I boarded a train that shouldn't exist, it took me to a place that I pray I never visit again.

Most scary stories I hear usually take place in forested areas in the Midwest. Forests can hide so many secrets. They are a place where cryptids can hide, ghosts can wander, and children can get lost. I grew up in the desert however. Wide open landscapes filled with Joshua trees, desert shrubs, tumbleweeds, and small cacti. Not exactly a place for monsters to hide, or children to get lost. You don't find too many scary stories about this place. That's not to say we aren't without our urban legends of course.

There's this sag pond that can be seen just to the east while driving along Sierra Highway, a touch south of Avenue S, called Una Lake. While local legends claim it to be bottomless, it's only really fifteen feet deep, and has been known to completely dry up at times. Almost ten miles south east of Una Lake are the Little Rock ruins, also known as Trippin’ Hill. It's said to be an old insane asylum that's now haunted. People go there occasionally to ghost hunt or hold a séance. However, it's mostly a place teenagers go to party. I attended a party there once, I was also a part of a film crew that shot a horror film out there. It wasn't actually an asylum, but a boys ranch that burned down. It's also private property, and frequented by tweakers, so explore at your own risk.

There's other urban legends out here such as the Yucca Man, the high desert version of Bigfoot, or the Cactus Cat, said to drink fermented juices from cacti and howling through the night. I'm sure that last one could just be chalked up to coyotes. Of course with part of the gold rush taking place here, there are many stories mentioning buried treasure, and ghosts of people who died searching for gold. I remember one specific ghost story from my childhood called the man with no face. It told of a gold minor who died due to dynamite exploding right in front of him, coming back to haunt the living.

Honestly, the scariest things out here would be the scorching heat, or the occasional earthquake. We are located directly on the San Andreas Fault, in the rift zone. We also see the dead of night as a refuge from the skin melting heat, so it's not so much something we fear.

I was actually born in Glendale, but my family moved to Canyon Country shortly afterwards, which is where I had my first birthday, and my brother was born. Finally, we moved to Palmdale when I was three, and then my sister was born. We lived in a fairly modest house, with a huge backyard. At least it was huge to my child brain. It was at least three or four times bigger than any of my friend's backyards.

First, right outside the backyard was a patio and its cover. There was no lawn beyond that, just a dirt yard full of desert weeds, and a gazebo that contained a hot tub that my parents couldn't afford to maintain. Beyond that was a brick wall maybe three feet high. Once you climbed up the wall, the ground was much higher, maybe six inches below the top of the wall. From there was a fairly steep hill that leveled out at the top. This area was almost like a second yard. I remember even setting up a tent up there a few times and doing some backyard camping. There were wooden fences on both sides of the yard that went all the way up the hill and met at a brick wall about five feet high that acted as the back perimeter. I apologize if I don't remember the exact dimensions of the whole space, for I haven't been back there since we moved out almost twenty five years ago. If I were to return right now, I'm sure the yard would seem much smaller than I remember.

There wasn't another yard on the other side of the back wall. It was a big open area that was probably owned by the city, since the railroad tracks ran through it. My friends would often just call it the desert, but my brother and I called it ‘The Land’. We considered The Land to be a magical space. We imagined all kinds of inhabitants living there. We would invent our own cryptids that we had to be careful of. This was long before we even learned of the word ‘cryptid’. One of our favorite past times was sitting on the back wall and just watching the train go by. I loved to look at all the graffiti on the different cars.

We didn't climb over the wall and explore it too often, but when we did, it was an adventure. Right after climbing the wall, you would be on what we called The Beach. It was a sort of jagged semi circle created by the walls that separated The Land from all of my neighbors back yards. Going off this memory, my neighbors must have had much longer back yards than mine. The beach was very thick with desert shrubs and bushes. If you wore shorts, you would scratch up your legs. The bottoms of your shoes would become full of thorns. It was sort of a safe area in our minds despite the difficult terrain.

When you walked out to the “shore” of the beach, you would be on the crest of a very steep hill. Though it was probably only three or four feet high. The crest was a straight line from one side of the semicircle to the other. Maybe eighty feet away was another hill with a crest that ran parallel. In the center was the train tracks. Since the area with the tracks was deeper, we saw it as an old river bed, thus why we called The Beach by its name.

Anything beyond the beach was no man's land. It was where the creatures roamed. We agreed to never traverse that area after dark. Looking back, that was a silly thing to agree on, since our parents would never let us do anything like that anyway. We had the street light rule. Even before dusk, we would often hear our parents calling out our names to bring us in for dinner. We rarely went back out after that. We did break our self imposed rule once. I don't think we ever ventured out into the land ever again after that.

My brother and I were camping out on the hill, it was a Friday night. Our dad wouldn't let us start a campfire, but we stayed up and told each other ghost stories none the less. We were in our sleeping bags getting ready to go to sleep when we heard the train blowing its horn. We both flew out of the tent, put on our shoes, and climbed up onto the wall to watch the train go by, but as it approached we heard its brakes engage. That was odd. It slowed down as it began to pass us. It finally came to a stop just as the engine was just out of view to our right. The center of the train was directly in front of us.

The train was a passenger train, and it was completely black. Looking back, this was strange for multiple reasons. The only passenger train that passes through here is the metrolink, which is painted blue and silver I believe. This train looked very old fashioned, like one of those old steam locomotives. Also, these tracks traveled east and west, the metrolink only travels north and south on a completely different set of tracks. Only freight trains traveled through the land.

“Let's go check it out!” My brother said as he climbed down the wall.

“What? No, are you crazy?”

“Come on!”

I was never quite as brave as he was. He always had to talk me into doing stuff I didn't want to. I often chickened out, like when he wanted to climb onto the roof of our grade school. He was moving fast, so I had to catch up. I climbed down the wall, and down the path behind him. I could feel the barbed branches scratch against my legs through my thin PJs. He was standing right at the edge of the beach when he stopped. I caught up and stood next to him. A door on one of the cars opened up, so we both ducked behind a bush. A small set of stairs dropped down from the door, and a man in an old fashioned suit stepped out.

“Pick up for Mr. Watkins?” He called out.

We both looked at each other in confusion, that was our last name.

“Mr. Brian Watkins?”

“Why is he saying your name?” I whispered.

“I have no idea.” He whispered back

“We don't have all night Brian.”

I swear, curiosity really does get the better of my brother way too often. He stood up.

“What are you doing?” I shout whispered

“Ahh, there you are, come on, let's get going.”

Brian didn't say anything, he just climbed down and walked towards the train, almost in a trance.

What is going on?

I followed behind. My brother climbed the stairs and stepped onto the train. The man turned to raise the stairs and close the door.

“Excuse me!” I called out.

He stopped and looked over at me.

“Where are you taking my brother?”

“To his destination of course.” He responded

“Can I come?”

“Do you have a ticket?”

I patted my pockets. “No.”

“Sorry, no rides without a ticket. Besides, you have a very long time before your train comes by.”

He lifted the stairs up and closed the door. I could hear the engine start up, the train blew its horn, and began to move. I had no idea what was going on, but I couldn't just let them take my brother, so I ran up to try to get on. The car my brother got in was already too far ahead, so I had to try and get onto another car. The one a few cars back had a set of stairs connected towards the back, so I grabbed the rail and pulled myself on. I watched as we left the land.

I very carefully opened the door to find an empty passenger car. I made my way through to the other side and excited that door. While outside, I saw that we were no longer in town, but out in the middle of the desert. I crossed onto the next train car and went through the door to find this one empty as well. When I got to the other side, I saw that we were approaching the foot of the mountains. The tracks led into a tunnel. I entered the next car to find it empty as well. Wait, no, I saw my brother sitting in one of the seats. I ran up to him.

“Hey, what's going on?”

He didn't respond. He just sat motionless staring forward. The windows went dark. We must be in the tunnel now. I sat down next to him. I had no idea where we were going, but I had to make sure I kept my eye on him. I didn't know what to do, so I just sat there. After some time I smelled rotten eggs. It was awful, it seemed to be in the air all around us. It was also getting warmer.

I heard the door open at the front of the car. I grabbed my brother's hand. The man from earlier walked through the door.

“Well, what do we have here?”

“Where are you taking him?”

“I already told you. His destination.”

He walked closer. With his face lit up now, I could see that his eyes were solid black, sclera and all.

“And where's that?”

He put his hands behind his back. I could hear his boots step across the floor as he got closer.

“You can't be here without a ticket.”

He stopped right in front of us.

“It isn't your time yet.”

“Answer me!.”

He bent over to look me in the eyes. I saw red flames erupt in his. They danced around in a circle, with a little black dot in the center.

“Where do you think?” He hissed

“Hell?” My voice trembled

He stood up straight and looked out the window. It was still dark, but we were no longer in a tunnel. It looked as if we were in a large cavern.

“Is that what they call it now?”

“What do you call it?”

He looked back towards me.

“Home.”

Then he looked back out the window.

“Your people call it many names, Styx being my favorite.”

“Why? What did Brian deserve to go to hell?”

“Opposed to where?” he said full of curiosity

“Heaven.” I said sheepishly

He threw his head back and laughed deeply.

“My boy, heaven is just a fairy tale. Home is where all souls come from, and where all souls must return.”

I was crying at this point, and I was holding my brother's hand very tightly. He turned around and walked away. There was a phone hanging on the wall at the front of the car, he picked it up and placed it against his ear.

“We have a stowaway.

The boy's brother.

We don't have time.

If we must, I suppose.”

The train's brakes engaged and we started slowing down.

“We're no longer on schedule thanks to you.”

The train came to a complete stop. I stood up and tried to pull Brian with me, but he didn't budge.

“I wouldn't do that if I were you.”

I put my arm around him and tried to lift him up. That's when I felt the man's hand grab the back of my collar. He pulled me out of the seat and dragged me out the door. He stepped down the stairs and held me just below the bottom step. The train tracks ran just above a body of water. My face was just inches above the surface. To this day I don't know how to describe what it was I saw, I could only tell you what it was intuitively. The water was filled with tortured souls. I don't even know if there was water, or if it was nothing but the souls floating around. I could hear them moaning with grief, with the occasional scream of agony.

I could feel my shirt starting to rip under the weight of my body. I was slowly lowering closer to the surface.

“Please.” Slipped out of my mouth as a tear fell from my face into the abyss of souls.

I felt him pull me up. He opened the door and tossed me onto the floor inside. The train was beginning to move in the opposite direction it was moving before.

“Don't test me boy.”

He walked back to the front of the car, and exited through the door. I ran back to my brother, sat down and wrapped my arms around him. I squeezed him tight. I wept knowing the fate of us all.

“What's going on?”

I backed up, and put my hands on his shoulders.

“Brian?”

“Yeah.”

I hugged him again, but tighter this time.

“Come on, we have to go.”

I pulled him up and out the back door.

He saw that we were in a train going through a tunnel.

“Where are we?”

“I'll explain later.”

We ran down a couple train cars and took a seat on one of the benches.

“Okay, can you tell me now?”

“It’s kind of hard to explain.”

After some time I heard one of the doors open on the cars we came from.

“Quick!”

I pulled him under the seat so we could hide. The door to our car opened. I heard his steps echo across the car as his boots hit the floor. I watched his boots as he made his way past us. He then left out the door on the other side. I sighed with relief.

“Once the train stops, we have to run and jump off.” I whispered to him

“Why?”

The brakes engaged. We were slowing down.

“Get ready.”

Just then the door opened again. The footsteps returned. This time when he was right next to the seat we were in, he stopped. My heart dropped. The train came to a complete stop as he continued to stand there. Time stood still as we waited for him to move. The train blew its whistle as it started to move again. I felt all hope disappear from my body. Then the man started walking again. Once he reached the door, I pulled Brian and tried to make a run for the other side of the car. We only had one shot at this since the train was still moving slowly.

“Go go go!” I was screaming.

I pulled him out the door and we were standing on the steps. I could see the wall that bordered our back yard in the distance.

“Jump!” I screamed

We hit the ground and rolled.

I tried to pull him up as I stood.

“Run!”

I couldn't get him to stand up.

“What are you doing?” He screamed at me.

I looked behind me to see that the train was gone.

“Wait, what?”

“How did we get out here?” He asked

It turns out he has no memory of the whole ordeal. The first thing he remembered since we got into our sleeping bags, was me pouncing him from behind a bush and tackling him to the ground when he wasn't looking.

To this day, I don't know if I trust my own memory. Did I really just have that vivid of an imagination? Was it just a terrible nightmare, or did I actually save him from something evil?