The Watch – Part 93:

‘There is another platform, though,’ I said, pointing to the other side.

‘What could be hiding over there?’ Amy asked. ‘The best it could do is hide within the overgrowth.’

‘But do you think we ought to have a look anyway, just in case.’

‘Alright,’ Amy sighed and we headed to the right hand side of the platform. As we crossed the tracks, it was completely deserted. Trains do come this way as it’s the only track to Harwich from Manningtree. As soon as we stepped foot onto the other side, we immediately started to search through all the long weeds, grass and behind the metal fence that ran straight across the back. I found an opening in the middle of the fence and climbed through where I started to peel back as much of the weeds as I could. A large patch contained many stinging nettles so I had to push them back with my foot, trying not to lose my balance and fall over into some rather spiky weeds. Amy mirrored my actions whilst still on the platform, studying each area as best she could, but in the end she gave up and moving onto the next section. I wasn’t sure how long we spent looking, but I had that feeling that made me think we spent so much longer than we actually did, and when we arrived at the other end, we found nothing worthy of discussing, documenting, curiosity or anything that can be even slightly connected to the topic at hand.

‘Anything?’ I asked just to hear some confirmation even though I knew it already.

‘Nothing,’ Amy said. ‘I told you it wouldn’t be worth it,’

‘Yeah,’ I said in a way that told her I was admitting that I was wrong once more.

‘Come on,’ she said, ‘come to the other side and let’s explore inside.’

‘Ok,’ I said. I climbed back over and Amy and I walked side by side back over the tracks to the first station. We moved to the front of the building and stood in front of the front door, preparing ourselves to enter as we have no idea what we might find.

‘Are you sure it’s safe?’ I asked Amy knowing what she’s going to say.

‘We know that it is,’ Amy said.

‘I just hope that it doesn’t go all wrong, that’s all. Anything could happen in there and I’m worried that it’s going to hurt you and me,’ I explained with evident worry in my voice. I knew that I could enter any building without coming to any harm due to my watch, but I can’t use my watch as that would be giving it away and Amy doesn’t have the watch to give her any invulnerability to falling debris once inside.

‘Tell you what, then,’ Amy said. ‘Let’s use the laptop to try and find out any more information about this place before entering. It might help us prepare that little bit more, you know.’

‘I agree,’ I said as a train went by without stopping. It wouldn’t stop at an abandoned station. It sounded its incredibly loud horn to scare some birds to get out of the way. As I pulled the laptop out of the bag, the birds flew over the top of the building only to land onto the roof of the one opposite, waiting until it is safe for them to return to the spot they just were and get scared again, as if they like to be scared. Animals are smart, but sometimes they do make you wonder.

I switched on the laptop, waited for the dongle to pick up some kind of signal and accessed the internet, bringing up the many websites that we were browsing and reading back at Amy’s the other day.

‘You know, we’re getting rather high internet signal here,’ I said genuinely surprised.

 ‘We are?’ Amy said equally as surprised.

‘I was expecting to wait for ages for a webpage to load up properly,’ I said.

‘So was I, to be honest,’ Amy agreed.

‘You don’t think it would be weird if we sat down over there, do you,’ I said pointing towards a gate.

‘Why would it be,’ Amy said.

‘Well, I don’t want people to look and question what we’re doing, that’s all.’

‘They won’t,’ Amy said.

‘If you’re sure,’ I said.

‘Well, if someone does, we’ll tell them the truth, plus a bit more in between. Let me do the talking and we’ll be golden.’

‘What are you going to say?’ I asked.

‘I have no idea,’ she said chuckling.

‘Awesome,’ I said before heading over to the gate and sitting down. Amy sat beside me and we searched through the websites until our instincts would tell us that we don’t need to be doing this anymore and we can move and go inside the station’s building itself. I don’t particularly want to go inside that eerie building in the dark and I know that Amy doesn’t want to either, so I guess we would continue researching until the sun started to set in the sky, or in other words, sometime in the evening.

‘According to these stories,’ I said with a chill running down my back, increasing my dislike to enter the building, ‘this station is supposedly haunted by two ghosts of one man and one girl who are seen walking around the area, as if they’ve lost something and trying to find it. The article goes on to say that the reason why so many companies have turned this building down is because at least one person has had some kind of experience that has left them very scared. One person, and I’m quoting here, said that “I never want to go back there again. I felt something crazy strange in there. My hairs stood up on end, and two ghosts seemingly came out of nowhere, walking around the place. They were ignoring me, but the feeling of unease was too much for me and I just had to get out of there before it intensified. When the cold air from the outside hit me, I felt sick as if I had to readjust or something.”

‘Weird,’ Amy said. I nodded.

‘It gets weirder,’ I said scrolling down. ‘According to these many articles, there have been many reported incidents where the person or persons inside the building has described the same thing, save from a couple of details here and there.’

‘And you reckon that’s what’s going to happen to us if we go inside,’ Amy said. ‘Did you feel anything strange, then?’

‘I didn’t feel anything strange, no,’ I said, ‘I merely felt uneasy about the integrity of the structure. But now that I have found these stories; I don’t like ghost the best of times, let alone actually entering a supposedly haunted building.’

‘To be honest,’ Amy said, ‘I’m not a big fan either, but if we have to enter to find some answers, then I’m going in no matter what. If we don’t, we could literally be putting a paradox at state here,’ she explained.

‘Well,’ I couldn’t help but gulp, ‘if you’re going in, then I’ll be right by your side. If whatever happens, I’ll help you through it all.’

‘You’re the best, you know that,’ Amy said.

‘I know,’ I teased.

‘Anyway,’ I said. Shall we enter the building of mystery,’ I said.

‘Better now than later,’ she said, getting to her feet. I closed down all the webpages and shut down the laptop before closing it up and placing it gently back into my bag. I climbed back onto my feet and we both headed towards the front door of the station once more.

‘See,’ Amy said, ‘we didn’t get looked at nor questioned,’ Amy said.

‘You’re going to treat you being right as a habit now aren’t you,’ I said joking.

‘For as long as I can,’ she confirmed.

‘Thought so,’ I nodded.

‘Oh, and by the way,’ Amy said.

‘What?’

‘Don’t call this “The Building of Mystery” ever again, it’s not a good name,’ she said seriously.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)