I shake my head, disbelief and anger churning inside me. "Lookalike? You're the lookalike! Billy is dead, and I don't know who you are or what you want, but leave me the fuck alone."
His expression falters, and his mask of confidence slips for a moment. "Ava, don’t do this. I’ve missed you; every day away from you has been torture." I shake my head wordlessly, something tugging in my chest for the man in front of me that I don’t dare try and explore.
I turn my back on him again, ready to race into the thicket of trees to get away if I have to, when a large, calloused hand wraps gently around my elbow, tugging me back.
"Look at me, Ava!" His voice booms, a fierce command that echoes off the skeletal trees flanking the deserted road. “It’s me, Breaker."
“Who?” I reply and wonder if maybe by some miracle the name would ring in my mind. It didn’t. This guy is seriously not right in the head, and I’m scared..
“What the hell do you mean?” Breaker says. Anger rolls off him in waves. It’s like a heater was turned on. I need to be careful, but I’m not sure how to calm him down. I don’t know him. The veins on his forehead start to pulse.
I'm panting, my breath visible in the chilly air, my heart racing like prey caught in the gaze of their predator. But there's no distance between us, just tangled emotions and his piercing stare that claws at the forgotten corners of my mind.
"I don't know you," I insist, the words sharp as shards of glass, my defiance a thin veil over my terror. God. I hope he can’t see how truly scared I am. "I think,” I gulp, “you’re confused. I am sorry about that, but please don’t hurt me."
“Hurt you? Why would I hurt you? I just want to know what the hell is going on. You can’t just forget me overnight, not after everything we’ve been through. I need some answers, Ava, and I fucking want them now,” the man– Breaker– grinds out. His fists clench, and the weight of his anger presses down upon me.
“I don’t know what you want me to say, okay? ‘It’s great to see you, Breaker. Where have you been, Breaker? I’ve missed you, Breaker’,” I shout, something bubbling inside of me at my words. “I don’t know you!”
I hate feeling this weak, feeling this helpless. I don’t know who he is, I don’t know why I’m here, I don’t know what the fuck is going on, and now I’m at the mercy of some fucking shifter who thinks he owns me!
“Is that what you fucking want?” I scream, tears burning my eyes and blurring my vision. I know I shouldn’t goad my kidnapper, especially not when he’s a dangerous shifter whom I’ve already seen kill once, but at this point, what else do I have to lose?
Either he’ll kill me or he won’t, and truthfully, I’m tired of feeling so… so…
Lost.
Breaker stands still, his muscles locked in either shock or anger, I can’t tell. I feel like I am dealing with a bomb that is about to explode, and as he takes a long, shaky breath in, I prepare to flee.
“Look, I get it,” he says, his voice strained with the effort of remaining gentle. “I wasn’t around, and some guy that looked like me was, you could pretend it was me. I get that, and then I show up, and you panic,” Breaker says as if trying to help himself understand the situation more than me.
“No, no, no, that’s not it,” I reply with a hysterical tone.
“Well, tell me what the fuck it is then!” Breaker yells, his temper snapping. I can see his whole body shaking with rage.
“I don’t know, don’t you understand? I don’t know,” I cry back, unable to try and put what’s been happening in my head into words. The fog, the questions, the doubt– none of it feels like me, and I know subconsciously that I can’t have always felt like this, yet I can’t remember a time where I didn’t feel like I was fumbling in the dark for details about my own life.
“Why? How can you possibly not know?” He retorts, his words equal parts demand and plea.
“I have trouble,” I say.
“What trouble?” Breaker replies, his gaze boring into me as if trying to see the deepest parts of me.
“Since the accident, I can’t, I just can’t,” I tell him, my mind spinning and stomach sick just thinking about it.
I look at him, this man who I am supposed to know, filled with rage because I don’t, just staring at me and– like me– just trying to understand. For a moment, there’s a feeling of… clarity, almost. A feeling of knowing and being known.
It’s gone faster than I can take advantage of it, but I’m left with the sense that Breaker truly just wants to understand. My words seem to register for him, an eerie calm falling over him like a shadow.
“What accident?” he asks, too calmly, too quietly.
