teenager and looked at him with awe.

‘You was amazing!’ one of them said

‘And so cool!’ the other said and grabbed the teenager’s jacket ‘Just like, “Merry Christmas” and then you just bam and slap’

The boy boxed in the air and laughed. The teenager scratched his head and looked confused at them. He had no idea what those “bam” and “slap” meant; he hadn’t even joined he fight. It was the boys that had done the real job. They had attacked her while he himself lay crushed against the ground, unable to move. And they had made her fall over so she hit her head. The teenager tried to say something, but the boys talked so much and didn’t hear him.

Then they heard a groan behind them and they all froze. Miss Goth had started to move again. All three of them, the teenager and the boys, started to scream and ran away as fast as they could. They could hear Miss Goth hissing far behind them, but no one dared to look back.

‘Come! Come this way!’ the boys waved at the teenager to follow them. The boys were really fast and the teenager found it hard to keep up with them. They ran on the railway tracks and somewhere ahead of them, a train’s whistle echoed in the dark night.

‘Awesome timing!’ one of the boys said and clapped his hands.

They reached the train that was just about to start rolling. The boys jumped up and hung on the side of a goods van while trying to unlock the padlock on the slid door. After many tries, the lock broke open after getting beaten by violent kicking. They jumped aboard the train and turned against the fourteen-years-old. They waved at him and shouted ‘Come on!’ and ‘You can do it!’

The train had gained a pretty high speed and the teenager had to force himself to the breaking point. The last decimeters, he jumped and grabbed the edge of the train wagon. The boys grabbed him and helped him inside.

‘Woah, that was close man!’ one of the boys said and smiled widely at him, but the teenager collapsed on a sack that was filled with something slightly poofy. The teenager groaned, he was completely drained of energy. He closed his eyes and tried to calm his breathing down.

‘Dude, you’re awesome!’ the other boy said ‘Thanks you’re a real hero’

The two boys crawled up on each side of him and cuddled their faces in his leatherjacket. The teenager felt a weird pain in his heart and stomach. He hadn’t done anything for them; he would have left them to their fates with Miss Goth if she hadn’t noticed him. But he didn’t say anything, they were safe now and he was too tired to say anything. The teenager took a deep breath and soon, he fell asleep.