I like that this character sheet is easy to fill out.

Name: Summer

Luggage: A stack of books, a notebook and pencil, and a Swiss Army knife.

Reason for being at the train station: Oh, you know. Just some totally normal stuff. It definitely wasn't suspicious at all.

AEs: None this time.

CAPTCHAS: My CAPTCHA, Autumn, will be accompanying me. She's a young red fox with a playful sense of humor.

Other: Nope! Except this looks exciting. 

Name: Kitten

Luggage: Clothing, toiletries, emergency bar of dark chocolate, Kindle (stocked with at least ten books, probably more), phone, several notebooks, two mechanical pencils, deck of cards, Harry Potter-style wand

Reason for being at the train station at this certain time on this certain day: To catch the Hogwarts Express

AEs: Breeze (female, very sensitive), Gale (female, very harsh)

CAPTCHAs: Candy (female, small white cat) 

Other: This looks really cool! If you're doing room assignments, could I be with Summer?

Reserving!!!

Name: Arithmancy Jig (call me Arithmancy)

Luggage: 13 Curses, Prodigy, Bloomability, Endgame, This is Where it Ends (yes, I'm reading about school shootings; don't ask), Identical, Wither, before i fall Nimona, and about a dozen more books; two black college-ruled one subject notebooks, red pen, black pen, three mechanical pencils; two cans of Wild Cherry Pepsi; Swiss Army knife, pocketwatch; two pairs of generally abused jeans, two red long-sleeved button-down shirts, retainer, glasses; $100 in twenty-dollar bills; bottomless-and-weightless bag where all this stuff is. 

Reason for being at the train station at this certain time on this certain day: Once every month me and Braoin and Pepsi go to a train station and see if there's anywhere fun we can go. We saw the no-nuber train and Pepsi was like 'Let us go there! pleasepleasePLEASEPLEEEEEEASE?' and of course we couldn't let her alone. (besides I was SO. FRIGGIN'. BORED. And there were no other interesting places)

AEs: I am bringing an AE, Braoin, if that's what you mean.

CAPTCHAs: I'm bringing one...

Other: Loves dumping ink on other people's stuff

Name: Braoin

Luggage: Bowie knife; Flight Risk; $503; pocketwatch; extra-sharp toothpicks; red t-shirt with black 13 0n the back; iPod, headphones; sharpie, gold, pink, and blue glitter pens he draws on himself with; small brown imitation leather dot-grid diary; bottomless-and-weightless bag where all this stuff is.

R.F.B.A.T.T.S.A.T.C.T.O.T.C.D: See Arithmancy's sheet. I'm not writing all that again.

AEs: Yes

CAPTCHAs: ?

Other: N/A

Name: PEP$I 

Luggage: $3,000 (why does she have all the money????), a four-pound bag of cat kibble, and an ax. And, of course, a bottomless-and-weightless bag. Just in case.  

RFBATTSATCTOTCD: See Arithmancy's sheet

AEs: ?

CAPTCHAs: Yes

Other: Half-cat, half human 

TOP!!!!

Aaah! Are there any spots left, and if there are, may I have one?

Chapter 1

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The smoky atmosphere of the train station made Surrounded’s eyes water. Surroundedbybooks could hardly see anything through the peculiar blue haze, and so she almost missed her train. She saw a dim shape of a vintage train pulling into the station with a loud whistle. She rushed toward it, grabbing her bookbag, and hopped on the train. Strangely, it was empty. 

She glanced around. The train was lavishly decorated with red carpet and gold trim, and velvet-cushioned seats. This wasn’t Surroundedbybooks’s train . . . this was some sort of expensive overnight train. Surroundedbybooks turned around to hop off the train, and saw the last of the station as the train pulled out of CBerville and into the bright sunlight.

Oh . . . salami, what train is this?! Surroundedbybooks thought, starting to panic - just a little.

“What?! Surroundedbybooks, is that you?!”

Surrounded whirled around, and grinned in a mixture of shock and happiness - Barnswallow and Agent Winter! Surroundedbybooks ran forward, and threw them in a huge hug. “What are you doing here?” Surroundedbybooks asked, “What is this place?”

“Just wait for the announcement, I think they’ve been making it since I got on,” Agent Winter said.

Right on cue, a voice came on through the overhead speakers. “Hello and welcome to the Quendor Express. If you are on here, it’s because you boarded the wrong train. Sleeping compartments and food are all free of charge. Next stop: Quendor.”

The speakers crackled, and the announcement ended. “So, you got on the wrong stop too? I was on my way to work, what about you?” Surroundedbybooks asked.

“Yeah. I was waiting for my train, but I ended up on this. I was the first one on. This thing has been making stops everywhere, but it’s going to Quendor - that’s the only place I don’t recognize. I read a pamphlet, and it’s something of a resort in a dictatorship empire I think,” Agent Winter explained.

“I actually saw Quill through the window, and decided to re-enact a scene, and then I ended up on the train when it was pulling out,” Barnswallow said.

Surroundedbybooks looked around. “Quill’s here?” she asked.

“Yeah! C’mon, let’s go. Others are here too.”

The three walked through a couple of empty compartments, before they reached a sleeping compartment. Barnswallow flung the door open. “Hi!!” Quill greeted.

So many people were here! Leafy, Quill, Alex, and Gecko were engaged in a game of poker, with animated movements and magical cards. Heroesofolympus, Kitten, Summer, Emekittycon, Arithmancy, and Mahriel were all playing mafia, Summer narrating.

And all of the AEs and CAPTCHAs (there were a lot but Surrounded knew all of them) were having a giant pillow fight.

“Hey y’all, Surroundedbybooks’s here too!” Agent Winter announced.

Surroundedbybooks grinned. “I won!” Alex exclaimed.

“Hey,” Summer broke in, “We’ve got 13 people, minus our AEs and CAPTCHAs . . . I think they’re kind of busy - perfect number for a giant game of mafia! Whaddya say, sounds good?”

They all agreed, and Surroundedbybooks took her place in the circle. “Everyone, close your eyes,” Summer said, “one tap is Team Rocket, two taps is Nurse Joy, three taps is Officer Jenny. This is pokemon style!”

“Hey,” Agent Winter said, “Instead of having an Officer Jenny, can we vote? Cause we’re a democracy, you know.”

“I like that, sure!” Summer said. “Okay. I’ve chosen! Team Rocket, who do you want to eliminate?”

A moment of silence.

“Okey! Oh, hold on, let me grab me notepad so I can write this down.” Summer shuffled out of the room, fumbling for their notepad. Surroundedbybooks heard a small sound - unsure what it was, perhaps the sound of metal? Whatever. It was probably just the wheels of the train.

“Okay guys, I got the-AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!” Summer shrieked.

Surroundedbybooks opened her eyes, and immediately jumped away from the circle. Emekittycon, who had been sitting right next to her was lying unconscious on the floor, a red ribbon tied around their neck. Unconscious or . . . no, Surroundedbybooks didn’t want to think about it.

“You guys, open your eyes!!” Summer said, their voice higher pitched than normal.

“Salami! Alex yelped, and scrambled back from the circle, his eyes wide with fear.

“What?!” Beau gasped, scrambling to Surrounded’s side, “What happ ened?”

People were opening their eyes. AEs were noticing, CAPTCHAs were hiding behind their CBers. Gasps of fear and shock spread around the room echoing through the train.

Agent Winter carefully stepped closer to Emekittycon, eyes wide.

She felt her pulse.

Agent winter dropped to her knees with a thud, the entire room silent.

After a short moment, Winter said, “She’s . . . not breathing.”

So . . . Emekittycon’s . . . gone?

Who did this?

Who was it? Who? 

Surrounded’s eyes snapped to Summer. She had been the only one with open eyes.

Don’t. Summer’s your friend. She wouldn’t . . .

Or would she?

Surrounded jerked back as a puff of black smoke enveloped Emekittycon. When it cleared, she was gone.

Squeaky burst into tears, Kitty sat there with a blank look, and she didn’t know where Gemstone had gone. 

Gone.

“Oh dear, what seems to be the matter?” a voice called out.

Surrounded whirled around.

A girl in a fancy and over-the-top trench coat of many vivid colors and a top hat with colorful feathers on it leaped into the train car, bowing.

“Tis I, your host, the conductor of the train!” she announced, sweeping off her top hat to reveal bright crimson hair.

“I think your train has some problems, our friend is gone in case you haven’t noticed,” Pepsi said, standing up angrily.

“Oh dear! Where is he?” the conductor asked.

“She,” Surroundedbybooks corrected, “her name’s Emekittycon, she’s gone, because a black smoke thing spirited her away.”

The conductor frowned, fiddling with the large feathers on her top hat.

“You all had better come to the other car, there’s dinner ready. I’ll explain everything over dinner,” the conductor said, after a pause.

Not quite satisfied, Surrounded scooped up a trembling and crying Beau in her arms, and followed Cairi, Yi, and the rest of her friends toward the front of the train. Or the back, Surrounded really had no idea since the windows were covered with red velvet.

“Pleassssssssssssssssssssssse, quiet the sssssssssssssssssmall one,” something hissed.

Surrounded looked around. She really wasn’t in the mood for any confrontations. Emekittycon was gone.

A black snake was curled around a seat, staring at her with yellow eyes.

“None of your business,” Surroundedbybooks said, passing by the snake.

All thirty-four of them, no, thirty-three, Emekittycon was gone, sat down at a long table.

“So . . . where do I begin,” the conductor sighed, adjusting her large red bowtie.

“What is this train?” Kitty cut in.

“Why, this is the Quendor Express! I run this train, our railroad goes to the empire of Quendor, and we’ve been in this business for two hundred and twenty years, since the start of the empire!” the conductor announced.

Kitten looked into the distance, whispering numbers to herself. After a little bit, she said, “So you’ve been doing this since . . . nineteen twenty?”

“Eighteen twenty, you’ve been doing this since eighteen twenty?” Gecko corrected.

“What? Where did you get that notion from? We’ve been doing this since 660 GUE!” the conductor exclaimed.

Wait. What time is she going by?

How curious.

“Well anyway,” the conductor said, changing the subject, “You all must have gotten a ticket somewhere. Otherwise why would you be on here? We’re headed to the empire of Quendor, four the two-week tour.”

After a moment of silence, the conductor snapped her fingers. A pink wisp of air flew into the room, platters of food trailing behind it. They landed on the table with a clink.

“Dinner!” the conductor announced.

Dinner was quite subdued. Nobody really wanted to talk about Emekittycon, and they all made an unspoken agreement not to mention her to Kitty, Gemstone, or Squeaky.

Finally, after everyone was done, the conductor stood up. “I’m very sorry about your loss. I’m not sure how, but I suspect foul play. We will be looking into this. In the meantime, you should all head to your rooms.”

Surroundedbybooks was sharing a small compartment with Barnswallow. She lay awake, the moonlight shining through the windows. Dark landscape passed outside, dark shapes that Surrounded couldn’t identify.

She would rather not think about Emekittycon, but her mind kept wandering back to it.

Suddenly, Surrounded heard the slightest creak. It was entirely silent, except for that one sound. The air was heavy on her, stopping her from breathing. Carefully, her eyes moved to the doorway.

Someone was there.

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First chapter out! I was a bit impatient, so I just started writing, and before you know it, I got this done!

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Do you know who I am?

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Guess.

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:)