Off the Rails

He wore a long coat, a tall hat, knee-high boots, and a fake handlebar mustache twisted into a perfect "U" that curled around his nose.
Mason Cummings played an evil villain from his favorite program. He was the guy in the show who tied women to the railroad tracks and left them in imminent danger of being crushed under the steel wheels of a locomotive.
Always in the show, before the maiden was killed, a Royal Canadian Mountie would ride up on his trusty steed, wearing a dashing red uniform and a campaign hat, to rescue the damsel in distress, moments before the train ran her over. The two men fought, and the Mountie ultimately won, but Mason decided he would win this time.
Halloween night brought him amazing opportunities. Ladies dressed as princesses and prairie girls. A plethora of long dresses paraded up and down the sidewalk. He wanted the right look to fulfill his fantasy.
Cassie Jennings walked with a bunch of giggling teen girls as they passed him. They were probably too old to trick-or-treat, but no one had the heart to turn the group of girls away, and they worked hard filling their bags of candy while following a group of children. A little boy at the front of the group tripped over his costume and fell face-first on the sidewalk. Cassie stepped forward and picked him up.
"Are you alright?" His tear-stained face said no.
"Cassie, come on, you're holding us up," said Cindy. "We're going to my house."
"Wait a sec." Cassie brushed the little boy off and picked the small stones out of his hands.
"There, does that feel better?" Cassie asked. The little boy nodded and sniffed.
"Cassie, come on," another girl called.
"Go ahead, I'll catch up." Cassie took the little boy's hand. "I'll walk with you for a bit. What's your name?"
"Billy."
"My name is Cassie. Let's walk together." Cassie took his hand, and they walked to the next house. After a while, Billy seemed to have recovered from his fall.
"Cassie, why is that bad man following us?' Cassie stopped to see Mason all dressed up like the bad guy slinking behind them.
"Well, he's in costume," she told him.
"But he has been following us."
"Okay, I'm going to let you go with the rest of the kids, and I am going to meet up with my friends. He won't bother you."
"What about you?"
"Billy, I will be fine. Just stay close to the other kids."
"Bye, Cassie, and thanks for being so nice." Billy let go of her hand.
"Bye, Billy." Cassie left the group while the strange man stood a distance away. Instead of going up to the house with the group, she peeled off and ran through the side yard to the neighbors. When she watched the kids get back to the sidewalk, the stranger looked around for her; she was certain, and kept running in the other direction, away from the group, to find her friends and safety.
Running in a long dress was hard. Cassie realized it and tried to pick up the pace heading toward where her friends were going: Cindy's house. When she crossed the street, she noticed the man in the long coat and black hat had returned. He was following her, and Cassie felt panic press on her chest. Her breath caught in her throat, and she tried to call for help. But she found herself frozen in place as the stranger moved closer.
"Come, my dear, we have a date with destiny." Mason tugged on her arm, and Cassie felt herself yield to his pressure. She was helpless to resist. Something in her mind told her the man would not hurt her physically, but that he was up to no good.
He was dressed like a television character; one she'd seen on TV with a Mountie who chased after him to save the woman when he tied her to the tracks. Her dress looked oddly like the woman's dress in the cartoon. Was this guy nuts and saw her as the helpless woman who needed to be tied to the tracks? Cassie tried to break contact with the man, but he only pulled her faster, toward the railroad tracks.
"Please, I am not the woman you think I am. I'm a high school student, and I was trick-or-treating with friends. We aren't in Canada, and there are no Mounties to save me from the train."
"Hush, my dear, you're breaking the moment for me. There are no more trains tonight. Trust me." Mason pulled Cassie to the railroad tracks. She knew there was a screw loose in his head. He was living out a fantasy and had dragged her into his world.
"Please, this is ridiculous. Let me go."
"Oh no, Nell. I won't let you go." Mason said.
"Who is Nell?" Cassie asked.
"You are Nell. You dress like her."
"I'm in a Halloween costume." Cassie pleaded as Mason pulled a rope from his coat pocket and tied her hands to her feet. He then pushed her down onto the railroad track and tied her to the rails. Cassie screamed for help, but the tracks were too far from town for people to hear. She felt like she was in an old-time show; this couldn't be happening.
Mason pulled a pocket watch on a chain from his vest.
"Any moment now. Can you feel the tracks vibrating through your body?" Cassie didn't respond; the stranger was lost in his own world, but she felt the slightest vibration in the tracks she was tied to.
"Wait, I thought you said there were no trains tonight."
"I guess I lied," Mason said, laughing manically, and ran ahead several hundred feet toward the oncoming train.
The train whistle blew as it rounded the corner. Cassie was staring at a bright light. Mason whooped and danced. Cassie tried to roll off the tracks, but the rope was holding her to the track, and there was no time to untie herself. Instead, she rolled into a line perpendicular to the rails and tried to make herself smaller. She'd read that if it was done right, the train would go right over the top of her.
The engineer pulled on the whistle. Mason continued to block the train's path with his dance. The brakes were applied, but the train was going too fast and hit Mason, who flew off the track. Mason's death didn't even slow it down. Cassie shut her eyes and prayed she would survive. The loud engine raced over her, followed by several cars. Cassie saw spots of streetlights in the distance as each car passed over her. She tried to calm herself. She was under the train, and she was still alive. Now she just had to relax and get through it. When the last car passed over her, she screamed.
"Are you alright? I can't believe you are alive." Trevor Cummings, a grade ahead of Cassie, was dressed as a Canadian Mountie, untied her from the track and swooped her up into his arms.
"Man, that was close. How did you know to lie in the middle like that?" Trevor asked her.
"I read it somewhere. How is it you are dressed as a Mountie, and you rescued me?" Cassie couldn't quite believe what happened.
"The guy is my brother, Mason. He is a psycho, and every year he tries to do this. I dress up as a Mountie to rescue the women he's captured, but this time I was delayed. Mason assured me there was no train tonight, but he was wrong. I gotta find my brother." Trevor left Cassie and walked down the tracks.
"Mason, are you alright?" He pulled his groggy brother from the ditch. Mason was disoriented, with a big gash on his face; otherwise, he was unhurt. "You cut that way too close," his brother told him. "I thought you were a goner when that train came through."
"That was epic! This was the best one ever." Mason clapped his brother on the back.
Cassie stood watching the brothers incredulously. She had managed to get the rope off her and pulled it between her hands. What these brothers had put her through couldn't be explained in any other way. They were psychopaths.
"You guys think this is funny?" She screamed. They stopped laughing and looked at the young woman soberly.
"Cassie, it was a game, a Halloween prank, that's all. We scared you good." Trevor laughed.
"I nearly died. That wasn't a prank. If I hadn't figured out a way to put myself down the middle of the tracks, I'd be dead. You think you've gotten away with this, but you haven't. I am not done with you two."
"Ah, Cassie, it all turned out alright. Don't be such a spoilsport." Trevor moaned.
"Spoilsport? Do you think nearly being killed is being a spoilsport?"
"Trevor, we can't let her go. She'll call the cops." Mason sensed the trouble they were in for the first time.
"Mason, murder is different from a prank gone awry." Trevor pleaded with his brother. Another train was approaching, its whistle announcing its arrival. "I thought you said there were no trains tonight?" Trevor shouted at his brother, who shrugged.
Cassie picked up two handfuls of sand and waited. She walked toward the brothers standing beside the tracks.
"She's going to get us into trouble," Mason warned. The train whistle blew louder, and the engine was barreling down on them. Cassie threw a handful of dirt in Mason's face, a second handful into Trevor's. The boys stumbled around, and at the last minute Cassie pushed the brothers onto the tracks. Both, blinded, tripped on the rails and fell just as the train ran them over.
She didn't even scream; she ran from the train yard. Tomorrow's newspaper will show two brothers messing around in the train yard on Halloween, hit by an oncoming train. Oddly enough, they were dressed as Snidely Whiplash and a Royal Canadian Mountie, just like the cartoon characters from Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties. No doubt, a Halloween prank gone awry.