I’ve never been one to screw up, but I screwed up. Roughly a year and a half ago, Viola approaches me, and says that she has special abilities. I didn’t immediately believe her, but I also wasn’t in complete disbelief, because like everyone else, I had heard the rumors. She was able to show me a few tricks, and prove that she wasn’t lying. She explained that she would not always be around, and needed a replacement. Evidently, she’s not the only one of her kind, though I’m still not clear on what exactly she was. She was born to human parents, but she was also something else. From what I gather, this phenomenon is becoming less and less common, so she decided to make someone just like her. I was meant to absorb her abilities upon her death. I’m starting to think she knew exactly when that would be, but I was always thinking it would be a long ways off. I don’t know who ended up taking her place, if anyone, but I know it’s not me. She started out by training me in her work, and let me tag along on her missions. We went all over the world. Sometimes we would save a life, but other times we would just help retrieve some random object someone had lost. After months of spending most of the time observing, I was finally given my very first solo mission. She was able to pass her abilities on to me temporarily, but warned it would not last forever...until she was gone forever. She actually didn’t tell me what to do with my new gifts, because figuring out what missions to take—and how to handle them—was part of the job responsibilities. When she was in this position, she didn’t have anyone telling her what to do. She didn’t receive any training, or explanation. She had to learn about her powers all on her own, with only her ignorant parents as moral support. She assumed, with all this hands-on work I was doing, I would be able to fill in for a day. She was wrong.
I used my ability to see the future, and discovered that my classmate, Elsie was fated to die in a boating accident, along with her best friend, Ingram. This was perfect, I thought. I could not only prevent this horrible thing from happening, but I would be able to help someone I knew personally. I didn’t realize, though, that the accident was being caused by a very unnatural storm. Viola never really got into it, but she always hinted that there were other things in this world; some like her, but others were very much not like her at all. They often worked against the good, and caused nothing but destruction. I was no match for the storm, and if I had understood that at the time, I might have had the courage to just go ahead and ask Viola for help. It was less important I learn how to operate on my own, and more important that we save lives. I was able to pull Elsie out of the water in time, but I could not find Ingram. I searched the surface of the water, and underneath. I even looked up into the storm itself, but he was nowhere to be found. It’s one thing to sense the life around you when you can do what Viola could, but seeking death is a whole different ball game. He must have died before I even got there, because they didn’t find his body for another two days. I should have been able to see him. I should have been able to save him. I begged Viola to make this right, but she said changing the past was far too dangerous. It was possible under the right circumstances, but one death does not justify the risk. Needless to say, she fired me. I didn’t think she ever got mad, but she was mad at me for failing. That’s what hurt the most; disappointing her. I just hope she found someone better, and did so with enough time.
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