THE EMPATH

...RIGHT BEFORE IT GETS WORSE.

Immediately after the bell rang, the whole school came to life. It had been a long three weeks of stress and silence but now the exams were over. Groups started to form in every corner and hallway, some to complain about the last paper, some were already making holiday plans while others were just going about their normal crap. I had no friends to form a group with so I went down to the locker room where I knew I would find the one friend I had managed to make and keep for about two weeks now. As usual, she was standing by her locker doing only she knew what. By then she had gotten used to my company so even after I went close and leaned on a locker, she took her time before closing the locker and turning her attention to me. "Hello beautiful," I smiled and she smiled back, I leaned in and kissed her on the cheeks. "Hello yourself," she said and came closer to help fold my collar. She was unusually happy and my guess was that just like everybody else, she was glad the exams were over.

I wanted to feel the joy everybody seemed to be enjoying but for some reason, I couldn't. I had a very strong feeling that something bad was about to happen. My abilities had heightened in a way I couldn't quite comprehend within the last two weeks and I could now feel danger coming from afar. I had to force a smile for my gorgeous girlfriend though. Back in class, quite a few guys couldn't explain why she had chosen me even after they had gone out of their way to prove themselves to her and that made me feel some kind of pride. I felt lucky to be the guy she chose but I also understood that that meant I had to be a bit different from the others. I was fighting to play it cool even though all I wanted was to rub it in.

"So, are we going down to the hospital today?" our trip down there was the only time we had alone and I looked forward to it. Ever since the last deep kiss she had given me the previous Friday, all I could think of was getting another one before she and her parents left for the coast after the exams. "I am sorry Vicky, I can't go today. Mum is expecting me home immediately after school. I have to pack for tomorrow. But, I will be back in two weeks," she could clearly see the disappointment in my eyes and she felt the need to explain herself a little bit more. I was about to tell her that I was okay with everything and that I couldn't wait for her to get back when I saw Bennie and Chizi headed our way. My heart skipped a beat as I could feel the two weren't there on a happy occasion. "I think they are headed for us," I said and stood straight from where I was leaning. "Hello Officers," Anne said trying to play cool.

"Hello, Annalisa. Would you mind coming with us?" Bennie asked with his usual calm voice. "Sure no problem...is everything okay?" I asked. "Yes, everything is fine, we just need to talk to your friend here for a minute," Chizi said as he turned towards Anne and showed her to the principal's office. I felt her heart throbbing inside her chest and I knew she was scared. "Can I come with you?" I asked hoping Bennie would say yes but he didn't. I just stood there and watched the two lead Anne to the principal's office and I couldn't do a thing. The bad feeling I was having earlier multiplied a few more times and now I could sense a real problem just around the corner. I had promised Robert and myself that I would stay away from people's minds but in that situation, I just couldn't help myself. I went closer to the principal's office and focused all my concentration on what Bennie was thinking until I could hear what he was hearing.

"Three weeks ago, two files literally flew from the station all by themselves or so the officer on the reception desk says. He followed them outside just in time to see your mother's car speeding away and the files flying into it, we followed up and found out that you were the one with that car that day which is why we are here. We would like you to explain to us what happened," Chizi explained. "Now, we are not saying that you took the files, we just need to know what happened that day," Bennie added. I could hear her mixed thoughts as she tried to come up with a convincing explanation. "Well, I can't quite explain what happened. I was just driving back home from the cake house a few meters from the police station when I saw two brown files flying mid-air all by themselves, as expected, I was scared and spooked so I just stepped on the gas. The files seemed to be following me so I increased the speed but somehow they managed to fly into the car. I pulled over a few meters away but even after checking the car thrice, I couldn't find them. I assumed I had imagined all that so I got back to the car and went to the hospital to get a checkup," she explained and I could tell she was also surprised by the thought of how she had been able to come up with such a good lie in a matter of seconds.

However, even though her story was convincing, she should have waited for the police to give all the information they had gathered before answering their question. Bennie and Chizi already knew that she was not the one driving the car as a passing police car with the front camera on had taken a quick video. The police wanted to know who was on the video because it was clear as day that it wasn't Anne but they couldn't tell who it was. "I was the one in the car," Anne said. She had decided to stick with her first answer. "Annalisa, you are a very bright, talented, and reasonable girl. We know you could never play with the authorities, but we can't prove you are innocent until you help us. We know you were not in that car because a street camera shows you checking in to the hospital three hours earlier and it never shows you getting out. It's either that, someone used your car forcibly and asked you not to tell anyone, or, and I really hope this is not the case, you were working with whoever was driving the car. If you tell us the truth here and now, we promise not to take you down to the station," Bennie said with an even more serious tone. "However, if you chose to withhold information, we will have no other choice than to take you with us, and then we will have to put those on record. Do you know what that means?" Chizi asked and Anne answered with a faint "no". "It means that you will be interrogated as a possible suspect and there is a possibility that that will make its way to your national record. Believe me, you don't want that kind of a taint," I could tell that Chizi was just trying to scare her into telling the truth but Anne seemed to be buying it. Her heart rate had gone up a little bit more and her head was filled up with thoughts of all kinds.

"I told you the truth, what more do you want?" she said at last. She had made a promise to me that she would keep my secret no matter what and she intended to keep it. That was a bad idea on her side and a dangerous one on mine. I had already returned the files with all the answers I had found and that may have been the reason the police had gotten serious about finding the person they thought had taken them. They had found the body of the boy who had gone missing but they were still following up on the whereabouts of the girl. I had solved the case but there was one thing I couldn't do because my guardian had warned me about it. The stories behind the files couldn't quite be explained to normal human beings and for that reason, I had to keep some of the information like the whereabouts of the girl a secret.

I was to work on finding her and bringing her back home so that she could be the one to explain everything but now I wasn't sure what to do anymore. I feared that Anne would choose to talk to the police and get me reprimanded or even worse she could choose not to talk and get herself into trouble. Either way, I needed to come up with a solution soon and so far I had no idea how to go about it. "Is that how you want to play this? you know you will be turning eighteen in two days and that means you will be tried like an adult right? We are giving you an opportunity here, if I were you, I would take it," Bennie said. I could detect his rising anger and I knew he was about to lose it. "I still don't have anything to say," Anne said. She had gained her confidence and her heartbeat had almost gone back to normal. "I hate to do this but you forced my hand. Annalisa, you are under arrest...," I heard the handcuffs click as Bennie continued to talk. I walked further away from the office as I heard the footsteps approaching and pretended to be waiting for Anne. "Officer Bennie, what is going on?" I asked but he snubbed me. Chizi was as kind as to tell me there was nothing wrong and I felt better to see that they had not handcuffed Anne. The whole school went into attention mode as the police took Anne to their car and drove away. The rest of the evening was filled with gossip. Everyone seemed to have their version of the story but none of them had the slightest clue as to what was going on.

"Hey dude, is your girlfriend secretly a serial killer or something?" one of the school bullies asked me and his i***t friends laughed. "I always felt there was something not quite right about her. I don't know why, but the quiet ones are always the ones with the loudest secrets," Some girl I didn't even know was telling her friends in the locker room. "Shhhh, here comes Mr serial killer," another one said from the corner and all the people around laughed out loud. I had really put Anne in a nasty place and I needed to get her out. I looked at my watch and it was only three minutes to the next bell which would give us a go-home signal. Three minutes however felt like forever to me. I couldn't wait that long. I took my backpack and decided to leave already. Lucky for me, the bell rang just as I approached the gate. I had to run all the way to the hospital but that didn't feel like much of a problem compared to what was awaiting Anne in the police station. I had to do something real quick and I knew just where to start but I had to discuss it with Alice first.

A journey that usually took me half an hour every other Friday only took me about ten minutes. By the time I got to Alice's room, I was dripping wet with sweat and I was completely out of breath. I got in to find the next shocking thing. Alice's room had someone else in it and they were surprised to see me more than I was surprised to see them. "Where is Alice?" I asked even before I could catch my breath. A nurse came in just as the lady on the bed was about to answer. "Nobody told you? They moved her to Rali level five. The doctors said she had a better chance there," she said and went ahead to do her job. I walked outside and leaned on the wall. Slowly I sank to the floor with my arms on my head. "This can't be happening. I just found Alice again and they had to take her away? No one even bothered to tell me about it?" I was asking myself out loud making the people passing by look at me with questioning eyes.

Alice was to be my last stop. My Dad and Mum were still vacationing and I couldn't call Dad to explain or ask as I feared Mum could be around. I only had one option left and I didn't like it. I had to go looking for the missing teenager without informing anyone. I was about to walk into a lion's den without informing anyone. I didn't even have someone to back me up. From what I had gathered so far, the girl was locked up in one of the Cleaning Crew's bases of operation in the capital which was about two hundred miles away. There were at least eight of them living there. So far, I had dealt with one and he had almost taken me through to my maker. I hated to think what eight of them were capable of. Either way, I had only two choices. Confront them and see how it would play out, or stay and have to explain to the police how I stole the files and solved the cases. All I knew was I had to do everything and anything to save Anne from the trouble I had caused her in the first place. From the looks of things, going down to the police station and explaining myself wouldn't help much as it would leave Anne as an accomplice. All the police wanted was to solve the case so that they could save their asses. If I gave that to them, they would take Anne out of the picture so as not to share the glory. That way she would be out of trouble and the police wouldn't have to know about me and my ability to talk to ghosts. I had to rush home and prepare myself. I also had to stop by Roberts and pick up a few things that I knew would help. I hoped that he was still away so that I wouldn't have to explain myself to him. I could feel in my heart and being that things were about to get infinite times worse and I didn't want to get anyone else involved.