Page 25 of Railed

"Nothing that makes sense," I answered honestly, no longer convinced this was a dream.

"So everything then," Rosie said, turning her attention to Gauge and patting him on the back. "Might as well fill in the gaps."

He sighed and came over to the bed, sitting on the end. "So… you might have noticed I'm not exactly like you."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, um, maybe it would be easier to show you," he said, taking the hem of his shirt and pulling it over his head.

What I saw simultaneously made no sense to me yet confirmed I wasn't dreaming. I knew my mind wouldn't be able to manufacture this.

His chest was covered in what looked like tattoos of train tracks. Before I could think better of it, I reached out and touched one of the lines, pulling my hand back quickly in shock at the feel. The tattoos weren't tattoos at all—they were made of metal.

"What are you?" I asked, knowing this wasn't a human abnormality.

"The easiest answer is trains."

"What?"

"You're not explaining it well." Rosie sounded exasperated. "We're not human."

I nodded; it was clear Gauge wasn't human and it wasn't a stretch to believe she wasn't, either. Rosie, Gauge and Jamie all looked otherworldly.

"So, what are you?"

"We're what you would call aliens. We aren't from Earth. Our home planet is made of mostly metal, which is probably why we evolved like we did. But if you want to get more specific, we're metamorphs. We can transform into a secondary form."

"Technically, this is our secondary form," Gauge clarified.

"Unhelpful," Rosie jabbed, rolling her eyes.

"So, what's your primary form?" I asked, trying to follow along.

"Trains," Rosie answered.

I looked between Gauge and Rosie, waiting for someone to tell me this was a cruel joke they were playing on me. They must have figured out I was train-sexual and were having a laugh at me. Except, when I stopped to think about my reality, it started to make more sense and seem more likely that they were being honest.

The fact was, I hadn't felt attraction to anyone in longer than I could remember. Then, for some reason, I was attracted to Gauge, Rosie, and Jamie. For me to be attracted to one of them—never mind all three—was incredibly unlikely. So, what was more likely: that after years of trying to change myself, my sexuality had realigned on its own, or that something inside of me recognized the otherness of them and was attracted to that?

"You're being serious?" I asked, halfway to believing them.

"I know it sounds crazy," he answered.

"It does," I agreed.

"But we can prove it," Rosie said.

"How?" I asked.

"Why don't you take her to see Jamie?"

"Where are they?" I asked.

"They're working, so they'll be running the tracks right now."

"You mean…"

Rosie nodded. "Yes—we're not the conductors. We're the trains."