“Then it’s a deal,” Igor turned around.
Reluctantly, Loki closed his eyes to use his power of intention to move the train forward. His heart skipped a beat when the train started moving.
“See? I told you,” Igor said, standing next to another seat on the left, whispering to someone Loki couldn’t see.
“Who are you talking to, Igor?” Loki asked curiously as the train took off in full speed.
“Just collecting tickets from another passenger,” Igor said, still not looking back, “a first comer like you.”
“But there are no passengers on this train but me,” Loki said, turning around to see if he’d missed a passenger.
“Oh, there are,” Igor stared back at Loki. His irksome silver tooth flashed, sending shivers through Loki’s spine.
It occurred to Loki to wipe the fog away from the window to look outside at the Missing Mile. Although he was curious, he didn’t do it. He told himself there was no need to know because whatever secrets this town held, he didn’t want to get involved. Besides, he wasn’t ready for whatever lurked beyond the mist-covered windows.
He laid his head back and closed his eyes, wishing this ride would be over quickly.
Half an hour later, the Train of Consequences halted to a stop. Loki walked back to his Cadillac and drove it down the ramp.
“Almost there,” Igor appeared again with that annoying grin on his face.
“Almost?” Loki tilted his head out of the window. Something about the air Loki was breathing told him he’d already left the Ordinary World behind and it felt good in a wicked way.
“All you have to do now is follow the Snow Red Road,” Igor said, resting his chin on his cane then winking at the road ahead.
Following Igor’s blind eyes, Loki saw a road covered in thick white snow.
“Why is it called the Snow Red Road?” Loki said.
The answer came even sooner than he’d expected. Red snow started falling from the sky, snowflakes splashed against his Cadillac’s windshield, leaving traces of oily liquid on the glass, trailing down slowly and leaving thin threads of reddish stains that shaped a word on his windshield. It said:
Welcome to Sorrow
East of the Sun West of the Moon
Loki rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn’t imagining this, but the words were gone, leaving trails of undecipherable curvy lines on the windshield.
Snowflakes fell onto his Cadillac’s roof, sounding like a woodpecker pecking on a tree. The snowflakes fell slower, almost hanging in the air like the angel hair—which people call dust—you see floating in the air on a sunny day.
Looking back at Igor, Loki saw him tilt his head back and let the snowflakes fall into his mouth.
“Yummy,” Igor grunted, licking his reddish lips. “This one tastes of strawberries.”
Loki raised an eyebrow. The red snow looked like drops of blood that spattered on Igor’s face, but maybe that was what strawberries tasted like to Igor the Magnificent.
“Oh, this one tastes of cherry,” Igor stretched his hand out at Loki as if inviting him to taste ice cream. “Do you have any idea what it means when it snows red?” Igor looked a bit worried now. “It means she is busy entertaining herself.”
“She?”
“She who lives in the castle,” Igor said. “When Snow White feeds, it snows red in Sorrow.”
“How does she do that?” Loki wondered. He still couldn’t understand why everyone called the vampire he was sent to kill Snow White, and thought it was all nonsense.
“That’s where the mystery lies,” Igor said. “Maybe she is sending us a warning to keep us in line and remind us all that we could be her next victim. Didn’t I mention on the phone that it wasn’t going to be an easy job? Follow the Snow Red Road to Sorrow,” Igor pointed ahead.
“Snow Red Road it is,” Loki sighed, looking at the road. “I know it’s been short, but I think I’ll miss you, Igor. Don’t forget to write,” Loki said, adjusting the rear-view-mirror and checking out his hair. He gunned the Cadillac into the night as he mentally prepared himself to kill the vampire princess.
It was past midnight when Loki drove through the streets of Sorrow, which looked surprisingly like a normal town. It was so quiet that Loki could hear a fly as it buzzed to death at the hands of a purple-lit insect-o-cuter.
The red snow had stopped.
“I guess she’s finished her meal already,” Loki said, tapping the wheel, “bon appetite, vampire princess.”