His punishment begins with a name. One he'd abandoned a long time ago, spoken in a voice he thought he'd never hear from again. Train closed his eyes again, squeezed 'em shut like a pup tryin' to hide from shadows on a dark night.
Hell didn't have to be hot. This was worse, he was sure of it.
Pawsteps ate up ground as they tore towards the dying, dying, dead man. Train remained still, too 'fraid to do as much as breathe as the other man approached. Boone'd always been the touchy sort, always up in other people's space like he belonged right there. Train, when he'd been Myles, well, he'd done the same. Always lingering near, circlin' around and pressin' up into the others.
Boone, specifically, had been his favorite to cozy up to. Even when they were kids, Train'd been glued to his side like sap on fur. Maybe that'd been their downfall, in the end, because for Train - for Myles, - it'd always been Boone.
And he'd tried - oh how he'd tried to keep him safe, keep him away from all this, get his own paws dirty 'n soiled just to keep it from touchin' Boone.
I'm sorry, he wanted to say, wanted to beg. But his throat were too tight to speak. I tried. I tried. I'm sorry.
In the end, it weren't enough. Never was.
A face pressed into his throat, one that he didn't need to worry about tearin' it open, but he wished it were. Hell didn't need to be hot, because this was painful enough to make up for it. Because Boone should never've been cryin' like that, not because of Train. Not because of anyone.
Maybe, just maybe, this were a sort of second chance. A moment in limbo, for Train to make amends before he left. Or maybe it were just his brain makin' up shit. Either way, it'd make sense for it to be Boone he saw last before he left.
If this were some sort of dream, or limbo, maybe he should take advantage of it. Tentatively, he moved his head, giving the Reverend a little nudge.
"What're you bawlin' over?" he finally choked out, strangled, as though he were on the verge of tears himself. "Ain't half as bad as you're makin' it out to be."
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