THE EMPATH

SPYING

I had been following Eddy for about a week now and I could tell for sure that he was a bad cop. I had seen him walk into very shady places and he seemed to be friends with some really bad guys. I had always found it easy with my past victims but he was a little different and I was trying to work in a much less predictable manner. I would have followed him through the digital channels but since he was a cop and everything, it was kind of difficult. There was next to zero info about him and the little files I could find were either deducted or classified. He seemed to have no past, no parents nor a family. All there was about him was only two years old, that was how long he had worked at the Capital Hill police department. I had tried my best to find any info about him but after a week of looking and looking, I found nothing. A week later, I decided to keep his past life aside and spy on his present and so I started following around. So far, I had learned that he was a creature of habit. The lights in his house went on every morning at six-thirty, he would then go on to shower, put on his police uniform and leave for work. He would make a quick stop by a small dinner by the name Dixie where he would always order a coffee and English muffins to go, he seemed to know every worker there and he was nice to all of them. In fact, his name was on the little blackboard and he was recognized as one of the dinner's best customers. After picking up the morning coffee, he would then get to the station where he would be at work all day before going home at six o'clock in the evening. Again, he would make a stop by the dinner and order diner to go. By eight, he would be back in the house. At first, I thought that was all until it rained hard on the third day and I had to stay for a little longer and that was when I noticed that he had more to do. I saw him leave the house at nine.

My problem was not with his daily habits or plans, no, in fact, I was a creature of habit myself and without my little annoying obsessions, I could never get anything done, anyway, my problem was with where he went after nine and why he would go from being this gentle, kind and loving guy to a terrorist. The first night, I followed him through some really dark streets to an unfinished building. There I saw him go in through the backdoor. He was gone for hours and since I had a test the next morning, I had to get back home and catch some sleep. However, I could not sleep well as I thought about the building and Eddy all night. I could feel it in my being that something big and probably bad was going in on that building and I felt like every minute that passed without me knowing what that was, was another minute Eddy got away with his corrupt cop business. I mean for all I knew, there were people or drugs in there waiting to be trafficked, or worse, people were dying. I had to know what was inside there and so, I decided to follow him again the next night. I figured that if I saw him walk out, maybe I could pick up a hint of whatever was going on inside the old shady building.

The third night was much colder but there was no rain. As usual, I had to stay hidden, however, due to the hardships I had encountered the previous nights, I had rented a car so that I wouldn't end up out in the rain with nowhere to shelter. At exactly nine, I saw Eddy leave the house. He had with him a black backpack and what seemed to me like a garbage bag on his hands. He seemed tensed and unstable and I knew I had to be very careful since I knew what a man was capable of in that state. Since I already knew where he was headed, I decided to stay back a little so that I would be at a safe distance behind him. I watched him get his black, beautiful sports bike from the garage and he was on his way. By the time I got to my hiding place behind the old building, Eddy was already making his way in. I waited and watched as four others came by and joined the party. They were in there for four good hours and I was about to fall asleep when I heard them walk out. They seemed to be in some sort of an argument and Eddy sounded really angry. One thing led to another and before I could figure out what was going on, I saw one of them drop to the ground while holding his chest. It was a little dark and my night vision had not fully developed but I could smell blood, lots of blood. Eddy was holding his g*n pointed towards the guy who was by then on his knees. I listened in closer and I heard Eddy asking the others what they were going to do about the guy.

"We gave him a chance, you were all there, you saw and you heard me beg him but he didn't want to. When we got ourselves into this, we all agreed there was no walking away not unless it was a mutual agreement," one of the four still standing said. "So, what do we do?" Eddy asked. They all looked at each other for a bit. They all had the same answer in mind but none of them wanted to say it out loud. Eddy took his g*n closer to the guy who was by then pleading and he added another bullet to his stomach while holding his head on his chest as if he was hugging him. "I am sorry Oscar, you forced my hand and there is no any other way we could have done this," Eddy whispered to the guy's ear before letting him fall. "We need to get everything out of the building tonight, Larry and Josh will give us a temporary place to work from before we can find another place. For now, I will have to stage this," Eddy said. He signaled to the others to get to work and they all went back into the building to park. In the meantime, I watched Eddy plant fake evidence around the place where Oscar was lying. It is almost as if he had come prepared knowing that that was gonna happen. I waited around for another hour. By then, the parking was done and the garbage bags were being loaded at the back of a refrigerated truck. Eddy's friends had blood all over them and my worst fears were just about to be discovered.

After the loading was done, they all went for their bikes and rode away leaving only Oscar's seemingly lifeless body on the street. My first instinct was to follow the truck but I had a second thought, actually, it was more like a vibe coming from the building. In my mind, I figured that since Eddy seemed to be such a careful man, he had made sure that Oscar was completely dead and I didn't feel the need to check on him. I walked into the dark building and I was first welcomed by the smell of death. Something nasty had been going on in there and I was not sure I could handle the n***d truth of whatever that was. My instincts kept reasoning that I had to walk in there and check it out even though my heart was insisting that it was not too late to just turn around and run back to my car. I swallowed hard and decided to follow my instincts because my guardian felt it was the right thing to do. All I had to do was follow the bad smell to its source and I did exactly that. The room was dark but my night vision was strong enough to see to the very corner of the room and what I saw got me to stop in my tracks. I felt a wave of nausea rice from the pit of my stomach but I held it in. I couldn't afford to leave my DNA on such kind of a crime scene. From what I could tell, the three bodies were already dead for like a week or so. They still leaked of embalming fluid. I took photos of all of them and I was lucky enough to have found their files as well. I knew I could not stay there for long since I had a clue that the boys would be coming back to clear the evidence. I just dialed 911 via my unregistered phone and left.

I was almost halfway to where I had hidden my car when I heard Oscar calling out for help. I walked back to where he was and found him trying to get back. Apparently, the bullet that was supposed to go through his chest had been stopped by tiny meddle he had on the inside pocket of his jacket, his stomach was still bleeding though and he needed emergency medical care. "Hey, I have already called the police and they will be here any minute now, all you need to do is put pressure on the wound and everything is going to be alright," I said ready to go. I could not risk being found there by the police. "No, you can't leave me here, they are going to kill me for sure this time," he grabbed onto my arm and started going on and on about how he needed to get back home to his little girl who was all alone in this world without him and I felt his pain. "Okay then, we are going to the hospital," I found myself saying against all the warnings from my guardian and my instincts. "No, no hospitals, they can't know that I am alive. All I need is someplace with running water and painkillers," I could feel the fear coming from him. At that point, I could hear the sirens from a distance and it was not like I could leave him there after all the begging. I helped him up and we both walked toward my car. I drove away just as the police were approaching.

"Sorry for the trouble. My name is Oscar, I work with the C.H.P in the narcotics department and I got myself involved with the wrong group. If you didn't come by when you did, I would be dead by now," he said as soon as we got to a safe distance. "Well, this is not for free, it's just that I couldn't leave you there to die while clearly, you are more helpful to me alive. I will not take you to the hospital, I won't tell on you either, but I have one condition," An Idea had just struck me and I was planning to work on it. I was going to take Oscar back to my place where I would offer him first aid and then I would make him tell me everything that he knew. After all, he was a member of the group and he had to know everything about them and what they were up to. At the moment, he seemed pretty banged up and I could tell he was about to lose his consciousness. I had to carry him up five flights of stairs and boy, was he a heavy one. He seemed to be a guy in love with his muscles and I could tell that he was gyming hard to keep them all huge and hard. Once in the house, I warmed some water and cleaned up his wound. I knew a thing or two about first aid and my guardian was there to step in when I needed help. The bullet had gone all the way through his stomach making this huge exit wound on his back, but lucky for him, there were no major internal organs on its path. I patched him up the only way I knew how. By the time I was done, I was exhausted and I dropped myself on the other couch. It was just minutes to five in the morning and I had not as little as closed my eyes and they had these burning sensations in them that made it kind of hard to sleep. I also couldn't afford to sleep as then I would miss the last day of the term which would not be acceptable to my parents. I had to take home the test results and they were being issued on that day.

I had forced about five cups of coffee down my stomach by seven and I was going for the sixth. Oscar was still out cold but he was breathing fine and that was a good sign. I was having an internal argument over whether to stay in the house and keep an eye on him or whether to leave him in the house and pray all day that I would find him waiting for me in the evening. Of course, my guardian was against the leaving him in the house part and I knew he was right. After what seemed like a lifetime of arguing, we came to a conclusion. We agreed to leave him in the house but then we tied him up nice and tight we also taped his mouth so that he wouldn't call out for help. I then left for school and I had the most restless day. It felt like time was on standby and an hour felt like an eternity. Lucky for me, there were no actual lectures so I didn't have to be the guy being called every now and then for zooming out or worse snoring out loud. After classes, I met Lily briefly and I was glad to know that she was not available to grab lunch with me since she had some sort of a club meeting or something. She however promised that she was going to pass by my place before I was gone home for the holiday. I then rushed home to find my newly found "friend" still around. He had not even tried to escape and I thought that was a sign that he was willing to work with me. The poor being had been tied up for five hours and he hadn't eaten nor drunk anything for hours, I had to feed him and change his dressing before even thinking about going out for my fourth nigh of spying.