Chills ran over my skin at the harshness of his voice. I sighed and tried to think rationally about everything he was telling me. “Alright, so how did they confirm that I'm The Waker,” I rolled my eyes at the title, “just by you saving me?”
“Because if it wasn’t you, I wouldn’t have exposed myself.” His shoulders stiffened and he fiddled with his fingers.
“You would have let an innocent person die?”
“Violet, you have to understand…“
I stood and took a few steps away from the bench. “Answer the question.” My voice and body shook with anger.
“Yes,” he said and stood, closing the gap between us. “Because you’re all that matters. You’re all that’s mattered for hundreds of years.” He wrapped his hand around my elbow and guided me back to the bench. “Now please sit down so we can talk.”
“But how can you stand by and watch someone die when you have the ability to save them?”
He groaned and said, “I can’t just go around stopping death. There are consequences for saving a life.”
“What kind of consequences?”
“By saving you, someone else has to pay the price. The world has a way of balancing it’s self out, a life for a life.”
“So, someone had to die so I could live?” My eyes widened in horror.
Silently, he nodded.
I didn’t know what to say. I just stared at him, trying to make sense of everything. No matter how I turned it over in my head it didn’t make any logical sense that I was important enough to murder.
“Robert, I think you’ve got the wrong person,” I tried to explain. The muscles in my body coiled like a snake ready to spring. “How can this have anything to do with me?”
“I’ll explain everything in time. For now, all that matters is we found you and now we can keep you safe,” Robert said, his voice calm once more.
“But how can you be sure I’m the person you’ve been looking for?”
“It’s you, without a doubt.” He sighed. “I’m sorry, I know this isn’t easy for you.”
We sat in silence for a long moment. I wasn’t entirely sure I’d gotten any answers out of him. Nothing he said made sense and I had even more questions than before. How was I supposed to cope with the fact that someone was actively trying to kill me?
“He’s really still out there isn’t he?” I whispered.
Robert placed his hand on top of mine and squeezed. “We won’t let anything happen to you,” he vowed. His voice oozed with sincerity.
I didn’t want to live in fear, always looking over my shoulder. I tried to think about every detail of that night, if maybe I had seen something that would help us identify my attacker. But just like every other time I thought about that night, I came up empty handed. I glanced at Robert and could tell he was trying to let me sort things out for myself, but he grew more anxious with each passing second of silence.
“I can’t live like this, we have to stop him before it’s too late,” I declared.
“Don’t worry, he’ll come to you,” Robert said.
“So what, I’m bait? I’m just supposed to lie in wait until death knocks on my door?”
“Violet, relax. We’ll do everything we can to find him. But I have no doubt he will come after you again.” He gave my knee a reassuring squeeze. “The only difference, is that this time we’ll be ready.”
Tears filled my eyes but I stared straight at the horizon, determined to not let them spill over.
“Violet,” he said and put his hand on my cheek, “don’t be afraid. We have a ton of people on this. We’ll find out who he is and soon.” He wiped a tear from my face.
“What do you mean you have a ton of people on this?” I asked, hating myself for letting Robert see me cry.
“There are a lot of people who don’t want anything to happen to you.”
I opened my mouth to say something but he raised his finger to my mouth to stop me.
“I know you don’t believe you’re The Waker but there are a lot of people who do, and they’ll do anything to make sure you’re safe,” Robert explained. “So if nothing else, you can take comfort in the knowledge that you have a lot of people who are looking out for you.”
“How many people?” I asked.
“That's not important,” he said under his breath, turning away from me.
“Does everyone know who I’m supposed to be except me?” I started to pant, feeling like I was going to have a panic attack at any second.
Robert laughed. “Of course not. There’s only a small group of people who know we found you and that you’re not just some distant hope anymore. The Prophecy can be fulfilled now.”
“Prophecy?”
“Right, you don’t know about that either. Let’s take it one step at a time.” He looked at me and offered a hopeful smile.
“No, I want to know.” I was tired of him doling out information at his discretion. I wanted to know everything and I wanted to know it now.
The hope in his eyes faded as he realized dealing with me wasn’t going to be as easy as he thought.
“Look, Violet. I’m sure this is a lot to handle and I don’t want to put anything more on your plate until you’re ready,” he explained.
“And what, you think you get to decide when I’m ready to deal with more of this bullshit?” I yelled at him.
“No, that’s not what I meant. I just, look, calm down, I know how hard this must be and I don’t want to put any more stress on you. Let’s just take baby steps, okay?”
“Fine,” I said, crossing my arms and looking out over the water.
I let the conversation drop for the moment. I needed to convince him to tell me everything about this prophecy and Waker nonsense and it was clear he didn’t want to divulge anything. But sooner or later, he’d have to explain.
I looked over at him as he took his hand off mine. How infuriating he was, sitting next to me all smug and playing the protector role. I was a grown woman. I didn’t need him to protect me from the world. I’d made it through plenty without him by my side and I would make it through this. Screw the prophecy. Screw being The Waker to a bunch of people I didn’t know or care about. And screw Robert.
Working myself up into a blind frenzy all I wanted was to get away from him, to get away from all of this. Without a word, I rose from the bench and headed back up the pier.
“Violet, wait,” Robert called after me. I kept walking. “Violet!” His voice came closer but I still didn’t turn around. “Would you hold on a second?” He grabbed my arm.
I pulled out of his grasp and turned to face him.
“Just leave me alone,” I nearly shouted. My voice was shaky and didn’t sound as threatening as I would’ve liked.
“Would you just talk to me?” he asked.
“Why did you even bother coming back here?”
“I came back because I have to keep you safe. I didn’t want to leave you that night without any explanation but I didn’t have any other choice.” He lowered his head and his voice, the tired pain behind his eyes making me think he was sincere. I wanted to believe him but this was all too much.
“Violet,” he said, taking a step toward me with his hand outstretched. “Please just take this slow. I know it’s a lot for you to take in but I promise I’ll explain everything with time.”
“But why tell me anything at all if you’re just going to keep me in the dark?” I asked.
“Because it’s important that you believe what I tell you. I’m trying to earn your trust first.” He took a step toward me and touched my arm with the tips of his fingers. Another step and his body was within an inch of mine. I felt the heat of his skin through both our shirts and my heart started pounding once more.