Freight in the Shadows

He watched as wedges of golden light slid swiftly across the ceiling
in a smooth arc. Under his head and back he could feel the gentle
rocking motion of the many wheels running over the ancient tracks. The
bands of light streaming in through the opened carriage doors refracted
into two chunks as they reached the corner of the roof and highlighted
an irregular patch of ash black standing out against a backdrop of
shifting shadows. It caused a slight smile to tug at the corners of his
lips and a faint warmth to glow in the centre of his belly. Only an
hour before that patch hadn't existed but with just one swing of his
arm he had given the ceiling that life. Life that had been taken from
the huddled body of a young man growing cold in the corner below the
stain. A gentle breeze flowed in through the opening, on its way to his
nose picking up the thick heavy smell of blood and violent death.
Pleasure flared bright in his stomach and mind bringing with it more
memories of the evening's earlier escapades.

*******************************************

Out of the charcoal grey shadows, through by the dormant freight cars,
a new shadow emerged. To the naked eye it was like a black hole in the
middle of the train yard. Silently it stepped around the back of a
wagon, its practically glowing ice blue eyes tracked a disheveled young
man as he slipped over the wire fence surrounding the yard. The boy
looked around nervously, his movements were jerky, obviously he knew
that sneaking into the yard was dangerous. Once the trains started
moving then it was less probable that anyone would spend time
inspecting every inch of every wagon but pretty thorough inspections
were made of the trains before they left the yard to try and flush out
any hitchiking vagrants. The shadow smiled, his bright white teeth
flashing in the dark. For two years he'd moved from town to town across
the Eastern half of the states, sometimes he spent a few weeks in one
place, working just long enough to gather some money together for
clothes and food, most of the time though he just travelled on the
trains. After all this time he knew exactly how to travel around on the
freight trains. Slipping out the shadows he followed the boy.

The boy ran stooped across two sets of tracks and paused by a train
that had finished loading just minutes before. Reaching up while still
crouching he attempted to slide open the car's doors. Immediately the
sharp shriek of swollen wood being forced to move cut across the morgue
like silence of the shadow clad train yard. Even though his was fifteen
metres behind the boy he saw the child wince at the noise. If the train
workers had bothered to remain outside after the cargo had been loaded,
the sound would have alerted them to the stowaways but the night was
balmy and the men were keen to get back to the air conditioned confines
of their hut.

Taking a quick glance around, the boy reassured himself that the sound
of the door opening had been ignored. Quickly, he slung his rucksack
into the black shell of the car and dragged himself in after it. He
attempted to shut the door from the inside but the doors protest, even
lounder than its first, shrieked out into the night. Rather than risk
being heard the boy left the doors standing two feet open.

Another luminous grin cracked the darkness of the shadow's face.
Embodying such innocent ignorance the child would be a succulent kill.
Moving from shadow to shadow he approached the open doors. By now the
boy should be burrowing into some darkened corner, trying to find a
decent hiding place. With the ease of a feline, the shadow placed his
hands on the wagon's floor and leapt into the car's open space. The boy
was an easy target to spot. Frightened by the large man's entrance into
the train, his eyes had opened wide, their whites glowing in the blank
darkness.

"Easy kid, I'm just travelling a while. Mind if I bunk in here?"

Still frozen with fear, the boy's head hardly moved as he nodded. The
shadow moved into the corner opposite the boy just as the train lurched
and pulled out of the yard. In his corner the boy remained
silent.

After a while the boy seemed to relax a little. Pulling his bag into
his lap, he opened it and removed some food. Immediately he bit into it
ravenously, the kid had gone a long time without food. While staring at
the boy the shadow run his tongue over his lips.

"Kid, could you spare just a bite? It's been a while since I've eaten
anything."

While swallowing his last bite, the kid eyed him warily. He still
didn't trust his fellow stowaway, but he was willing to help a hungry
man. Holding his hand out, the boy offered him the burger meat caught
in his grasp.

With a creak the shadow eased his way out of the corner. He usually
waited until the train was on open land before killing his prey but the
need for the boy was raging now.

In a single graceful move he was atop the struggling boy. Grasping the
boys throat with one hand, he slid the machete out of its sheath with
the other. One quick thrust of the point into the neck was all it took.
Blood jetted at the ceiling, pulsing from the boys severed jugular.
Dropping the knife, he held his fingers over the boys wound, wanting to
feel the release of the boys life. Blood spurted against his fingers,
painting his hand and arm red with the life giving substance, a pool of
it began to form around the boys limp head. Eventually the heart's weak
flutterings stopped. With a sigh of content the shadow smeared bloody
patterns across his nose and cheeks. Now sated, he crawled to the
middle of the rocking floor and lay down.

*******************************************

Suddenly the train lurched beneath him, bucking his body like a
reckless kid being thrown from an irate steer. The flashing blue and
red lights of a police cruiser split the darkness, after more than two
years they had finally tracked him down, following the trails of cold,
bloodless bodies dumped by the railroad tracks. Now the purest kill of
his life was also his last.