There's a ghost that haunts the Buenavista Station in Mexico City. No one knows where he came from, but he's haunted the train station for 100 years. You can tell he's near by the ghostly guitar music that wafts through the air. Some have spotted him sitting on a ledge or a staircase, moving his fingers as if playing the instrument.

To most, he's a harmless spirit. You can see him from afar, shuffling through the crowd, trying to board a train, or playing his phantom guitar. Those who have gotten a good look at him say he's dressed in a mariachi suit without a hat. He hovers slightly above the ground and slumps like the weight of his past is on his shoulders. His most distinct feature, however, is his face. He always wears a sorrowful expression. He has wide, whited-out eyes, a small trail of blood seeping from his mouth, and tears always streaming down his face.

These are no ordinary tears and you'll find that out if you meet him face-to-face. But this is one spirit you never want to see up close. If you do, you won't walk away with your life. If you've ever harmed a child, in any way, he'll be able to sense it. He'll appear right before your eyes. You won't be able to move or speak. You'll only fall into a trance-like state as he stares into your soul. He judges your misdeeds and collects his tears in a glass. The worse your crimes, the bigger the glass. He'll hand it to you and you'll be forced to take it. You'll drink it, you have no choice, then immediately collapse. You see, the tears are poison and he uses them to punish the worst people he finds.

So, if you ever see this ghost, you'd better hope it's at a distance. If you're lucky, you might hear him play his ghostly songs. But, you'd better hope you never meet him up close, because if you do, you deserve it.

[-]

"That's dumb," said Rosa, scrolling through her phone.

"What?" Abel's face fell. He told this story with the intention of creeping out his younger cousin and little sister. Instead, Miguel looked wide-eyed with wonder and Rosa was just flat-out unimpressed.

"I said that's dumb. There can't have been a ghost there for a hundred years."

"Why not?"

"Because the Buenavista Station was demolished in 1958 and rebuilt in 1961." She held up her phone, showing off the Wikipedia page. "Where was the ghost when it was torn down?"

"I don't know," Abel groaned, rolling his eyes. "Probably wandering around the spot where the station used to be. Have you been fact checking my story this whole time?"

"Yup." She brought up another page about Mexico City urban legends. "Plus, the first sighting of the ghost was in 1921. That's 96 years ago, not 100."

"Close enough," Abel argued.

"And where does he get the glass from? And how can he have a different size for everyone he kills?"

"He's a ghost. He can do stuff like that."

As his cousins bickered, Miguel let his mind wander. He tapped his fingers on the courtyard table and hoped Abuelita Elena wouldn't think it sounded too much like a rhythm. This wasn't the first time he'd heard about the Musician with Poison Tears. It was one of his favorite ghost stories. He used to sneak peaks at his mom's Ghosts of X-Place books when he was little, even though they always gave him nightmares. He first found the Musician with Poison Tears in a book called Legendary Ghosts of Mexico City and this was one ghost that never scared him. It had a mysterious past, played music, and killed bad guys. It almost sounded like a creepy version of a hero in an Ernesto de la Cruz movie.

"Hey," he heard his abuelita shout from the kitchen window. He immediately stopped drumming the table. She was always so strict about the music ban to the point where she yelled at strangers on the street if they happened to be humming a tune while passing by. He shuddered to think how she'd react to the make-shift guitar he had hidden in the attic. "Did I hear you say the word 'musician?'" she shouted at Abel.

"Yeah, but I'm talking about an unholy ghost musician who haunts a train station with its devil music," Abel answered. Being the older and more experienced cousin, he knew just what to say to appease Abuelita Elena.

"Oh, alright," she shrugged. "Just don't fill these kids' heads with any ideas." Satisfied, she closed the window.

"As I was saying," Rosa apparently continued, "there's no way to prove that anyone's been killed by ghost poison. People have heart attacks, and strokes, and aneurisms. It happens all the time. And in an old and busy place like that, then it's bound to happen there too."

"What about that serial killer from a few years ago?" Abel retorted. "He collapsed onto the tracks and got hit by a train. Then, after he died, they found all those kids' bodies buried under his house."

"Sometimes bad people get what's coming to them," Rosa argued. "Doesn't mean it's a ghost."

"What is this?" Louisa marched up to them with her mom-face on. "Why are you kids talking about this stuff? You'll give yourselves nightmares." She patted Miguel on the head as if to say you'll give my son nightmares.

"Mama, I'm twelve. I can handle it," Miguel groaned. He folded his arms on the table, dropped his face into them, and sulked. He hadn't had a nightmare about ghost stories in years, but his mother still insisted on treating him like a baby. Geez, most Disney movies have murder in them, not that I'm technically allowed to watch them. He had at friends' houses, but his family didn't need to know that. The murder's not the problem, but god forbid I see cartoon characters perform a musical number.

Miguel lifted his head enough to rest his chin on his forearm and absentmindedly listened to Rosa and Abel argue about the scientific improbability of the existence of ghosts. Miguel silently hoped they were real. Part of him wanted to meet the musician. He didn't want to get poisoned, of course, but he just wanted to find out who the ghost was. What was he doing in a train station? Why did he want to protect kids so much? And why was he always crying?

Of course, if he could prove this ghost was real, it would mean other ghosts were real. Miguel read on an Ernesto de la Cruz fansite that some people who visited the theater where he died could still hear his ghost holding his last note. No one's claimed to have seen the ghost yet, unlike the Musician with Poison Tears, but if Miguel could see that ghost for himself, maybe he could find the ghost of Ernesto de la Cruz too.