THE EMPATH

HELPER IN THE SHADOWS

"There is a house on fire, west farm about three hundred kilometers from the school, two little girls are stuck inside so if you would hurry," the voice on record was deep and calm and that raised more questions than answers. "We have listened to this recording for like half an hour now and there is nothing about it that is normal and yet we can't find anything out of the ordinary...a guy calls 911 alerts us about a fire, we get there save two little girls, end of the story," one of the investigating officers said. "Is there a chance that this guy set the house on fire?" the tall scary superior asked.

"No sir...I mean we don't see any evidence that puts the caller anywhere near the house at the time of the phone call. The fire seems to have come from the children's room and my best guess is that they somehow started it, however, we still have to prove that," the officer replied making sure not to leave out any important details. "Okey, get back to work. We have so many unresolved cases lately that are raising concerns as to whether we are doing our jobs right. I don't want anymore suspicion coming my way," he concluded and turned to leave. "Yes sir," the four officers in the room responded in low but audible tones.

"I feel like something unnatural is happening here. I mean for the last six months," Jerry said after his boss was gone. Jerry was this tall, handsome officer who had worked with the station for four years. He was about twenty-four years and that made him the youngest in the station. Others officers thought of him as the guy who watched too many movies that he no longer knew the difference between fiction and real life, in short, they thought of him as crazy. He was always talking about spiritual or unnatural crap which had gotten him the nickname "Chizi". A name that's translated to a mentally challenged person. "There you go with your out-of-this-world crap Chizi," officer Bennie teased. Bennie was the eldest amongst them as he was in his late thirties. He also held the record of the guy who had worked in that police station long, he had been there since he graduated police college eighteen years earlier. Bennie wasn't the judge jury kind and he never confirmed whether or not he believed in Chizi's crazy theories but he would never miss a good teasing.

"I know what this fella needs, a wife, that way he will always be busy at work or busy getting yelled at by his wife and demanding kids that he will no longer have time for movies," John said and they all laughed including the quiet rookie. Bennie glanced at his watch and they all knew it was time to get back to work. They still had a mystery to unfold and even though the case was not high profile or urgent, the group knew that they needed at least two wins to get rid of the national government off their weary shoulders. They needed to solve at least two cases and close the files or else...

It was morning already, my alarm went off and as usual, I turned it off and turned to the other side. I hated waking up in the morning. Slowly I uncovered my face, then my arms, and three minutes later I sat on my bed to rub my eyes. It was a chilly morning and were it not for the fact that I had school, I wouldn't have bothered to walk out of bed. Preparing was easy once I had staggered out half asleep to the shower. Water always got me up and running.In only an hour I was seated at my desk waiting for the day's paper. English never got my BP unstable and neither did history, I knew that day would be flawless and that gave me confidence. "Good morning," came Anne's voice the only remaining good luck charm I needed to make that day perfect. "Morning Sunny...I mean Anne," I almost gave myself up there for a moment but I managed to save myself before more damage was done. "I meant to tell you that it seems to be a sunny morning," I added. She nodded in agreement and she was about to tell me something when the bell rang and she had to go.

As usual, the exam papers were brought, the teacher made sure we didn't have any reading materials with us, we went about name and index numbers writing and a signal to start was given. "That is an easy essay," I said to myself and smiled a little. I had three hours to make the paper colorful with well-thought words that would require the grader a dictionary. I went through the paper in half the time given and I went over it a couple more times to make sure everything was as I intended it to be. By the time the bell rang, I already had like five different fantasies about me and Anne. The history paper was not different either, in fact, I was done within the first hour and I had about two and a half more hours to think about other things. The exam day was almost over and I was looking forward to visiting Alice. I had even told Anne about it and she had offered to join me. As we approached the second hour, there was a knock on the door and the invigilator went out to check. He came back a moment later and walked toward me. "Someone wants to speak to you outside," he said. I could feel some sort of a mixed vibe from him and I didn't like it. Either way, someone needed to speak to me and I had to go check who it was and what they had to say.

I knew I was in hot soup the moment I stepped out of the classroom and saw two police officers standing there. I knew Bennie all too well, he was always smiling but for some reason that day he was as serious as it he could get. The other guy was new, I could tell that from his newish uniform and the way he copied everything Bennie did. "Officer Bennie, is everything alright?" I said hiding my fear. I had a feeling their visit had something to do with the call and I feared the questions that would come with it. "Relax, I took care of everything and if you are not calm, you might end up ruining it," it was the voice of my guardian and it reminded me of six months earlier when he helped me cover my very first murder. Since then he had been quiet as not much had happened concerning us.

"Everything is fine Vicky all we need is for you to open your locker," Bennie said with an attempted smile that had failed desperately. He showed me to the locker room and I walked up to my locker, I could feel a bead of cold sweat forming on my forehead and my hands felt watery. I reached up to the padlock and put in my combination. The new guy then asked me to stand back as he searched. "Is this your phone?" he asked and handed it to me. I answered with a nod as I could tell my voice was shaky even before I could talk. "Do you mind unlocking it? we are just interested in your call logs," Bennie said. I did as he asked and he checked for a while. "Nope, no 911 call on his phone call history," he said after the short while of inspection. "Do you have any other phone?" the new guy asked. "No, just this one. Of I may ask, why are you going through my phone?" I didn't want to hear the answer but I needed to know if they knew anything. "Well, a call was made yesterday to 911 and we traced back here but we can't tell from which phone it came so we are checking on everyone's phones just to be sure," Bennie answered. "We are going around in line and your locker is the first. We would appreciate it if you don't tell anyone about it," the new guy added. of course, they didn't want to risk the caller having a headstart and maybe throwing their phones away. "Okey, can I go now?" Bennie nodded and the two then headed for their next suspect.

"How did you make the call disappear?" I asked my guardian. "Well, I am your guardian Victor, and I don't have to explain the things I do to keep you safe. Whatever I did is for me to know and for you not to ask about," he answered rudely as usual. "You know, being a little bit friendly has never hurt anyone, you should try it sometime...," I said. "Well, that's it I am done listening to you," he answered and I knew if he decided to go he would probably be ignoring me for some time. "Hey, don't you think we should at least give them a hint that they are working to a dead end?" He was already gone and there was no getting him back. I walked back to class and sat patiently waiting for the bell to ring so I could figure out how to help the two officers.

I knew they no going to find the answers they were looking for so desperately. Earlier while I was talking to them, I felt like the two were somehow squeezed between a rock and a hard place. I knew they needed the win and I could help them, I just needed to solve the fire problem myself and then figure out how to guide them from the shadows. I wished Alice and Tom were there as I knew they would come up with a plan. I wished I could trust Anne enough to tell her my secret. The day ended with me wishing for things that could never happen rather than coming up with a plan.

"Hey there, you look nervous...I get it and I know all too well I would be if I were in your shoes right now but hey, you are not alone today," Anne said as we walked through the hospital's front gate. She thought I was nervous about seeing Alice in her state. How could she ever know or understand what was going through my guardian-possessed mind right about then? Still, I let her hold my hand and I even afforded a faint smile that was somewhere between fake and real. I knew deep down I always wanted someone to hold my hand inside the hospital walls as that place made me feel the pain more than any other place on earth. I had tried to take away people's pain when I first learned that I could but my guardian made me stop saying I needed all my strength to get through with my training. He said I would live to do everything else after it was all done. Funny thing though, I had no idea whether the training was still happening or whether it was over as unlike my training with Robert, my guardian's ways of training me were neither physical nor tangible. I never knew when they started or when they ended and I didn't have any "authority" to ask.

The hallways of the hospital were as cold as I had always known them. I could feel a few people dying and I could see these spirits just going around trying to tell whoever was passing in an attempt to communicate. This old lady was trying to tell her daughter that she had some emergency cash hidden away in the top drawer of her nightstand. I had survived these walls by pretending I couldn't hear nor see them and that way they never bothered me. Alice's room was always closed and there were almost no visitors coming to see her. Like everything else in the world, she was forgotten. Three months ago some of my classmates had formed some sort of a club and they visited her every Sunday but now nobody seemed to even remember that she existed except for me and her mother. Poor lady had no one else left as her husband had called it quits on both her and their daughter two months after the accident and rumors had it he lived in the city working as front office manager for some huge hotel while his wife was struggling between working at the coffee factory and taking care after Alice. To her, I was the invisible helper who came in, helped out, and then left without being noticed. She called me the shadow helper. She was not mad at me anymore and she had even apologized a few times and I had felt more guilty every single time she reminded me that the accident wasn't my fault.

"There she is, my sweet Alice," I said like I did every time I visited her. I know I am late and I know if you could talk you could be scolding me so bad right now but it is better late than never," I added as I lifted her from the bed and into a wheelchair. I Planned on taking her outside for some fresh air and evening sun. I knew she missed that. She might have been in a vegetative place, but I still believed that she was inside that shell somewhere scared and alone. Anne helped me and we placed her carefully on the chair. "See, I finally talked to her, or rather she talked to me," I pointed at Anne even though I knew Alice would never turn to look at her. In a minute, we were outside seated on the grass. Anne wanted to speak but she didn't know what to say so she just sat there looking at Alice with sad eyes. "Ooh she is even more pretty than I remember," a voice came from behind me and I bolted up to a standing position. "How...are you...?" I reached into the wheelchair and put a finger close to Alice's nose just to make sure she was breathing. "Hehe...I am still alive you moron and I am pretty sure that finger smells bad," she said and this time I walked close to her, I mean close to her spirit. "How...?" I started but Anne interrupted me. "Vicky, are you okay? why are you talking to yourself? we need to go everyone is looking at you," she said. I looked around and sure enough, everyone was looking at me like I had just gone crazy.

"Take me back indoors and I will tell you everything once it's just the two of us or rather the three of us," Alice said and I did as she said. As I pushed the wheelchair back to the room, all I could see and hear was her talking spirit floating all around us.