The Sequel: Night Train

by Eric Cleveland

Out from the mist on a moonless night came the sound of a train.

I could hear the rhythm on the rails. I could see the cloud of steam.

Take it from a shadow who dwells in the darkness — these are strange happenings.

For this was no ordinary train.

The railroad disappeared from here eighty years ago; this I know.

Progress left this place behind and abandoned.

The rails diverted to follow the Human Race. Civilization left us in the dust.

They tore out the tracks soon after the day I died.

I got killed trying to hitch a ride on the Night Train.

Ended up a tie down at the crossroads. A push is to lose when you bet with the devil.

I found myself on the wrong side of the tracks. I could not walk into the light.

I hear the Night Train whistle scream out my name.

Calling me to get on board, like some long lost Gandy Dancer

I feel the power of the locomotive as it whisks my shadow from the tracks.

For 80 years I waited for this moment to arrive.

I am a ghost on a Ghost Train that came back to take me home.

Night Train glows green in the dark, a beacon for the lost souls.

Ghostly apparitions that seek admission Into the Light.

No longer to suffer and wander aimlessly.The Night Train has come to set us free.

All aboard on the Night Train. It has come to carry us home.

Hear tell  ... The Devil sent his demons on our trail, trying to derail the Night Train.

He lives off the pain of the lost souls who have missed out on the light.

His goal is to extend our misery, to make hell and fire our destiny.

But this train keeps going faster, trying to evade the capture of this lost battalion.

We are in no man’s land, dead but not forgotten.

Our souls are on the block as the bidding goes on between the devil and the light. 

Forgotten souls must break the chains to make things right.

Night Train rolls on and on, making tracks to bring us home.  

Up ahead I see the light! I can hear the rhythm on the rail welcome me home!

Well, punch my ticket, porter, and take me to the Pearly Gates.

No longer left to wander aimlessly. The Night Train came back to set us free.

Take us home on the Night Train!  Listen to the rhythm on the tracks as we say

Good Bye!