Page 211 of Creep

I shook my head. No, it didn’t.

“I love you, sweetheart. But you don’t belong here with me.”

“Why?” I croaked out. For the first time, there wasn’t any pain. There was no guilt or remorse or detachment. There was just contentment.

She smiled sadly at me. “Because you have people who need you, sweetheart. Lia and Theo… your child.”

“My child?”

Lia’s smiling face entered my mind.

I promised her I would never leave her behind, no matter what.

“I need to get back,” I said.

She nodded. “Yes, you do.”

The sight of her started to blur in front of me, and I didn’t know what to make of that. I tried to hold onto her, but she was slipping through my fingers.

“I love you,” I told her. I didn’t get to tell her often enough when she was alive. I never thought she would leave me so soon, but now…

“I love you so much.”

“I know,” she said softly before disappearing altogether. And then I felt like I was being pulled under, and there was no air to breathe.

I struggled against the force, but it was no use.

Nothing was helping.

Fuck.

The air disappeared completely, and there was nothing but silence. It felt like I was underwater, in the vast ocean, unable to determine which way was up and which way was down. The current pushed and pulled me in all sorts of directions.

Darkness took hold and…

And…

And…

I gasped and opened my eyes.

Beside me, someone cried. Then more shouting. There was this annoying, incessant sound ringing in my ears.

Lia came into my line of vision. She was crying.

Baby, why are you crying?I tried to say. The words would not come.

She said something to me I didn’t understand.

I shook my head. She grabbed my hand, her voice becoming clearer.

“It’s okay. Please don’t fight. Please don’t panic. They’re going to help you.”

Who?

Who was going to help me?

I wanted to ask her, but she was being pulled away from me. And then strangers in white came in.Doctors?

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