It was the same sight that Dirt saw everyday.  The sad faces of homeless demons looked up at him from the floor, begging for change, while the royal pure-blooded demons sat on benches, staring at hand-held mirrors, examining their beautiful faces, their long horns.
Some middle-class males stood at kiosks, selling various wares to people leaving for the train.  There were no women in sight.
Dirt ignored them all, his leather boots clomping on the stone floor as he made for the ticket man.
He only got a few yards before he tasted the ground.
Dirt spat out rocks as he got up.  He rubbed the blood off his cheek, as he turned towards the beautiful red royal who tripped him.
The demon turned up his nose and smirked c***ily, as if to say there was nothing Dirt could do about it.
Because there was nothing he could do.  Dirt sighed, brushed himself off, and tried to act like nothing had happened.
The Royal c***ed his head at Dirt as he turned and started to walk away.  He pointed at him and spoke in a commanding voice, his thick accent ringing throughout the Railway station.
“Come here, filth.” he said in a bored but slightly amused voice.  “I need you to get me something.”
Dirt just stood, not facing the Royal.  He gritted his teeth.  Might as well get it over with, he thought.
“Yes?”  Dirt wanted to insult him, yell at him, even.  But he could not bring himself to do it.  The Royal was just so… beautiful.  They all were.  It was so unfair.  How could they be so beautiful, but him not?  His father was a Royal, or, that's what his mother told him.  Why was his mother not a Royal, anyway?  She was beautiful too.  More beautiful than many of the Royals, he would say…
“Filth!  You idiot vagrant, listen to me!  Go get me a bottle of horn polish this instant-”
Dirt snapped back to reality, to find the Royal had stood up and was yelling at him over his shoulder.  Everyone was staring at the scene, with eyes full of fear and sympathy, as if they were at a funeral.
Dirt turned slowly, and the Royal stopped talking.  He looked the Royal dead in the eyes, and, full of confidence, spoke.
“Idiot vagrant, you say?  Now, that's a little harsh, don’t you think?  I think I deserve a little more respect than that.”
The Royal was dumbfounded.  The fact that a non-Royal was talking back to him made all the other demons in the room gasp.  Dirt was the one smirking now.
“I- you-...” the Royal started stuttering, for some reason looked worried.  He tried speaking again. “You can't just- I mean- how…?
“Excuse me, but I am going to miss my train, so if you don't mind, I will be going now.”  As Dirt spoke, he felt a sort of… power.  He had never been able to talk to someone like that.  It felt amazing.  It was like he was talking with his mouth, but without even thinking of what to say.
Dirt pondered his strange newfound confidence while he walked towards the ticket man, everyone staring at him.  He smiled, the victory showing on his face.
“One ticket, please.”  Dirt said with a smirk, handing the ticket man 3 coppers.  The ticket man just stared at him, his face stunned.
“Yeah… sure.” said the young man said, ripping a ticket of the ticket spool and handing it to Dirt, his eyes glued to his face.
Dirt grabbed the ticket and walked onto the train, a spring in his step.  As soon as both feet were behind the door, the murmurs started.  The people whispered to each other, Royals and vagrants alike, their faces gleeful at this new development.  The Royal that tripped Dirt, however, did not look happy.  He stood there, his face blank.  Now, he didn’t look beautiful.  He looked broken.
***
The train ride felt… different.  There were the same passengers as there were everyday, but there was a certain air to the drab, gray cars.  Dirt didn’t know what it was, but it worried him.  He figured the other riders felt it too.  They all seemed nervous and antsy.
Dirt decided to walk between the cars, let his mind wander.  He didn’t like to think about his current situation.  He liked to get away from it as much as he could.
As he walked, he looked at the faces and postures of other passengers, and tried to imagine what their lives were like.  Probably not much more different that his, living as lower class vagrants, obeying the cruel words of the Royal government that oppressed them so.
Speak.
Just as his mind had begun to drift away, he got the sudden urge to talk.  It was like a voice other than his own was instructing his mind.
“Hello?”  Dirt said very loudly.  He turned his head to his sides quickly, obviously looking very odd, judging by the snickers of the other demons in the car.  Though, not all of them thought it was funny.  One beautiful Royal woman stood at the back of the car, and she stared at Dirt with a look of worry and recognition.  Dirt stared back, and she gestured to the door to the dining car.
Dirt ignored the other demons and followed the Royal into the other car.  He was used to following orders.
***
“You heard it too, didn’t you?”
Now that Dirt was up close, he realized how pretty this Royal really was.  Her black undercut hair curled around her red-skinned face and neck, dark horns wreathing her head.  Her face was round, but slender at the same time.  Her eyes were soft and made Dirt feel safe.  She looked to be about the same age as him, but that could just be the ageless quality of every Royal’s face.
“Answer me, did you hear it or not?”  She got close to Dirt’s face and whispered, and he could feel her breath.  God, was she pretty.  She made Dirt blush.
“Y- yes,”  Dirt stuttered, “A voice in my mind told me to- to speak.”
“Finally,” the Royal sighed with relief.  “I’m not the only one.”
“What do you mean?  Only one of what?”
She leaned back and looked around, as if afraid of other people hearing.
“It’s been following me for months.”  She whispered, “I don’t exactly know what ‘it’ is, but I’ve been moving from town to town trying to avoid it.  I’ve seen it do horrible things to people.  Tore out their guts with its mind, mutilated them with invisible knives.  Everyone I have spoken to has been killed by it.  But you seem different.  If you heard it too, maybe you can help me.”
Dirt was still awestruck that a Royal was talking to him in a non-malicious manner, but he kept his cool.
“Ok. I’ll help you.”
“Great!” Her face lit up, and she hugged him, clearly happy that a person actually decided to help her.  Dirt blushed furiously.  Fortunately, she couldn’t see his face.
“Didn’t catch your name?” Dirt questioned.
“Marisol.”  She replied, still hugging him. 
“Dirt.”  He said back.
No.
The two of them collectively shuddered as the voice spoke once again.  It sounded unearthly, as if a whole choir was screaming out of pitch.
They broke apart and looked around, searching for the origin of the voice.  They saw nothing.
“We have to get out of here.”  Marisol said.  “I think it’s mad.”
***
Phoebe didn’t know where she was.  She had been flying her plane for hours, but she couldn’t see where she was going, due to the seemingly infinite clouds.
She had started to grow hopeless, when she heard the distant rumble of a train, it’s sound giving her hope.
She quickly dipped down, not caring about how high or low she was.  Phoebe had to find the train.
***
Dirt heard the sound of a plane motor in the distance as he ran to the front of the train.  He’d only seen a plane once in his life.  It was also the last time he had seen his mother.
“Did you hear that?”  Dirt asked Marisol when they reached the door to the driver car.
“What?”  She asked as she got down to pick the doors lock.
“Plane.  It sound’s like it’s somewhere above us.”
Marisol shrugged.  “Probably just a patrol.  They don’t usually pass through this area, but don’t worry about it.  We have a bigger problem.”
And with a small click, she quietly pushed the door open.  She put her finger up to her mouth to signal to him to be quiet, and they stepped into the driver car.
The first thing Dirt noticed as they snuck in was the steel cage in the center of the room, inside it sitting a young man that looked to be around fifteen or sixteen.  He had a blindfold on, and he was asleep.  He didn’t stir as the pair entered the room.
The next thing he noticed were two bodies lying on the floor.  One looked like he was the conductor of the train, and he had a large bruise on his neck, showing he had obviously been strangled.  The other looked like the engineer, and she had a small cut on her throat.  Dirt turned his head at the sad sight.
“Oh no…” Marisol said when she saw the corpses.  She didn’t look at them as she walked to the various buttons and levers set into the wall at the end of the car, used for directing the train.  Dirt walked over to the cage and inspected the boy.  He looked very ragged and dirty, like he had been rolling through engine grease.
“Hey.”  Dirt said quietly as he poked the boy, trying to wake him.  He didn't move
“Hey, Marisol, do you know who this is?”
She turned from the train's console and looked at the cage.  “No idea.  But look at this,”  She turned back to the various buttons and levers.  “There seems to be some kind of enchantment on the console.  Everything's stuck in place.”
She attempted to pull a lever, but to no avail.
“What about the bodies?  What happened to them?”  Dirt asked.
“It was the monster.  It doesn’t want us, or anyone else, to stop the train.”
“How do we escape, then?  We can’t jump out of a moving train!”
Marisol paused as the plane seemed to get closer, and then she smiled.
“I have an idea.”
***
Andrew awoke to the usual pitch darkness that accompanies having no eyes.  He didn’t move, as he heard voices near him, a man and a woman, discussing something.
He didn’t care about what they were saying.  He just knew he had to get out of there.  He reached out with his mind, feeling his surroundings.  The man and the woman were standing only a few yards away, and there seemed to be some sort of container trapping Andrew.  Andrew tried to move as little as possible, so as not to attract attention, and pulled on the energy within himself.
Immediately, a black knife silently appeared in his left hand.  He let it slide down his wrist and into his sleeve.  Then, he waited.
Eventually, the two finished talking, and promptly left.  Andrew grabbed the handle of his knife, feeling the familiar dark leather.  He sat up from his lying position and reached towards the edge of his container, and found a metal bar.  A cage.  He jabbed his knife towards the bar, disintegrating it instantly as the blade passed through it.  He did the same thing to the rest of the bars until he had a large enough hole, and swiftly slid through.
***
“Are you sure this is safe?”
“No, it’s definitely not.”
Dirt and Marisol stood on the top of the train, attempting to signal down the biplane that was flying overhead.  The plan was to hop onto the plane from the roof of the train, which in Dirt’s opinion was insane, but he didn’t want to end up like the bodys in the driver’s car, so he just went with it.
“I think they can see me!”  Marisol yelled over the loud rumble of the train.  She seemed to be right, as the plane descended lower and lower towards their position.  But just as she said that, the young man wearing a blindfold that was in the cage burst out of the roofs door, holding a black knife.  He turned his head towards Dirt, and then up at the plane, and smiled.
“Oh, good.  She’s here.” He said without explaining who she was.
“Excuse me,” Marisol said, “but who are you?”
The boy lowered his head and seemed to be staring at Marisol, even though his eyes were covered.
“Who, me?  Well, I’m Andrew, of course.”
“Who?” Dirt said, confused.
Andrew looked slightly appalled.  “Have you never heard of me?” He said incredulously.  “I’m the most powerful wizard who has ever lived!”
“No, doesn’t ring any bells.”  Marisol intergected.
Andrew frowned and puffed his cheeks, frustrated.
“Andrew Amato, slayer of the Great Ilverman of the fourteenth plane?”
Dirt scratched his head.  “This is dumb.  We don’t know who you are.  What do you want, exactly?”
“Nevermind,” he said, disappointed.  “I’ll explain on the way.”
As if on cue, the plane lowered so it was directly above them, only a few yards up.  A hatch opened in the bottom and a rope ladder fell down, allowing them access.
Dirt walked over to the ladder, grabbing a rung.  “This is much better that what we planned to do,” he said, “We were gonna jump onto it!”
“Now, why would you do that?” Andrew asked.
“Oh, we’re running from this invisible monster-”
Dirt was cut off as a dark, clawed hand punctured the floor beneath him, barely missing his leg as he jumped out of the way, almost falling off the train.  Fortunately, Marisol caught him and steadied him.
Andrew just looked towards the hand with a blank expression.  “I thought you said the monster was invisible.”
“I don’t know what that thing is!” Dirt yelled.
Marisol looked worried.  “That’s it.  That’s the monster.”
The black arm wriggled violently, trying to make a hole large enough for it to crawl through.
“I thought I killed you already!”  Andrew said as he lunged towards the arm, knife extended.  He jabbed it into the wrist, and a horrible scream sounded throughout the air..
A lady wearing an aviator’s helmet and goggles peered over the side of the plane as Andrew wrestled with the monster.
“Whats going on down there!”  sShe yelled.
“Phoebe, help them!” Andrew yelled back, trying to hold back the arm.
“Ok,.”  sShe shrugged, and ducked back into the plane.
Dirt  grabbed the ladder sticking out the bottom of the plane and started to climb up.  When he got to the top, the inside seemed a lot larger than it looked on the outside.  There were metal seats and bars on the ceiling for support.  Dirt turned and crouched down near the hatch, helping Marisol up.
Andrew did not climb up.  He was still wrestling with the monster.
“Hey!  You!”  Marisol yelled down to Andrew.  “We gotta go!”
Andrew didn’t look up as he yelled back.  “Go on without me!  I’ll be fine!”
The lady in the front of the plane shrugged again.  “You’re the boss.”  She pressed a button and the ladder retracted and the hatch closed
The plane started to rise and go faster.  Dirt and Marisol sat on the seats, holding on the bars as the plane flew off towards the mountains.