Witness: See Series (Volume 1)
Jamie Magee
For Grace and Jayden:the two souls that ignite my passion for life.....
Chapter One I’m an insomniac. It’s been just over four months since my accident. Since I made a promise to the darkness that haunts me every painful moment of my life – four months – you would think by now that I could close my eyes without seeing that bridge collapse, Bianca, the empty, dark souls begging to be set free.
My eyes are always burning. The slightest moment from anyone or anything around me makes me jump. I’ve been increasingly sarcastic, and at times just downright rude. I’m growing impatient – impatient for the perfect song….a perfect resolution. I feel like a prisoner in my own life.
My mother insisted that I never be left alone. If she wasn’t in town - or even when she was - I was supposed to stay with Draven or Madison. I didn’t mind being sentenced to stay at Draven’s side; in fact, the nights we managed to find an excuse to have a sleepover were the only ones I found any sleep…in his strong arms as his hypnotic voice whispered a lullaby managing to escort me into blissful dreams.
Recently, those nights have become isolated – almost nonexistent. I haven’t seen him for more than ten minutes in the last three and a half weeks. The two of us hide behind the excuse that we need to write apart to gain new inspiration…but I knew we were having a silent fight, one that was no doubt my fault…I knew he thought I would never leave here with him…that I would find an excuse to never leave with Austin.
Austin has returned for us three times, the last time almost two months ago. He told us that that Landen guy was here in our dimension – in Montana, I think. Austin said that Landen was searching for his soul mate and had found her here. Draven was packing our bags as Austin told us that this girl had been kept secret from Landen by his family. That their home dimension, Chara, was in shock and awe at the idea of the couple because she was from Chara, at least her family was. Apparently, everyone from there has to leave to find their soul mates, and the idea that a couple from their dimension could come together as one could only imply that Landen was everything – even more than they had assumed.
Hearing Austin talk about Landen and this girl reminded me of some fairy tale story where a prince finds his long lost princess – a beautiful story, one that I didn’t want to bring my darkness to. I refused to go and meet him. I told Draven and Austin that it would be rude to rain on their moment. I mean, if they had been kept apart the way Austin had explained it, it didn’t seem fair to rush in and throw our problems in their lap. Not to mention, I could see the worry in Austin’s eyes; it was as if he and everyone that ‘traveled’ were prepared to return to Chara and wait something ominous out...exactly what, I don’t know.
It seems being put to ‘sleep’ twice has affected the way I ‘see’. My memory is still vague. The memories are just under the surface, though; all it takes is a word, smell, song, sometimes just a conversation to cause them to flood to the surface. I have to tell myself to ‘see’ people that are alive, or even dead, though I can’t say I’ve seen too many shadows since my accident; every time I go to leave this house, a wicked case of anxiety consumes me and I usually find a reason to stay…maybe it wasn’t anxiety, more like I knew that I was hiding from my problems and I didn’t want to face them before I had a solution. I think I’m starting to figure out that I’m not going to find a solution in this house…it’s time for me to face this – whatever this is that is haunting me.
Apparently, before all of this had happened, seeing life around others had been second nature, as natural as noticing someone’s eye color; but now…now I have to concentrate to really see. Most of the time, I feel like I am just going with my gut feeling…and at times I doubt what I do manage to see. I guess I’m just worried that I might be wrong – might say the wrong thing or assume I have an answer when I don’t.
That’s why I didn’t argue or push Austin to tell me what he wasn’t saying about this couple – why he was eager to hide all of us away in Chara. I assumed if it was really bad, Draven would have seen it and convinced me to go; instead, Draven just locked his jaw and refused to look me in the eye – the way he always acts when he’s trying to control his temper. He led Austin out of the room, then came back alone. I asked him when Austin was coming back, and he just shook his head as if he didn’t think he ever would. We haven’t been alright since that day…I would rather fight it out than live in this silent world we were creating.
Over the past few days, I’ve struggled with the idea of just booking a flight to Montana and going to find Landen and this girl on my own. I knew they would be here for a while – Austin had said that when people from his dimension find their soul mates, they always linger in a dimension to let the found soul mate decide if they want to leave for Chara or not; if they choose to leave, they still have to linger long enough to tie up loose ends in that world – give the family and friends a goodbye. Even though Austin had said that girl’s family was from Chara, I assumed she had to have a life here, friends that she wouldn’t want to leave without warning. I guess I thought if I found them alone, I could tell them my side of the story…tell them that I thought that whatever I was – or could do – was dangerous. I didn’t want Austin or anyone else making us out to be some kind of charity case, only for them to discover later that we were a walking nightmare…people that had tortured souls haunting them.