Shadows of the Past: A Supernatural Suspense Mystery (Shadow Slayers Stories Book 1) by Nellie Steele (best books for 7th graders .TXT) 📕

living room a few minutes later. “Okay, I got phone chargers, laptop, some clothes, basic toiletries, snacks, and I grabbed a few waters. Perhaps you should throw some clothes in just in case? It looks like she’s at the train station, she could be going anywhere.”

“How did you do that so fast?” Michael said, running back upstairs to grab a few things.

Damien followed him up the steps. “Oh, it’s my go-bag.”

“You have a go-bag?”

“Yeah, doesn’t everyone?”

“No?” Michael said grabbing a few things and tossing them into his duffel bag before running to the bathroom to throw a few toiletries in.

“Oh. Hmm. Well, anyway, you ready?”

“As I’ll ever be,” Michael said. The two headed downstairs and continued out the front door. Damien locked it behind them and double-checked that the lights were all out before heading to the car. “Come on, what are you doing?”

“Sorry,” Damien said, throwing his bag in the backseat and climbing into the passenger’s side of Michael’s SUV, “Josie’ll kill me if I left a light on or something.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. Perhaps she’s seeing the weirdo from the motel off or something.”

“Doubt it, her car is here, so wherever she is, she went in someone else’s car so I have this bad feeling that it’s not that.”

Michael turned the car around in the driveway and made his way down the drive, turning toward the main road. Both of them were silent, lost in thought, wondering what they might find when they caught up with Josie at the train station.

About thirty minutes into their one hour drive to the train station, Damien’s app beeped an alert. “She’s on the move again. Heading north it looks like.”

“So, she’s not coming home, that’s for sure,” Michael responded, knowing they lived west of the city.

“Nope, wonder where she is going. Do you think she’s on a train?”

“It’s a little after six o’clock, can you check the train schedules to determine what trains are pulling out now and where they are heading?”

“Good idea,” Damien answered, pulling up his web browser on his phone and heading to the station’s website. “Let’s see,” he said as he scrolled through to find a list of departures. “There’s a train that departed at 6:05 a.m., heading up the coast, final destination is somewhere in Maine.”

“The time frame fits, what are the other stops, I wonder.”

“There’s a list of them here, but there’d be no way of knowing unless we knew what ticket she bought or we wait for her phone to show us.”

“Once we get to the train station perhaps we will get some information. We’ll use the phone as either a confirmation or back-up.”

“Sounds good, I’ll keep an eye on my app to see if she stops moving before we get there but I doubt that.”

They finished the rest of their ride in silence with Damien staring at the phone tracker, watching Josie move further and further north. They pulled into the lot and parked. Grabbing their things from the backseat, they made their way into the train station. This early in the morning, it wasn’t very busy. There was only one person working the ticket booth. “I’ll see if I can find anything out from her,” Michael said, pointing to a girl at the ticket window.

They both walked over to the ticket agent. “Good morning,” Michael said, flashing a smile. He planned to use his good looks to charm the girl out of some information.

“Can I help you?” she said, in a monotone voice.

“Ah, I hope so. We’re supposed to travel north to meet a friend. In fact, she just left on the earlier train. We slept in, oops,” he joked, flashing another smile, “anyway, we’re heading to the same place she was so we need the same ticket.”

“Final destination?”

“Ah, same as hers was.”

The girl looked at him, expressionless. “Final destination?” she repeated.

“Well, okay, this is embarrassing, but… ” Michael said, leaning in toward the window and lowering his voice, “neither of us remember what stop she told us to get off at. I was hoping you could help me out and give us the right tickets, you know, based on what she bought.”

“Why don’t you just ask her?” the girl said, annoyed.

“Like I said, we slept in and she’s already going to be mad about that. On top of that, if I tell her that we forgot where we’re going she will be super mad. I would rather avoid that if you know what I mean.” Michael winked at her.

The girl sighed. “I don’t remember every ticket I sell so looks like you’re out of luck.”

“Ah, well if it helps, she was on the six-oh-five, with a tall, dark-haired guy. Here’s Josie, our friend,” Michael said, pulling out his phone and flashing a picture of him with his arm around Josie. “Do you remember where they were going? I’d really, REALLY appreciate it if you could help us out.” Michael also flashed a one hundred-dollar bill.

The girl rolled her eyes, but slid her hand over the cash, pulling it discreetly toward her. “Two tickets to Bucksville then?” she asked, tapping around on her computer.

“Yep, that’s right, how did we forget that?” he said, turning to Damien and playing along. “Bucksville! Awesome, well thank you so much, Cara,” Michael said, eyeing her name tag. “Two tickets on the next train to Bucksville, please.”

Cara sold him the tickets. “Train leaves off platform B at 8:35 a.m. Got a long wait,” she said, handing the tickets to him and turning away to avoid any further discussion.

“Thanks,” Michael said, taking the tickets. They turned around, scoping out the area.

“How about the seats in the corner? Quiet spot and there’s a plug,” Damien said, waving his phone to indicate the need for the plug.

“Good idea.” They both headed toward the corner, setting their gear down and taking seats on opposite walls. Damien took out his charger and plugged his phone in. Michael said, “Well, that worked out. We’ll only be about two and a