To say the train station below the concourse was baffling, was an understatement. The sheer size of the many train lines running in and out at one time put Union Station to shame. Probably even Grand Central.

  Kas led me to a train that looked like some weird mix of an old school coal engine locomotive and some cyberpunk fever dream from Japan. It was a massive, two story passenger train, with a dark metallic finish, and neon lights running throughout.

  "That seems a bit much." I said, looking over the thing. Kas laughed.

  "That's what happens when goblins can't decide on a design. They just add everything." She told me.

  The large doors slid open like a subway car, with a little chime going off.

  "Now boarding, Blue Line Express, to England, Spain, Moscow, Vancouver, Then returning to Toronto. Please enter and exit through designated doors. Please leave accomodative seating for those with four or more legs, no legs, or those carrying broodlings. The top level seating on cars three, six, nine and twelve are windowless, and should be saved for those with sunlight sensitivities. Washrooms are located at the back of each car. Thank you for choosing Old World Rail." A voice from a speak said as we boarded the train.

  We waited for a centaur to get in and seated before we pushed into the aisle. I was surprised at how spacious the train was. It felt like being on some kind of luxury vehicle. The centaur bowed his head at us, thanking us for letting him in first. I tipped my hat on instinct before realizing what I was doing. These were monsters, like the things that went bump in the night. The creatures that had plagued humans since the age of mythology; which apparently wasn't as mythological as I had thought.

  It was weird seeing them all acting much like we would. I watched as a family of small bipedal lizard people got on board. They sat a few seats away, the mother carrying an egg in a harness on her chest, while holding the hand of another child. The father carried a smaller child on his shoulders. They found a window seat and chattered quietly.

  "Are they all like this?" I asked Kas, shifting uncomfortably in my seat, using my cane to reposition myself.

  "Huh?" She blurted, turning to look at me instead of out the window. She turned all the way around to see where I was staring.

  "Oh, no. Some monsters are just vicious killers. But there are quite a lot that are just like humans. They live, work, play, and die much the same. These aren't the ones I hunt." She said, almost absently.

  "You seem distracted." I stated, eyeing her.

  "I feel like we're being followed, but I can't put my finger on what. It's like whatever it is, is always just out of view." She told me, her face suddenly very serious. "I don't like being hunted by something I can't see."

  I audibly gulped. Had The Guilt followed me, even here? Just out of view and untrackable? I shifted nervously, looking about.

  "Please fasten your seatbelts and safety harnesses. The train is about to depart. Next stop, London, England." The voice from the loud speaker said.

  'Seatbelts?' I thought. When I looked down, sure enough, there was a seatbelt. I watched as the centaur man strapped himself into a wall harness. Around me, all the others put on seatbelts, including Kas.

  "This is a train, why do we need..."

  My question was answered for me as the train took off at, what I could only assume, was Mach 1. I slammed backward into the seat hard, clutching the arm rests for dear life, like I was on the world's scariest rollercoaster.

  "Holy fucking shit!" I yelled, but the sound the train was making was louder. It rumbled on like a coal engine, with all the technical whining of a subway. Kas stared at me, a grin of amusement on her face. I turned to look at the lizard family and saw the younger ones with their arms in the air squealing happily.

  "What the fucking fuck?" I shouted again, to no avail. I reached down and clicked my seatbelt in, not wanting to be catapulted forward when we stopped.

  Everything was dark outside for a long time, until we came out into water. It was like we were in a tube, far below the surface, with little glowing fish flashing by so fast, they looked like the neon stripes on the side of the train. Which answer my next question about how we were about to get to England via train.

  According to Kas, the goblins had enlisted the help of dwarves to dig deep tunnels far below the surface, and run rails all over the world. I had asked if the dwarves were of the Disney variety, but was informed that those kind no longer existed. Dwarves had been bred in servitude for centuries, deep underground, until they lost the use of their eyes. Instead, they could pick out rocks and minerals by smell and spoke in a clicking dialect that would echo through tunnels. Apparently, they were grotesque to behold.

  Stolen story; please report.

  It had probably only been about an hour or two before we pulled into the England station. I was happy to have put on the seatbelt when the train screeched to a sudden stop. A pair of Gremlins shot from the back of the train, down the length, cackling as soared passed me. I heard them crash, much further down, to the dismay of other passengers.

  Kas led me off the train, onto a platform that was only a little smaller than the one in Toronto. When we went back upstairs, the concourse here was a little different. The store fronts looked like they were suited for outside. Brick and mortar stores lines the concourse, with small apartments, or I guess, flats, above them. There were alleyways, sewage drains and other things that made it looked like a city street had sunk into the ground. The large roof only went as high as the tallest building, only about thirty feet up, and was lined with little round bulb lights on strings.

  This time, I didn't really recognize any of the storefronts. They were all little Ma & Pa shops with writing in different, monster languages. There were, at least from what I could tell, significantly more humans, or human presenting creatures, down here.

  I hobbled along behind Kas as she strode with much less purpose this time, appearing to be more comfortable. Perhaps whatever had been following us had been left behind by the high speed travel of the train. Had I really escaped The Guilt by simply travelling to another continent?

  When we exited, we pushed through a door that wasn't as heavily locked or guarded as the one before. It led right out into an alleyway, next to a busy street. The smell of exhaust and garbage hit me hard and I crinkled my face in disgust. The alley was tight, and could probably only fit one person standing with their shoulders almost touching the buildings on either side. I turned behind me and saw there was no door. Just a plain, red brick wall. Up above the wall, in red spray paint, was a symbol I hadn't seen before. It was like a pentagram with too many sides. It was a circle, within a square, within a circle, with some lines crossing over each part, and others only connecting to either the inner most part of the outside. I reach back to touch the wall, and it was solid.

  "That's some Harry Potter shit." I said, running my hand along the wall. A raspy laugh caught me off guard and I looked down to regard a homeless man covered in a massive pile of clothes, blankets and a sleep bag. Covered as he was, he looked to only be a pair of large, dark eyes, sick with jaundice and a bulbous nose.

  Kas tossed him a coin from one of her pouches and he caught it quickly, pulling it into the mass of cloth that engulfed him. I followed her out of the alley before asking about it.

  "Always tip the Doorman. They guard the openings to the Old World here. Not an enemy you want to make." She warned. I looked back at the vagrant in his pile of clothes and bedding and frowned. It all just seemed so ridiculous, but yet, I had witnessed enough with my own eyes now to believe that this was all very much part of the world.

  When we hit the sidewalk and made our way around the corner of tall buildings, I saw Big Ben, the clock tower and the bridge leading to Westminster Abbey.

  "Wow, never seen any of this up close." I said to Kas, trying to make small talk. She gave me a grunt, her eyes darting around again as if I wasn't there. She was efficient at her job, but at this point I felt like I was just being dragged around. I stopped on the sidewalk and planted my cane. It took a few moments before Kas turned and realized I wasn't behind her anymore. She turned back, irritated.

  "What are you doing?" She asked, hands on her hips.

  "I'm taking a break until you tell me what exactly we are doing, where we are going and what is to be done about my problem. I've followed you this far, but now I want answers." I told her, defiantly. She rolled her eyes at me.

  "I told you already, we're going to the Citadel for resources." She pointed at the large clock tower. "I can't hunt your monster if I don't know what I'm trying to kill. Which is frustrating because I've never had that problem before."

  People had begun to stare again. She stood out even more, here in the streets of London, then she did in Toronto. And now, she was yelling at a crippled guy standing on the sidewalk in the middle of the night.

  "So the Citadel is another Order base, located in the clock?" I clarified. She huffed, moving closer.

  "We probably shouldn't be having this conversation in public." She mumbled.

  We spent the rest of the walk in silence, Kas keeping pace ahead of me, but not too far. Her head was on a swivel and she reminded me of a younger Nadia, when she was just a beat cop. I smiled at the memory. Even back then, I knew she had the potiential to be a great detective.

  When we got to Big Ben, we skirted a large iron fence around the clock tower and turned a corner behind a white stone building. Kas took a keycard from a pocket in her sleeveless duster and held it to a scuffed brick. The cobblestones moved aside, as if guided by both machine and magic. A large staircase opened up and she motioned for me to move quickly. I shuffled down the stairs as fast as I could, and when we were both clear, the stones knit back together above my head. It was like something out of a spy movie, but I guess that was to be expected. Part way down the stairs, she stopped, turning and pressing a hand to my chest to stop my descent.

  "So, before we go in any further, it goes without saying, that anything you see or hear in here is confidential and if at any point the Order thinks you are a liablity, you will probably be killed." She told me. My eyes went wide.

  "Probably should have started with that before we left, but I understand." I told her, frowning. I tried to continue moving, but she didn't move out of the way.

  "Also, you may or may not have to join the Order to utilize the resources aforementioned." She said, biting her lip, as if to hold back laughter.

  "What? Are you crazy?" I asked, dumbfounded. She shrugged dramatically.

  "You knew way too much already. Those people usually join the Order or end up dead. Your mystery monster has peaked my interest and I'd rather not see you dead till I can at least figure that out. Besides, we can probably get your leg fixed while you're here." She told me, as if she hadn't just made a life altering decision for me. I had a job and friends back in Toronto. I couldn't just disappear. My whole life was back there.

  Or was it?

  With the exception of Nadia, I didn't have any friends. My job was actively trying to get rid of me. My family was gone. What exactly was I clinging to back there? I just stared at Kas, bewildered.

  "I told them I was bringing back a recruit, so uhh... welcome to the Order of Vigilance, John Callum." She said.