"Reagan?"

"I'll be out in a minute!" He yells from his room.

"What are you doing? Breakfast is getting cold!"

I hear his footsteps in the hallway then, and a minute later, he appears with his school bag draped over his shoulders.

See, Zane and I had to get a new school for our son after we moved here. Reagan didn't get to attend his new school before and after his father passed on, but today, I'm not letting him stay in this house. He's talking non stop about his Dad, and I feel that he won't have to think about him if he's busy with school. It's probably not going to work but that's the only plan I can come up with. I just want him to focus on something to keeping him from obsessing about his father.

He wrings his nose at the food in his plate.
"I think I'll skip breakfast."

I raise my eyes from my own untouched plate to look at him.
"I made your favourite."

"Thanks Mom, but I'm not hungry."

"Do you want juice? Cereal? Maybe eggs?"

He vehemently shakes his head.
"There's nothing wrong with the pancakes. I'm just not hungry."

"What's wrong, Reagan? You can tell me anything."

He sighs, picking the fork from his plate and absently stirring his milk with it.
"Dad didn't come to my room when I went back to sleep. It's always freezing cold when I open my eyes. Today, it was warm."

"Reagan-"

"I know what you're going to say; that Dad is not here anymore. I know. If he were, he wouldn't let me sleep alone. He would have been around when I woke up. Do you think I did something to upset him? Is that why he didn't come back last night?"

I sigh. Here we go again.

"Look, your father is dead. We'll see him again after a very long time. You miss him, I miss him, I'm sure he misses us too. But he's not here, Reagan. He's not."

"I know what I saw."

"You dreamt."

He narrows his eyes at me.
"You think I'm lying, don't you?"

"I think you're going through a lot. I want you to know that I'll be here whenever you need me, and I'll try my best to give you everything your father would have given you and more. All you have to do is ask and I'll give you whatever you want."

"Okay. I do want something."

"Anything."

"I don't want to go to school."

I blow out my breath.
"Look-"

"Mom, you said anything. I want to stay home."

"Till when?"

"I don't know. Till I feel ready to resume school."

I shrug. I don't know what to do. I don't want him to just stay home and overthink all day, but I also don't want to be too hard on him. He's only seven and he just lost his father. If he wants to stay home for a few more days, then I'll let him.

I'll get to spend more time with him, anyway. It's not like I'm looking forward to spending the day in this big house all by myself.

"Okay." I tell Reagan with a nod. "You can stay home."

"Thanks. I'll be in my room if you need me."

"No. Stop pushing your chair back. Since you won't go to school, at least eat your breakfast."

He screws his nose at the cooling cupcakes.
"Will that make you happy?"

"Very."

He sighs.
"Fine."

I watch him as he crams food in his mouth. He's obviously not hungry at all. He's only doing this to please me.

On my part, I'm just happy that he's eating something. His health has deteriorated in the last few days and that breaks my heart.

He sets his fork on his empty plate once he's done.
"Can I go to my room now?"

"Sure."

**

I empty the leftover breakfast in the trash then I place the few dishes in the dishwasher. I then stand at the window to stare at the calm swimming pool. I hate it. It robbed me off my man, my future and my son's father. That is the biggest loss I've ever had to endure.

Blinking rapidly to keep my tears at bay, I retrieve a bottle of wine from the cooler. It's half-full. Zane and I had the other half the day we moved into this house. It was our way of congratulating ourselves for acquiring our dream home. That night, we stayed on our rooftop half the night watching the full moon and talking about our future. I still remember the grey sweatpants and the black jacket he wore that night. I remember how good he looked in the moonlight, and I clearly remember wondering what I did to deserve him. He was a very gentle man and his first priority ever since we got together was me and our son.

As I slept in his arms that night, I never imagined that we'd lose him in a matter of days.

What am I supposed to do without him?

I sniffle when a tear falls on my hand. How do I still have tears to shed? I've been crying for days!

My sister, Amber, calls me as I walk back to my bedroom. She's very gentle with me, and she's calling to check how I'm holding up.

Terribly, I say.

After the usual niceties, she hangs up after promising to check on us later.

I run a bath for the first time since Zane passed on. I've been very paranoid as far as water is concerned, so I've been steering clear off the pool, the bathtub and the hot tub. Evey time I looked at any of those, Zane's smiling face would fill my head and I'd start hyperventilating. On more than one occasions, I had nightmares where Zane would push my head underwater and smile like a maniac while I kicked and fought. On all occasions, he'd let me go right before I slipped into unconsciousness.

The shower freaks me out too so I've been taking the shortest showers in history.

I push my fears to the back of my head as I step into the bubble bath. Zane would never want to hurt me. My nightmares are baseless.

Relaxing in the water, I close my eyes and take a deep breath. I'm so lost without my fiancée. He always had things in control. He always knew what to do, and every time I told him about a problem, he'd smile and tell me that he'd get it fixed. I never had to lift a finger because he had everything under control.

Now I don't know what to do without him. The rest of my life is stretching before me, and all I see is darkness. After eight years of staying with Zane and having him by my side every single day, I don't think I'll survive the hollowness ahead. It'll swallow me.

I pick the wine bottle and I take a deep sip.

I place it back on the tub, and I close my eyes again.

No wait-

My eyes fly open.

Something is wrong.

The scented candles on either side of the bathtub are flickering.

That's strange. I didn't light any candles. I don't even know where Zane placed the damn lighter.

I rub my eyes with the back of my hand.

The candles are burning brightly now and their scent is filling the bathroom. The wax is dripping, but the flame is a creepy shade of blue.

Am I imagining this? Is one gulp of wine making me see things?

I close my eyes for a second then I open them.

The candles are off.

There's no sign of burning whatsoever. There's no dripping wax at all.

I carefully touch one of the candles. It's cold. Very cold. It doesn't have the slightest hint of warmth on it.

How the fuck did I imagine that?

I'm getting so annoyed with myself.

I almost jump when I reach for the wine bottle again. It's freezing cold. I took it from the cooler so it's naturally supposed to be cold, but there is pure ice on the neck of the bottle. I watch it as it drips down my fingers.

I shift my gaze back to the water in the tub when my feet grow cold.

The heat is gone, and the water is starting to freeze. My body is slightly shivering from the sudden ice cold temperature in the room and my feet are growing numb.

Panicking, I try to get out of the tub and run for my life. That doesn't happen though. That's because the lights go on and then off, and the door swings open.

I open my mouth to scream, but the door slams itself shut just before I open my mouth.

"Reagan?" I yell at the top of my voice. "Stop messing with the switch, okay? I don't have time for pranks!"

I freeze when a cold finger pushes my hair behind my ears.

I turn around, fear crippling me, but I see nothing.

I want to move; to run for my dear life, but I'm immobile.

"Am I dreaming?" I squeak.

Of course there's no response.

The bathroom door opens then closes again.

The scent of candles goes away, and the temperature in the room slowly gets warmer. The ice forming on the wine bottle melts, and the water in the tub starts to heat up.

I'm shaking like a leaf as I step out of the bathtub.
"Reagan? Where are you? Are you okay?"

Cold silence.

Wrapping a dressing gown around myself, I bolt to his room.

He's not here.

"REAGAN!!!"

I run to the kitchen but he's not there either. Feeling defeated, I start to run up the stairs whilst yelling his name. Why would he go up stairs though? We don't use those rooms yet.

"REAGAN!!"

I gasp when cold fingers wrap around my wrist. I'm being dragged back down the stairs, but I can't see who the fuck is holding me.

I kick and scream but whatever is holding me doesn't set me free. It's way stronger than me so there's no way I can overpower it. Despite the kicking, I'm pushed outside the house before the door slams shut behind me.

I glance at my wrist once the vice like grip is gone but my skin is unscathed. I'm freaking out so bad that I can barely breath.

That's when I see my son.

I blink when my eyes land on him. He's standing on the edge of the pool talking to someone who's in the water.

Someone I can't fucking see.

I break into a run when he starts to take his shirt off, and I grab him right before he jumps into the cold pool.

"What are you doing?" I yell, tears streaming down my cheeks as I set him on the grass. His eyes are glazed and his teeth are chattering. He's so scared.

"What happened? Why did you want to jump into the pool, Reagan? You're not supposed to go on the deep end! You want to drown?"

He looks at me, his eyes shining with relief when he recognizes me.
"Mom?"

"Yeah?"

"She asked me to go into the water. She wanted to play with me."

"Who?"

"The girl with the black teeth."