Steel tells Sapphire to leave the platform, but she studies the area and realizes that it's a hot summer day. She describes what she hears and feels, and says that "he" is with them as a band plays in the background.
In the abandoned station, Tully hears the band as well and tells Steel.
Sapphire enters the station and says that it's closed to ordinary passengers and the doors are locked. She figures that just the girls are there that gave the soldiers the flowers.
In the present-day station, Tully sees daylight through the windows and tries the door, but it won't budge.
Sapphire hears a train pulling in to the station and the doors open. A soldier appears and comes inside, walks to Sapphire, and then says "the girls that gave us flowers". Sapphire pins the flowers that she's holding onto his uniform chest, and Sapphire sees blood and destruction in the man's eyes as he lies dying on a field of battle, sobbing in pain. A ghost, the soldier walks through her. Sapphire goes to Steel, and he opens the door to find Sapphire there in the present with the soldier. Tully goes to study the "ghost", while Sapphire tells Steel that the soldier is an afterimage and lived once.
Tully expresses his amazement at seeing a ghost, and Steel tells him to be quiet. Steel then asks the soldier who he was, and informs him that he's dead. The soldier tells Steel to find out for himself who he is and what he wants, whistles, and goes up the stairs into the railway hotel... and disappears. Tully complains that Steel has driven the soldier away, and begs him to come back. The ghost hunter continues up the stairs, reciting from the Bible.
Later, Sapphire tells Steel that the soldiers were sent from the station to their deaths, and the women cheered them as heroes. She explains that the ghost wanted her to experience it because the women were part of the place for him. Steel asks if it was the same feeling of anger and resentment that she felt earlier on the platform, and Sapphire admits that was some of it but not all of it. They realize that his death started there, and Steel insists that level of resentment isn't enough since the soldier must have allowed for the possibility of premature death. Steel says that he's going to send Tully home.
The Elements go to send Tully home, and Steel tells Sapphire that they have to identify the ghost and determine what his intentions are. Tully says that he's decided to stay and provide an "emergency service", and tells Steel not to make fun of him anymore. He knows that they're communicating via telepathy and Sapphire is a clairvoyant. Steel asks if he has any more recordings that he's made in the last two months. Tully refuses to hand them over because Steel insulted his equipment, and refuses to cooperate unless the Elementals exchange information. Steel tells Sapphire to tell Tully a little, takes the tapes, and leaves.
Steel goes upstairs into the hotel and sets up the tape recorder.
Sapphire admits that they don't know what the darkness is, and it draws its powers from human emotional responses like hatred, anger, and resentment, as experienced by the dead.
The darkness moves through the station, and a pilot appear with the soldier.
Sapphire admits that they don't know where the darkness comes from but it uses the persona of the dead once it's activated. She tells Tully that the exchange is over, and Steel arrives and confirms that the first tape had never been used before. Steel plays back the tape, which has Tully calling out to the ghost saying that he wants to help. After that, Tully moves the machine to the stairs without switching it off, and two voices talk about sending a distress call via radio. One voice tells the other not to waste the air talking, and the other wonders if they're at the bottom with no electrical pumps working. They agree that it sounded like someone's death in a submarine, but Tully notes that it is later because they didn't have electrical pumps in the Great War.
Sapphire goes up the stairs like Tully was when the recorder picked up the two voices. She senses something at the top, and senses fear and hopelessness. It's cold, and Sapphire says that she appears to be high in the air and the sun is shining. The sensations disappear, and Steel points out that it's a jumble. He hopes that the soldier is the main instrument and that it started there. Sapphire suggests that it might be a recruiting ground for the dead, and Steel agrees that it's a possibility.
As Steel goes to check the other three tapes, he hears the whistling and looks out the window onto the platform. There's no one there, and as Steel goes back to the tapes five ghosts appear on the platform, including the two earlier
In the upstairs room, Steel touches the recorder and light flares in the room. A pilot's uniform appears on him, and Steel finds himself seemingly in a plane that's going down. He passes out from the strain.
Written by Gadfly on Dec 23, 2018