"I started having nightmares."

He shakes his head.

"Well, no, they weren't nightmares. Nightmares only visit you when you're sleeping. This was almost constant. I thought I was losing my mind."

[...]

"They were visions of a terrible fate... a terrible future."

He pulls out a second book, an old notebook filled to the brim of drawings of horrors and the unimaginable. He flips through it quickly and makes a point not to linger on any page for long enough to tell what any of it is or exactly what it says, though you can see there are quotes and notes and some writing on some pages so thick and small that the entire page looks nearly black with ink.

"I tried to keep notes, do free association when I would have the visions... I... I can't remember what half of it means now. I was in a dark place for those weeks 30 years ago"

He closes the book, but slides it to you.

"Maybe you'll be able to make more sense of it than I can."

[...]

"I do remember the most important parts, though."

"I saw you and your sister were gravely in danger here. You two had a destiny, and something... something wanted to prevent you from meeting it."

He sighs. This is something he hasn't been able to talk about for almost 30 years and now, it's finally out there again.

"So long as you were young and vulnerable, you were in danger here in Maine. If you stayed here, I believed something would see to the end of you. And... possibly to the end of Maine itself. You probably weren't safe anywhere on this side of the Mississippi."

This explains so much. This feeling of ... void and danger I've felt all my life. Like there was something missing, and something I was on the verge of.

Keep talking, Mr. Robinson. Please. This is making sense to me and I'm not sure why... but it's like questions are being answered that I didn't even know I had.

He smiles.

"It's been a long time... I'm glad this is finally helping someone."

He flips through the photo album some more, and finds a picture of your parents, as well as you and your sister. It was obviously taken in this very office. Your mom is holding up two certificates.

[...]

I peer closer to get a good look. I'm literally on the edge of my seat now.

What are the certificates... I'm trying to see them?

"Your parents were a blessing. They'd been here when you were found, and they knew me and they didn't just dismiss me as a loon. They weren't local; they could fly away with the two of you, back to Oregon and keep you both far away from all of this. The only hard part was... well, they could never return here."

He chuckles sadly.

"But that was a very small price to pay to keep the apocalypse itself at bay."

[...]

He points to the photograph and smiles.

"Those are the adoption papers."

I smile inwardly... My loving parents. Then I hear the words which jolt me out of my daydreaming.

...to keep the apocalypse itself at bay.

I sit upright at these words. The apocalypse??

"Now, at first, all these visions were bleak. But after your parents adopted you two, things started to get a bit clearer. I saw visions of your future, and for once, it wasn't bad at all."

He flips further ahead in the album. It's full of postcards from your parents, even a little letter you completely forgot they had you send back when you were first learning to read and write, addressed to "MR RABNSiN." There was another similar one dated a few years later, signed from "AMBA"

Mr. Robinson, this is a treasure. I love seeing these old photos and ... well the letters are precious. Thank you so much for showing these to me!

I start to get teary-eyed while viewing Amber's letter.

I could sit here with you all day and go down memory lane. I mean it, I really could. But... you spoke of an apocalypse. What exactly do you mean by this? And what do you know of Amber? Have you heard from her?

Please say yes, please.

He withdraws in on himself a bit when you ask about Emily. It's obvious what the answer is, but he explains. "No, I haven't heard from her. Your parents called and asked when she ran off, but she never turned up here."

He thinks for a moment. It seems like he wants to say something, but... he shakes his head and a moment passes, and he changes the subject.

"Something I saw in my visions was... well, it was nothing short of the end of the world."

"I have had one thousand different dreams and thoughts and visions and each is a unique disaster. Some are local, others global. I can't tell if all will come to pass, or all of them, or none. But apocalyptic is the only word I know of to describe any of it."

[...]

"But there were other visions, and dreams and messages... once you two were safe in Oregon, I started to see the world in peril, and someone there, alive and strong, to save it. And with you standing here now, I can see that it was your face I saw in those visions."

He takes your hand in his.

"You can save the world, Emily. I know this is what you are meant to do."