Horizon's my target

Chapter Eleven, Part Two: When you thought there was a happy ending

Ghostbur blinked, eyes opening slowly. He flinched as he moved to cover his eyes with his arm; bright morning light was shining through the train's windows.

He moved to get up, close the window's lights somehow and get just a few more minutes of sleep, but he couldn't. He felt panic rise in his chest until he realized it was just Wilbur.

He smiled softly; Wilbur had his arms wrapped around Ghostbur, head resting on his shoulder as he snored quietly. It was almost like he thought that if he let go of Ghostbur, he would break into a million pieces or something.

Ghostbur flicked Wilbur's forehead with his fingers, making sure not to do it too hard.

Wilbur flinched, eyes scrunching together as he mumbled a colorful array of swears. However, since he was a tired boy, they blended together into one massive mess of word soup in a very non-threatening way.

He stretched, popping his shoulder joints as he stretched his arms above his head. He sighed contentedly as he moved his arms around, getting out all the loose tingles and whatnot you get from sleeping in a bad position.

His dark brown eyes drifted around, finally landing on Ghostbur's face. Ghostbur smiled innocently at him, legs crossed and hands placed on the floor in front of him.

They both stared at each other until Wilbur couldn't contain his laughter, breaking like a dam to let out a tiny giggle, which slowly turned into a full-on rupture as both boys started howling with laughter at the absurdity of it all.

Wilbur smiled, wiping a laughing tear out the corner of his eye as he said "So. Sleep well Ghostie?"

Ghostbur smiled, reaching out to readjust Wilbur's beanie to be in his face as he said "Yep!"

"Any good dreams?" Wilbur mumbled, readjusting Ghostbur's beanie the exact same way, bursting into laughter as it plopped over his eyes before falling off his head.

"You are literally such a dad." Ghostbur said, pouting as he picked and dusted off his beanie before proudly placing it back on his head, tiling it to the perfect angle he wanted. He mimicked Wilbur's tone, just slightly higher and the accent exaggerated far beyond satirical: "'Any good dreams?' What are you, forty?"

Wilbur put a hand to his chest, gasping in mock shock as he exclaimed "I beg your pardon! I'm at least half that age, leave me alone!"

"Could've fooled me." Ghostbur shrugged, laughing as Wilbur pulled off his beanie and playfully smacked Ghostbur over the head with it.

After eating a breakfast of apples and bread from Wilbur's inventory (thank the lord he still had that, otherwise they would've both probably died again over the course of the adventure) Wilbur turned to look at Ghostbur, a question clearly written in his expression, but not exactly in words quite yet.

Ghostbur sighed, setting his teacup down beside him. (He had to pry quite a lot, but Wilbur had caved and finally given him more tea. What could he say, he had developed an addiction-) He leaned forward, resting his cheek against his palm. "Soooooo, what's up?"

Wilbur bit his lip, staring off to the side and avoiding Ghostbur's eyes. Ghostbur felt his heart quicken, nerves pricking. "It's just..." Wilbur rubbed the back of his neck with one hand, then titled his head at the doors.

Ghostbur felt his heart drop into his stomach, his tea settling uncomfortably in his throat. He cleared it, though the feeling didn't go away, saying "R-right." He stood up, scooping the teacup into his inventory to drink later. He walked towards the doors, Wilbur following him.

Wilbur took a deep breath, glancing at Ghostbur, almost as if asking if he was ready with his eyes before swiping his hand across the doors.

Ghostbur squinted as the light hit his eyes. He expected them to be in a field of some sort, maybe a meadow with the sun beating incessantly above their heads to try and burn them to a crisp.

Instead, they were in a stone room. The train was somehow hovering above some kind portal, made of a mix of clean, light sandstone bricks and blueish-green stones around the top. The light that shined so brightly had been coming from a lava pool, just underneath where the portal was.

He heard Wilbur audibly gulp from beside him. He reached over, squeezing his hand in a comforting way, watching out of the corner of his eye as Wilbur turned to look at him in shock, then look back at the portal. Wilbur's body seemed to un-tense, squeezing Ghostbur's hand back.

"So... this is it, huh?" Ghostbur whispered. Wilbur nodded mutely beside him.

Ghostbur couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed, Of course, this was amazing: it was all he and Wilbur had wanted, all they had 'lived' for, to live. But, at the same time, it felt like he was losing a part of himself. And what if he and Wilbur never spoke again after this? What if.... Since they were technically the same person, though neither wanted to admit it... would they both go back? Or would one disappear- Ghostbur shook his head, refusing to even entertain the possibility.

He held Wil's hand tighter, putting on a smile as their eyes met and they turned to each other. "Well, ready?"

Wilbur looked away, face written with confusion and concern and nerves and so many other emotions. "Yea..."

"What? What's wrong?" Ghostbur asked, part of him already knowing the answer yet not quite wanting to accept it.

Wilbur turned to look at Ghostbur, eyes glossy with tears that wouldn't fall. Ghostbur felt his heart break at this, then break even more as Wilbur uttered the words he never, ever wanted to hear:

"We can't both go through. One of us has to stay behind."

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*A.N: Lolz there's gonna be another part to this chapter?! W o a h -

No, but in all seriousness, so sorry but the word count keeps gets wayyyy higher than I thought, so I figured it's best to just keep splitting it up so you don't have to read blocks and blocks of text, and I don't have to shorten the story down more than I already did, so yea :3 

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