The Empath

Colethe stared at the ant marching just beyond her feet. Every day it lived in a world that was much too big, but the simple ant paid no attention to the earth shaking giants that came within millimeters of its den. There was nothing but a calm acceptance of the fact that at any moment one of those giants could be its permanent demise.

"Stupid a*s." Colethe growled as she reached out and squashed the ant under her foot.

There was a brief time of regret. The evil of destroying an innocent life only for its insignificance to her own did not sit well for several moments. Even if she knew it would only be a matter of time before another more ignorant foot would bring about the same end.

"Oh well," she sighed, "Lucky b*****d will probably just be reincarnated as some big Wall Street tycoon anyway."

A man walking by the park bench looked at Colethe with a raised eyebrow as she continued muttering to herself. She felt his fear and could almost see his thought patterns as he pictured her fresh from some grand murder, her hands hidden in her pockets so that no one would see the blood caked under her fingernails.

His pace quickened and he ran off around the corner out of her sight. Clearly he thought that he knew too much, but Colethe could only laugh at the thought. The man would go home tonight, mull it over to himself or with a friend, then eventually he would come to one conclusion. It was just his imagination.

There was no way he could possibly know that some random girl in the park could be a murderer, and as such he wouldn't waste another thought on her. It was truly only Colethe that knew too much.

She had gotten so many ohh's and ahh's over the years from her friends as she read their hearts. They loved her little 'parlor trick' and begged her time and again to guess what they were thinking. They all envied her, assuming this 'parlor trick' was some great gift.

Yet they never saw what she did as a seemingly pleasant couple strolled by, a mother and father pushing along a bright white pram as they chatted merrily about vague topics. They couldn't feel the husband's lust for his secret mistress, nor the anger the wife felt as she envisioned him as a corpse rotting in his own blood on the cellar floor.

None of them knew what it was like to look into their boyfriend's eyes as he dumped them, only to see that his only reason for doing so was because he thought them a freak of nature. She couldn't even have a decent surprise party because the secret was betrayed by the eyes of even her most tight lipped friends.

Colethe looked to the sky with pleading eyes, searching desperately for the foot that would strike her down. Only a blinding ray of sun answered, forcing her to shift her gaze to a fluffy white cloud in the distance. It sat up there as if on a glass shelf.

Angrily Colethe wished she could toss a heavy stone at that shelf and shatter it to pieces. Bringing down that happy little cloud to the real world so she could make it feel just as sour as she. Then it would never again taunt her from the sky with its cheery disposition.

"Well hello there, Mary Sunshine!" a woman's voice called to her.

"Whatdya want?" she answered to the red head that now joined her on the bench.

"Perhaps Grumpy Gus would have been more appropriate." The red head whispered pensively.

Colethe turned forcefully to her new companion and glared at her with as much effort as she could muster. The red head turned to her as well while she folded her black trench coat in her lap and rested her hands on it.

As their eyes met the familiar connection began. There was no secret to the stranger now; through her emotions she unknowingly told her entire life story to Colethe. Every purpose and every reason for her to be here was made clear.

"Tell me what it is that you want me to know." Colethe asked, thinking it rude and condescending to blurt it out herself.

"They told me many things about your kind," the red head mused, "The fact that I wouldn't have to bend over and explain everything to you not the least among them."

"I would still like to hear it," Colethe retorted, "Often what people want to say and what they do say are very different from each other. Speak to me like I was any other, please!"

"My name is Asha..." the red head began.

"Huh," Colethe interrupted, "That isn't the name you call yourself in your heart now is it?"

Asha finally discarded her forced smile and frowned freely at Colethe. It was only a tiny fraction of the anger the woman kept bottled inside of her. Colethe could only hope that she was nowhere near when that anger was released.

"It is very hard to speak to you like a normal person if you insist on stating the unspoken." Asha answered, Colethe grunted a half-hearted apology but the woman refused to continue.

"You come here because of love," Colethe spoke for her, "Someone you love has been separated from you, and you fear for this loved one. You think they might be in danger where they are."

Asha said nothing, but again her eyes told enough. They were wide in shock as she spoke her feelings aloud. In a weird kind of way it was like the woman had forgotten those feelings herself.

"Your fear is powerful," she continued, "Not only for this loved one, but for the team you are trying to bring together. You doubt your ability to bring them together in peace, and you don't know how to convince them of your plan."

Colethe paused for Asha to react. Her silence remained, but she nodded her head in acknowledgement. She made no attempt to contradict or clarify, and Colethe took this as her permission to go further and deeper.

"Anger is at the core of you." She said. "Partly because of your fear, but only a small part. You direct some at the one you love, and some at another whom you thought you loved, but the biggest part of your anger is what you feel toward yourself."

Asha turned her head away and tossed it back in loud laughter as if she just realized this was some kind of joke. She covered her eyes with her right hand and took several moments to collect herself before turning to Colethe again.

"All of the sudden," she began with a laughing sigh, "I feel like I should be in a carnival with you in your tent, my palms turned up and you dressed like a gypsy."

"Am I wrong?" Colethe challenged.

"I don't deny the truth in your words," Asha said, "Just that there isn't enough of it in them."

Without another word, Asha took a firm hold on her coat and shook it out to its full length. Digging into one of the hidden inner pockets she pulled out a manila folder, handing it to Colethe with an exaggerated flip of her wrist.

"Behold!" Asha exclaimed in a booming dramatic voice, "The rest of the story."

Colethe examined the paper inside and took note of the date and time for the meeting she had seen in Asha's thoughts. It told her where to be and what exactly was meant to be discussed as it had to all the recipients that had come before her.

"I am giving this to you because you have the connections I lack." Asha stated. "I'm not asking you or yours to decide where you stand now, only that I be given the chance to speak my piece. I swear none of your kind will be harmed..."

"I don't need you to explain," Colethe interrupted, "I see all remember?"

"Yeah well, better to overdo than under do!" Asha said.

"You will see me there," Colethe reassured, "I can guarantee that much."

Satisfied, Asha stood up and tossed her coat over her shoulder. With a grateful wave she began to walk back down the path she had come from, but before she could go very far Colethe called out to her.

"I have some advice for you," she began once Asha had come back, "As I may not have time at a later date to give it I might as well hand it to you now."

"Go ahead, I'm listening." Asha said.

"There is a powerful reason for why you are doing this," Colethe told her plainly, "I know from your heart that you are not moved to action so easily."

"Isn't it the same reason for everybody?" Asha asked, "Kill the bad guy, save the world?"

"You know what I mean. You have a much deeper reason than that old standby." Colethe insisted.

"What, my anger?" Asha replied with a sarcastic smirk.

"Love," Colethe whispered, "It is your love for the man that is driving this, not your anger at the one who holds him captive. You can never defeat Jonas with your anger alone, you must remember the purer purpose behind everything, or he will trap you once more."

Asha opened her mouth to reply, but Colethe turned her head down and ignored her. Eventually the woman walked away, confused and unsure. Colethe smiled a little as she turned the corner out of her sight.

"You will understand in time," she whispered to Asha, "I only hope that it doesn't come too late."