I hadn’t been asleep for very long before I was abruptly woken up by a loud growl. I grabbed my phone and checked the time. It was nearly two in the morning. I heard the growl again. And again. I finally realized that it came from my stomach. I had just remembered that I hadn’t eaten dinner before going to bed.

“The convenience store is still open,” I thought to myself. So I threw on a jacket, grabbed my wallet and keys, got into the car, started the engine, and then I was on my way.

As expected, it was very vacant out at this time. Sometimes I would see a car coming from the opposite direction, but other than that, no one was on the streets. After 10 minutes, I had finally arrived at the closest 7-Eleven. After entering the store, I wasn’t even sure what I wanted to eat at this hour. Something too heavy would upset my stomach. Eventually I made up my mind and grabbed two bags of chips and walked towards the cashier. Surprisingly, another customer had entered the store with a dog.

“Seems a little late to walk your dog,” I said as he was browsing the aisles. He never responded, so I proceeded to pay for the bags of chips. As I began to leave, the dog ran past me, bumping into my hand. At this very moment, I got a headache and memories of the dog popped into my head. I could see the dog being adopted from an animal shelter. Memories of it being constantly abused at home. Its attempt to run away and escape the pain. All of this suffering and torment rushed into my head. I couldn’t control any of it. I limped to my car, constantly stumbling and losing balance while walking. Sounds of the dog’s whimper replayed over and over in my head. I could only feel sorry and sad for this dog. It had never done anything wrong and yet it's treated like this. I eventually got into my car and knocked out cold. 

I woke up 30 minutes later. The headache continued to linger and I had noticed that my shirt and hands were sticky from all the sweating that had occured. This isn’t anything out of the ordinary though. 

I was born with this power. As a kid, I would always wonder why random images popped into my head. None of them were mine, I knew that for sure, and it always scared me as a kid. Everything that I interact with physically, allows me to see its past to some extent, essentially psychometric powers. I may not be able to see the entirety of its past in one go, but after multiple uses, I will be able to find its entire past. This works on anything. From rocks, to trees, to doors, and even other people. But, I can’t control any of this. The memories of everything I interact with,continue to tear me down. I just want to get rid of this suffering. 

“WHY do I have to live in constant PAIN that didn’t even belong to ME?!” It's just not WORTH it to live anymore; I thought at first. There was nothing I could do about it anyways. So it was either death or find a way to harness the power. At this point, death didn’t seem so awful. I would be free of all the torturing thoughts. The chains would come loose and I would be able to fly away to a happier place, but even then, I wanted to find a way to control this power before just ending it all. 

After losing both my parents in a fire, I was taken into foster care at the age of 13. It was also hard to stay in school as I never really cared for it and would always get into trouble with the principal. My foster parents would always get phone calls home about my behavior at school and would scold me to act better, but I never bothered. This went on through all of high school. Obviously, it was pretty much impossible for me to get into college. I had low grades and no money. What resources did I even have? How was I going to control my power?

An idea immediately popped into my head. If I could find a job that utilizes this power effectively, I could possibly do some good with it. I headed to the local library and began researching possible jobs that could use a power like mine. It's highly unlikely that anyone else also has this power and most jobs wouldn’t even believe my power even existed. I continued to browse the web and found the perfect job for my ability. Why not join the police force? I could solve so many cases with my power alone, but since it is a supernatural ability, the law would still require hard evidence to support my claims. No matter the condition, I needed to at least try. I immediately applied to the police academy. It was a quick six months. I had never done well in school, so that didn’t really help me pass any of the tests at the academy. I failed the final exams and left the academy defeated like I was before. During this time, I was able to meet an old friend from high school, Kyle, the only person I ever trusted with the knowledge of my powers. I knew from the beginning he was a genius, so he breezed through the exams, even the physical tests. He was a scrawny kid the last time I remembered and now he is some 6 feet buff dude with a friendly smile. Even though I had failed, I still had hope because of him.

“Did you pass the exams Sylas?”

“I don’t know what to say, but did you really think I was going to pass? I mean, you knew how I was in high school. I never studied and always got in trouble.”

“Well, I thought you would have at least changed somewhat, but I guess not. Don’t feel hopeless though. If I could change, so can you.”

“Yeah right.”

“Your power could be so useful to the police force.”

“I know and that was the sole reason I even tried. How about you help a brother out? After you are done and set to work as a full time police officer, introduce me to your team.”

“Ahhh. I see where you are going with this. You want me to introduce you to my team so that you could impress them with your power and get a job that way.”

“Yes. Exactly. As long as I am able to help, I don’t mind what the job is.”

“Ok, I’ll get back to you.”

It took Kyle about two weeks to get back to me. He told me that he would introduce me to the team and that they wanted to test my ability on a case they were currently working on. They wanted to make sure it was legit. I didn’t mind that at all, but I was afraid of what the case was. Would I have to touch a corpse’s body to find out what had happened to them and who did it to them? The thought of this already gave me a headache. Even though I had already seen so many different things before, this just felt different. Trying to keep the thought out of my mind, I quickly dressed and headed right over. 

After arriving at the police department, the team quickly informed me about what the case was. A man, in his 30’s, was found dead in a ditch with seven stab wounds while on his business trip. His family said he was never a part of any gangs or got into shady business with anyone, ever. Lived a happy life with a wife and two kids. Everyone close to him was cleared. 

“Seems like just cold-blooded murder for the fun of it,” I said.

“Agreed,” said Kyle.

“Let’s get right to it then,” said the Team Captain. Everyone was clearly suspicious about my power but were also eager to see if it truly worked or not. The first thing that caught my attention was how pale the body looked. It was as white as chalk. It startled me a bit, as the body laid there lifeless. I then proceeded to touch one of the knife wounds, even though I could have totally touched anywhere else. The body was so cold and immediately my power began working. I could see him happily with his family. They were celebrating his daughter’s first birthday. The lights were turned off in the room, only being lit by the birthday candles on the cake. Everyone was smiling and I could hear the cheerfully sung happy birthday tune. It then skipped to after the party ended. He was now leaving for his business trip, surprisingly on the same night. Then another skip forward, a large, dark figure was towering over him as he laid on the ground, pleading for mercy. The dark figure continued forward with a knife in his right hand and began stabbing the man over and over. I could hear the screams of pain become quiet as life began to leave the man, and then everything went black. While I saw all of this going on in my head, my physical body was shaking and sweating. I couldn’t bear it anymore and knocked out on spot. 

After waking up, I was greeted by Kyle who told me I had been knocked out for a day. 

“You okay now?” asked Kyle.

“I guess so.”

“You shouldn’t push yourself too much, this may not be the right job for you. I don’t want to be scared every time you use your power and be worried while I wait for you to wake up.”

“I know what you mean, but this has happened so many times that I’ve gotten used to it. You don’t need to worry about me.”

“Are you sure? When something goes wrong, don’t blame me for not stopping you, I already warned you.”

“Of course. All the responsibility will be on me.”

At this moment the Captain and his team came into the room and checked on me. After making sure I was fine, they asked me to describe what I had seen. I told them everything, from the birthday party to the brutal stabbing. They all nodded their head, agreeing with everything that happened.

“You pass,” said the Captain.

“Uh…ok…”

“This was all a setup to test the extent of your powers. We already solved this case, and everything you just described did happen. The family had told us the victim had left for work after the birthday party and what you said matched up perfectly. We will accept you into our team but even though the power might have worked this time, that doesn’t mean we totally trust it yet. Give us some time to get comfortable with it.”

“So when do I start?”

“Tomorrow. That will give you enough time to recover and give us time to prepare for our next case. Also, even though you already went through the academy and are trained, you failed the final exams. That means we will not provide you all the equipment we have. The least you will have is a vest, but that is about it. Don’t even bother thinking you will be able to carry a gun or baton with you. We will handle that work. Just make sure you use your power effectively. Got it?”

“Yes sir!”

“Everyone is dismissed. We will meet back here tomorrow morning at eight.

I was so excited! I finally found something useful to do with my powers. But, the main reason I even did this was to find a way to control my power. I bet needing to use this power over and over will eventually allow me to control it or at least the repercussions would decline. That would be nice. Using my power without any hindrances. I could become the greatest cop that is not a cop! Enough daydreaming. I decided to get out of bed and go for a walk around the neighborhood to get some fresh air. It was nice seeing spring finally arrive. I could see the vibrant colors of the flowers everywhere. It was quiet and I could hear the wind blowing over the tree branches. The air seemed cleaner too. There was no heavy, intoxicating factory smell. It just seemed like this day couldn’t be better. After the walk, I headed home, ate dinner, and went to bed. 

I woke up the next morning, grabbed my phone to check the time. It was already 10. I was in such shock that I quickly ran into the bathroom, stubbing my toe in the process and yelling out in pain. I was in such panic that I accidentally squeezed the majority of the toothpaste out of the tube onto my toothbrush. Not caring about the mess, I brushed my teeth, ran out of the bathroom, got dressed, and ran over to the police department.

“It’s literally my first day on the job and I’m already late! Hopefully they’ll be lenient.”

By the time I got there, everyone was already at the meeting discussing the new case. I entered the meeting room gasping for air, everyone was staring at me and Kyle was trying to hold in his laughter.

“I’m very sorry for being late. Please forgive me!”

“No worries,” said the Captain, “we can catch you up on what you missed.”

I took a seat and took a moment of relief. 

“So getting back to what happened, we found this woman dead in her own apartment. We believe she was brutally beaten with a blunt object as her cranium was completely crushed and several ribs were broken. What we should focus on is blah blah blah blah…..” 

After the main points, I began spacing out. It was so boring, I just wanted to do something already. 

Eventually the meeting ended and I was told to head over to the autopsy room. The Captain told me to do whatever I needed, so I proceeded. This time, I immediately saw the murder scene. It was another large figure, dressed in all black. They had a bat in their hand and repeatedly swung at the woman’s body, shattering ribs in the process. The large figure then proceeded to smash a cement block into her head, but for a brief moment I was able to see the murderer’s face. They had blue eyes, curly brown hair, and a wide grin that looked like they enjoyed seeing the woman in pain. It was for a very brief moment, but the face reminded me of someone, but I wasn’t sure who it was. I immediately withdrew my hand. I was once again sweating, breathing heavily, and stumbling backwards. Kyle ran up to support me. I was surprised that I didn’t faint again and it looked like my body had begun to adapt to the stress. 

“You okay?” asked one of the team members.

“I’m fine. At least I didn’t faint this time.”

They quickly got me into a chair and gave me some time to recover before asking what I had seen. I described everything to them. During the explanation, they kept asking if I was sure that the person I saw was someone I knew. I reassured them that their face looked very familiar, but at the moment, I couldn’t think of who. As I finished up, the Captain told me to take the rest of the day off. He wanted to make sure I would be ready for tomorrow. I was saddened to hear this, but understood where he was coming from. So, I took off and left everyone else to continue the investigation. While on the way home, I constantly tried to figure out who the person was. It was when I finally got home, that I was able to figure out who that face belonged to. It was Kyle. How did I not think of this? He was my one true friend through all of school and I hadn’t recognized that face immediately. But, even though he was my friend, we always avoided fist bumps, high fives, handshakes, etc. The person closest to me, was the one person I had not used my power on. I had to confront him at this moment, but should I though? Do I want to ruin our friendship or keep my mouth shut about the truth. I wasn’t sure what to do at all. I had always been lonely, and the one person who stuck with me through hard times in life, was now a possible enemy. 

I decided that it was worth destroying a friendship then keeping a murderer hidden. I quickly ran back to the police department. Luckily he was there. I told him to come outside so that we could talk privately.

“Give me your hand Kyle!”

“Why?”

“Just give me your hand!”

“NO! You think with your power you can just do anything now, right? At this point, I know you know that I killed that woman.”

“WHY DID YOU DO IT THEN?!! What is so enjoyable about killing people?”

“Where do I start? I love hearing their screams. Their squeals. Their cries, asking for help. What is there not to love about it? At this rate, since you know everything, I’ll also tell you this. I was the one who set fire upon your home. I was the one who killed your parents.”

At this point, I was so angry and couldn’t take any of this f*cking bullsh*t anymore. I charged at him, knowing that I was smaller in size and my strength couldn’t even be compared to his, but instincts took over. He didn’t even bother trying to avoid me, knowing that my power would activate and cause me to go into shock. All his memories flowed into my head, and as expected, its consequences took a toll on me. He proceeded to pick me up and slam me down.

At this moment, the rest of the police team came rushing out and drew their guns.

“I heard enough already,” said the Captain. “Kyle, you are under arrest.”

With Kyle at gunpoint, he knew it was over for him and he could not do anything about it. He peacefully surrendered himself to the police. 

An ambulance was immediately called for me due to Kyle’s slam shattering three of my ribs. I had to take a month off, but I still kept my job, so it wasn’t too bad and I still had the opportunity to train my power. For Kyle, he was sentenced to life and I never heard from him again. I still don’t know how I feel about this situation. Why did it have to turn out like this? Life was already an uphill battle and the one person who made it easier, had now thrown me back to the bottom of the hill. The one thing I know for sure though, is that I wished none of this had happened.