Soul Seer

Prologue/Chapter One

Prologue...

Soul Seer: An individual who can see, hear and feel the essence of a soul of either the living or the dead. This talent enables the individual to sense or witness past events which have provoked intense emotional responses from the soul whom has experienced the event or 'Soul Memory'-a memory that imprints on a person place or thing that is either present, or is the focus of an intense and/or traumatic experience.

Amina only had known the exact term for what she was for five years out of the six years she had worked for the L.A.P.D. Homicide Division. Her first year on the job had been difficult to say the least. At every bend and turn everyone wanted her out of the division, claiming she was a waist of time, or that she needed to be locked away in an institution. That is until she got her first big case. At first she was still treated like a burden, and she had to force her way onto the crime scene, but once she was there and she started drawing the mood changed.

Furiously she scribbled on her sketch pad, seemingly possessed as the images came to be on page after page. Blood pooled as the knife slashed and cut through the graphite of her pencils. Letting the images fill her mind and then sheet after sheet, laying bare the horror in frightening detail. With every line, every smudge, every shade it became clear how the victim suffered. They screamed and begged, but these went unheeded as the vaguely outlined murderer faded in and out of the victim's vision. Pages pooled around Amina the same as the victim's blood, as she laid her head in her hands weeping. Her cries sounding as if she were in some kind of physical pain while she was lead from the scene, and the investigators picked up the pictures of the now chronicled murder hoping to find a sketch of the perpetrator.

She had to be so careful never to let it slip just how much she could see, hear and feel during those times at a crime scene, or in everyday life for that matter. It had been when she was in the later half of elementary that she took to the habit of wearing elbow length gloves to avoid any unnecessary touching; but even then, should the marks on a soul be too deep and the emotions too strong to ignore she would be forced to experience the soul's pain regardless.

One of worst parts of her school days had been gym, having to change out into shorts and a t-shirt, plus her gloves were to be left off for games and activities. It's not to say that the glimpses she caught from her fellow students were all bad, in fact some were quite normal and fun to experience. Scenes filled with love, excitement and joy, but every now and again she'd catch a bad one. Someone who was either suffering or causing the suffering, and it made her skin crawl, her insides turn as she suffered with those who were in pain. At times what she saw, heard or felt effected her so much it was as if she was the owner of these feelings and experiences; the one being physically, emotional and psychologically attacked, and it was at these times she viewed her gift as a curse.

The only refuge Amina found, and still enjoyed, were when she slept and dreamed. For dreams are a reflection of what you feel in the deepest parts of your being. Your hopes and fears, the things that make up who you are as an individual. It was at these times of rest that Amina found her gift turned inward and showed her the inner most desires of her own soul and its connections with others whether they be good or bad. These visions often brought her comfort and hope that she was making a difference with her power, and that she would find peace with those she was meant to be with. Though she never was able to see the faces of those who would balance her, and anchor her soul by helping to bare the bourbon her gift laid on her shoulders. She had the feeling that all three of them would find her if she could find the strength to hold on. Until that time came she had a good paying job with L.A.P.D., though it was painful and at times Amina felt she was going insane from all the images of pain and violence, she stuck with it. If not for justice, or the families, who's loved ones she gave a voice, then for that flickering hope to find her soul mates wherever they maybe and whenever they may come into her life.

Chapter One...

"Come on Manny!" Amina begged, but her boss and supervisor, Kyle Manny, wouldn't have it, as he said,

"No Amina, you know the drill! Until the Doc. proclaims you fit for duty, you are on a round of personal leave!" They weaved through the desks of the Homicide division to Manny's office, with officers handing in their reports to Manny as he walked by and Amina trailing behind him begging for him to let her back on duty. Manny stopped by the filing cabinets to grab some materials he asked for before entering his office and plopping in his chair behind his overly organized desk, saying,

"If it makes you feel any better, look at it as payed vacation for a few weeks. Have fun, take a load off, go to Vagus for Christ Sake! Just do something that will get you to forget the Lemmings Case!"

Amina froze at the mention of her last case. It had truly been the worst and in many ways the most depraved of all the cases Amina had ever worked on in her six years in the Homicide division. The Lemmings case had been brought to her attention when the department needed someone to come up with a suspect when the evidence provided none. Naturally they had turned to Amina for her talent in "finding suspects", as the department dubbed it. Michael James Lemmings had twelve kills to his name by the time they found out who they were looking for. The only problem had been finding a physical way to tie him to the victims. Unfortunately it took two more killings to finally find a way to connect him to each and every murder.

His last kill gave them a vital clue as to how Lemmings got close to his victims, and how he could be tied to each murder. Lemmings had carried a small black book with him, containing notes on what he claimed was to be his latest and greatest murder mystery. He would share some of his gruesome tales with his next victim, ask for ideas and inspiration. Then, after writing down a few suggestions he would offer to walk them home or to their bus stop, what have you. It was during this point in time that he would incapacitate them and take them to a secluded area and, as he describes in his little black book,

'It is now that the true art of flesh, blade and blood can begin.'

It was at this time in which he would hang the victim by their wrists with their legs tied in a spread eagle and begin his slow and lagged torture of the victim. Wrapping the breasts and thighs in razor wire, after which the girls were raped multiple times. All the victims were whipped from the front and behind, cuts and gashes as well as burns were also laid on several of the victims. However, each victim had a unique wound of one form or another, which later was determined not only to be the ending cause of death, but also one of the suggestions they had made to Lemmings when they had thought he was an author looking for his muse.

Each scene had been like that of a horror film that had imprinted itself on Amina's memories. Feeling every mark, every cut made to each victim had nearly driven her insane. They had known they were going to die, making the times when they were left alone in between sessions far worse then anything he could do to them physically. That faint hope, no matter how small, that they might have a chance of living through this. Then it was cut from them slowly and painfully in a manner that they themselves had suggested unknowing of the danger and the soon to be deadly position they'd find themselves in.

'Humans are truly cruel.' she thought to herself through her memories of that case,

'Beasts are gruesome in how they kill and feed, nature is harsh in her laws and manner, but that's how things have to be done for sheer survival. Man kills for ideals, religion, king, country, or for the simple pleasure of watching another suffer...in a way this makes us the beasts. We're the savages.' She was pulled from her thoughts by an officer brushing past her, just missing her bare arm, but she could still sense his urgency as he placed a report on Manny's desk and began to discuss another case that was now starting to look like a serial killer's work.

Amina was about to ask what the case entailed when Manny shook his head at her saying,

"Oh no ya don't missy! You're on vacation even if I have to lock you up in your apartment for a month! Now out and find something to do for your time off before I put you on a one way train to a desk job!" With a sigh and a hung head, Amina made her way out of the department and on to the streets of L.A. It was sunny out, though a bit chilly, but what could you expect for early February, even if you were in the sunny state of California? She walked down the way and across the street to the subway station thinking about what she should do for her 'vacation'. She entered the rear tramcar and stood near the door so she could be one of the first ones out.

The ride wasn't a long one, but the car stunk to high heaven, and Amina never felt very comfortable being in a place where you could easily get cornered or trapped. But, it was the fastest way to and from her apartment so she wasn't about to complain. As she waited for the tram to reach her stop Amina thought on possibly taking a trip to someplace new, maybe even over seas. The only question was where? She's already been to London for a family trip to see one of her aunts back in the day when her family was still talking to her. And she had visited most of the greatest site to see in the U.S.

'So where to now?' she wondered. The tram was squealing to a halt when she caught a look at a poster on one of the advertisement boards in the terminal. When the doors finally opened and she took a closer look, it was a picture of a vineyard in the rolling hills of Italy. The picture was meant to promote the buying of a brand of wine that may have very well be coming from northern California, but it was enough to get Amina to decide on where she would go for her vacation.

It wasn't long before she was at home looking for roundtrip tickets to Italy, along with any tours that might be going at this time and into next month. After all her boss did say she had several weeks of vacation time to spend however she liked. So if it meant he'd have to wait to hear back from her for a bit, she was more then happy to go, if not for the sites, food and wine, then to piss him off that she wasn't available. By the time she had ordered a pizza with a two liter of Pepsi and cinna-stix, her ticket was booked and she was half way through with packing for the trip. She called her landlord to let her know she would be gone for quite a while, but the rent would be paid on time and the cleaning lady was welcome to come by cause she had a key.

'Wow!' Amina thought to herself as she got the rest of her underclothes packed and moved on to toiletries.

'I'm really going to Italy. One of the oldest and most famous places to go. I just hope I'll have enough space on my camera and computer to hold all the pictures and videos I want to take while I'm there. Speaking of which...' She grabbed said camera from the closet and carefully wrapped it in a pair of her jeans to keep it from bumping around. There was a ring at the door, and Amina left her packing to grab her dinner and pay the delivery boy a nice tip. After pizza, pop, stix and some more sensible packing Amina passed out on her couch reading 'Dark Prince'. The story itself reflecting her inner longing to find those three souls attached to hers. The Carpathians, as read in the book, grow cold and emotionless without their mate, their other half. She couldn't help wondering if that was what would eventually happen to her. That her heart would become lifeless and hopeless. But she shook herself and forced her mind to think on how she would go about getting around to all the places she wanted to see and all the things she wanted to do in Italy. Now was a time to enjoy herself and she would simply let the tales of Mikhail and Raven's romance carry her into dreams of her soul's own desires.

She had so much to look forward too in the coming weeks. Site seeing in Pisa and Rome, wine tasting in Florence, and Carnival time in Venice. So many things she wanted to see and do that Amina decided the best place to start would be at the bottom of the country and work her way northward so that she could enjoy every part of Italy until she made it to Venice. There she planned to stay through the ten days of Carnival and fly back home with a weekend to spare so she could be fresh and ready for work when Monday came around at the beginning of March. And so she slept, with a coiled spring in her stomach at the adventure that lay ahead starting in the morning when her flight would be heading across the Pacific ocean, over Asia, the Middle East, and finally Europe.