Friday Frights: Story Two Part Two

The Haunting of AtokaBy Robin Renee Ray
         We never made it to the school's gym that night. I droveeveryone home, then went to my house, where I stayed awake thinking about whatwe had experienced the short time that we were at Atoka. Three nights later, Ihad things ready to go again. This time we were going to walk the tracks by theschool and see if the stories of the glowing dead or the phantom train weretrue. I had asked Eric from work if he wanted to go with Kysha and myself. Hissister, Stephanie, overheard and joined us along with my neighbor, Crystal. Shewas addicted.
            Everyone metat our house and we all made sure each other was wearing solid black and ifsomeone was wearing things that would reflect any form of light, it either cameoff or was covered up. The last thing we needed was the law asking what we weredoing and doing it so close to Government property.
            "What if wereally see something?" Stephanie asked, causing Kysha and me to crack up. "Man,I know people who tried to walk those tracks at night. Scared the shit outtathem."
            "So theydidn't make it to the other end?" Crystalasked, showing she was already spooked.
            "Hell no,they saw those glowing things and took off. I ain't even lying."
            "Stephanie'stalking about Oscar's cousin. He's always telling people what he's seen out byAtoka," Eric explained as he put on his black gloves.
            "He ain'tthe only one," Stephanie stood and grabbed her hoodie sweater. "All the oldtimers talk about shit that's happened out there at that old school. I justwant to see if any of its true."
            "And if yousee something?" Eric laughed.
            "It's alllies, nothing like that is really real," Stephanie shrugged. "And if you dosomething to freak me out, I'll beat the shit out of you."
            We allstarted laughing, gathered our things and piled into my daughter's car. Kysha'smustang made it a cramped tight fit, with one person sitting in the others lap,but it was the easiest car to hide by the tracks. We took a back road out oftown to keep from being seen and parked the car by the trees next to the fencethat kept the public away from the school. It put the tracks on the other sideof the car and hid it from vehicles that might happen to come in eitherdirection.
            Our coatswere on and our heads were covered. It was time to walk the mile long track,hit the other end with hopes of seeing this glow and then turn around to facethe phantom train that had been seen on the tracks for over fifty plus years. Ilocked the car and we were off. I took the lead with Kysha and Crystal gettingas close as they could, and Eric and Stephanie brought up the rear. It wasn'tlong until we had to stay up on the tracks due to the depths of the drop off onboth sides.
            "Don't moveso fast, Eric," Stephanie yelled, slapping her brother on the side of the arm.
            "The sloweryou get the longer this is gonna take," he said, pushing her hand away andturned to catch up with us.
            "Wait, don'tyou leave me. I'll fall," she froze the moment she looked down. "Eric, I wannago back." With her hands held out, she worked on trying to turn around, but herlegs wouldn't work with her mind.
            "Just comeon," Eric walked back and grabbed her by the elbow. "You wanted to do this, solet's do it."
            "Fuck you,Eric. If you leave me again, I'm telling mom."
            That onestatement had us all laughing again. But we soon all fell silent when wereached the area on the tracks that lost the rocks and earth and was left withthe gaps between railroad ties. It was a large draw that the farmers used tomove their cattle under and it was big enough to drive a good size truck beneath.I took off and was one fourth of the way across when I noticed that no one wasfollowing me.
            "You can'tfall through the cracks," I smiled at Kysha.
            "I know butI don't know if I can cross this, mom."
            "Give meyour hand, I won't let you fall," I walked back and took her trembling hand.
            "Oh hellno," Stephanie said when she finally got close enough to see the dark abyss."We have to go down and walk to the other side. I'm not joking, I can't crossthis."
            "I don'tthink I can either," Crystaladmitted.
            "It's just alittle bridge," Eric said stepping out on the first railroad tie that showedthe earth below. "But, I'll go down the side and help you two."
            "Are youkidding me?" I laughed shaking my head. "Didn't you guys ever walk across thetop of the monkey bars when you were little?"
            "No,"Stephanie blurted out.
            "I have butit wasn't dark and the drop off wasn't that far down," Crystal said as she turned to follow Eric andStephanie.
            We hadn'tall been back on the tracks for five minutes when we heard movement in theundergrowth to our right. Everyone hurried to get closer together. Ericaccidentally kicked a rock and we all screamed and took off down the other sideof the track when 'It' burst through shrubs. A cubby of quail flew up into theair and we all laughed out in a gesture to hide how nervous that had reallymade us, including myself. Seeing a group of birds take flight and the soundsthat they made had me swallowing my heart back down my throat.
            "Oh my goodness,that scared me so bad I need to pee," Crystalcrossed her legs.
            "Thatfreaked me out, too," Kysha laughed.
            "I can't seeyou squatting in the woods, Kysha,but we can," I winked.
            "Not asquatter," Kysha blushed, "that's why I went before we left the house."
            "I went too,"Crystal bouncedslightly, doing her version of the pee pee dance. "I guess that really scaredthe pee out of me."
            Eric didn'thave to be told, he just turned around while Stephanie, Crystal and myselffound a big bush to hide behind and relieve ourselves. "No way…what is that?" Icame around the bush and saw him pointing down the track. I made my way back upthe rocky side to see what he and Kysha were staring at. "Did you set this up?"Eric asked, stepping up beside me.
            "I countthree. Isn't that how many that were murdered in 1952?"
            "And Oscarsaid it was the land off to the right after the first junction," Kyshaproclaimed. "He said the houses have been gone for more than thirty years, buthe said you could still see the steps that went up to one of the porches."
            "Oscar's oldand will tell you guys anything to scare you. I know some of this stuff istrue." Eric jerked when Stephanie ran her hand under his arm. "But I didn'tthink we would see anything like this."
            "That's bullshitman, that's coming off the street light," Stephanie said, as she tried to pullher brother to go back the way we had just come. "Let's go back now."
            "I'm goingall the way across the track, that's what we came here for, right?" I said,wiggling my brows at Kysha.
            "I'm in,"she smiled and joined me a few feet from the rest.
            "If you'regoing, then I'm going," Crystaladded.
            "I'll stayhere with Stephanie. I don't wanna go any further either," Eric said, puttinghis arm over his sister's shoulder.
            We threegrouped together and continued down the tracks. The closer we got to thecrossing, the dimmer the strange glowing lights became until they hadcompletely disappeared. The wind was lightly blowing as we crossed the trackwhere several had lost their lives, either having their car hit by a train orsimply were hit while walking, like the twins that were killed at the crossingby the school. Crystalwas the first to see it when we turned back to wave at Eric and Stephanie. Herhand froze in mid-air. "We have to get off the track."
            I couldsee it…it was really there, but there was no sound or vibration on the track.


To be continued nextFriday……..