THE EMPATH

DIGGING UP BONES

"I don't mean to make you think that I am okay with everything you are doing right now, but this is a genius idea," Oscar said. He and Alice had just about finished arguing and they had realized that I was gone. They came looking for me in the bedroom and found me busy watching Eddy and his clue. All the while I was making my plans, I never explained to them what I was going for. I didn't want them to question me so I had kept them out. "And I, agree with you," Alice added. They joined me and we went on to watch the coolest drama ever. Eddy, and his then frienemies were trying to come up with a way to find out who amongst their friends in the force was the killer. So far, they had agreed that the killer had some basic or even professional training in the forensics department. That was the only way they could explain the super clean crime scenes. They also had agreed that the killer had trained with more than just the police force because, let's face it. The skill sets he had shown that far were not from the police force alone. What they had not discussed though, was the fact that all three of them who were still standing had gone through all that. Eddy had just told the others three days ago that he served in the military for three years before he joined the force. That was how he had learned about the d**g company and its operations. Bob, was a highly trained forensics expert who worked with the military police for seven years before he resigned and joined the police. My mystery friend Ross, was the head of forensics science in the narcotics department even as they were discussing the matter right then. I honestly had thought that my plan was going to work, I just didn't picture it working so perfectly.

After three hours of endless discussions, the three decided to call it a night. It was almost eight in the evening and they had suspended their operation since they didn't have enough manpower and they were scared. They had planned to lay low until the killer was caught and I could not blame them for that. I would have decided to keep following Ross, but I had a clue that he would not be doing his crap as usual. He and Eddy were the only two members if the crew who seemed for enough to be killers and since he was sure it was not him, I figured he would be digging up stuff about Eddy in the hope of proofing he was the killer. After all, he was their leader and there was a simple explanation as to why he would have wanted all of them dead. "Maybe he has grown tired of sharing the profits and he wants us out of the picture," he had written in his tiny journal. My other choice would have been to follow Eddy. He was the perfect one as I knew he would be following Ross. I knew he didn't think of Bob as fit enough to be the killer. Huge Bob was way too huge to act so swift, he also was a little too sloppy and wherever he went, he left a trail of baked goods and candy wrappers. But then, he also knew that Ross was probably reasoning the exact same way so he knew he had to be careful. He would never have decided to follow blindly and even though that was nine of him to figure out, it meant I couldn't get the info I was looking for all that easily.

That left me with only one player on the board, Bob. He also doubted the two. He knew there was no reason for them to doubt him as they thought of him as the dumb foodie. For a long time, he was on the group just because he was there when it started and he was related to the stations big boss. He was the guy they would a run to when they needed a safe haven. He always advocated for them that way giving them a chance to get away with the murders. He had figured that that was the only reason they kept him around but by then it was too late for him to make an exit. His life with the group, though better than Oscar's, was crappy. He only got thirteen percent share of the profit while all the rest got twenty percent, well, except for Oscar who only had seven. Bob had been forced to cut his own share with Oscar as he was the one who had asked the rest not to kill him in the very beginning. I still wondered why a guy like him would blindly follow a guy like Eddy. He had tried to get out a few times but he always backed down in the end. He feared if they knew what he and Oscar were planning, the group would kill him and so he kept on going. Now, he had just found that opportunity again and since he had nothing to lose, he had decided to go through with it. After he and the others parted ways he took out his tiny leather journal and wrote something. He then went on to chew on his pen for a few more minutes before locking the warehouse and leaving. The three were in soo much fear that they had decided to go around in their cars which felt much more safe and so he half ren to his.

"You know what, Bob here could be of much help than he seems," Oscar said moving closer to me and I could feel his cold presence. "Well, from what I can tell, he is just about to help. He will go out there and research about the other boys, and I will copy his notes. If that is not helping, I don't see what is," I answered hoping an argument wouldn't rise. "What I mean is, he also wants a way out, he has always wanted a way out but he was too scared to talk. Now is his chance and since he is on a timer, he would do anything, including betraying his friends. Don't you see, you can actually use him in person and I mean approaching him and getting him to help you from inside the group," Oscar went on and I realized he had a point. "And what if he decided to back down again? He will bring you down with him. To me, that is not a good idea," Alice joined in. Just as I had feared, an argument was born, the only difference was that I was also in it that time around. The two had good insights, but they were like a coin. They never seemed to agree on anything, and when they did, then I would always wind up benched. "Okay, you both have good points and neither of you is right or wrong, you are just like my conscious which is supposed to help, but always end up playing the angel and the devil on my shoulders. I think its time I thought this through myself. Thanks for your help though," I said. The two went back to talking as if I were not there and I had to learn to keep my nose out of their business as I desperately needed them to keep theirs off mine.

The night was getting a little bit cold and I was beginning to doubt every decision I had made so far. Nothing I came up felt right since there was always its opposite ringing in my mind. I grew tired and decided to think about all of it the next morning. After all, Eddy, Ross and Bob had also decided to start their detective works in the morning as well. Before I went to bed, I remembered that I had to call Alice's mum to let her know that I had received her message. I also needed to know about the burial plans. I dialed her number with shaky hands and waited for a bit. She answered with her usual calm voice and I could tell that she was still crying. "Hello, its Vicky. I received your message and I don't...honestly, I have no idea what to say..." I said and thought of hanging up the phone but Alice signaled me not to dare. "Well, I also don't know what to say either. I know she was your close friend and I also know that this may have hit you as hard as it hit me. I just...I want you to know that everything is going to be alright. Anyway, I have to go but I will keep you updated," she said. It felt kind of nice to hear her say strong words, but it also felt like I was the one supposed to be comforting her and not the other way around. Life suddenly felt so unfair. I could see and talk to Alice, I could even laugh around and argue with her, and yet, her own mother was out there crying herself to sleep and there was nothing I could do for her. My abilities felt so useless at the moment and I couldn't help but break down into a sob. I knew it was not my pain or grief that I was reacting to, but for once in a long time, it felt nice to feel someone's pain even though I couldn't make it go away or anything.

"Wow, so you are also capable of feeling things?" Oscar couldn't help but ask. So far, all he had seen was a feeling less, bloodthirsty psychopath. "Well, he can feel other peoples pain, but so far I haven't established whether he can feel his own. He is both a biological and a natural mystery. I guess the best word for him is a freak of nature or frankeinstine," Alice said and the two laughed it out. I was then ready to sleep and be some place away from the two annoying spirits even though it was just for a few hours. I couldn't take their crap anymore and the fact that I could not beat them up made it even worse. I was tired to the core and the moment I put my head on the pillow, I drifted off into a deep sleep.I woke to the sound of the tv turning on and off, the room was as cold as ice and I knew exactly what was going on. I jumped off the bed and rushed to the seating room ready to yell myself crazy as I expected a two angry souls battle but what I found got me standing like a statue to watch. Oscar was in trouble and Alice was trying to help him. It seemed like he could could not control his "spirit abilities". The house was getting real cold real fast and I knew that no amount of clothes would have gotten me out of that. I had to pray and hope that Alice would get through to Oscar and calm him down. It took her about three minutes to do so and by then the water in the house was semi solid and so were my eyebrows and hair. The blanket I had myself wrapped up in was more like a dry animal skin than a blanket. After he had cooled off, Alice warmed up the place and it was as good as new. I was not sure whether I needed to know what had happened but I found myself asking anyway.

"Well, icy pants here thought it was a good idea to watch the news. He said you did it all the time so I just let him. There was this Richard guy talking with the cute lady from the Nation news and he was explaining how the so called "Circus Killer" and how he now believed it was a female and other crap. After that, they brought they introduced Eddy and Ross on the show referring to them the heroes working day and night to bring the killer to justice and Oscar just flipped. The rest as you saw, is self explanatory," Alice said. "They are calling me the Circus Killer? That is the lamest name I have ever heard. They think I am a joke ha? I am going to show them who I really am..." I found myself yelling all around. I couldn't believe that someone out there thought that I was trying to be funny. "After all that explanation, all you got was the name?" her voice was pitchy and I could tell she was getting angry real fast but I didn't care that much and neither did Oscar. "You need to get Bob to work for us. We have to show the world who those two stupid killers really are. You can't let the go into history as heroes," Oscar said. We were all talking at the same time and the place was chaos upon chaos. Everyone was in their own world and we stayed like that for a while. There was a gentle knock on the door which was what brought us all back. No one ever visited me except for Lily and she was out of town. Who could it be? I walked to the door and opened it up slowly. I feared that someone may have heard me yell about the the killers name. To my surprise, it was Bob. He seemed happy to see me and I faked a smile so that he could not feel awkward. I could tell that he feared someone was following him with the way he kept on turning to look at the hallway and the stairs.

"Come on in officer," I said as I opened the door wide for him. The way he almost jumped into the house got me peering to the hallway just to be sure. "Hey, I am sorry to bother you, but I think I am in trouble and so are you," he started and I found myself seating down next to him against my will as Oscar and Alice were pushing me. "I think we both know who the killer is and if I am right, he will be coming for me or Ross next," Bob said and I edged a bit far away from him. His words echoed through my mind and I could feel the cold sweat on my forehead. "Did he somehow figure it out?" I asked myself. "Well, who do you think it is?" I asked ready to deny. "Who else, it is Eddy. I mean come to think of it, he is the founder of the..." he realized what he was about to say and I could tell he was working crazy to come up with an explanation but the words failed him. "Okay, I will tell you a big secret but you have to promise me you will not tell anyone. And I mean anyone," he looked around the room in search of any recording device and when he found none, he moved closer to me ready to tell. "We call it Digging up bones..." he started.