You Know, Partner, I Died Before I Lived?

As smoke billowed from the pipes of a train into the air trying to block the high noon in the sky, the train began to pick up speed on the tracks causing a bellow to echo through the plains. The chugging of the wheels ramping up, the loud sounds of horns scaring everything away without a plan to stop than to crash violently. 

There were two women running from cart to cart. The woman in front has rose colored hair with a light brown western hat with a get-up similar to a cowboy with a light brown vest, a pair of gauntlets and tall-laced boots with denim pants and the other woman trailing and trying to keep up the same pace behind her, wore a ranch-girl outfit with a red scarf. The two of them shared similar features to one and another. Both with rose colored hair, while the one adorning the ranch-girl clothes had light green eyes and the one in front, light brown eyes.

As they ran from cart to cart, the light flashes in and out going through tunnels. Their breaths panting from running and as the woman in front opens the door and rushes into the cart with the smaller woman, the one with green eyes widens as they look behind the taller woman.

A slow clicking can be heard from another woman in the cart. The woman sat in one of the passenger seats, twirling their revolver again and again. With every click, the train lights flickers, with every click a shiver goes down both of the women's spines.

The light-brown eyed woman takes a deep breath as she slowly turns, a mixture of emotions spirals within her mind, trying to match the same pace of the train. Her hand slowly reaching down towards a revolver. The green-eyed woman hides behind the taller woman, just peering enough to see the other woman in the chair.

The woman in the chair wore a dark-gray trench coat with tassels around the wrist and the end of the coat. Her obsidian color hair drapes over the chair, streaming down to her knee as her legs cross on the table. Another twirl of her revolver caught the attention of a small light piercing inside the train, blinding the ceiling above with each second click of her tongue. She had dark denim pants with black boots to kick and a dark brown hat. A mismatch of her plaid shirt, patchwork and holes could be seen as if someone sewed it for her. The eyes, black as midnight, could be seen looking at the table.

“Looks like we all had our own set-backs once in a while.” The black haired woman spoke just loud enough for the woman in front to hear. The black haired woman glances up, keeping her head tilted down, her facial expression changing, morphing into anger.

“Suppose being silent is all there is to us, right, partner?” Her words, vile and distant, spread throughout the cart and into their minds.

“I don’t have anything to say to you, Jonah.” The light-brown eyed woman scoffs.

A small chuckle escapes Jonah’s lips as she straightens herself up on the seat. She gives another twirl of her revolver.

“Quite some time when I heard that name escape those pesky lips of yours. I could really never drown out your voice, you know that, Lady Boone? Isn’t that what everyone is calling you now?” Jonah gestures with her free hand to them. “You know, actually, there was another nickname they gave you and I just, you know, can’t figure it out for the life of me.” Jonah grins as she stops swirling her revolver and points the end of the barrel towards the tip of her head.

“Lady Luck.” Boone spoke as she uneasily states looking away towards the carpet on the ground.

“Lady Luck! That is right!” Jonah yells out as her finger snaps and a slam of her hand against the table causing the woman behind Boone to shutter. “Lady Luck because you were just so lucky with everything you do. The bounties you pull in and of course, the bounty you have on your head now.” Jonah tips her hat with the revolver to reveal a patch of hair missing, a patch where a scar of a bullet hole sunk through. “Though, not some of us were really lucky. Were we?” Jonah’s eyes narrows coldly towards the duo.

“What happened on tha-”

“Quiet.” Jonah quickly aims her revolver towards the two women. “None of that patronizing bullshit of what ifs and forgiveness. We are not saints, Boone. Certainly not us.” Jonah grits her teeth. “And the best part, look around. It feels like we can make a fresh start, here, right?” Jonah gestures with her revolver and her free hand spreading them out. Those words circling Boone like vultures, the same words she said before.

“Just like old times.” Boone sadly states as memories of days long gone play like a black and white film through her mind. “When we both thought we would make a haul from this exact train.” Jonah taps the end of her barrel onto the table over and over, emphasizing each word that came out of her mouth like truth.

As Jonah begins to berate Boone, the woman behind Boone begins to shift her hands slowly with Boone’s own coat and tug against another revolver within the holster.

“You can st-”

“Stop this? Stop this train from crashing into a town? From crashing into the town we both first met at? There is no stopping this.” Jonah chuckles as she shakes her head causally gesturing the revolver to Boone and then back at herself. “The lever is broken, this train has no conductor. Its going to crash whether we both like it or not!” Jonah exhales angrily through her nose. “I made sure to give it a lot of coal in the end. You can smell it, that burning sensation of smoke filling our lungs. That is what you made me feel after these years.” Jonah pulls her revolver back and spins it, looking at the revolver. “Just wanted to say my piece before I bring you dead for my boun-”

A loud shot rings out through the cabin as Jonah’s hat flies off. Silence was filled between the women as Jonah looked towards where the bullet traveled, grazing her ear causing a small trickle of blood to trickle down to her earlobe and drip.

A grin replaced Jonah’s expression. As she spins her head around, she could see Boone has a revolver in her hand aiming straight at her causing her to aim her revolver at Boone.

“Well, well, well! Hav’ fortune smiled upon us on this delightful evening!” Jonah kicks her knee as her lips curve into a grin and a chuckle escapes.

“I’m not playing.” Boone’s voice was stern as her eyes narrowed to Jonah.

“And I’m not done playing.” Jonah retorts, still keeping her smirk. “That was a fancy shot, little Chance.” Jonah looks to the left of Boone to see a bullet hole through her vest. “Your mother really showed you some tricks, huh? Fancy, she showed me some too.” Jonah smirks.

“Shut the hell up, you crazy fiend.” Chance’s voice was rough, but stern like her mothers.

“Ouch, I’m very hurt.” Jonah taps against her chest. “To know that both of you hate me.” Jonah’s lips fall to anger as her brows furrow. “You both don’t-” Jonah inhales deeply. “-know the meaning of hate!” Jonah slams her hand down against the table. “Your hate is not the same hate I have developed over the years. This hate that fills within the depths of my heart and yearns for some sort of end, this hate that I have forsaken onto myself to see this to the end! This is not out of conviction I must see you both squirm and hate in your eyes, this is out of revenge, out of what is right to the world! To my world!” Jonah gestures wildly again.

“I didn’t think you took up being a religious fanatic to heart.” Boone comments, still watching Jonah.

“Oh, no.” Jonah shakes her head. “What I have said fails in comparison to the devil.” Jonah chuckles again. “You were always fair, even now. You could’ve shot me and I would've been dead. Though, I wonder if the reason that you didn’t shoot me is because you pity me? That this fucking scar is proof that I will come back and haunt you to the end!” Jonah yells out tapping her skulls with her revolver. Jonah’s teeth grind against each other, as her hateful breath leaves her body.

“No.” Boone calmly says. “I didn’t want to shoot you out of pity. Back then, it was a mistake that I deal with everyday. A pain that keeps nagging at me. The pain of losing someone very important.” Boone sighs. “It was just bad luck.” As the last words escaped Boone’s lips, Jonah’s face turned from anger to hate.

“Bad luck.” Jonah tsk’d as she shakes her head, clicking her tongue. “Bad luck is like slipping, tripping, falling,  and accidents that just seem to happen out of nowhere.” Jonah eyes Boone. “Not a bullet into my skull.” Jonah hatefully said.

The windows that provided the light to the train became pitch black as the sound of the train trudging through a dark tunnel. The train sways, hitting against the tunnel, shaking. Boone kept her eyes trained on where Jonah’s seat was, with a small whistle, Jonah still stayed in the same spot.

“You know, partner. I have this ugly truth that keeps rampant in my head.” Jonah sighs as she spun her revolver again. “It's one of those pesky and nagging thoughts that keeps coming up. Over and over again, every night when I lay to rest.” Jonah spoke calmly as she began to slide her legs off the table and place the barrel of the revolver on her neck. She clicks her tongue to have Boone still trained on her. “Just entertain me, Boone. Just this one last time.” Jonah smiles looking down. 

After a moment of silence, Boone answers.

“What?” Boone said.

Jonah looks towards the ceiling now as the light flickers. For her, it looked like a star in the sky, she reached out for it.

“In the end, I’d always lose.” Jonah sadly spoke, slowly as her hand still reached for the flickering light, but sighs as she stands up walking towards the middle of the cart and aiming her revolver. As they exited the tunnel, Chance was gone. The sound of the door opening behind Jonah opened and closed with a heavy pant from Chance running from cart to cart.

“You know, I’m not lying.” Jonah shrugs. “The train is going to crash whether you like it or not. Not even your good luck can change that.” Jonah calmly looks at Boone as her finger glides over the trigger.

“You can still back down, Jonah.” Boone said.

“Back down?” Jonah sighs, her breath becoming more defeated, shaking her head as they head through another set of tunnels through a mountainside. “I’m afraid I cannot. Not now anyways. What am I supposed to do exactly? Jump off the train while it rams into town?” Janet shrugs. “No matter what happens here, between us, this train will be our grave.” Jonah smirks. “Where it all started, right? Where we were going to hijack this train and see a new dawn, to start new, to start a life together.” Jonah’s smirk fades with her lips quivering.

“That dream was nothing more than what I wanted too.” Boone frowns.

There was a moment of silence between the two women aiming their revolvers towards one and another. Waiting for one to fire. The train began to move both women. However, the silence was broken.

“You know, what you gave me was a warning shot. A wake up call you can say. I saw the world in a different light, perhaps I was blinded by it. For everyday I walked on my path, I saw how our destructive and reckless our escapades hurt others.” Jonah’s trigger finger itches. “Through all that, you wanna know what my bad luck is?” Jonah gives a soft chuckle. “I suppose for both of us now it’s our bad luck.” Jonah tilts her head up to gesture of her looking down on Boone. “It is the fact that the most painful truth I had ever endured was the fact that I had lived!” Jonah angrily yells at Boone. “I lived and kept remembering what happened in this very spot!” Jonah points to the ground with her revolver to point out.” To remember when the bullet you gave me, the bullet that went through my goddamn skull!” Jonah takes her hat off and throws it on the ground before both of them. “The nightmares it gave me. The nightmares replaced dreams I had! Everything felt like it was burning inside my mind, burning the memories in a house fire!” Jonah’s eyes begin to water as her throat chokes up. Her arm shakes as she aims her revolver back at Boone.

“I. Hate. You.” Jonah spoke each of the words with such hatred. With such vile distrust, with their words gritting against each other, wanting the very words that came through her teeth to be like bullets shooting into Boone’s heart.

“The first shot was by luck.” Jonah clicks her tongue as she looks outside the window to see them out of the tunnel and seeing a town far off into the distance. “The second shot was by chance.” Jonah looks back with her angry expression wanting to end the cycle between them. “And the third, well-” Jonah shakes her head with a slight chuckle. “Let's hope it ain’t a mishap because I am going to be aiming right between those eyes.” Jonah’s eyes were scornful now, they narrow looking deep into Boone’s soul, wanting to rip out the heart as she did to her.

The train became silent to the both of them, both of their thumbs reached for their hammers of the revolver, pulling it back. The clicks, the sounds synchronized with one and another. They both took a deep breath carefully aiming towards each other’s body and without delay, the sound of a bang was heard within the train cart. Both women stood for a moment, before Jonah coughs blood as she stumbles back against the door behind her. With a smirk on her face and her face wincing in pain, she glides her hand over her chest. She looks at Boone. Boone stood with the bullet that was fired from Jonah, nearly missing her ear.

Jonah chuckles as she slides down the door, hunched over as blood begins to trickle down from the bullet wound. She looked towards the window to start seeing the town coming closer and closer, yet, the train didn’t feel rough anymore. It felt as though it had become slower. She looks towards the ground and chuckles again.

“What shit luck I had, huh?” Jonah mutters out to Boone. “I was sure that my bullet wasn’t going to come out.” Jonah’s breath begins to slow down as Boone walks over to Jonah. Jonah’s body begins to slip down further before Boone helps her stand up causing Jonah to drop her revolver.

“You had shit timing too.” Boone comments as her lips quiver.

“I did, didn’t I?” Jonah quickly remarks with a chuckle. “Looks like little Chance really pulled it off.” Jonah states as Boone leans Jonah against the seat.

“It still isn’t going to stop fully. I am sure the brakes are going to be torn off soon, it's just slow enough for us to jump.” Boone states as she looks kindly at Jonah, tears gently going down her cheek.

“Us?” Jonah asks as she coughs more blood. “I’m a dead woman, Boone. You got me good this time. Ain’t no luck can replace that.” Jonah held one hand over her forehead and another hand reached up to point a finger gun at Boone’s forehead.

“Pow.” Jonah smirks as Boone’s tears fall gently down onto Jonah’s face. The two of them look at one another, their breath slow and stuttering. Boone slowly hovers down with her lips, grazing Jonah’s soft lips before she places it onto her. For a moment, they both had forgotten everything around them, Jonah’s eyes slowly closing as the last lingering light that once filled her eyes soon is replaced with a sad smile as Boone pulls back.

“At least, I could give you one last good memory.” Boone wipes her eyes and her lip from the blood before she leans back.

“Goodbye, my lucky charm.” Boone sadly spoke before she made her way towards the front of the train to meet with Chance. While Boone and Chance prepare to jump, Jonah’s eyes look towards the window in front of her, her legs kicked up on the seat. Taking one last breath, she could faintly see two figures jumping off the train, seeing the rose colored hair once more before she gave a small chuckle.

“I loved you, my Lady Luck.” Jonah mutters out before her eyes dims and closes, seeing nothing but all black now as her body goes limp. After her body went limp, everything went black.