"The old woman was just a nut." Said the blonde young woman as she walked down the street holding the hand of a tall thin young man. "It’s not my fault she didn’t like any of the kids in town." The boy said nothing. "Besides, why should we believe that she was a anything other then an old woman. She doesn’t know anything anyway. Besides she’s dead."

The boy raised his head from looking at his feet and said to her, quietly, "What if it’s true though Avery?" Saying nothing the girl combed her fingers through her long blond hair nervously. "She hated us because we did nothing but pick on her. The only one who didn’t is that new girl in school. They seemed to get a long." His voice was soft and deep and his black hair complimented his light skin. "And we didn’t have much to do with her either did you Aaron?" The boy shook his head.

It was a typically warm summer day in Tucker Ohio. The birds were singing and the ice cream cart played its music down the street as children flocked to it. One of the last businesses to do much other then sell farm goods to the Amish. Avery and Aaron walked down the street quietly until they got to Avery’s large white house sitting on the hill above town. Her dad was a doctor and she was the most popular girl in school. This was her town.

Aaron’s parents spent most of their time in the city so he had his large brown two story house to himself, but they spent all their time in her house. Her mother cooked for them and doted on Aaron.

"What should we do tonight?" Aaron asked quietly still a bit shaken at the words uttered at the grave side service by the friend of the family. He had said very cryptically, "Vengeance is mine saith the Lord." His coal black eyes looked straight at Aaron and Avery as she said it. Aaron was shaken by the words and hoped to never hear words like that again.

"Well, I thought we would fool around all day," she said with a foxy smile on her smooth beautiful face, "then…" she continued as she stroked Aaron’s arm lightly with her index finger, "we will watch a movie and eat ice cream. Just us."

Aaron smiled at the first part of the afternoon. He loved to fool around, but didn’t feel like doing anything like that today. As they entered the house, Avery’s mother dropped a sandwich in their hands and said, "I have to run out to your father’s office and help him. His secretary is ill today and we won’t be home until late." With that the woman breezed out the front door and got into the car and drove off.

"Well," said Avery with the same foxy smile, "what about it? Should we goof off?"

"I don’t feel like it today Avery. Let’s just watch some TV."

Avery’s smile faded into a pout as her bottom lip jutted out from her jaw. Aaron couldn’t resist the opportunity to kiss her and did. She groaned happily and he led her into the living room and they sat down on the couch with their faces mashed together. Then Aaron pulled his face away and slouched on the couch.

"I’m sorry, but doesn’t it worry you that somebody would end a funeral by saying, ‘Vengeance is mine saith the Lord?’ I mean that has to worry you a little bit."

"Actually," Avery said getting defensive, "it doesn’t because I don’t believe in God."

They sat the rest of the afternoon in silence watching the television and occasionally getting up for a drink of whatever was cold. As the sun went down they heard the distant whistle. It was the whistle of a train. "What is that?" Avery asked annoyed.

Aaron looked over his shoulder and said, "It’s just a train whistle. Nothing big." As he settled back into the couch he saw a look of dumb surprise on Avery’s face. "What’s wrong?"

"Nothing," she began, "except trains haven’t run through town in nearly twenty years."

"Maybe they started it up again." Aaron said reassuringly.

"No. There would have been something on the news or the paper about it."

"Let’s go see." Aaron said as he grabbed her hand and pulled her outside.

The street was now dark and even the street lights didn’t seem to help as they walked toward the center of town. There wasn’t another soul to be seen on the streets. Main street was just as dead on a warm summer night. "Where is everybody?" Avery whimpered quietly in Aaron’s ear.

"I don’t know." He said equally terrified.

As they neared the rail road tracks they saw a large black coal burning engine sitting on the tracks. A large door in a freight car opened and out steeped a large man. His face was hidden by a top hat and high collar on his long trench coat. He wore gloves on his hands and leaned on a cane.

Aaron stood in front of Avery to accept whatever came. "You," said a hissing voice from the empty space where a face should have been., "you are mine." Suddenly a face was seen, but only briefly as two glowing red eyes lit the space for a second. A man with a laughing toothy smile grabbed them and threw them into the box car. "You are doomed to an eternity of this. Who’s God now?" Inside the box car there was nothing. Loneliness. They couldn’t find each other. They screamed, but the darkness muffled their cries.

Suddenly they where back in the sun walking down the street towards Avery’s house. "The old woman was just a nut." Avery was saying. Aaron looked at the ground. There was something familiar about this.