For once, it was chocolate that saved us.
I knew the Swiss chocolate bars from Lucerne were going to do us some good. After all, who doesn't like chocolate? It's the universal language of all species. Humans, animals, even monsters like these.
The two passengers left us alone soon after, and we could finally breathe a sigh of relief and remove these annoying masks. Rex leaned forward and muttered, "That was too close."
June put her hand to her forehead. "We're one badly told lie away from being devoured."
—Welcome to the Monster Express— I concluded, trying not to sound afraid. I'd had enough near-death experiences for one day, and I didn't want to continue entering into luck.
"What if we lock the compartment door?" I asked.
"But how?" Ivy frowned.
Rex smiled for the first time in a long time. "Well, I remember mentioning that I'm a locksmith expert, aren't I?"
"Oh, really?"
"Yeah, if I know how to pick up a lock, I'll surely know how to lock one too. I remember telling you this at Bram's house."
"Yeah," June muttered, "Nobody wanna remember that."
"Anyway," I interfered, "Rex, please do the honors. I don't know if we have the necessary tools, but I guess you can work with everything we provide you." I rummaged through my backpack and found a small watch and a metal plate. "Is this enough?"
Ten minutes later, Rex had finished working his magic. How does he do it? No idea. He's the locksmith, better ask him. Finally, we were out of danger, at least for a while.
The sky began to darken outside the car. The soft rumble of the train broke the silence of the night, and the mountainous landscapes soon gave way to abandoned forests and lakes somewhere in the world. From what I could see, we might already be in some unknown part of Europe, maybe Norway or Finland, judging by the flashes of the Northern Lights and the snow on the trees, but we could very well be in Oregon, and it wouldn't matter. We could even be over Japan.
Meanwhile, we were enjoying the view and the peace and quiet. Four hours without any monsters tormenting you is a true luxury, and we weren't going to waste this opportunity.
June had gotten up from the couch and made us all hot chocolate. Rex started handing out cookies he'd picked up from Garland's house to everyone, and Ivy had already taken out a small book to read. I was staring out the window, trying to see beyond the horizon.
The train passed through a tunnel and everything went dark. The only things visible for a moment were the torches on the sides of the compartment and the gas lamp Ivy was holding, which now illuminated her face.
"What's going on?" asked Rex, standing up.
"I don't know…" I murmured worriedly, Something was going terribly wrong. "Maybe the train has had an electrical failure."
My suggestion didn't convince Ivy. "It's not possible. If so, why is it still moving ahead?
"Well," June sounded happy for some reason, "Maybe we should find the machinist to know what's happening."
"Are you crazy?" Ivy asked, "That's so dangerous."
"Besides," Rex added, "We don't know even if the machinist is human, it could be a monster that could eat us. Oh, we don't even know if there is a driver."
When Rex was going to reply, the train abandoned the tunnel, and suddenly the windows exploded in a blue glow. I approached the glass, thinking we might have entered another tunnel. But no: what lay outside wasn't darkness, but a sea of stars. The train moved forward as if floating in space, leaving a trail of silver sparks behind it.
"Whoa…" June pressed her nose against the glass. "It's like going inside a snow globe."
We were too stunned to speak; I probably had a gaping expression like the rest. The landscape changed again, and an impossible scene extended over the window: an entire forest grew upside down, from a starry night. The trunks hung like inverted columns, and the roots spread out like burning lamps, illuminating every corner.
The train seemed to glide over this upside-down world, as if gravity had decided to take a holiday.
"It's beautiful…" Ivy muttered.
"Yes, it is." Then, a river of fire appeared below, glowing like lava, but the train didn't stop for a second.
Ivy leaned forward to get a better look, and for a second, her reflection was reflected in the glass. "I wonder if the whole labyrinth is like this. Places that look beautiful, but hide a trick."
"Like Bram's cottage," I added, my voice coming out quieter than I expected.
"Sometimes I wonder how we're going to get out of here," Ivy started, lying on the sofa. "What if this train isn't taking us anywhere real? What if this is all just another trap, another illusion?"
I smiled, "So I guess we're stuck on the best school field trip ever."
Ivy gave me an amused look. "Admit you're liking it."
I shrugged. "It's okay. It's… nice. I guess."
Rex crossed his arms, serious as always. "Not pretty. This is weird. The whole maze is. We shouldn't let our guard down for even a second."
June interfered, "Why are you always in a mad mood? How about, just for a moment, we enjoy it?"
"Because what starts out beautiful always ends badly," Rex replied dryly, but then he looked down at his hands and fell silent.
The carriage changed scenery again: this time, a snowy field stretched out below us, with hundreds of lanterns floating in the air, as if someone had hung fake stars just to light our way. The noise disappeared; it was just us, in the present.
I looked at them all and couldn't help but smile a little. "Maybe Rex is right, but... I don't know. Being here with you all makes it not seem so bad."
June looked at me in surprise. Ivy smiled genuinely. Rex simply grunted an "hm," which in his language was the closest thing to a "thank you."
Rex looked up, serious. "If there's no way out, then all we have left is to keep moving forward. There's no other option."
June sighed, lowering her voice. "You guys always talk about what will come next… I don't want to think about it so much. I prefer this moment. The train. The inverted forest. That we're together."
I looked at her silently. And for the first time in a long time, I was left without a sarcastic comment to add. For a while, no one said anything. We just watched the impossible landscapes pass by the windows, as if the train were determined to show us all the worlds the labyrinth held.
The train finally arrived at the German station.
The sky was shining again, the sun rising over the European mountains. The Alps, where everything started. Mr. Bram's cottage wasn't too far away from here; it was the closest that we had been to that place since we got ourselves into this trouble. I have mixed feelings about him. On the one hand, he saved us from freezing to death in the Swiss Alps and provided us refuge from the cold weather.
On the other hand, he had betrayed us and thrown us into the maze. Now I saw that all that kindness was just a cover. Someone who had taken advantage of us in our worst moment and used it for his own benefit. Unfortunately, in the world, there were too many people like Mr. Bram.
Somehow, we step off the train without being caught by the hundreds of monsters that were doing the same as us. The icy air hit me head-on. The station was wonderful, like something taken from a fantasy novel. The station, named Lechester, seemed carved into the mountain itself: glass walls, high ceilings with suspended ice that reflected the light like a giant chandelier.
I threw my coat further over myself. "Great. Freeze mode again, now I missed Mr. Garland's house. Couldn't they send us to, I don't know, a hidden tropical beach in the maze?"
"Are you kidding?" Ivy adjusted her gloves and looked up. "This is breathtaking. Look how the light refracts off the ceiling! It looks like an ice cathedral! Like the one in Amsterdam"
"We haven't traveled to the Netherlands yet…" I murmured, "It would be a good idea, wouldn't it?"
June took out her notebook and started to scribble, "Don't touch anything, I need to capture this. If I survive, I mean, if we survive, this goes straight onto the cover of my future comic."
"Less drawing, more alertness," Rex frowned, watching the crowd coming and going. His boots were caked in snow, making him look taller than usual "See those hooded figures? They're not tourists!"
I raised an eyebrow. "Thanks, Captain Obvious. I've noticed that half these people look like they've stepped out of a medieval villain convention."
Ivy discreetly looked at the others. "Maybe they're not villains. Maybe… seekers like us. What if they are searching for the same map?"
"Or worse, what if they already have it?" Juniper said, without looking up from her notebook. Typical coming from her.
"Great," I murmured, "We're going after a map that might already be hanging on someone's fridge." The others looked at me with amused looks, and I sighed, "What's the plan then?"
Rex crossed his arms; his expression was firm. "First, we exit the station. Second, locate the town Garland talked about. Third, don't die, please."
"Easy," I said, "Except for the not-dying one. We never get that right."
"Guys," advised Ivy with a strange gleam in her eyes, looking down a glass side corridor glittering with carved symbols. "I think the exit is that way. But we're not the only ones who noticed"
At that very moment, a group of travelers turned toward us, staring. A hush seemed to fall over the station. "Which would you rather do? Smile and say hello or run?"
The two figures began to get closer and closer. They were two square-shouldered giants wearing crazy fur coats. In their hands, they didn't carry suitcases, but rather curved daggers that looked like they were made of hardened ice.
"Where do you think you're going, children?" said the first.
"Who are you?" Rex asked.
"I know them," Ivy interfered, "They are the Glimmson's brothers."
Before I could ask her how she knew it, the second brother intervened, "Smart girl, you would have been a great ally. Now, give us the passage card".
"The map and the chalice are ours," said the second. "So, out of our way."
We did the most sensible thing, and what we always do: run. I must admit we weren't very fast compared to the two giants, but at least we could keep a safe distance. Our pursuers twirled their ice daggers between their fingers, as if preparing to throw them at us.
And so they did. The first knife arced through the air toward Ivy, missing her neck by inches. The second ended up embedded in the ground where my foot had been a second before.
"We won't kill you if you tell us everything you know," the giant promised, although I no longer believed in such promises, not after Mr. Bram. I was starting to wonder why none of the tourists did anything. Perhaps chasing with daggers was normal in Germany. Truth be told, I wasn't very familiar with European laws either, but I didn't think such an act was legal.
Without giving it much thought, Ivy pointed to a section of the wall that looked like glittering stained glass. "This way!"
We ran toward the glass wall from which the cliff could be seen. The surface was half a kilometer below, which meant the greenhouse couldn't be far away.
To everyone's surprise, the wall rippled like water. I looked closer, and there were ventilation shafts. They were our escape tickets! Rex pushed first, and in a flash, he was sliding down a transparent shaft that spiraled downward, as if spitting them out of the mountain itself.
We did the same. The giants seemed to have different ideas, as their annoying voice sounded behind us.
"They won't get away that easily," the oldest shouted.
I was the last to enter. A shower of blades flew from their hands as I slid through the passage, and I watched in slow motion as the daggers drew an arc before crashing down. I closed my eyes, but surprisingly, I didn't feel a thing. The projectiles bounced off the crystalline tunnel, leaving icy cracks that sizzled a few inches from where my head had been.
"This wasn't in the guidebook!" I heard June shout as her voice faded into the passage.
The chute finally launched them into the cold mountain air, letting them roll on the icy snow. Behind them, the echo of the Grimmsons laughter still resonated throughout the station.