Chapter 1 - The Platform at Dusk
The neon light of the empty depot flickered against the cooling concrete. Thomas gripped the brass rail of Bus 402, staring down at the tiny girl. She stood barely higher than his knee, her dusty pink dress catching the pale amber glow of the setting sun. Her hands were still clasped together in an earnest prayer, tears tracing thin lines through the dust on her cheeks.
""Please,"" she whispered again, her voice barely louder than the idling diesel engine. ""I have to find him.""
Thomas glanced across the desolate parking lot. There was no mother rushing forward in panic, no frantic guardian shouting a name. The highway beyond was a steady blur of red taillights fading into the evening fog. In twenty years of driving regional lines across state borders, he had dealt with drunks, runaways, and pickpockets, but never an unattended two-year-old demanding passage to see her father.
""What's your name, little one?"" Thomas asked, crouching down so his eyes were level with hers. The brass badge on his cap glinted in the dying light.
The girl sniffled, her small chest hitching. ""Lily. Mama said Daddy is waiting at the big glass house at the end of the line. She told me to take the silver bus.""
Thomas frowned. The end of his route was Central Terminal in Blackwood—an old industrial city fifty miles north, mostly brick yards and rail depots. There was no famous glass house there, only abandoned rail yards and cold winds.
""Lily, where is your mama right now?"" he asked gently, reaching into his pocket for a clean paper napkin to wipe her face.
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Lily pointed a tiny finger toward the terminal restroom doors across the asphalt. ""She went inside to wash her hands. But that was before the sun went down.""
A cold chill ran down Thomas’s spine. He looked at the locked, boarded-up station doors; the main depot had been decommissioned three weeks ago. Only the curbside platform remained operational. He stood up slowly, taking her tiny hand in his calloused palm. As he pulled open the rusted service door of the annex, he heard the faint sound of a phone buzzing incessantly in the dark.
