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SHE'S NOT SURE HOW LONG IT'S BEEN (SECONDS FADING INTO MINUTES, MINUTES INTO HOURS), THAT SHE LIES MOTIONLESS IN HER BED, ERICA'S JACKET HUGGED TIGHTLY TO HER CHEST.
The room is silent, almost bordering on deafening; her thundering heart beat and the obnoxiously loud ticking noise of her clock on her bedside table being the only sound in the small house.
Her bones feel weak in her fragile body, worn down from her constant wailing and the exhaustion of six months worth of dead-ends and tireless searching (all of which was for nothing; Erica was right under her nose the whole entire time- how did she not find her sooner?).
Tears have long since run-dry against her pale cheeks as she stares at the clock blankly, watching time tick gradually by, each second being a stab in her heart as Erica's absence becomes more heavy and recognisable.
A slither of sunlight reaches her face through the opening in her curtain. It washes over a small part of her skin, highlighting the girl's puffy, red eyes and lifeless face.
It feels wrong to have light on her skin when Erica died in the dark shadows of the bank...
Erica hates- hated- the dark.
Nat remembers when, after a particularly stormy night, the power had went off, plunging the Reyes' house into darkness. Erica had instinctively yelped out, jumping in sheer terror. Nat had instantly opened her hand, no hint of judgment on her face and extended the limb towards Erica, wrapping her hand around her small wrist. Erica had jumped at the sudden touch, only relaxing into it when Nat had slipped her hand down further into her hand so that their fingers intertwined with each other's. The blonde only hesitated for a mere second before clinging on to her, a nervous, self-conscious laugh slipping for her mouth as she quickly rushed to justify her actions. Nat had merely nodded along with her words, an amused smile playing on her lips (not that the other girl could see either action, in the stark darkness of the room). And after a while, when the lights had turned back on, Erica only tightened her grip, not letting go of her hand until long after she had fallen into a deep sleep, both of them intertwined under the comfort of her duvet.
Natalia closes her palm into a tight fist, attempting to recreate the comforting weight of Erica's hand in hers (It doesn't work- it doesn't even come close to how it felt then...).
Nat's phone lights up, a soft buzzing filling the room (for what must've been the hundredth time, since she's got home). She doesn't make a move to answer it, or any of them for that matter, opting instead to curl in tighter to herself, her eyes scrunching closed in an attempt to block out the light it emits.
