Chapter Text
Chapter 1: The Legend of Train Seventy-Seven.
The silver moon lay at the top of the sky as its buttermilk glow illuminating the quiet, empty town. An elderly woman stalked through the town, though she knew she should have been fast asleep. She followed the shining glow through the desolate Ghost River Triangle streets. Dirty, tungsten lightbulbs shined from within the Purgatory Main Street lampposts like fireballs in the distance.
Her unsteady steps continued one after another as she bounded toward the town center. She focused on her destination and not her journey, not the cracks in the sidewalks or the potholes in the pavement. She had not she stepped into Purgatory for years and part of her wished she still never returned. But her grandson was graduating from High School in the spring and pleaded for her presence at the ceremony.
Without warning, the smell of rubber and oil scorched her nostrils. Her white sneakers vibrated as the ground below her shook, as if an earthquake was cracking the earth’s core centimeters below. Perplexed, her eyes darted through the darkness in a desperate attempt to find the sudden disturbance. A loud clickety-clack filled her eardrums, preceded by a brash squeak.
Her head snapped toward the sound of the oncoming train only seconds before the locomotive pummeled into her.
“Wynonna, get in here!” Xavier Dolls screamed from the Black Badge office as the haphazard group of misfits gathered around the shiny conference table.
“I was just getting coffee, sheesh.” Wynonna complained. She ushered into the room in her tight leather jacket and barely there crop top, the stench of whiskey wafting in beside her.
“Coffee, or whiskey?” Dolls’s eyes glanced into the cup, the amber liquid staring back at him.
“What’s with the stick up his ass today?” Wynonna sunk into the chair between her sister, Waverly Earp, and the science brains of the operation, Jeremy Chetri. She rocked on two legs of her chair, stretching her muddy leather cowboy boots against the shiny conference table.
The tall main ignored the halfway to drunk woman’s lewd comments and instead took his seat at the head of the table. “What do you have for us, Sheriff?”
“A homicide took place last night on the Purgatory railroad tracks.” Nicole opened the manila folder and lined the crime scene photos across the table. “A locomotive hit an elderly woman, Margaret Davis, and killed her instantaneously.”
“And you think this was a supernatural killing, Haught?” Dolls examined the pictures of the woman’s bloody and bruised face laid out on the table.
“There were no trains scheduled for that time.” Nicole picked through the pile, locating the picture of the railroad tracks. “The Alberta Transportation Department ruled the railway unsafe over twenty years ago. The tracks are so rusty that the weight of any train passing over them at even a moderate speed would crush the tracks. But I inspected the tracks this morning and they look to be in the same condition as when I moved here over a decade ago.”
“Do you think the kill was supernatural?” Jeremy turned away from the graphic pictures displayed on the table.
The sheriff shrugged her shoulders. “There is no other explanation”
Doc Holliday, yes that Doc Holliday, tipped the brim of his cowboy hat, exposing his smoldering blue eyes. He shifted his cigarette from underneath his moustache adorned lip to the corner of his mouth. “Have I told you about the time I worked for the railroad?”
Wynonna pounded her feet against the ground of their office in the police station in disbelief. “He gets to smoke on the job, but I can’t drink.”
“Here we go again,” Waverly muttered. Nicole’s lips turned to a grin from her wife’s disdain.
“It’s not even lit!” Doc spit the cigarette onto the table to prove a point.
“Come on, Wynonna. You know Doc just has an oral-” The young man bit his lip as soon as the words spilled from his mouth. “Shut up Jeremy, can’t you ever just keep your mouth shut?”
Dolls groaned in frustration at his team. “Please continue, Doc, if you believe it could help us with the case.”
“As I was saying before Wynonna interrupted,” Doc glared at the eldest Earp. “One-hundred-fifty years ago, I trained to be a conductor for the rails. Trains were the new and quickest way to transport goods cross-country. Jobs were in chief supply. Most students quit school and worked the rails for extra cash.”
“Get to the point, Doc,” Wynonna complained. “I need to make it to happy hour at Shorty’s.”
“You aren’t going anywhere until we get this case solved.” Dolls lectured. “Continue Doc.”
“Okay,” He took a deep breath. “I was training alongside a man named Alexander Jones. He was just two years my senior, but he had been a conductor for the Alberta Cross Continental Rails for over a year. One day, I had a terrible cough and missed my shift. It is said that Alexander went mad and drove his train off the tracks. We never saw him or his train again. I heard rumors he drove it straight into-”
“The ocean?” Jeremy asked.
“No, Jeremy, you know, the place we sent the seventy-seven revenants!” Wynonna rolled her eyes.
“Hell, Jeremy,” Robin answered for his boyfriend, ignoring the brunette’s snide remarks.
“That is correct, Robin.” Doc agreed. “It is said he drove straight into the underworld. Legend has it that every seventeen years, Engine 77 comes back, with mad Alexander at his wheel. It is said it will draw anyone who worked with Alexander into the train through a blinding white light. The light will hypnotize them, and a potent smell will draw them inside. Some classify it as the smell of a bakery, while others say it smells as rotten fruit. Once the train begins its decent, shrieks and moans fill the cars, sending chills through the passenger’s hearts. Within just seconds of travel, the passengers feel flames licking the walls of the cars, then the train comes to a complete stop. The doors open, and the devil himself drags the passengers from the train.”
“Is it the devil or is it BoBo Del Ray?” Wynonna joked.
“Waverly,” Doc asked. “What year is it?”
“March 7, 2029,” Waverly intoned.
“Shit,” Doc swore, “The 153rd year anniversary is tonight!”
“Who else could be alive from the 1800s? I mean, besides Doc.” Nicole spoke.
“What if Margaret was a relative of someone from that time?” Waverly’s eyes locked into Nicole’s.
“I should be able to use the police database to figure out if there was a connection between her and the railroad company.” The redhead expressed.
“Do you need some help?” Waverly suggested.
“I could always use your expertise.” Nicole nodded. Within an instant, the couple had dashed out of the office.
“Looks like it’s up to us to go check out those train tracks.” Dolls commanded. “Doc, do you remember where the station is?”
“Yes, good sir, that I do.”
“Okay, saddle up boys.” Dolls skated around the room, gathering a few Black Badge supplies.A smirk tickled Robin’s lips. “It’s about to get loco in here! Get it, loco, like the train, but also crazy in Spanish?”
“It’s not funny if you have to explain it,” Wynonna interjected.
“Ah,” Jeremy tripped over the chair’s leg, his boyfriend catching him from the fall. “I think I will go help Waverly and Nicole. They could use my brains.”
“Jeremy,” Wynonna planted her hand on the inexperienced man’s shoulders. “Trust, me, I have been there and done that. Do not go into that office.”
“Who’s idea was it to investigate the rails at night?” Jeremy questioned. Night fell over the quiet city of Purgatory as Doc lead them passed the train tracks to the loading station.
“I had to take care of Alice!” Wynonna argued. “She got in trouble for bringing a condom to school.”
“And who’s fault was that?” Dolls’s eyes lit up with bolts of blood red.
“Doc’s!” Wynonna accused without a breath of hesitation. “I don’t use condoms. You know that!”
“And who had to stop at Shorty’s for a drink after her discussion with the principal?” Doc tipped his cigarette with his finger, the ashes crumbling onto the road’s edge. Together they stepped off the roads tar and into the pine-needled ground, tracing the rusted railroad tracks with their own path.
“Yup, no train, let’s go.” Jeremy shouted, his eyes wide with worry. “I can’t wait to tell Robin he missed a bunch of nothing!”
“Not so fast,” Dolls clutched onto the younger man’s sweater and tugged him away from the tracks. “We have to wait longer than thirty seconds.”
A crooked smile raced onto the eldest Earp’s face. “Do you remember when I used to call Champ Nine Seconds? Good times, good times.”
“What if Waverly was still in a relationship with that asshole?” The lizard man asked as he tucked under a low hanging tree branch, a cobweb smacking him in his face. He shook his head in disgust.
“I want to know the answer to that question,” Nicole asked as her flashlight lit the soil sinking beneath her feet.
“Hey baby girl!” Wynonna ignored the woman with a Twizzler in her ass. “You made it.”
“We had a hard time getting Wes to sleep.” She shrugged. “We think he is teething.”
“You will not be breast feeding for too much longer!” Her elder sister harassed. “Because those little fuckers hurt.”
“Why did we choose her to be the godmother?” Nicole snipped.
“Guys!” Dolls yelled as the conversation derailed. “We have a job to do.”
“Right, sorry.” Wynonna rolled her eyes. Why was everyone so focused on work?
“Oh yes, sorry!” Waverly responded. “Nicole and I found something during our research.”
“Okay, continue.” Doc dropped the small nub of his cigarette onto the ground, then crushed it underneath the rubber sole of his boot.
“There was a connection between the victim and the suspect.” Nicole announced.
Waverly continued: “Her great-great-grandfather worked for the same railroad company as Alexander.”
“Do you know if they worked together?” Jeremy questioned.
“We can only assume they worked together.” Waverly said.
“Okay, great,” Dolls said. “Now we can assume the homicide was supernatural.”
“That’s not it.” Nicole continued. “We found only one other person still in the Ghost River Triangle has connections to that company. And that is none other than-”
“Me,” Doc said, shoving his cowboy hat further onto his head. “Looks like I will journey back to hell.”
“Doc,” Waverly responded, her voice threatening him from his pessimistic tone. “We will not let that happen.”
“I mean look,” Jeremy twisted his body around to look left and right. “There’s no train.”
“Then what’s that?” Wynonna asked, pointing off into the far-off distance.
A bright white light burns into their cornea’s. A shrieking whistle sounds, scaring a flock of birds from their perch in the tall elm. The ground shook and vibrated underneath them, as if the ground underneath them just ripped in an earthquake. A black steam locomotive barreled closer to them, slamming its squealing breaks in such a tone that Nicole pressed her fingertips against her ears to check if they were bleeding. The passenger railcar halted in front of them.
“I think we found our train,” Dolls breathed as the doors fling open and a blinding white light shined like an LED flashlight held in his eyes.
“Should we?” Wynonna looked towards her leader, who nodded his head toward the train.
“Well, we found the train,” Jeremy shuttered. “I think it’s time we go home.”
Dolls ignored the smaller man’s whine. “We have to figure this out.”
“But we should make this asshole go first,” The eldest Earp suggested. Without waiting for a response, she shoved Doc Holliday into the railroad carriage. Dolls followed right after, dragging Jeremy by the hood of his thin spring jacket.
“After you,” Nicole held her arm out as an aid Waverly’s short legs with the high step.
The redhead’s vision derailed and traveled southbound at the picturesque view of her wife’s rear. As she jumped onto the train, her body collided with the shorter woman.
“I saw that,” Waverly muttered.
“We all did, Haught,” Wynonna cried. “You two are so obvious! And gross!”
Before the sheriff could utter an argument, the metal doors hauled shut and locked them inside the cab. The train plunged forward, inching ahead at an electrifying pace. The floor under the group hummed, and the seats rattled with the unsteady motion. Dolls gripped onto the door handle and attempted to yank it open, but to no avail.
“Great, we’re stuck.” Jeremy muttered. “I knew I should have called in sick today.”
Without warning, the lights inserted into the ceiling flickered like an old-western movie reel, but this was not a theater. The group look from one another, their faces now strobed as they moved in blinking, stilled images. Nicole’s arm found purchase on Waverly’s waist, dragging her close to protect her.
“We have Doc Holliday!” Wynonna called; her voice muffled under the loud cry of the train. One by one the lightbulbs overhead popped, enveloping their bodies into total darkness. “Take him, not me!”