Chapter 1
It was 11:59 p.m. when I saw it.
Through the misty streets of Windrow, an old steam train rolled into the abandoned station. The station that, according to the city records, had been shut down for fifty-three years.
Its brass lamps glowed a warm gold, cutting through the fog, and I swear the whistle sounded like someone whispering my name.
Elara…
I should’ve walked away.
Normal people don’t follow ghost trains. But the truth is, I hadn’t been normal for a long time—not since my brother vanished a year ago without a trace. And tonight… something in my gut told me he was on that train.
I stepped forward, my boots clicking against the cracked tiles of the platform. The conductor, tall and dressed in an old-fashioned navy coat, tipped his hat at me.
“Ticket, Miss Elara?” he asked, voice deep as if it had been echoing through time.
“I don’t have one,” I said.
He smiled—not the friendly kind, but the kind that knows something you don’t. “Everyone who boards The Eloria already paid… one way or another.”
I hesitated.
The door to the train opened with a hiss, warm golden light spilling onto the cold night.
And then… I heard it. A laugh. My brother’s laugh, faint but clear, coming from inside.
I stepped aboard.
And the doors closed behind me.
