"Sarah."Billy poked her in the face. "Are you really tired?"

"You woke me up at four." she said in return, eyes still shut. "Never again."

"Wasn't the sunset nice though?" he poked her again. "You really are gonna make me and Bingo go alone from now on?"

"Billy, no human being wakes up at four and is perfectly happy the rest of the day." she did open her eyes to see he'd been reorganizing all her books next to her bed and poking her in the face every now and then. "You're a psychopath."

"A psychopath?" he gave her a look of disbelief. "But the sunset!"

"But my eyes!" she mocked him and shut her eyes again. "Will you take my shoes off?"

"No." he said in return. "How many times do I have to tell you how much easier it would be for you to find your books if they were in alphabetical order? This is why you taught Aiden Sanchez history while he actually needed to know math."

Sarah had to laugh at the memory. "Please. My feet hurt."

Billy huffed, leaning back to yank her shoes off her feet. "Better?"

"Yup." she confirmed as he stood up. "Where you going?"

"I've gotta make another stop." he squinted from the sun coming through her window. "Stay asleep, will you?"

Sarah frowned her eyebrows. "What?"

"I said stay asleep." he repeated himself. "Just do it."

Sarah felt her heart fall. "That wasn't part of the memory."

She was dreaming, but it was all just an exact memory up until he said that. It happened every night. Billy reached over and used his thumb and index finger to shut her eyes. "Just stay asleep."

Sarah jolted awake suddenly in the middle of the night. The dream woke her. She usually dreamt of memories her and Billy shared, but they were never altered or changed. That scared her, scared her so bad she'd woken up. She rarely woke up in the middle of the night, a rather deep sleeper and didn't even hear her parents come home when working later. Sarah hadn't thought much into it, rolling over on her side. Though, that had been a mistake with what she saw.

Muddy footprints going from her bed to the hallway.

Sarah was frozen, completely frozen. No one had been in her room, let alone in her bed with her. "Bingo."

She looked, but he hadn't been at the end of her bed where he usually was. She heard his barking come from outside. Sarah slowly got out of bed, on full alert as she crept to the window. She saw Bingo first, jumping around the front yard. She had no clue how he got out there, thinking her Dad had likely let him out.

That was, before she saw Billy playing in the yard with him.

"Billy." Sarah pushed her hand against the window. As if he could hear her, he looked up and gave her a wave. She could see something on his face, she thought it had been mud for a moment. The wounds on his body gave it away that it had been blood. "Billy!"

She was sprinting then, running down the stairs. She'd tripped on the last one, tumbling and hitting her head. If it had been any other situation, it would have hurt. But, Sarah couldn't even think about pain when her best friend was just outside. And hurt.

"Sarah?" she heard her fathers voice from his study, indicating it couldn't have been too late, or perhaps it was really early.

Sarah swung the front door open, but it was only Bingo now. She breathed heavy. "Billy!"

Bingo was barking up a storm, loud and aggressive. He was looking for where he went too, that much was clear to Sarah. She ran around the house in a rush, shouting Billys name. Bingo ran across the street, barking like he'd seen something. Sarah followed, running as fast as she could after him. It wasn't until she was in the middle of the road that headlights flipped on, a loud honk filling her ears.

Sarah's eyes widened at the car coming right at her. Her instincts told her to move, but her body wasn't doing so. A weight hit Sarah, but it wasn't the car. It was from the side, forcefully pushing her out of the way so she'd hit the side walk while the car slammed on their breaks.

"Sarah!" Ella yelled in fear as she ran outside, trying to tie her robe around herself in the process.

"Oh my god, i'm so sorry! She ran out of no where!" a very discreet and rather nagging voice spoke as he opened up the car. "I-I-I I don't know where my brothers house is! I've been looking around and I just didn't see her!"

"Sarah!" it was Gwen's voice, she was sprinting down the road in her pajamas. "Is she okay?"

"Sarah?" Ella held her daughter as she helped be get up. "Are you okay?"

"Holy shit." her Mom didn't even scold her for the language. "Billy was here."

"What?" Ella held her. Gwen forcefully shoved Ella out of the way and leaned down to hug Sarah.

"I was so scared." the youngest Blake held her. "I saw you get hit. And Billy was yelling at me to come get you."

"You saw Billy too?" Sarah held onto Gwen as she bleed onto her pajamas.

"In mine dreams." Gwen said in return.

"Okay, girls." Ella cut in, not appreciating how Gwen was talking right now. "Jason, she's bleeding bad."

"I'm so sorry, young lady." the unknown man got out of his car and walked around. "I didn't do it on purpose! Oh my god, are you okay? That's a lot of blood. Do you wanna hear why i'm here? I think that-"

"Excuse me." Jason cleared his throat loudly. "I think it's best you get on your way before I go grab my badge inside. You've said your peace."

"Right, right." he patted Sarah on the shoulder when Ella helped her get off the road. "Again, so very sorry."

He was gone faster then he spoke, and that was pretty fast.

"I'll bring the car around." Jason hurried to the garage to get the car, Gwen clung to Sarah in fear and still guilt from the thought of their last words together being a big fight.

"Mom." Sarah's voice cracked as she gripped onto her Mom. "Billy was here. I saw him, his foot prints are in my room. Please believe me!"

"Sarah, baby, I do." Ella wipped the blood from her face. "I just want to get you checked out first. You're head is bleeding so bad."

"I saw him before I hit my head." Sarah knew exactly where this was going, they'd blame it on a concussion. Something. "I saw him! He was here and then he wasn't! Bingo saw him!"

Jason pulled the car around, but Gwen was the only one that believed Sarah fully.

"I know he was there, Gwen. I haven't imaged him in the past year, I wouldn't randomly start to see him." Sarah spoke when it was just her and Gwen in her room, Gwen laid up next to her on the hospital bed while her parents signed the papers.

"I believe you, really." Gwen agreed with her. "I saw him too. My dreams aren't always wrong, Sarah. How else would I have known what happened?"

"What exactly did you see?" Sarah asked her curiously.

"At first it was just Billy. He was standing in front of your house, just waving at first with Bingo. Then he started to fade, like his body was disappearing." Gwen shook her head in confusion. "Then he pushed you out of the way, but you couldn't see him now because he was fading. I don't know how he got there."

"I know something pushed me." Sarah sat up as Gwen did the same. "I felt it, but I thought maybe the car bumped me."

"No, I really think it was him. I saw it, and the way you landed in my dream was the exact way you were laying when I got there." the youngest Blake went on, their stories too similar to just be a coincidence. "Do you remember how my Mom was? How she sometimes...saw and heard stuff?"

"Yeah." Sarah nodded her head.

"I think i'm like her." Gwen admitted it Sarah. "Ever since Griffin and Billy went missing, i've seen glimpses of what I think might have happened. At first I thought it was just dreams, but after today..."

Sarah winced. "What have you seen?"

Gwen shook her head. "You don't wanna know, Sarah."

She didn't wanna know, her head looking to the side as she squeezed her eyes shut. In the back of Sarah's mind, she'd had a feeling Billy was gone, like he wasn't coming home. People have told her so, through all the eighteen months he'd been gone. But, she shielded herself of that pain by convincing herself that he'd still been out there. Like, he'd come home to her and they'd deliver papers, and raise Bingo, and he'd be her best friend again.

But, Gwen's story added up too well. If she saw Sarah without being anywhere near the scene, with being four streets away, it made too much since that the remaining things she'd seen were likely just as true as Sarah's accident. If Billy was alive, Gwen would tell her. But, she didn't, she told her she didn't want to know. Gwen wanted to cry at the sight of the pain in Sarah's face. "I'm so sorry, Sarah. Im so sorry."

Gwen hugged her, and despite how much smaller she was then Sarah had been, her tiny little arms were the greatest form of comfort. Sarah's head was heavy in Gwen's lap, but she couldn't sit up anymore. She wanted to keep it together, because she couldn't image how concerning it would be for her to react in the middle of a hospital, especially after what just happened to her. But, the pain was too heavy, and Sarah couldn't help herself.

A loud sob echoed all down the second floor of the quiet hospital. It scared her parents to death, also scared Finney and Vance after the elevators opened on que with Sarah's loud cries of pain. Ella called Terrance to let him know Gwen was safe, and when Finney heard what happened to Sarah, he was so scared for her sake but knew that there'd been one other person that would be as worried for her as he was. So, he called Vance.

"Sarah." Jason pushed the door open, doctors hurrying in after him while everyone else that was there for her hurried in as well. But, Sarah's vitals were okay, she physically was okay. Mentally, she was being torn apart and felt a thousand cuts.

Somehow, as she sobbed and cried in Gwen's arms, everyone knew what it was about. Every single person in that room, aside Finney, knew Billy was not alive. Sarah's hope had died out after eighteen months, and all the pain she should have felt then was crashing down on her all at once. It didn't take Finney long to catch on though, he turned and hugged Sarah's Mom while his sister held her hurting daughter.

No one touched her, no one bothered her, they let her cry for all the time she needed to. They gave her space, let her and Gwen stay in the small room. All except, Vance. He couldn't walk away from her like this, he had no clue how anyone else managed to. Yes, it was probably better they did, and would be easier on Sarah. But, Vance never made things easier on her. He wasn't putting Sarah first, he was putting himself first because it genuinely hurt him seeing her like this.

"Sheeps." Vance walked over and leaned down next to Gwen, holding the back of Sarah's head as she hung over Gwens left knee and was choking on sobs. He didn't know what to do, maybe what he needed to do was give her space and be quiet, but that was the last thing he could see himself doing. "Sarah. Hey."

But, she didn't wanna talk. She wanted to cry because it helped the pain a little bit. She wanted to cry over the fact that her best friend was dead but managed to save her. She wanted to cry that she'd never see him again, that today was his final goodbye to her and Bingo. It made sense and as it did, it piled onto her chest harder and harder.

Gwen leaned down to hold her, Vance did the same as he kissed the back of Sarah's head. Finney couldn't help himself, not being able to sit back there as he went in and sat with the three. With Billy gone, they were the top three people Sarah cared about. The three people she loved and cared about the most. They didn't know it, they had no idea. But she did, she always would.

Billy was glad Sarah had them.

•

kylie speaks

genuinely question bc i was
stuck in the middle. do y'all
think it was actually the ghost
of the murdered boys that were
talking to finney through the phone or do we think he has what his mom and gwen have?
bc i kept thinking about it and the way billy was like "we don't play baseball here" made me think it was like finney was imagining they obviously didn't play baseball in the room the grabber had them in. and the whole name thing threw me off bc robin still knew his name, and vance clearly did too when he got all defensive when finney asked if he'd known it. but bruce, who went missing after vance, didn't know his name? but vance and robin were the two people that finney had the closest connection with out of the other three boys. he talked about how much vance scared him and obviously we saw how close him and robin were. idk maybe i'm looking into it too much because i genuinely hope the afterlife for the boys was better then how they were acting over the phone, but it also makes sense to me bc them saying the phone rang for everyone but finney was the only one to hear it just shakes my brain.

ALSO!! IDK IF YALL SAW THIS
BUT I WANTED TO SHOW YOU ANYWAYS

DO YALL SEE WHO THAT IS BEHIND THEM?!? DO YALL FREAKING SEE IT?!?