“Bill—” Abigail shoots up from her sleep.
“Bill?” she calls out, and then much louder, she screams, “Bill? Bill?”
Lightning flashes and thunder rattles the house. Abigail is distraught and looks around her room, searching for Bill; tears spill from her eyes.
bill! bill! bill! She panics unable to focus or reason.
It’s too much, she tells herself. I don’t want to see it anymore. Please make it stop.
“Abigail?” The hand slips inside the crack of her open bedroom door and reaches for the light switch.
“Bill?”
It couldn’t be Bill; Abigail saw what had happened to Bill. After months of searching and after being haunted by him in her dreams and while she was awake, Abigail finally saw what had happened to her Bill. She watched as that thing, that tall man with maggots for eyes, burn him alive. She watched, unable to wake up from her dream as the other one, with the spear, had shoved it into Bill’s chest killing him.
The room flourishes with warm light, and Walter Lux steps inside to see his distressed daughter sitting up in her bed in a tearful panic. She aimlessly scans her room searching for something or someone.
“BILL!” she screams looking straight at Walter but chooses to ignore him.
Walter, scratching his forehead, urgently crosses the room. “Honey, you were having another nightmare. Everything is okay.”
“No, no… no, I saw it. I saw what it did to him.”
“Everything is fine. You’re home in your bed. It was just a nightmare.”
“No, he killed him! I saw it!”
“Abby, please…” Jeannie enters the room rubbing her sleepy eyes. “Everything is fine. Listen to your father.”
“No, Mom, I saw it. His pain—it was… it was… HORRIBLE!”
Walter takes a seat on the edge of her bed next to Abigail. He rests his hand over her covered lap and sighs. Nothing Walter was going to say would ease Abigail’s pain, and he knew it. The most he could hope for was to calm her. He could try to get her back to sleep. Even now, as he stares at his startled daughter, frantic and distraught, Walter knew he would be hard-pressed to do so. There was a short period of relief while Abigail had been seeing Rebecca Steinman, but after Maggie Colden’s death, nothing about Derrylin seemed familiar to Abigail. She had spiraled out of control, and now she even refused to take her medication.
She awoke on several nights, claiming that Bill visited her in her dreams. On the morning of the earthquake, which shook the entire house to its core, Abigail awoke screaming out Bill’s name. On that particular morning, Abigail claimed that Bill tried visiting her, but an enormously decayed wolf pulled Bill from the house before he could make it upstairs to her room.
The depth and detail of her imagination was beginning to unnerve both of her parents. Walter was unable to help his daughter in any way, and yet he still stood by the principal belief that Abigail had to work through her problems, eventually getting over the pain. Sitting on the edge of his daughter’s bed, Walter clung to his principles, intending to listen to every word she had to say.
“Tell me what happened to Bill.”
“Walter!” Jeannie exclaims, thinking it was a bad idea to cater to her daughter’s reckless self-inflicted delusions. Walter raises his hand, silencing her.
“Go ahead, sweetie, tell me everything.”
“It was just a nightmare,” Jeannie interjects.
“Jeannie, please… Go downstairs and get a glass of water. Please.”
“I don’t want any water.” Abigail looks at her parents, suddenly feeling like a sideshow freak. “I’m sorry… I’m okay. It was just a dream.”
“That’s right,” Jeannie agrees. “It was only a dream.”
“You said Bill was in pain. You said someone killed him. It’s okay. You can tell me. I’m listening.”
Abigail searches her memories, but in truth, she never really forgot them. Not like before, now she recalled every detail. Bill was on fire. A horrid tall man with maggots for eyes was torturing him. Bill was in so much pain, and he called out to her. Worse than that, Abigail had watched Bill die. She watched a spear thrust into him, and then Bill exploded outward in a burst of silvery light. Shortly after, she woke up screaming.
“He was on fire!” Abigail blurts and begins crying.
“Of course, he was,” Jeannie says, approaching the bed. “Bill died in an explosion. You’re just recalling what you already know.”
“Was Bill also tortured by a tall shadowy man with maggots for eyes? Tell me how I knew that because I can’t seem to figure it out. Tell me how I could clearly see a spear driven through him and then watched him die,” she says sternly.
“I don’t know! I don’t know!” Hysterical, Jeannie erupts in tears. “I don’t know. I don’t know. I’m just scared.”
“Jeannie—”
“No, Walter, we need to get this out in the open.” Jeannie, wiping her tears away, thrusts herself down on Abigail’s bed. “I know you don’t think I care, Abigail, but the truth is I am so scared for you, and I don’t know what to do.”
“Mom—”
“You are everything to us—everything. Just like Bill was everything to you. If you go too far down this dark path, we will lose you, I know it.”
“I’m scared too. I don’t know what this is either. Momma, I’m really scared now!” Abigail leaps from her covers, falling headlong into her mother’s arms. She stays there, clinging tightly to her mother. It was all Jeannie needed from her daughter—to know she was still in there and that Abigail still needed her. She closes her arms around Abigail, squeezing her tight.
After a moment, Jeannie pulls back, studying Abigail’s ache. “If you want to talk, I will listen.” Jeannie then looks to Walter. “We both will from now on.”
Walter smiles but keeps his distance. He knew Abigail and Jeannie needed that uninterrupted moment to bond. They had been at each other for so long now Walter felt like he was walking on eggshells around either of them. For a change, it was good to finally see Abigail and Jeannie needing each other again.
“If you want, we can stay until you feel calm enough to go back to sleep.”
“I think Bill is gone for good.” Abigail, sobbing, falls back into Jeannie. “I don’t think he will be back.”
Jeannie immediately looks to Walter hopefully. “Are you sure?”
“I felt his absence. That’s what woke me up.”
“If you’re not certain, you take all the time you need, Abigail,” Walter insists.
“I’m okay now. I think it’s finally over.”
“I’m sorry you had to go through that, baby, and I’m so sorry that you lost him the way you did. Bill was a wonderful boy.”
Abigail scoots backward, lying back on her pillow. “You can go back to bed.”
Walter stands up, and Jeannie joins him, pulling Abigail’s comforter up over her. Jeannie hesitates for a moment and then leans over, planting a kiss on Abigail’s forehead. “You’re doing better, and tomorrow is another day.”
Abigail nods.
“You sure you don’t need a glass of water or something?”
“I’m okay, Dad.”
“You took your prescription before bed, right?”
“Yes, Mom,” Abigail lies.
“All right, try to get some sleep.”
“Mom… Dad…” Abigail blankly stares at her parents.
“Yes, sweetie,” Jeannie asks.
“I never want to feel this ever again.”
Walking to the bedroom door, Jeannie turns around. “Just take it one day at a time, sweetie. Time truly does heal all wounds.”
“I know.” Abigail thought deeply, asking herself was there anything else she needed to say to her parents. She immediately dismissed any and all other thoughts. “Good night, Mom.”
“Good night, sweetie.” Jeannie then flips off the light.
“Good night, Abby.” Walter follows Jeannie out of the room, closing the door behind him.
* * *
Abigail, Bill whispers from the foot of her bed.
Calmly, Abigail sits up, preparing to engage the apparition that essentially haunted her every dream. However, she wasn’t dreaming now; she was wide-awake. It came as no surprise that Abigail was beginning to find comfort in the apparition’s nightly haunts or that she felt she had to delve so deeply into dark places to find the truth of Bill’s whereabouts.
Abigail had been entirely honest when she told her mother she never wanted to feel pain ever again, but she lied to Jeannie, telling her Bill was gone for good. It wasn’t something she was proud of, but Abigail felt her parents needed release from her tiring distress. She also knew she had to start becoming stronger. Until Abigail understood Bill’s supernatural condition, this was going to be her life. Starting tomorrow, Abigail would begin putting her life back together. She intended to repair all relationships with her friends, parents, school—everything. When she slept or when the apparition visited her, that would be her time with Bill. She decided she would not mention him otherwise. One question circled her thoughts as she looked up at her boyfriend and his badly burned condition: Where was Bill now after the encounter with maggot eyes?
“Bill?”
“Abby, is that you?” Bill looks around confused. “I’m not sure what happened. I must have faded away again.”
“It’s okay. I’m starting to get used to it. How long can you stay this time?”
“I can stay as long as you want, for long as you need me, but first, I have to warn you.”
“I will always need you.” Abigail immediately disregards the warning portion of Bill’s statement.
She had heard it a thousand times, over and over. Abigail felt like Bill Murray in that movie Ground Hog Day, although she wasn’t reliving the same day over and over; she was revisiting the same recurring nightmare repeatedly, as if it was all just an echo of Bill. She had to get past his warnings to get to Bill because she knew his warning would never come to fruition. Something was preventing him from doing so. Even when she did not interrupt Bill or intentionally digress, something always intervened. Bill always told her the same thing: Something is coming for you. Abigail just didn’t know what. The situation was worse in her dreams, where she had no control of the outcome, but here and now, fully awake, Abigail was in control. She could sift through Bill’s cryptic messages, disregarding the rest to find the answers she needed.
It all stemmed from the nightmare involving the tall man with maggots for eyes. This was the point of origin from which Bill came to her. Something happened after maggot eyes set Bill on fire that sent him spiraling through time and into her dreams—into her reality. She hadn’t been strong in the past, and Bill’s visits weighed heavy upon her, emotionally crushing her. There was no turning back, and Abigail knew it. She would strengthen herself. She leans forward, taking hold of Bill’s charred hand.
“Are you sure this is okay?” Bill’s comes into view badly burned. He involuntarily shakes as immense pain shoots up through what is left of his body.
“Of course, it’s okay.” Abigail stares off into his beautiful dark blue eyes and begins transforming Bill into the boyfriend she remembered.
As if there had never been a hole within her to begin with, or the deep stabbing sorrow she continuously felt in his absence, Abigail’s illusion of Bill now pacifies her wounded heart. She begins by imagining his cheekbones and the way they supported his warm smile. She imagines the contours of his body and the color of his skin. His jaw-length brown hair returns as well as Bill’s unusually thick wrists. Within seconds, the corpse-like thing has vanished and her boyfriend, Bill Colden, stands over her at the edge of her bed, and he is beautiful.
His thoughtful smile widens, and he slowly caresses her hand moving up her arm while taking a seat next to her. Abigail slowly leans forward as she further loses herself in the image she has created out of him. When Bill’s hand reaches her shoulder, he flips back her long hair and cradles her neck gently pulling her closer.
“There you are,” Abigail whispers and leans in as they embrace each other in a long tender kiss.