Worlds Collide (The Land of Stories #6)(30)

“He can’t be serious,” Bree said. “We’re not actually going to follow him down there, are we?”

“What choice do we have?” Conner asked.

“Don’t stop now—we’re almost there!” the homeless man said.

Conner, Bree, and Jack jumped off the platform and then offered their hands to help Goldilocks and Hero, but Red took their hands first. The homeless man removed a flashlight from inside his coat and sprinted down the train tunnel.

“You might want to hurry—trains usually run through here every ten minutes,” he warned.

Fearing a speeding train would hit them at any moment, Conner and his friends ran after the homeless man as fast as they could. The farther they went, the darker the tunnel became. Soon the shaky light from the homeless man’s flashlight was all that was keeping them from tripping over the train tracks. Suddenly, the homeless man made a quick left turn and disappeared from sight. When the others caught up with him, they entered a different tunnel they would have never spotted on their own. Unlike the previous one, the new tunnel had no visible cables or train tracks on the ground.

“Welcome to the Calvin Coolidge Express!” the homeless man announced. “Or at least what’s finished of it.”

“The what?” Conner asked.

The homeless man chuckled. “Don’t worry, very few people know it exists,” he said. “In 1928, construction began on a new transit system to take New Yorkers from Staten Island all the way to Central Park. The following year the Great Depression hit and construction came to a halt. Later, the need for steel was so high during World War Two that plans were scrapped altogether. By the time the war ended, the Calvin Coolidge Express was completely forgotten.”

“Whatever it is, it smells awful,” Red said. She took the can of Febreze out of her purse and sprayed the air around them.

“Unfortunately, the tunnels were built right beside the sewers, but you get used to the smell after a while.”

“Why would you bring us to an abandoned subway tunnel?” Conner asked.

“Because one of the many stops planned for the Calvin Coolidge Express was Bryant Park,” the man explained. “The city didn’t want to obstruct the park, so they decided to place the stop in the basement of the New York Public Library.”

Conner’s face lit up so much, he practically glowed in the dark tunnel. He heard the man loud and clear, but it sounded too good to be true.

“So you’re saying we can get to the library from this tunnel?” he asked.

“Like I said before, they aren’t guarding every entrance,” the homeless man reiterated. “See why I didn’t tell you where we were going? You wouldn’t have believed a bum like me unless you saw it with your own eyes.”

Conner was embarrassed to admit it to himself, but the homeless man was right. If he had been just a tiny bit more critical of their guide, they would have been rounded up and sent away like all the other New Yorkers in Midtown Manhattan.

“I just realized we haven’t been properly introduced,” he said. “I’m Conner Bailey, and these are my friends Bree, Red, Jack, Goldie, and their son, Hero. What’s your name?”

“The name’s Rusty—Rusty Bagasarian,” the homeless man said with a quick bow.

“Thank you so much for leading us here, Rusty,” Conner said. “How did you even know this tunnel existed?”

“You learn a lot about a city when you live on its streets,” Rusty said.

“Have you always been poor?” Red asked.

“Red, don’t be rude!” Goldilocks reprimanded her.

“It’s all right—I get that all the time,” Rusty said. “Homelessness is a recent chapter for me. I used to live in Brooklyn and worked as a janitor at the Belvedere Castle in Central Park. A couple of months ago I was fired and lost everything.”

“Why were you fired?” Jack asked.

“Well, to put it bluntly, I saw something magical and it changed my life forever.”

“Was it Hamilton?” Red asked. “I keep seeing signs about him posted all over the city. If he’s anything like Shakeyfruit’s Hamhead I hope we get a chance to meet him.”

The others rolled their eyes and ignored her.

“Earlier, when you told us about the library, you mentioned it wasn’t the first time you’d seen magic in the city,” Bree said. “I didn’t think you were being serious, but now I’m really interested to hear about it.”

Rusty let out a deep sigh before telling them. Clearly, it was a difficult subject for him to talk about.

“It happened a few months ago when I used to work night shifts at Belvedere Castle,” he said. “I was in the middle of cleaning the joint when this strange vibration suddenly came out of nowhere. I figured it was just an earthquake and went back to work, but when I got home, none of the morning news stations were reporting an earthquake. I was convinced I had just imagined it, but then a few weeks later, the vibration happened again. The second time was much stronger and lasted longer than the first. I called the police to report an active fault line, but they assured me it was just a subway running underneath the castle. However, when I got home and looked at a map, I saw there aren’t any subway lines that run below that part of Central Park. The rumbling didn’t happen again until a few weeks later. The third time rattled the castle so hard, it shattered windows and left cracks all over the floor. I was nearly knocked off the balcony I was cleaning. I remember it didn’t feel anything like an earthquake or a train, but like something enormous was hatching from an invisible egg. I looked up and that’s when I saw it.”