THE EMPATH

TOO MUCH FUN

I felt my guts coil up inside from the chill. I tried to close the window but it was stuck and couldn't go all the way. I could feel the sweet smell of the rain and I knew it was bound to pour soon. The inside of the fourteen seatbelts was cozy and a little bit warm but there was the chill from the rain that kept ruining that. We had been on the road for the last thirty minutes and I knew we had an hour and a half to our destination so I had made myself comfortable. I always chose the back, corner seat where I would sit by the window looking out so that no one would think of talking to me. I had my earphones on and I was listening to the soft reggae music. It was almost nine and I was beginning to think that I may have miscalculated my miscalculated timetable. There seemed to be no way I could get to the village, do my job and get back to the city before morning. I had taken a few minutes earlier to take a look at my next victim's background I had found myself lost in the world of trying to know more about him. The lady from the news had only called him out by his name and hinted that he was a killer but she never told anything more about him. I had gone down to research him using my locator abilities.

I still had no clue how it worked, I just knew that whenever I activated it, I would always know where to go looking for the answers. I had found myself hacking into the police files, all thanks to the computers for making everything digital. From those, I found out that he had been a convicted murderer who was later released for lack of evidence. He had then been made chief after the conviction went south. That was about when he realized that he had the power to do whatever he wanted. He started by grabbing the villagers' lands, then he went on to force them to pay him for living in them. Some of them grew tired and protected and by now they were either quiet in the grave or jail. Some took their grievances to the police and OBs were given but it always ended there. The rich insane guy had the force worshipping him. That was all I could tell from the digital files which also happened to be greatly reduced and some were classified. I had to then head out and look for a pay phone that was impossible to trace and call the lady from the news and she told me the rest of the story. Apparently, Chief Johnson did not stop at grabbing and killing the few who called out on his injustices, he graduated from being just a dictator to becoming a thief, an abuser, and a killer. People feared him and none of them would come out to tell on him. They had to live their lives for him and be quiet about it.

That was however until he killed the wrong woman's husband. She was not the bravest human being, but she had been left with nothing except for her seven boys and a girl. At first, she had been quiet even as the cruel man took away everything her husband owned including two dairy cows that were the family's source of income. However, the chief was not satisfied, he wanted the teenage girl to be his own special slave and he had made that known to the poor widow. The woman had finally had enough. There was no way she could have let him take her only daughter to his heavily fenced house and turn her into whatever he would like. The window visited the police station but just like all the others, she was presented with an OB and an empty promise. She went home and waited for the so-called "investigation" but it never happened. She decided to take her next step and go back to the station to follow up. That time around, she went back home with nothing but a warning which was more of a threat. She however didn't stop. She went back a third time and found Johnson waiting for her. He and three other officers locked her up and beat her, and as if that was not enough, the police officers abused her sexually before locking her up in a dark cell for three full days.

While she was locked in there, Johnson paid one of the villagers to say that the widow's eldest son had gone to his fields and stole, the poor seventeen-year-old was burned alive by an angry mob that was not even a part of the village in the first place. Johnson then went on ahead and took the daughter by force and locked her in his "iron palace" leaving six little boys to fend for themselves. After the widow was released, she went home to her hungry, grief-stricken children. The pain in her heart was then so great that she was willing to lay off her life if it meant bringing Johnson down. She had at that point gone direct to the media hoping that someone would go to her aid. Her story was as painful as it was long and it had taken me an hour. By the time I went to the bus station, an hour had already been lost which was the reason why I was still staring through the window, listening to music, and praying that the rain would have stopped by the time we got to the village. I was still working on the best way to take care of the chief and so far I had not found a suitable punishment. I could have forced him into committing suicide but that didn't feel at all painful enough.

That son of a b***h deserved much more than death by his own hands. I wanted to have fun with him just like he had had with the villagers. I thought about it all the way that I hadn't noticed the rain that was still pouring softly. By the time I got to my stop, it was already eleven at night. All the roads and paths were clear since people were already inside. I reached into my bag, took out the torch, and started off through the forest. The place was awfully quiet and that gave me the creeps. I had to walk for at least two miles before reaching the residential area and by then I was cold and hungry. I had the maps on my phone to guide me so I didn't have to ask for directions. By then the land was pitch black and only a few houses still had their lights on. The only sound that one could hear was that of the dogs barking and the crickets going about their night. I turned off the flashlight and let my eyes adjust in the dark. I couldn't risk someone noticing me. I had never walked in the dark but it felt easy with my guardian guiding me. He was totally into the task and we had grown to be the best friends ever. He could by now talk to me whenever I talked to him, he even told me a few things from when he was alive. We were alike in so many ways and I wondered why we hadn't found that common ground earlier.

By the time I got to the chief's house, I was so hungry and thirsty that I had no strength left. My guardian thought it was not a good idea to go in commando in that state so once again I had to sneak in without being noted by the half-sleeping night guard by the gate. The large compound was surrounded by a well-kept k-apple fence. "He had to surround his house with thorns, cruel, cruel man," my guardian kept on saying as I was busy making my way through the thorny fence. Believe me you, that was the most painful thing I had ever gone through in my entire life. By the time I got to the inside, I had thorns in places that God made to be treated nicely. The next few minutes were spent taking care of the tiny bleeding wounds and pulling out the thorns that had made their way into my flesh and decided to stay, at the same time, I was trying not to shout out loud. I could clearly see the huge luxurious house. The lights from what I figured to be the master's bedroom were still on which hinted that the boss was too. I could feel the servants in their quarters fast asleep. However, in the middle of the night, I could also hear faint screams from the main house and I had a painful vibe moving through my being and I could tell it was not from the thorns. The cruel dude was hurting the widow's daughter and her pain was so great that it hit me in like these unbearable waves. I was too weak and too hungry to rush so I took my time to silently pick on the lock with the Bobby pins I had in my bag. After getting in, I went straight to the fridge and filled my stomach first. I then put on a black mask.

I went up the stairs with measured steps and Johnson never heard me get into his room where he had the girl's legs up about to do the unthinkable to her. There was no telling what would have happened to her if I had been a minute late. "Hello chief, I see you decided to have a party and you didn't invite me to watch. Don't worry though, I let myself in, treated myself to a delicious chicken and fresh juice, and showed myself to party. May I say, your house is so beautiful and so is she," I said and sat on the chair beside the bed. It had taken him a minute to see the camera I had just put up at the edge of the bed recording everything. "Who are you and how the hell did you get inside here," I had a feeling that he would run to the window and try to call the night guard and so I already had my abilities activated and ready to get to work.

Mind control was the one to do the trick so I went for it. "Hey, hey, relax. You can't go to the window because it is not worth it," I said and he repeated after me. I asked him to sit down and even though inside all he wanted was to call for help, the brainwashing got him seating down like a respectful little puppy. I turned towards the girl who had herself covered in a blanket. She was still shaking and had no strength to even run out of the room. I couldn't tell whether she was happy or scared that I was in the room but I felt the need to help her cool down. Her face was a little swollen from what I figured was t*****e and her nose was bleeding. She had one hell of a headache and I knew where the numbing pain in my head was coming from. "Hello, don't you be afraid, I am here to help you. What is your name?" I started. "Reb... my... name is Rebecca," she said in between clenched teeth as a result of all the shaking. "Okay Rebecca, I mean you no harm. However, I am going to need you to do something for me. I need to walk out of here, go to any of the bedrooms nearby and lock yourself in there and try to sleep. Can you do that for me?" I went on.

She looked at me and I could tell she was grateful. She nodded her head and got up ready to walk out. I noticed that she was walking with a limp and all my pain was suddenly explained. After she was gone and I had made sure she didn't try to call for help, I went on to have a little fun with Johnson. "So my n***d friend, have you ever thought of dying?" I asked and smiled to myself as I watched him freak out. "No, are you here to kill me? Who sent you? please let's talk about this. I have money, I can pay you..." he pleaded. I had so much anticipated him being in that help position that it made me feel things I had never felt before. The more he talked, the more I felt good and some parts of my body were too excited to stay still so they went up all by themselves. "I like it when you beg," I said and bit my lower lip. "Don't you think you are having way too much fun?" my guardian asked and I smiled to his question. We had an awkward conversation that I was sure got Johnson thinking I was crazy or something. In the end, I had to promise I would pretend that I was not having fun and so he let me go on with my sweet little task.

"I just want to know, if you were to go out today and someone gave you a chance to choose how you would like to kick the bucket, what would you choose?" I asked then stood up, and walked over to where he was seated and sat next to him. "Aaah...I want it to be fast and painless. Like a gunshot or a quick slit on the throat," he said. By then he was shaking seriously and I could tell he was about to pee himself. "Good, because you know what? I am going to give you the slowest, most painful death ever, but before I do that, I am going to need you to confess to everything you have ever done, Looking at that camera over there," he looked at me and as if he had found a way out, he smiled. "Aren't you forgetting that you are in that record too? The police will get you if you show that, and I know now that you need it for something," He had no idea that another one of my abilities was that I could create illusions. The camera was recording yes, but the me it was capturing was not the real me. The police would look but they would never find the person in the camera. "Well, has it occurred to you that I know all that?" I watched his smile fade away as quickly as it had appeared. I then pushed him to tell the truth which he did. I then took him downstairs where I picked the bluntest knife from his kitchen and slowly slit his throat open. Just like in the previous incident, I left the tape where the police would easily find it before taking a picture of the dying guy. That night I even had enough time to stay and watch the blood-forming a pool on the floor. That was right about when my guardian started to notice there was something really wrong with me.