Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The creepy foggy atmosphere of the gravesite should’ve scared off any person walking there. Why would anyone in their right mind do so? It wasn’t optimal. It wasn’t smart. Nevertheless here she was, Jasmine, hugging herself from the cold of the spirits there haunting her, walking past unseen eyes as she searched for Amelia France, an eighteen-year-old who was taken by a mobster that her partner was on the verge of catching. His MO was burying his victims alive until eventually, they died.

Jasmine couldn’t even fathom the trauma that came from that or imagine what being buried alive felt like. This case was taking more of a toll on her than she wanted it too, more than she would ever admit to herself. Her partner, Xavier, constantly asked her was she up to the task and she told him yes because the girl had to be found. She couldn’t allow another person to fall under because of her own fears. What kind of woman did that make her?

She continued her journey as she occasionally closed her eyes to hear the sound of anything wavering in the wind. Her heartbeat was fast and she prayed to herself silently that she wasn’t too late. Finding her had led to sleepless nights, not that she got much sleep anyways. Keeping control of her powers was a daunting task, especially while sleeping. She had to be in control at all times.

“Just come back if you need to, Peters. We can find her another way.” Xavier pleaded in her ear from the Bluetooth causing her to jump.

“I’m fine,” Jasmine replied snapping at him as she did so. “Just shut up and let me do this.” She replied more calmly. His response was to sigh, frustrated and worried about her. Why he always did this to himself was beyond Jasmine. It wasn’t uncommon for her to put her life on the line for another. At least this gave her life purpose.

Her hands reached out touching the gravestones one by one as she looked for the freshest grave to go near. It was a lot of them, more than she could fathom. People were dropping like flies lately. The crime rate had spiked, sickness had grown rapidly, a salad cost way more than a burger. It was pure madness. This world truly needed healing and cleansing, and where was the God everyone prayed too? Did he even hear their prayer?

Jasmine’s faith in humanity and in the supernatural had slowly started to decrease the more she performed her job. How did Xavier do it? He was on the force way longer than her and far more cheery and hopeful about humanity than she was. After helping him over the past two years she felt drained more now than she ever did before. How had he survived five?

A scream took her out of her thoughts, loud and compulsive. Her body gave way to the feeling, touching the ground as she squatted trying to regain composure. Her head spun, a side effect of being in someone else’s mind. Jasmine looked down to the ground, then around her. Something felt off. Something was watching her. As ominous as the scene looked before her she didn’t see anyone.

“Hey can you hear me. I’m with the district police. Amelia, Talk to me. I need to find you.” Jasmine remained calm despite the chaos going off in her mind. Her body continued to alert her to stop and not help the woman, but she wouldn’t stop now. She had to continue.

“Yes. I hear you...Please help me!”

“Keep talking, Amelia. I know you are afraid, but trust me I will find you. I just need to reach your mind.”

“Who are you? How are you able to do this?” Amelia asked. “Am I going crazy?”

Jasmine scoffed. “No. I’m Jasmine Peters. I may be the crazy one. Just keep talking to me okay. It will be over soon. I know you are afraid.”

“Yes please, please! I’m running out of air!”

The cry came from behind where she was kneeling and Jasmine began to touch the newly dug grave. “Xavier, I found her!” She screamed as she began removing the dirt from the top with her bare hands. Again her heart pounded alarm as her mind flashed like crazy. She looked around again a bit disoriented, there was a blurry image of a man in front of her with what seemed like black wings behind him. His face was too blurry to make out and the light...there was light surrounding him as she could only see the silhouette of the wings and the body.

She opened her mouth to speak, but men began to run over from behind with shovels, though she couldn’t stop looking at the mysterious silhouette. Her eyes widened as someone pulled her up from the dirt and she turned to them breaking out of her trance. Once she turned back the silhouette was gone. Her eyes looked around for it. Hiding in the darkness was where she saw the winged shadow one last time right before it disappeared.

“Hey Peters! You alright?” Xavier asked, grabbing her elbow as her heart slowly began to calm down.

“Did you see it?” Her hands were shaking and her mouth went dry. What the hell was that? It shined so brightly, but yet was in so much darkness that she felt the small push of power through her. It made her sick. Made her want to stop searching for the woman.

“See what? There was nothing here.” Xavier looked around to see if he could see anything. It would’ve been foolish of him not to, knowing what she could do and seeing her gifts firsthand. She wouldn’t have even been there if it wasn’t for them. “What did you see?”

She stuttered for a moment unable to explain. She opened her mouth to speak, but one of the officers called out for them to come look. “We found her!” He proclaimed.

Xavier clapped his hands hard together and ran over after patting her on the shoulder. Jasmine could only nod and squat back down as she placed her head between her legs to calm herself. Her heart wasn’t slowing down long enough for her to calm down. Whatever she saw truly spooked her.

After awhile Jasmine stayed in the car as Xavier and the others scanned the crime scene and got Amelia to the hospital. It was a successful search and rescue. Amelia would be hospitalized and placed into police custody until they caught the man who did that to her and hopefully to bring down the whole crime syndicate. It gave reason to celebrate, but Jasmine was only waiting to go home. Her phone tapped the side of her cheek in her hands and her mind couldn’t get away from what she saw.

“Jasmine Peters you are a true miracle.” Xavier praised once he got into the car. “We couldn’t have gotten her out without you.”

“I’m not sure about that.” Her eyes only glanced at Xavier as they sat in silence for a moment. “So what next?”

“Well, the chief wants a word with you. Some of us are going out to celebrate. Of course, you are coming as the guest of honor.” Xavier placed on his most charming smile, but Jasmine only frowned.

“No. I told you I don’t want to party with those animals. They are afraid of me and quite frankly I don’t blame them.”

“Come on that’s not true,” Xavier argued, shaking his head slowly.

“You aren’t in their minds, Xavier. They hate me. They fear me. I actually prefer it so they will actually leave me alone.” She folded her arms, mind made up. “I’m sorry. I’m not going. You found her. You go take all the credit. I just want to go home and take a long shower.” Dirt was still in her nails and all over her clothes. Her long curly hair fell down her face untamed. She looked at her hands full of dirt and back to herself in the side mirror. The fact that people hated her, even the police officers, used to make her feel bad. It was just a long line of people she needed to stay away from. “I need to rest and the peace and quiet.”

Xavier sighed as he started the car. “Well atleast go talk to the chief first. It will mean the world to me if he placed you as my partner for good. After this, I’m not sure what’s the big hold up. You solved more missing persons cases over the past two years than I have in my entire career as a detective.”

“I’m not qualified. Being a quack isn’t the preference on the resume.” She joked, but was really serious. “I rather do it unofficially anyways. It’s not too bad not having to take orders from other people.”

Xavier chuckled. “Something new you called yourself? A duck now? What happened to crazy psycho bitch?”

Jasmine smiled then, turning to him. His eyes glanced at hers and the moment would’ve been perfect to say something sweet and romantic to each other. “That’s only on special occasions.” She replied, looking away from his gaze as he turned back to the road.

“For the record, and I don’t care how many times I have to tell you this, you’re amazing. Your gifts are a true blessing and a gift from the Gods.” Jasmine turned unconvinced. Xavier didn’t understand what she had to go through. The loneliness, the constant paranoia, knowing what others are really thinking about you. It was the reason she didn’t have anyone. “I’m serious.” He continued. “I think you are great.” He touched her hand, slightly and hesitantly pulled away.

Jasmine didn’t reply. It wasn’t a topic she wanted to discuss with Xavier. He knew what she was, she opened up to him a couple of times, but he didn’t know the extent of what she had to endure. Her philosophy was never get too close. She was better off alone and people would just end up hating her anyways. Even though Xavier stuck around. She assumed for him it was always about the job or he was just being nice. That’s all.

Once they reached the police station Xavier walked in, Teresa, ran up and wrapped her arms around Xavier and kissed him right in front of Jasmine as she awkwardly turned her head. Teresa, Xavier’s girlfriend, was the main reason Jasmine didn’t dare get too close to Xavier. He was taken, despite his feelings for her, despite whatever feelings she had for him, it couldn’t go any further than work-related. Teresa had her eyes on Jasmine and was quite jealous at times, and Jasmine didn’t have to read her mind to know that.

Xavier was handsome. A dark chocolate black man with a heart of gold. Trimmed beard and mustache connected, waves on the top of his head. He was built, very muscular, worked out everyday, part of the job, and loved Teresa to pieces. Teresa was lighter tones than Xavier, more so Jasmine’s skin tone, but she was a straight classy kind of woman. The heels, the dress, the long flowing hair that clearly wasn’t hers, the makeup, the lifestyle. Teresa was also a fitness guru and they worked out as a couple.

They were a cute power couple, therefore Teresa had no reason to be jealous of Jasmine. She was five foot eight, not as slim as she was, hips and a bit of ass. Her stomach wasn’t the fattest, but it had a bulge, but her breasts were much smaller. Her hair was curly down to her shoulders and dyed brown on the tips, giving depth to her black roots. No makeup, there were lines under her eyes from lack of sleep and big full lips, with light brown eyes that most people thought were fake.

Instead of watching Teresa and Xavier swoon over each other Jasmine walked by them, glancing at the other officers that looked at her. Some unsure whether it was time to accept her on the force or not and the others were in pure disbelief. As she knocked on the Chief’s door she did start to feel a bit nervous. This was a big opportunity for her. If he was offering her a job would she really turn it down?

“Come in Jasmine.”

She opened the door and closed it softly turning, holding her hands nervously. “You wanted to see me?”

“Yes. Please sit.”

She did so in front of his desk, trying her best to not read his mind as she wanted to find out what was really going on. This was the first time he asked to speak to her personally, any other time he only spoke through Xavier. After seeing that silhouette earlier that night she couldn’t shake off her nerves. She was usually a lot calmer than this.

“You are doing some amazing work here recently and I have been noticing. For a minute Xavier was taking the credit, was that by your terms or his?” The Chief asked, folding his hands on his desk.

“It was mines. I didn’t want him to get in trouble for bringing me in knowing I’m not officially on the payroll. It was more so his research that solved the cases, I just tagged along.”

“Extremely modest of you. I also see here you are only twenty seven doing impressive work like this. You shouldn’t give him all the credit.”

Jasmine shrugged. “It’s the truth.”

“They tell me you have a gift of some sort that helps you catch the bad guys and find the victims. As in Amelia France. Do you really read minds?”

Jasmine didn’t know how to respond to that. It would always end up the same way. The other person would want her to test it and demand she read their thoughts. It wasn’t something she liked doing. Their thoughts usually lead her to being a freak even though they asked her too.

“I would prefer not, Sir. What is this really about?” She held her hands up. “Not trying to be rude, but it’s rather late and I need to get home and take a shower.”

“Right.” The Chief handed her an envelope. “The France family paid a pretty penny to help us find their daughter. I believe this belongs to you. Take it as you will, but you will take it.” He also handed her an application. “Also even though you are already on the team you have to go through proper procedures. Fill out the application and see if you are a fit to join us on payroll.” He stood as Jasmine stood.

“Umm…thank you, Sir. I will.” They shook hands.

“Good work tonight. I expect to see you on the force making a real difference here.”

Jasmine walked out feeling a bit overwhelmed. The application in her hands was the chance of a lifetime. The chance to make something more out of her life then what it was. The question was though, did she want that chance?

“I told you this was what the meeting was about!” Xavier beamed, wrapping his arms around her to congratulate her. She had to slightly pull away looking around the room for Teresa. “So when do you start?”

“I don’t. It’s just an application. I may not even make the cut. So stop getting excited. I’m going home. Go to the dinner thing and enjoy yourself. I will see you on the next big case.” She waved, heading to her car, an envelope full of money and an application she thought she would never have in her possession.