Witness: See Series (Volume 1)(9)

“We aren’t talking about me. Draven. My dad,” I said, leaning forward to match his stare.

“Right,” he said as he sighed. “OK, well…imagine seeing without trying…imagine having a nightmare come to life around you without warning.”

My eyes glassed over and struggled to look calm. “Is that what’s happening to Draven?”

Evan nodded. “That has been happening for a while…what has begun to happen is what scares me…it scares me because I watched your father fight the same battle - and I can’t…I can’t...” Evan looked down and cleared his throat.

I reached for his hand. “I won’t let it happen…tell me so I can stop it…tell me if we run, he’ll be safe - and I’ll run right now.”

He gripped my hand. “I can’t tell you that anything will change if you run – this war is within him…whatever is going on with these escorts or whatever you call them is just an annoyance to an already complicated situation.”

“What war? How does this have anything to do with how my dad died? All of you told us it was a bus crash?”

“It was,” Evan said quickly. “But…but he was the reason it crashed.”

“What?!”

“Shh, Charlie,” he said as he squeezed my hand. I could see him struggling to remain calm, fighting the dark emotions under his calm expression. “Listen…I need you to try and understand this. Draven refuses to talk to me about it – to any of us. You can’t let him face this alone…you have to understand what he is going through.”

“Then tell me.”

“OK…imagine that when you see. Step into these memories that you were able to pick something up and bring it back with you.”

“Can I do that?” I asked as I questioned if that were possible.

“I’m sure you could…but Nana taught all of you to leave what you see there, to not touch or step too far into a memory.”

I nodded, remembering her telling us that…I remember her telling us that seeing was a gift that could not be toyed with.

“Now,” Evan said before clearing his throat, “imagine a nightmare coming to life – but in this nightmare you weren’t a witness of what has happened; you were a target. What would you do?”

“Defend myself.”

“Right…with whatever was around you.”

“How is that bad?”

“It’s not. What is bad is that you can’t control when the nightmare ends. So, if you had a rock in your hand and flung it at what was attacking you and the nightmare ended without warning, that rock would come back with you - and if you didn’t realize that the nightmare was over, you would still aim your weapon, and whatever was in your way would pay the price.”

“Rock...me...imagine – stop with the metaphors. Is that what happened? My dad was sucked into a nightmare, defended himself with a rock - but it ended and he still threw the rock? How did that kill him – crash the bus? The driver survived; he didn’t hurt him.”

Evan tightened his jaw; he reminded me of Draven when he did that. I assumed that either I wasn’t reacting the way he thought I should or he was tired of my impatience.

“A chair, not a rock. Your dad flung a chair that was never on the bus to begin with through the windshield. It shattered the front window, then the bus ran over it. The driver over corrected, which caused the bus to spin out of control, then roll - eleven times - down an embankment.”

I moved my head slowly from side to side. I think he was waiting for me to cry or show some kind of sympathy, but I didn’t…maybe because I knew I could see my dad when I wanted, that he wasn’t really gone – or maybe because I was just too focused on the fact that Draven had been living through nightmares on a daily basis.

“And you and mom didn’t think that any of us deserved to know any of this?” I said with a sting in my voice.

Evan looked down and let my hand go as he sat back. “We didn’t...we didn’t want you to fear ‘seeing’. Nana, Draven’s mom…your dad always told us that it was an honest mistake…your dad thought he could control it – it’s true that he was ending his touring career to raise a family, but he was also ending his tour career so he could be around your mom…she had the power to stop the nightmares.”

“How?”

“Love. He loved her, and when he was around her, around Kara…he was too happy for the nightmares to come to him.”

“Love...really? Then why are you worried about Draven? Does he not love me? Does he not have the ability to be around me twenty-four seven?”

“He does, but Draven is younger than your dad was when he mastered this. Draven…Draven is angry, and your dad was always calm.”

“Angry because I won’t leave here...so by not leaving, I’m trapping him in a nightmare.”

“I don’t know, Charlie. By the time I had met your dad, he had lived through this for years. He had a balance. He did tell me that his emotions would cause what he saw to be more or less fierce…when the boys confessed that they could see – that you and Madison could see – we knew that Draven was in danger more than the rest of you, that he was a target for a darkness – simply because he could see the core of it.”