Sometimes I get into great trouble , like the time I failed to stop the killer from taking out his hostages. I have been sorta a vigilant of sorts , going after crooks and criminals.

I am about 28 or so honestly cannot remember by this point. I have gone day by day which means I have lost a lot of track of time.

One day I am driving in the old country roads, to my left some cornfields. On my right has a cold dark distant forest , since its early march it’s still chilly this fine Indiana morning. I pull off the highway and step out of my large white truck, expecting to smell nice spring morning but only smell pig shit.” Oh great, some old pig farm, welp make some nice bacon some day.” I joke to myself before returning back to the road.

As I drive along I see a small town in the distance, “ hmmm, could use some gas.” I find a country road, ignoring the 40 miles per hour speed limit I move towards the town. I pass a nice rustic railroad crossing , as I pass by I swear I hear a train horn.

As I arrive at the town name, Tallonwood I see how small it is. “ pretty quant, only one gas station?” I enter the dingy convenience store to see a old man, wrinkled and pale with a glass eye.” Hello old timer, so I pay inside for gas?” I ask , it took him a couple seconds to even acknowledge my existence,” yes…. It will be 38 dollars, 16 cents.” He musters , clearly struggling to even speak.” Hey um that is a nice old railroad, still in use? I swear I heard a train horn?” I ask but the old man gave me a unamused look will commenting,” ain’t no train been down the tracks in 28 years now.” I got a weird breezy feeling like something was watching this conversation.” Hmm, interesting…”

After paying and exploring the town I find some weird missing person posters everywhere .” Strange…” I see some strange people watching me, they are clearly residents.” Hey? Need anything, I’m just here for a bit of gas. “ I yell to them, they slowly slip back into their homes.” Jackasses.” I keep exploring when I find a little motel, two buildings, one with about 10 rooms and the main office. I get a room for the night, because I’m curious on the town. The feeling of the town is one of cold and distant, like it is lost in time without signs of much life.

As night goes on I lay in bed, it smells of old cheap perfumes and bleach. I stir some on the ancient ass bed that’s sheets probably hasn’t been wash in at least five decades. I swear I hear a echoing train horn in the distance, faint noise of wheels barreling down the tracks a couple miles off . I get up and look out, nothing absolutely nothing but dark fields.” What the fu\~?” A sharp pain in my shoulder takes my attention as if someone ruffly grasp me , I turn to see smoke in my closet. I rush over to nothing insides burning, but my arm has a char along my shoulder in thee shape of a hand . As I look once more to the closet, I fell my heart drop to the earths core. A face smiles towards me between the doors, buried in darkness, but it looked burned and charred .

“ holy fuck! “I fall back but it was gone, nothing was now in the closet, no sign of entree or exit like a phantom was here. I heard the horn once more, clearly this time as I look out to see in the darkness a faint light, where the train would be if it was there. But it wasn’t , nothing just foggy empty fields .” Now this is already getting somewhere.” The next morning I explore the tracks, no sign of passage for years. Dust and grim covers the rotted wood and rusted metal, but a faint char along the edge where the wheels are.” What… is that up there?” I wasn’t prepared, a body, burned like what I say last night . Where or how did this get out here? It looks like it was struck, but by what, and how is it this burned? This town definitely has something hidden in its old decrepit homes. One I will discover even if it kills me, again.

I am a man haunted by my past and my constant creeping souls who follow me. I may still wander and seek, but my body is cold and i cannot breath anymore. I will try to help others from the beast who stalk the ground, so that no one else meets a similar fate to my own decaying life.

I have a partner in my work Amber Lee, who lets just say.

Is a tad bit crazy , she isn’t afraid of anything is in general a massocist . She always has my back tho, so I see myself in her ever eager debt.

In our little world we call home holds many beast and cryptids most seeming hailed from a single corrupted town…

Tallonwood. Somewhere demons go to die.

I mostly try to make sure not many people are harmed from the natural threats that live beneath our baseboards and wallpaper.

As time ticks down, I becomes less, I slowly am becoming no more. Furthermore I may only live cause of a curse, and a gem stone but I still surely live.

Somewhere I will find peace and light, but now I only know decease and dry lifelesss eyes. No one knows .

I creak and groan devoid of the very blood in my veins , I am empty….. so empty….

With a cigarette in one hand I stand with few by my side but at least they are crazy enough to continue.

One day as I sit alone I see flashes of faces unfamiliar to me . It makes me feel sick seeing them tho, like something I should know but don’t.

The sidewalk is cold and cramped of random life’s , some seem important but most seem almost , not real….

I stop into the convenience store, seeing the bitter old man with the missing eye who says.

“ there were some rascal bastards who broke in and stole my shit! Now I am losing profit !”

So now I have a little task to do, find those little rascals and simply kill them, because there is no justice here, only coldness. And fearful aloness.

It doesn’t take long till I find them, they were not that hard to find, and I set off little bombs in the corners of the building , training them inside, I also went over to the near lake, it always feels important. I don’t know why. I see a little bit of orange light within, I don’t investigate further.

One day as I am driving around waiting for Amb to return while she is living with her cousins I gain a new mystery to look into, some weird people going missing, town acting strange and some ghost train?

As I drive things seem calm, too calm. Like if it’s trying to lul me into a safe sense of security. A false one obviously, nothing is safe in talonwood . Not even the earth itself I trust here,

The sunset arches slowly over the horizon, a reminder that hopefully there will always be a tomorrow.

I reported what I’ve found, strangely enough the authorities didn’t care as much as expected. I continue exploring the tracks, finding it go off into a long dark dingy tunnel.

“ this isn’t ominous at all…”

I start to wander into the thin tunnel, finding it to be very dark and creepy, I creep down the way finding old metal parts strewn around the edge of the tunnel. While I started in the darkness my leg gets trapped, between the rotten wood boards.” Oh shit…” creeks and groans from the distance as I heard another train horn. It sounds like a 5000 pound horse bellowing down the track, a giant blinding light shines .

“ oh god!” i struggle looking off to the distance to see a faint crimson red skull swiftly pulling back into the darkness, i finally am able to yank my foot free. I fall to the side wall with a slam, coughing as smoke fills my lungs. The light passes but nothing behind it , there isn’t anything in here.

I am alone in her once more, like nothing just happened. I slide down the cracked concrete wall,” it wasn’t real…. Wasn’t real?” I start to leave the cave when I find a random ticket, a dusty muck cover train ticket .” Huh…” Taking it back to the motel I look it over.

It is a crispy brown ticket barely legible due to the suit and tar on it , talon trolly… 1892. Catch a ride faster than you can think.

“ huh it’s old , over 100 years but didn’t that old timer say 20 years?”

I get out my phone, finding a random dark photo on my camera roll. Darkness with a faint grey in the corner. Using the value sliders on the photos I turn up the brightness.

Faint but a bit visible a dark figure stands in the dark train tunnel with a bit of its skull like face showing .

I sit on the bed realizing how dirty my clothes are, covered in thick layer of muck and residue. Also my foot is bruised and a faint little symbol is burned into my ankle , a t surrounded in a circle. A couple wilts around the burn, I can’t feelel pain from the area.

I take a snap before I send a text to a friend I know. I send her,” hey I found another strange town, mind comming down to help?” Of course as per usual she takes a couple hours to reply. She is a bit of a loof , she very carefree even when facing some of the most terrifying beast head on. Once she was being hunted by an psycho, and she just smile and brung him to a trap. So he got arrested, she mentioned later she did feel fear but she is insanely good at hiding her emotions.

“ yo, what’s been happening? Give me all the details and location and I’ll be over in a flash .”( even through text I can hear her sassy attitude. She always has a embracive personality, she is the one person to jump in if one friend gets attacked at the bar. She is very protective but she is a good bit too confident. She has gotten herself in trouble or hurt way to many times to count. After giving her the address only a couple hours she is already arriving to the motel.

I can hear the rickety old corvet coming to a stop, screeching to a hault.

“ oh joy, the tin can is here, maybe you should get a car that doesn’t fall apart after a five inch drive.” I tease as she falls out the door, she stands up laughing and pushes up the door back on before running up to me with a big silly grin. My life is grim and dark other than her, she is the teddy bear in a bed of broken porcelain dolls.

“ hey big bro, so you saw a dead body? Woa where was it ? And you said you saw it in your closet the night before? Let me see that closet” she already was completely engrossed in this situation, she gently push past me and looked into the closet.

Her name is Amber Lee , her soft pale red hair flows into a ponytail leading down to the end of her shoulder blades. Her darker skin shimmered in the light, she was avarge in shape. She was always in the gym when not facing the horror most hide from . She sniffed around seeing little char marks along the wall,” hmm, interesting?” She mused, we talked about all that’s happened so far. She of course needed to see that tunnel.

We entered for a hour to find nothing, she was really disappointed.” No near death experiencexperience? Damn boring.”she grumbled undoing her pony tail, letting her red hair flow out free. She saw my reaction and smirked, she was a pervert and enjoy teasing me. We have done things in the past , mostly because of her pervy jokes going far. We laid together in the very uncomfortable bed of the motel.” Hmm… well maybe we should idk give the gouls a show? The bed may snap in pieces under us tho.” She laughed to herself, we both heard the faint noises of a disembodied train. She instantly forgot her teasing to go to the window.” Hmm? Nothing out there, heh so neat. Ghost train…”she hummed as she open the door looking around.

I followed her outside, and as we wandered.” Nothing… “ I say as she stopped , no fear but pure excitement. In the distance, the burned man once more, I have seen beast and monsters before but this makes me feel weird. Especially since I found this corpse this morning.” Hey! What happened?” She ask clearly not afraid” the coal …. We need more hands…” the foul smelll of burning ash and coal embittered From it, once one now a herd of 17 burned people stood, reaching out for us.” Join us!” Luckily the vision disappeared but now a ghostly burning train slowly went down the track , Amber watch excitedly she mused.” Ohhhh it is perhaps a train the burned and you know back whenever? Maybe we will have to put the spirits to rest?”

She giggled and pulled me back to the motel, now that she had her haunted experience for the night she has a lot of energy. She is the only person I know who gets off to being scared. By the time I fall asleep I know something is and has been watching us.

“ hope they enjoy the show…” she tease as she fell asleep.”