She would come to him in his dreams. It wasn't always like that at first. It took about a month after her death to start appearing. And it wasn't even her fully, either. Sometimes it was a flash of her red hair. Sometimes it was her unique eye colour in a crowd. Sometimes he heard sound of her laughter ringing in his ears only to find himself alone. Sometimes it was her smile that stopped him when he was talking to evil doers, forcing his dreams to go in a completely different direction. But most of the time they shook him out of his dreams.
At first he didn't take the dreams well at all. He'd wake up in cold sweat, sometimes cry. But he was mainly too numb to cry. To shocked to let out a startled whimper. And he could never get back to sleep after each dream. It was as if his dreams mocked him. Mocked him of the woman he could have had. The woman that rightfully owned the free side of his bed. The woman that he should be doing the laundry with and coming home from the lair to.
For a while he was too afraid to get back to sleep. He'd spend the night just sitting there either in his bed or near it, lost in thought. But that was just how Billy was. He feared sitting on the bed, not knowing if he'll accidentally fall asleep or not. So he resorted to a chair. But even after a while he'd find himself dosing.
Moist would find him early morning talking on his blog in total nonsense. Other times he'd find him attempting to search the web or watch the tele. He feared for his friend. Billy was now in the league but Moist could tell that he questioned if it were something he really wanted now. Now that his dream girl was gone. Bags formed under Billy's eyes and his eyes contained a far off look. Bad Horse and the others took this as him working hard on evil mechanics, spending long nights working on his next project.
But they'd never understand his dreams nor will they ever understand what kind of hole their employee had dug himself in. How much weight he'd lost and the countless of hours of sleep he never got. Moist didn't know what to do with him. He knew if he stopped visiting Billy, he might surely drop dead from not eating, or completely lose his mind from the lack of sleep.
After a while, Moist, fed up, slipping a sleeping pill into a cup of water, letting it dissolve as Billy watched the television blankly. He handed the cup to his friend and watched the man guzzle it down, the only sign of life he showed around the place anymore.
Within moments, Moist watched Billy as he slumped over the couch dead asleep. He wasn't sure if he were satisfied or horrified at what he had done. But after hearing the heavy snoring coming from his friend, he knew he had made the right decision. Placing a blanket onto Billy, Moist turned off the light and let himself out, heading home.
She didn't come to him in his dreams anymore. Billy didn't know if he should feel pleased or scared. It became the usual dreams: mobbed by fans, meetings with Bad Horse, robbery after robbery, but no Penny. No flash of red, no hint of a smile, no sound of her laugh. Nothing.
Slowly Billy began to eat and the far off look in his eyes seemed closer, but still not quite the same. He went back to inventing and talking on his blog after a month's absence. He now could sleep again without the pain. The pain in his heart that'll never be fully healed.
It didn't take long for her to slip back into his dreams. But not just the hint of something here or there. Billy found himself walking into the laundry mat he had found himself in before being accepted into the league. It wasn't unusual for him to dream of himself here. He had before in the past. After all, it was a chore he had been accustomed to for years.
And there she was. Standing there with a basket of laundry. Billy almost chocked up upon seeing her presence. No.
No, no, no, no.
He had STOPPED dreaming of her. She doesn't plague him anymore. The guilt was gone. GONE. But there she was. Looking up from her basket, she gave the shy grin she had given him the first few times he had attempted to talk to her. And he felt his heart quicken, her name on his lips. But she beat him to it:
"Billy..."
He woke up with a start to a still darkened living room. His heart raced with anticipation and the sweet sound of her voice echoed in his head.
Heading to the bathroom, he splashed his face with water and gazed at his environment with new eyes. When did the place get so trashed? Why did he look so...sick?
Blinking back into reality, everything hit him all at once. Her death. The events after her death. His acceptance and fan base and success. Billy looked back at his reflection in the mirror and slowly brought his hand up to the glass, then up to his own face.
Peering down at the clothes and trash piling up all around his place. After a pause, for the first time in almost a year, Billy bent down and began to clean up.
It took him a short while again to get back to sleep. After the last Penny incident, he slept fitfully, thinking of the way she had said his name. The way she had smiled and the look in her eyes. What was that look? He couldn't place it within his troubled mind.
He surprised himself one night by falling into a deep sleep the moment his head hit the pillow. Billy found himself at a party, clad in his red smock and goggles placed neatly on his head.
Billy shook hands with other villains, smiling and posing for pictures as he mingled with the guests. A red gloved hand reached out to his and he smiled up at the person he was shaking hands with.
His smile faded as the red hair came into view and those blue green eyes stared back into his. It was as though someone zapped the place with his freeze-ray gun. His heart sped up as the woman looked down, smiling with embarrassment. Billy felt his lips twitch, eyes wandering over the female in front of him.
"...Penny?"
A red dress draped around her fragile frame, falling to the ground and concealing her feet. Her infamous ruby hair was deliciously piled on top of her head, giving the impression of her eyes being diamonds.
Penny looked up finally, the same look in her eyes he had seen before in the laundry mat dream. Slowly, she took his hands in hers and led them to a non crowded space. She set his hand on her back, his other found shelter in her hand.
Billy never quite knew how to dance well. But it didn't matter at that moment. His eyes were locked with hers and they waltzed slowly in place. It was as though their eyes were doing the talking for them, speaking in ways words could never begin to comprehend. They talked about the absences they had both missed, the stories that were never told and what really mattered the most.
He didn't even realize when the party faded to a quiet alley, where the streetlights flickered like candlelight and both of them were in their every day clothes. He gently dipped her, kissing her hand.
Billy felt his lips quiver. Were those tears in his eyes? He thought he couldn't cry anymore. The words were lost before they could come and he broke their eye contact, looking down in shame.
Penny brushed her hands through his hair, taking his face to look at her as they stood in the alley. She gave him her smile, oh God, the smile he had ached for since the accident. And everything crumbled for him right then and there. The tears came and the sobbing, falling to his knees and holding her fragile waist.
She stroked his hair, smiling. Kneeling down, she rested on her knees and cradled his head in her arms. Penny mumbled nurturing words into his ear as his demeanor and everything he built up to this point came crashing down.
It was as though Billy had no control anymore. Like he was listening and watching from someone else's point of view. He heard himself say over and over "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry" to the woman who's arms he was in.
Penny, forcing Billy to look at her, stroked the tears away from his face. In a sweet melody, she sang:
"I'm sorry I didn't see it,
The one who saved me, was you;
You are my savior
And that whole time I didn't have a clue.
In ever Heaven there is a Hell
And I'm sorry I created yours
It took me a while to understand
Captain Hammer won't be our savior.
And now that I understand
I needed to find you and say
Please don't kill yourself over this
Everything will be okay.
I'm waiting for you here, my dear
Captain Hammer can't help me now
Not that he ever did, I see
Why I never saw that, I don't know how.
But the winds have brought me to you,
I don't want to get away from here
My dreams are with you now
Do I make myself clear?
Together we can dance the night away
Or until the world around us collapses
I'll be with you until you are ready
But for now I can live with this.
So take your time and live your life
You've come so far, don't give up now
I'll be right here waiting for you
This to you, Billy, I vow."
Her voice, like an echo, rang through the walls, fading along with the woman in front of him. Just like that, he was again thrown out of his dreams and into the world of reality.
The sun peeked through the shutters as morning peering over the Earth's horizon. Billy slowly sat up and looked around the room. He finished his cleaning job and spent the rest of the day fixing up the place. He even bothered making breakfast and finishing his invention for the league.
No one would understand the drastic change in Billy's life as he goes from a shadow of his former self to who he had been before the incident. He lived his life doing what he had done before, but living up to Penny's legacy with the homeless, sorting them into jobs as minions for him, giving them food and shelter.
Every night he looked forward to he and Penny's dance. To the dinners they'd share and the moments that should have been theirs in life. Yet he still fell asleep with eagerness every night and woke up with a fresh start and the excitement for the next night to come, wondering about all the new things he and Penny would share together in his dreams. He would live the rest of his life like that, anticipating the dream world and buzzing through the reality he unfortunately lived in until he can be with his precious Penny for good.