A raven haired female sat up in her king sized bed, the sheets sticking to her skin as she struggled to awaken from the nightmare that had held her in its thrall. Looking around she found it was still dark in her master bedroom, the light from the moon peeking through the window over her bed, some of the curtain pushed open the way her husband had liked it. She looked to her left, the side that he would have slept on empty and cool to the touch. Reaching over she grabbed his pillow, the black pillow cover covered in his scent, his cologne. It had been one year since his death and yet his essence was everywhere in their house, his smell, his presence it lingered to remind her of what she had lost. Letting out a small gasp, her heart clenching in pain the small woman buried her face in the pillow, filling her lungs with his smell, his comfort.

"Chris," she murmured, her throat closing at his name, her eyes tearing up at his memory. He had been like her in so many ways and yet so unique in his own right. Their relationship hadn't been perfect, but what relationship had been? Closing her eyes she could still see him, his blue eyes so dark that they had almost been black, but she could remember the different shades of blue those orbs had held and all the emotion they could reflect when her husband had wanted them to. Laying there in their house she found that she couldn't change the fact that he was gone. Their dream home was now empty of love and of emotion, a former shell of a dream… just a house now.

It had all happened so long ago and yet the petite woman could remember it all like it had happened mere hours ago, the crash that had taken her husband and their unborn child. After being married for one year after they had graduated from high school the pair had begun trying for a child, someone that would complete their little family, but it was not to be it seemed because for two years they tried to no avail. They had gone to doctors for an answer and had found there was nothing wrong with either of them, both of them as healthy as a person could get.

Then one month after they had given up, deciding to adopt a child instead, Sam had found out that she was pregnant. Going to him with the news they had decided to announce it at the dinner they would be having with his parents that weekend so they held onto that secret, enjoying the moment they had found out they would be parents. That was to be short lived because as they had been driving down the road, a long and winding road to his parents house out of town they had been hit. A man that had been drinking was speeding, a chase from the cops, and as they both turned, one coming at the other, they had been hit. Sam could remember it all, the sound of the tires squealing, the lights that blinded her as she positioned for impact.

Chris had tried his best to avoid the other driver without taking them off the road and into a ditch, but it had been in vain because the other driver still hit them nearly head on. As the crunch of metal hit her ears she could see it in slow motion. The cars smashing together in a loud echoing crash of sparks. She could see Chris at her side, his short black hair hitting the windshield as she hit the passenger window. She wanted to reach out to him, but her arms wouldn't move as her vision grew dark. When she opened her eyes in what felt like hours later she had found herself looking out of the cracked windshield as red and blue lights reflected in her vision.

Forcing her pained neck to turn she looked for her husband, his limp body lying across the steering wheel.

"Chris." She had called his name, but he had failed to take note or move, her eyes growing wide. She failed to notice the blood dripping down her face even as it trickled into her mouth. She called for him again, her hand reaching out to touch his shoulder as yelling was heard. This time he groaned, his head turning against the wheel and his beautiful blue eyes locking on her amethyst ones. Sam held back the gasp of pain and shock as she looked at his handsome face, most of it covered in blood from a gash on his forehead. Touching his face she felt the warm, sticky blood coat her fingertips, but she didn't care because she was worried for her husband. "Chris."

"Sam."

He had said her name now, his hand coming out to take hers off his face so he could hold it. He had smiled then, the pain that reflected in his eyes now mixing with love. Sam forced a smile to her own lips even as they quivered with the tears that she was holding back.

"I love you."

Those had been his last words to her as his eyes glazed over with the veil of death, the once blue eyes now a milky white as the blue faded. She had screamed at that moment, the feeling of that scream vibrating her throat as the driver door was wrenched open. The EMT that checked her husband shook his head at the other EMT that was assisting her. His name fell from her lips as pain welled in her, all the shock and adrenaline fading as her own injuries cried out in misery. Her heart hurt the most as she was pulled from her seat, the seatbelt cut from her form before being laid out on a gurney.

Sam cried into the pillow, her mind full of all the images from that day, the feelings that swamped her. She knew that all she was doing was delaying her mourning, her in-laws having moved on as well as all of his family and friends. She was the last one, the only one that found herself unable to move past the pain and the sadness; the loss. As she lay there she didn't hear the knocking on her door, but soon it wasn't hard to hear as whoever it was began to bang. Groaning the Goth refused to get up from her bed knowing it was probably someone else, her family or his, trying to get her out of the house. She had refused to leave the house, not leaving her bed on most days as she clung to his essence.

Suddenly the air seemed to cool, the temperature going down several notches and Sam knew that she wasn't alone. Looking up she found her best friend, Danny, standing at the end of her bed. He looked confused and something else as he gazed at her clinging to the pillow.

"Sam, are you okay?" She had forgotten that the halfa hadn't been around for almost five years. He hadn't known she had married because he had been off fighting a war in the Ghost Zone. Seems that someone had let Pariah out and the ghost lord had been able to amass an army worth their weight in gold. Sam had kept up with it all through Tucker, but when Chris had died, it had all been forgotten. She hadn't talked to the technophile or his wife, Valerie. She hadn't talked to the Fenton's or her own parents in such a long time that she didn't think she could even remember what they looked like.

"No," the Goth said as she turned from him. "No, Danny, I am not okay and I am not sure I ever will be." The halfa came to sit by her on the bed, the action causing Sam to flinch as Danny's own scent filled her nose, overpowering her late husband's. "Please don't sit there." The white haired male stepped back, a look of hurt entering his glowing green orbs. Sam failed to notice as she pulled the pillow closer to her.

"I heard that you were married," the halfa said as he stood by her bed. "I'm sorry for your loss." Sam nodded, though she still refused to look at him. If she had she would have realized how much her friend had changed, his attitude still friendly, but those eyes of his no longer held the joy they used to and his lean form had become more muscular. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No. I want to be left alone." At first it seemed like he was going to say something, but looking at her Danny could tell she was scared and she obviously wanted to be left alone. He would leave her for now, but he knew she needed to get out of the house and she needed to be taken care of, her once glowing skin pale and almost grey in color, her raven hair faded and oily looking with lack of care, and while he couldn't seen under her sheets he could tell by looking at her face that she hadn't been eating like she should.

"Okay. If you need me you know how to reach me." The Goth gave him no response as she closed her eyes again, the need to go back to her dreams overwhelming the need to be in reality even with the chance of nightmares. "See you later, Sam."

That night Sam lay still in her bed, most of her day spent there after Danny had visited. She knew Danny was hurt by her not wanting his help, from denying their relationship. Friends helped each other and he had helped her on more than one occasion and vice versa, but this time she didn't want anyone to know. There was no one that could understand this, this pain that filled her heart when it should be empty of any emotion and the visions that entered her mind at night and haunted her during the day. The house was one big haunted house, but nothing jumped out to scare her, no, there was only tears for all the good memories that she and Chris had enjoyed. The plans they had made together and the life they had planned.

No one had known that they had been expecting, not a soul knew now. It had been a secret that she planned to take to the grave. Closing her eyes she sighed as she forced her body back to sleep, a safe and yet unsafe place to be.

Danny showed back up at the house a few days later, his mind filled with images that were burned into his retinas. He had never seen Sam so broken as she had been that day. She had lost too much weight and her beautiful hair that had once shown with such blinding intensity was now dull. He could remember growing up with her and finding that he loved her, an emotion he had been rather shocked to feel because it wasn't a friendly love. It was I want to marry you and make babies with you kind of love. He had wanted to tell her and then the thing with Pariah had happened. He had had to leave and with that knowledge he hadn't wanted to leave her with those as the last words when he didn't know if he was going to make it back.

Pariah had been a hard ghost to beat and it had taken him five years to destroy him, all the death that he had been responsible for as he killed ghost after ghost. He had found out that a ghost could die, but only in a certain way and it had been the most gruesome way possible. Looking in the window he found Sam laying on her stomach, her body shaking visibly as she clung to a pillow, the one from the side of the bed where her husband had obviously laid.