Nicole watched as the two figures slowly approached her. Her mother stepped out of the darkness first, and Nicole's breath hitched seeing her after such a long time. And beside her was Nathan, staring at her kindly, his gaze not shrouded by an ounce of judgement.

"Mother? Nathan?" Nicole whispered. Her voice was hoarse and rough. She reached out and tried to touch her mother's face, but her hand went straight through the apparition.

The translucent figure with her mother's face smiled, not at all bothered by Nicole moving her hands in front of her, which went straight through her.

Nicole wanted to hug this apparition that looked like her mother, but that was not possible. Before she knew it, she felt warm tears rolling down her cheeks. It had been so long since she saw those warm eyes and brown, wavy hair, much like hers.

Then her eyes shifted to Nathan. She tried to touch him but her hand went straight through him as well. He watched her with amusement, the same glint of mischievousness still in his eyes.

Nicole felt a wave of emotions, strong enough to pull her under. She wanted to hug her mother and Nathan but she had to keep reminding herself that they were dead. These two figures weren't real, they were a fragment of her imagination. They had to be. But they looked so real, exactly the way they looked in her memories. She started to cry harder.

"Am I dead?" She forced the words out. She didn't want to die, not when she finally found Erik, someone who loved her despite her scars. Erik had helped her finally come to terms with herself and she had finally stopped blaming herself for what had happened. Just as she was starting to become a little happier each day and her death wish was starting to subside, this happened. Even with the threats and notes and constant worry of the future, she felt alive with him.

"No my dear, you are floating in between. You aren't dead, your time hasn't come yet," the ghost of her mother said.

"I'm sorry," Nicole blurted out in between sobs. She turned to Nathan and said, "I'm sorry I pushed you that day. I wasn't thinking and I hadn't noticed that rod and I was so intoxicated. Everything was a blur and the only thing I remember is seeing you get impaled and the blood. Oh God the blood. I never meant for any of this to happen. I loved you Nathan, and somewhere deep down, I still do. You will always hold a place in my heart. We were young and reckless and I know I have made plenty of mistakes, pushing you was one of the biggest of them, and god do I regret them. Please, I have to know, do you forgive me?"

Nathan's apparition smiled. It was a soft smile, not the crazy smile that Nicole remembered from their early days together.

"Nicole," he said softly, "I never blamed you for my death. I was being a jerk. I don't know what I was thinking, dragging you to that creepy place. It made no sense and I don't blame you for pushing me. You were only trying to defend yourself and neither of us noticed that rod sticking up like that because we were too high. It isn't your fault. My death is not your fault, it was an accident. There's nothing to forgive. As for my father, he is wrong. I understand that grief twisted him in the worst way possible but murdering you won't help him overcome that grief. It will drag him down even more and he will hate himself. We both know how that will end, with him ending his life. I need you to stop that. I need you to help him find his way out of the dark, and the only way to do that is to live. I won't blame you if you never forgive him for your mother's death, but you need to save yourself to save him. His guilt will overtake the grief and he will die, I know it. He may be a murderer but he is still my father, and I believe everyone deserves a second chance to be better, even murderers".

Nathan smiled at Nicole again after his speech, and she returned his smile, crying harder than ever. Then she turned to her mother next to ask for an apology, but her mother's ghost, still being her mother, read her mind and silenced her before she could begin.

"You were always reckless, I knew that. I knew your wild heart would get you into big trouble one day, and it did. More trouble than a sixteen-year-old should have to handle. But again, if you blame yourself for my death, that isn't your fault either. Yes, I had grounded you and gave you strict orders not to leave the house and you went against them and left anyway, and I was beyond angry when I found out but another part of me, the larger part, was glad that you defied me. I was so happy you weren't in that house that day when Jonathan came. I wouldn't have been able to stand it if he got to you. I would have ended up like Emily, I know it. I know you blame yourself that you weren't there to stop it from happening, but there's nothing you could have done. So stop blaming and fight Nicole. Fight for your life. You can still survive, you haven't died yet. Swim Nicole, swim!"

The sweven faded and her mother and Nathan's face melded into the darkness in her mind, but her mother's words kept ringing in her ears.

"Swim Nicole, swim!"

And that's what she did. With the little strength she had left, Nicole kicked and writhed. Even with the chains bounding her wrists and feet, she continued to move to and fro, kind of like how dolphins do. She saw a scintilla of light on the surface, cutting through the thick layer of ice covering the lake and reaching her. She knew this wasn't another dream.

Her lungs burned and her muscles started to become heavy again, threatening to pull her under. But she kept fighting. She kept fighting against the current and the bliss death would bring. Because the bliss life brought her, small things like when Erik tried to reach her Russian, or Brian's happy smile and wet licks and Maddy and Nicole's constant bickering, these pleasures were something to live for.

Nicole kicked and writhed her way to the surface, she felt the ice touch her face and she thought she could make out a dog's face above her, but there was not a bit of oxygen left in her lungs and the burning had become unbearable. She felt her eyes close. She fought to stay awake but it was so hard. So damn hard. She didn't want to go, not after all this fighting, but her body felt heavier than lead. She thought she could make out someone pounding against the ice, trying to break it, but her vision blacked out, yet again.