Percy opened his eyes. Wind blew lazily across his face, but it wasn't strong enough to knock his hat off. Three faces looked at him, seeming interested at his presence but unsurprised.

"Hello," one of them said. She was a girl, the only female present.

"Hello," Percy said, a bit startled. "Who are you?"

"My name is Annie," the girl replied. She was a bit large, but that seemed to just be the way she was built. She had curly dark blond hair and a plain blue dress on. "What's your name?" Annie asked in the same polite voice.

"Percy," Percy replied.

"Got a last name?" a boy asked. Percy glanced at him. He wore a flat, slanted hat and simple clothes. He had a satchel on his back. His face was dirty and his eyes were shifty.

"Got a last name?" the boy repeated impatiently.

"No," Percy replied. "No, I don't think so. I think maybe I did... but not anymore." The final child nodded understandingly. He wore a hard, round hat. His face seemed nicer than the other boy's. He was dressed in a green uniform of some sort.

"That's how the rest of us are," he said. Percy, feeling that he'd said enough for the moment, turned to examine his surroundings. All four children were on an odd contraption, some sort of flat cart with some raised parts in the back. A sail rippled lazily in the wind, poking out from near the front of the vehicle. It glided over some tracks that stretched into the fog far ahead. All around the tracks was water.

"This place is neat," Percy commented, prepared to get to know his companions a bit better. The nice boy nodded after a moment.

"Oh, I'd nearly forgotten. Yes, this place was incredible, when we first arrived... I'm Edmund, by the way."

"Percy," Percy said warmly, and then realized he'd already introduced himself.

"We know," said the dirtier boy, pointing out his mistake. "You already said that."

"Oh, lay off, Randal," snapped Annie. "Percy's only being polite." She smiled at Percy, and he felt a bit better.

"So Percy," said Edmund, "where are you from?" Percy looked around uncomfortably. He felt like he should remember this... but he couldn't.

"Not here," he said uncertainly, and Randal barked out a laugh.

"You don't say," he sneered. "You pop into existance on our ship, and you're not from here?"

"Randal, lay off!" Annie ordered again angrily. Then she turned to Percy, her features returning to being calm and pretty. "We're not from here either," she explained. "I'm not sure where I'm from. Only Edmund and Randal have any ideas of where they come from."

"Yes," Edmund agreed. "I don't know the name of the place or anything. I just remember loud noises, lots of loud noises. And yelling, and pushing, and falling..."

"Falling?" Percy asked. Edmund nodded.

"People would just stand there and yell, and then they'd fall down." Percy frowned.

"I don't think I'm from there," he said. He then looked to Randal for his story, but Randal was just watching the sea, looking far, far out.

"What do you see?" Percy asked.

"Water," Randal grumbled. Then his voice softened. "And the castle."

"The castle?" Percy asked. Randal nodded and shifted off the block he was sitting on, gesturing for Percy to take his place.

"Take a look." Percy moved forward and squinted into the distance. There was water forever and ever, and fog hung over the more distance waters.

"Castle?" Percy murmured, looking as far as he could. And then it was there. Far, far off, there was a castle. Percy couldn't make out any details. It just looked... castle-y.

"That's where we're headed," Edmund informed Percy confidently.

"How can you tell?" Percy asked. As far as he could see, the rail went straight forever, disappearing into the fog that never got any closer.

"It's the only place the rail could lead," Edmund explained. "There's nothing else anywhere." Percy looked past the front of the vehicle, past the sail, to the shadowy shapes he could see in the distance.

"What about there?" he asked. But all three of his companions shook their heads.

"Those shapes change every day," Annie explained. "We think they're just tricks of the light." Percy frowned, and a silence followed. Finally, Percy broke it as his curiosity arose.

"So, how long have you been here?" he asked.

"We all showed up at different times," Annie said. "I showed up not too long before you did. Only thirty two creaks ago." Percy frowned, and Annie explained. "Creaks are our only way of keeping track of the time. The ship creaks every so often, and it's always the same amount of time between each creak."

"I've been here two hundred and fifteen creaks," Edmund said.

"One hundred twenty one," Randal muttered. Percy nodded his understanding, and then there was a faint creaking noise.

"One," he said, and Edmund and Annie smiled at him. Randal just rolled his eyes.

"And how did we get here?" Percy asked, focusing again. "I mean, I know I existed before this, but I don't know where, or what I did or anything."

"We're not sure," Annie said with a shrug. "Like I said, I don't remember where I came from. Randal, are you going to tell Percy what you remember now?" Randal shrugged.

"Sure. I remember voices, and lots of stepping noises. There were always people, always walking... that's about it." Percy nodded.

"And one more thing," he said. "You guys called this thing a ship. Why?"

"Well, we voted," Edmund shrugged. "I voted ship, Annie voted wagon, and Randal voted cart."

"So why is it called the ship?" Percy asked. "It was a tie, after all." Edmund shook his head.

"No. We had Elly back then. She voted ship." He looked at his shoes, and Annie sighed. Percy looked to Randal for an explanation.

"Elly was on the ship before, just like us," he said. "She wanted to try getting off the ship and stand on the tracks, just to make sure we weren't going in circles somehow. We never saw her again."

"Oh," Percy said quietly. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Randal shrugged. "She'd been here for five hundred sixty seven creaks. She was starting to go mad, sitting here and never getting anywhere." Percy nodded.

"I guess it would get kind of old, after a bit."

"Old?" Edmund asked with a sorry smile. "More like maddening. It's good you showed up, Percy. We need something to happen every now and then, or we might pull an Elly." Percy smiled.

"Glad I could help. So, what now?"

"Take a seat," Annie invited. "Last I checked, we had a few eternities to talk."

No one knew that Edmund was dead. He was an underage recruit for a desperate military, and snow was the only thing that was willing to give him a decent burial.

Annie was all over the newspapers when the family house burned down. Her parents were quite rich and well-known, and the whole town grieved for the girl who never showed up in the rubble.

They found Randal in a dark alley. At first, they thought he was asleep. But it became obvious that he was gone by his unnatural thinness, and he was left to his slumber.

Percy was found sitting on the side of the road, simply staring into space. When the ambulance came, he simply continued staring. His death was gradual, but he felt no pain. He just stared, stared down the road and imagined they were railroad tracks...