Girl fulfills mystical destiny by using ancestral guns to kill evil preacher (fantasy, coming of age)

[Matthew]

what it is: a short story (or possibly the first part of a longer book), read on paper, sometime in the last 15 years.

What happens: A baby girl is found with a mysterious trunk at a train station in an old west-type town. She is taken in by a family in the town. Nobody can open the trunk, which is kept in the attic. fast forward- as a teenager this girl hangs around throwing knives so they stick in a wooden post. A train rolls into town, bringing an evil preacher, whose religious fervor brainwashes everyone in town. To save the town, the girl follows a mysterious intuition, goes to the attic, and effortlessly opens the trunk. Inside are 2 guns perfectly weighted for her hands. She goes and shoots everyone on the train- maybe killing the preacher, I'm not sure how it ends.

I used to think this was the beginning of The Gunslinger by Steven King, but I just read the Gunslinger, and while certain parts are eerily similar (the guns, the evil preacher, the old west style), it is obviously not the same book.

It's violent so I'd guess it's aimed at readers 13 years or older.

I would classify it as fantasy and a kind of dark coming of age.

[Matthew]

It's the Hope Chest by Garth Nix- someone actually asked about it here before:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...