[𝟏] 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 - 𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘴

𝐈 𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐋 𝐅𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐎𝐖 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐊

2 MONTHS AFTER EMILY'S FUNERAL

AFTER PENELOPE CAME TO MY APARTMENT THAT ONE DAY, SHE'S COME EVERY OTHER DAY TO CHECK ON ME. Sometimes we'll watch a movie and sometimes we'll cry. Either way, it was helping a lot. I am actually sleeping at night and eating real meals. I am slowly starting to feel better.

I know Emily wouldn't want me to sit here and wallow forever. I still don't want to leave the apartment but, I've made a lot of progress.

I've began to text my teammates back. I am not ready to go back to work yet, but baby steps. I'm to the point where I can actually see myself going back to work at some point.

Tonight, as I lay in bed to go to sleep with Sergio next to me, I did some thinking. Ian Doyle is still out there walking free after everything. That doesn't sit right with me. Penelope hasn't mentioned anything, but I'm almost certain she's been working on locating him. Her and Derek at least. Probably Spencer and JJ too.

Something else that didn't make sense to me was him killing Emily. Why? He knows it would've hurt her worse if he killed me instead.

What if she wasn't his main target? What if it was me this entire time? Kill her and make me suffer like he did. He thought she was dead for the longest time. He wanted me to feel his pain.

I slowly drifted into sleep and prayed I wouldn't have nightmares. Instead, I had a beautiful dream. An epiphany.

~

When I opened my eyes, I was in a field. I felt the prickly grass beneath my feet and I stared off into the sunset.

"Delia!" I heard from behind me.

I knew that voice like the back of my hand.

I turned my head to see Emily smiling over at me. I couldn't believe my eyes. She was standing right there in front of me.

Her and I ran to each other and engulfed each other into the biggest hug we could muster. I felt her. I was actually touching her.

When we released, she stood there and held my hands in hers.

"I miss you." I said sincerely. I missed her more than anything.

"I miss you more." She paused. "More than you could ever know, Lia."

There are so many things I wanted to say. So many things I thought if I could just tell her one last time. And in this moment, I was speechless.

"I'm sorry I couldn't save you." Is what I chose.

"Please don't apologize, Lia. This shouldn't have been your battle. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for all of the pain I caused you. I never wanted you to get hurt." She paused and held her hand. "Dance with me."