Witness: See Series (Volume 1)(44)

“Interesting place. Why are you here?” I said quietly, breaking his gaze and looking around at the solitude I found myself in.

“Do you want to be alone with me?” he asked in a tender tone. I looked back at him to find his eyes cascading across my face.

“I want to understand you...”

“Yes or no?” he asked as he leaned forward and let his elbows rest on his knees.

“Yes,” I whispered, feeling the guilt behind that request. I think for the first time in my life, no one knew where I was; there wasn’t someone who I was supposed to stay close to. My glass box had fallen, and I wasn’t afraid to step out of it.

“Have you been here before?” he asked.

I glanced back at the graveyard behind me, my silence answered his question.

“Then this place is not in your memory, and no one can find us here…we are alone…well, as alone as I can ask you to be right now.”

“Who are you?” I asked as I stepped closer to him.

He glanced to his side, asking me to sit by him. Normally, I would have been sarcastic or rude, maybe even have purposely ignored that silent request - but I didn’t feel like I needed to hide behind that with him. I walked gradually to his side and sat down.

“Silas,” he said as he looked to his side at me.

“Who is Silas?” I asked, finding myself mesmerized by the glow I could swear I saw behind the alluring color of hazel in his eyes.

“A witness.”

“What do you witness?” I mumbled, aching to see him, to know everything about him.

He smiled slightly as his eyes fell into mine. “Right now…you.”

I could feel my heart wanting to beat out of control, my anxiety wanting to take over my body - but the calm I felt surrounding him wouldn’t allow it.

Silas smiled slightly. “You really have grown dependent on that emotion, haven’t you?”

“What emotion?” I asked boldly. At first, his words didn’t even catch me off guard. I was used to Madison always referring to emotions, the way others felt both alive and dead.

“Fear…you’re fighting the peace…and I don’t know why.”

“How do you know that?”

“I see it,” he whispered as his eyes gently glided over my confused expression.

“You can see?”

His gaze captured mine, and I swear I felt my soul reach for him.

“Every part of you,” he answered quietly.

“Why do I feel like I know you?”

I saw a sadness come to his flawless features, dimming the glow of honey in his eyes. “You do…”

“How…how come I can’t see you?”

“Because…right now…it would terrify you…and I don’t want you to be scared,” he said as his eyes drifted to the stones before us.

His words gave my body reason to let my heart beat faster. Was he bad? Playing some kind of mind game on me? Was this peace I felt just bait? Had I just walked into a trap?

Silas reached for my hand, and in that moment the anxiety that was breaking through subsided. “What have they done to you…?” he asked quietly as his eyes moved to mine once again.

“Who?” I asked, unconsciously holding his hand tighter. I wanted to fall into the calming bliss I could feel pouring from his skin.

“This life.”

I furrowed my eyebrows to question his words, and he let his eyes fall from mine once again. “I’ve been looking for you…I’d almost given up hope…but then finally, a few months ago, I saw your light. I followed that path, and I’ve been waiting for a moment alone with you.”

Silence took over as I watched him carefully choose his next words. My mind was racing as I tried to remember what could have happened a few months ago…then my accident, the night I almost died and demanded that the dead defend not only me but also Draven – it all came to mind. I didn’t understand how Silas could have seen that or even why he’d been looking for it.

Silas bit his bottom lip just before he spoke. “I didn’t want you to see me the way you did last night – as your protector. I didn’t want to walk you back to that truck…I wanted your eyes to find mine in a crowd…for you to feel a pull to me, and…remember.”

My hand was squeezing his for dear life. I didn’t want the anxiety I should be feeling to have the power to surface. I knew I had to stay calm if I had any hope of understanding what he was saying.

He squeezed my hand back, then looked into my eyes again. “Breathe,” he whispered.

I let out the breath that I didn’t know I was holding.

“I don’t understand…show me what you’re saying.” I stared into his eyes, letting that plea play over and over in my mind, hoping that I’d find a way to see him.

“Not yet…it would be too much…they have suppressed the best part of you, and I will not make you weaker by telling you…you’re going to have to remember.”

I moved my head from side to side, thinking that Britain or Bianca had to have taken more of my memory than I realized. That somehow the memories of this breathtaking person were just under the surface. That because no one had given them cause to be remembered, they remained lost.

“I thought I had my memories back, that I’d broken the spell they put on me - but I guess I was wrong. You’re gonna have to help me. Draven brings my memories back with music…Madison brings them back with art…what can you do to bring them back?”