Chapter II “The Fool”

“The Fool is representative of a brand new beginning. In cycle it would be the first square at the start of a board game. It represents the origin of everything; a perfectly neutral place, which will in time, be altered by our decisions. The fool is pure potential, the spark that starts the engine into motion.”
-Maganda Reliquist
“The Tarot of the Afterlife”















Room number sixty-six was locked. I could hear the shower running inside. I guess I just didn’t understand the whole thing really. Mainly why the train had practically no one on it, but I was going to have to share a room with someone. Unless of course that there had been some mistake and the person taking a shower was in the wrong room. I gotta admit though, it was really nice to know that this train had showers. Usually if you go on boats or whatever, the only way you can take a shower is if you bring in a bucket and a sponge. I was leaning against the wall listening to the sounds of the pipes when the engineer came into the car. He had a milkshake for me, exactly like I wanted, on a silver tray.

“Hey buddy, am I sharing a room or something?”

“My apologies Master Garret. Our train is already so full of other gentlemen and ladies that you must share a bunk bed with another.”

And with that he just turned on his heels and left the car.

“Full of other people?”

I looked up and down the hallway, into the next car down, even into the unlocked rooms. They were all empty. I guessed that the engineer might have been just a little kooky but it didn’t really make a difference to me. I believe it was Mark Twain who said, “It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.” Who knows anyway? Maybe all of the other passengers were in the dining car for some sort of party for something. If I had asked him about it, he might have thought I was rude, so I just shut up and sat down, leaning against the wall.

After about ten more minutes of the droning of pressurized water I heard the shower stop. I stood up and picked up my carrying bags and waited. I admit I was a little eager to get out of that dark gloomy hallway. I knocked on the door a couple of times until I heard a low male voice calling “who is it?” The door slid open revealing a tall older boy illuminated by the light inside the room. He was a really strange guy from the looks of him. He had platinum blonde hair, slightly spiked with long bangs hanging down in the front. He had an elastic band wrapped tightly around his neck and a necklace with a medallion of a pentagram. He had silver rings pierced into his ears and his left nipple. He was a strong looking individual, but he had an aura of gentleness, but maybe a small hint of arrogance. He still had a white towel wrapped rather loosely around his waist.

“Visiting hours are over, little man. It’s way past your bedtime. Or is that why you’re here?”

He gave me a rather strange little wink. I just stared blankly into his face, somewhat annoyed at his words.

“You’re in my room, and you’re in my way.”

“Tough cookies sport, this is MY room.”

“I’m supposed to be in room number sixty six. That’s what the engineer and my ticket stub say, so let me in.”

“Wait a minute, so you’re the ‘Master Garret” that’s bunking with me? Damn I’m sorry little dude, here let me help you with that.”

He took my green travelling bag over his shoulder and my carry-on suitcase in his hand. I hoped to God that I wouldn’t have to see him any longer than this first meeting. But then I came back to reality; he and I were staying in the same room. I groaned softly.

“Hey guy, is your stomach upset? They say that milkshakes give you gas, especially if you’re lactose intolerant. I would know, I’m am almost an adult.”

“Are you going to let me in? Or and I going to have to fight my way to bed.”

“Oh right, sorry about that munchkin man.”

He moved back into the room and threw my bags onto the lower bunk. They both had dark green sheets, but the ones on the bottom looked like they were silk or satin or something. The bed was a 2-level bunk bed made for two people. It was located immediately to the left one you entered the door. To the right, looking down that way there was a pull-back red curtain leading to the bathroom, and in the right corner a wooden dresser with my heavy suitcases, and the other guy’s as well, stacked on top. The middle drawer on the dresser had a little name placard slid into a brass frame on the front. It had the name M. Garret in elegant print. The drawer above mine had a similar little frame, but with the name N. Ramsey.

“Nick Ramsey?”

“Huh?”

“Nick Ramsey. Is that your name? I see on this top drawer here it says N. Ramsey.”

“Oh, I prefer Nicholas, but yeah. That’s my name. By the way the top bunk is mine. If you come up there I’ll kill you.”

“What? No way!”

“You heard me little bro, top bunk’s mine.

“But I wanna be on top!”

“Heh, and I’m always the one on top.”

He put his lips together and made a kissing gesture at me, then winked and climbed up to the top. He was wearing a pair of black bikini briefs. It was a little unnerving for him to be treating me this way.

“Listen you fairy, the top bunk is mine and-“

“Nope! It’s mine. The bottom bunk has the nicer sheets, which the engineer said were picked especially for you.” He leaned over the edge of the bed and looked down at me. “And you wouldn’t want to upset the engineer would you?”

I stood there silently looking at the bottom bunk.

“Fine. I guess I don’t have a choice then, do I.”

With disgruntled resolve I removed my coat and shoes, and then threw them onto the bunk. I really didn’t care anymore, I just wanted to take a shower and then go to sleep. I checked to make sure Nicholas wasn’t watching as I removed my shirt and pants and headed for the bathroom. His head was at the other end of the bed; it sounded like he was reading a book or maybe a magazine from the sound of the turning pages I heard. I walked into the bathroom and pulled the curtain closed.

The bathroom itself was practically another dimension. The walls must have been sound proof because the noise of the train rattling down the tracks was totally eliminated. I poked my head out of the curtain to see if I was dreaming, but when I did I could again here the faint noise of rolling train wheels. The light in the bathroom was obnoxiously bright, but at least everything inside was quiet. The curtain did a great job of making the area as quiet as a tomb. One thing that I didn’t like was how white the room was. The floor was tiled white, the sink and faucets were white, the curtain was white, and the bathtub was white. The only thing in the bathroom that wasn’t really white was the large mirror, which hung on the right wall. On the other side of that wall was the dresser, and the mirror itself was easily the same size.  Of course the reflection in the mirror was white too so it only doubled the intensity. Closing my eyes made the bathroom tolerable. It was dark and quiet with my eyes closed and the light off. Normally it was too bright and reminded me of the engineer’s gloves. My body wasn’t as cold anymore luckily, and my skin had return to its normal color. I was still pale, but at least I wasn’t as ghostly as the engineer’s gloves. I’ll admit I’m terrified of ghosts.  I guess that’s why his gloves scared me so much.

After my quiet reflection I went to turn on the shower. Even with the knob turned to full heat the shower spewed only icy cold water. I turned off the water and called out to Nicholas. After not hearing an answer after three tries I leaned my head out of the bathroom and called into the room.

“Nicholas!”

“What now.”

“You took all of the hot water.”

“Sorry little guy, but it was like that even before you got here.”

“You took a cold shower?” I shuddered.

“If it upsets you that much I’d gladly take a shower with you. We could share body heat. And believe me, I can make it really hot!”

He looked down and winked at me. I just ignored him and closed the bathroom curtain. I turned the water to heat again and waited to see if there’d be any change. I eventually gave up. I wasn’t in the mood for an icy shower. I went over to the mirror and placed my hands on the sink below it. I gazed deeply into my reflection ad it gazed deeply back.

“Why me?”

I could hardly believe it though. My reflection smiled at me. Not a pleasant smile either, but a dark deluded one. I pinched myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming, but the reflection continued to maliciously grin with its hand still planted firmly on the sink edges. I called out to Nicholas again and again, I don’t know how many times. I was terrified at the reflection staring back at me with that evil smile. And then it raised its arm slowly and started reaching for me. I tried to scream louder, but Nicholas didn’t hear. It reached for me, as the bathroom in the reflection became a terrifying scene. The walls in the mirror started sweating out long thick streams of blood, the tiles and the sinks and faucets all oozed with a wet coat of red. It room started filling up like a swimming pool as the dark reflection of myself pressed his bloodied hands against the mirror. It cracked under the pressure of his fingers the blood kept rising; spilling through the gaps his fingers had made. The mirror was spraying blood all over the place, coating the bathroom I was in with millions of tiny droplets of blood.  I couldn’t scream anymore. I felt myself losing consciousness. The figure in the mirror connected a solid punch and the mirror collapsed. The warm crimson wave filled the room, drowning me. I couldn’t breath any longer; I was drowning in blood.

Then I sat up.  I looked around at where I was. I was sitting in the bathtub; the water was comfortably warm. The bathroom around me was still clean and spotless, and the mirror was still intact. Nothing had happened. I had just fallen asleep in the bathtub. I was a fairly unpleasant dream, but a dream nonetheless.

I decided to swear off milkshakes as I climbed under the bed covers a little later. The sheets were to smooth and they made me uncomfortable. I hated sleeping on the bottom bunk. I was a fool for not just taking the top one for myself. I should’ve fought for it. The bottom bunk always scared me because I thought the bed above would come sliding down the posts and crush me. I turned onto my side and tried to ignore the nightmare I had. I did my best to shove the thoughts of being crushed out of my mind. I pulled the bed sheets a little tighter. I admitted to myself, I was a fool for being a coward.