Kim looked around the bedroom one last time. She had shared this room with her husband for so many years and yet now they were separated from each other. She hadn't meant for it to turn out this way but it had. For the last year she had watched over him in silence, unable to uproot herself from the spot she had last seen him before everything faded. She honestly didn't know how he stayed here, she wouldn't have been able to if the same thing had happened to him.
Tommy walked into the room and looked over at her, she knew he couldn't see her, but he could feel her presence, he always did. She walked over to him and stared up at his eyes. He always looked tired, always looked as if he was not going to be able to make it, but somehow he did. Somehow he kept plodding on, he kept the family together, no matter what happened.
"I miss you," Tommy muttered as he looked at the family photo he kept on the dresser. Tyler was three years old and Adam was two at the time. They had somehow managed to get the boys to sit in their laps and actually look at the camera. The two of them weren't looking at the camera, but the love for their children, shown through. "God, I miss you."
She was no comfort to him now but he still seemed to seek her out, to try to find her. They both knew it was useless, but he still hoped, she could sense it with every fiber in her being. It was something that she couldn't believe still existed within him. He wanted to bring her back, anyway that he could, he would bring her back .
"I'm so lost without you Kimberly, and the boys…they need a mother, I'm no good with scrapes and cuts and comfort. Would you be mad if I tried dating again? Probably, that's why I can't. I can't have you mad at me now," Tommy whispered as he quickly wiped his eyes and then reached over for another shirt.
"Tommy, please," Kim whispered as her hand brushed against his arm and he looked back at her. He knew that touch, it didn't matter that she was only a figment of his imagination now.
"Could you watch me make love to someone else? I know you won't leave me, not until I die, you can't…we were supposed to go together. You were never supposed to go first," Tommy whispered as she merely placed her hands over her face. She felt horrible that he was suffering like this, he was suffering because of her death.
"You have to move on," Kim whispered as he spun around and glared at the air behind him. Of course she would say something like that to him.
"Move on! I can't even look at another woman without…she'll never be you," Tommy whispered as he reached out towards her and then quickly took his hand back. It wasn't like she could feel him anymore.
"But you wanted me gone," Kimberly muttered as she watched his anger shift into despair.
"I was mad…I never meant…" Tommy began as he just looked away. "What's the use arguing with you?"
"The last thing you told me was that you hated me," Kim whispered as the tears rolled down her cheeks and she watched Tommy gasp to draw breath.
"I never meant it, I never meant for those to be the last words you ever heard from me," Tommy forced out as the tears rolled down his cheeks and he then walked over to turn off the light. He had faced enough dread today.