Cursed or Blessed

by A. L. Martin

  “Maybe you won’t need him, Karsyn,” she smiled. I knew she was trying to be optimistic, but I knew exactly where I was going to be in a couple of hours, and it wasn’t home.

  We stood by the truck, watching the police over by the bodies, taking photos and gathering evidence. Detective Alvarez kept looking back at us every few minutes, and I could feel his judgment pierce through me like a hot knife. I knew he was going to try and put my friends’ death on me, and it didn’t matter to him if I was innocent or not.

  Kurt moved to the other side of Braedon. I could tell he wanted to be closer to me for the simple fact he knew deep down I was on the verge of breaking.

  “Do you want me to call Aunt Jenna?” Kurt asked.

  “No. She will tell Dad and next thing we will be moving to a different city after the police realize I had nothing to do with their deaths. I don’t want to move again. I can’t keep running from this.”

  After another thirty minutes had passed, Detective Alvarez started walking back over to us with an officer beside him. The officer couldn’t have been much older than us. He had a clean-shaven baby face and a slender build. “Officer, could you please take Karsyn Alexander into custody for questioning? Have her transported to my police department.”

  “What about her friends, Detective?” the officer asked.

  “Make sure they head back to Charlottesville. Do you mind if I g back with you?”

  “You are welcome to ride along.”

  Braedon gave me a kiss on the forehead and whispered that he would see me soon. He told me to be strong, and that everything was going to be fine. I wanted to believe him, but I had already been through something like this with Rylee’s trial. Maybe I would be granted a miracle and this wouldn’t see a trial. Then again, I knew Detective Alvarez was going to push for a trial to make sure I was held accountable for their deaths.

  The detective took my arm and pulled me away from Braedon, escorting me to the waiting patrol car. I got in the back driver’s side seat and looked out the window at Braedon, Kurt, and Sophie. Sophie was messing with her phone, then looked up at me, holding her phone to show me she was calling someone. I could only hope it was her dad to see about getting the attorney there to the station for me. I turned my body to the left as we pulled away so I could see them standing by the truck as we headed toward the Interstate to take me back to Charlottesville. We weren’t even halfway down the road yet, when I saw Braedon help Sophie up in the truck while Kurt ran around to the passenger side and jumped in.

  The next hour was going to be spent in misery with two cops, one who seemed like he would be okay, and the other one determined to make my life a living hell. What he didn’t know was that my life was already hell. I tried to help, and yet it always came back to bite me in the ass. I sat there looking out the back window as we sped down the Interstate, wondering how I missed Tyler in my visions. I tried to think about what I saw in them and compared it to the actual scene. Alexina was exactly how the vision portrayed, but something wasn’t right about Tyler’s body. I got so preoccupied with thinking about my vision and the crime scene that I didn’t realize we were already back in the city. My stomach felt as if I just got off a roller coaster. I wiped my hands on my jeans at least five times by the time we pulled into the police station.

  Detective Alvarez escorted me into the station and the officer pulled out of the station and headed back. He had the officer behind the famous glass window buzz him in, and he took me to our special interrogation room.

  Before I could sit down in the chair, Detective Alvarez’s partner walked in the room, laying that dreaded folder down on the table in front of me. He didn’t take his eyes off me as he sat down, and I swear at one point he sneered at me. I didn’t care what they said to me, I wasn’t talking unless I had an attorney present. We sat there in uncomfortable silence for about fifteen minutes, then Detective Alvarez walked out of the room for a few minutes. He came back with a gentleman carrying a shiny briefcase. He looked maybe a few years older than my parents with grey hair peppered throughout his dark hair. He was dressed in a three-piece black suit, white dress shirt, and blue tie. The detective left the room and was back a few seconds later with a chair for the man.

  “Miss Alexander, I’m Nathan Foster. I will be representing you.” He placed his briefcase on the table in front of him, getting out a notebook and pen. I was rather surprised he pulled out paper instead of a little laptop. “I would like to Miss Alexander alone in a private room if you detectives don’t mind,” he said, looking at both of them. The detectives both looked at each other, then back at Mr. Foster before reluctantly escorting us to a different room down the hall. The room looked identical to the other one, except it didn’t have a two-way mirror. The detectives left the room, closing the door behind them.

  “Your friend Sophie had her Dad call me to see if I would represent you. Don’t worry about the cost. It is being taken care of by Mr. Grey. He doesn’t want your family to worry about any legal costs. I am sorry that I was a few minutes late. Mr. Grey was telling me about you on the phone. I heard how you took care of Sophie last week. I know Mr. Grey is grateful for you helping her.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Foster. I’m sure you have some questions for me. First, could you please ask them if I could have a bottle of water?”

  “Sure,” he said, getting up and going out into the hall for no more than a couple of minutes. “They should get you a drink. Once they give you some water, we can begin with the questions.”

  Detective Alvarez’s partner came in with a bottle of water for me and left without saying anything to either of us. The minute he closed the door behind him, Mr. Foster moved to the other side of the table across from me. “Okay, this is better. Let’s get started. Mr. Grey did mention to me that you have visions. And these visions are always about a person’s death. Can you tell me about these visions?”

  I looked over towards the door because even though I couldn’t see anyone out in the hallway, I knew someone was probably out there trying to listen. I began to explain to him what happened when I have a vision and that I don’t get the whole picture all at once. I made sure to emphasize several times that it wasn’t me that did this heinous crime. I told him each vision a new piece of the puzzle is revealed, and then it’s over. He asked me if anyone besides my family knew about my visions. I told him the only person that knew about my visions was my best friend Rylee Wells and her family, then I mentioned that Rylee was killed almost two years ago. I did tell him that I recently told Braedon and Sophie about my visions.

  He told me that he had found my trial on the internet, and had requested a copy of the trial papers. He went on to explain to me that he didn’t believe I had anything to do with their deaths. He continued to write notes down in silence for a few minutes before finally asking me about the vision that led me to finding Alexina and Tyler. Again, I told him it was like pieces to a puzzle. I proceeded to tell him first I was in the meadow with flowers, lots and lots of white wildflowers, and the knotted tree. I watched his facial expressions carefully as he wrote things down, trying to see if he actually believed me. Then, I told him how each little thing would reveal itself in the vision. I couldn’t stop watching him write down every little thing I had been telling him.

  “Is there anything else that you can remember?” Mr. Foster asked, flipping to another page.

  I sat there looking down at the table, then toward the door. All of a sudden, knowing someone could be listening at the door, my mind went blank. I tried to remember the vision and what I saw out in the meadow without getting the two mixed up. I tried to concentrate more on Tyler than Alexina since I missed him in the vision altogether.

  “Well, I think we are about done here for today. I am going to go talk to them about letting you go home,” Mr. Foster said, putting his notes in his briefcase. “Don’t worry, I’m going to make sure they don’t put the blame on you for this.”

  Mr. Foster grabbed his briefcase with his left hand,
while he held out his right hand to shake mine. He walked around the table and opened the door to walk out into the hall.

  “Wait!” I yelled.

  “Something wrong?” he asked, turning back toward me.

  “I may have remembered something that doesn’t match up between my vision and what I saw out in the meadow today,” I said, turning in my seat to look back at him. He stepped back into the room, closing the door behind him. He walked back around the table, placing his briefcase down on the table. “What did you remember and is it important to your case?” He sat down, pulling the notepad out again.

  “Well, in my vision I remember seeing a black and white shoe a few feet away from the girl’s body. Right as you were getting ready to walk out of the room, I happened to remember that Tyler had both of his shoes on,” I glanced over at Mr. Foster.

  “It could have been the girl’s shoe.”

  “No. She had on boots. In my vision today. So, the shoe didn’t belong to Alexina. Tyler had on both of his shoes when I found him in the meadow. You have to believe me,” I said, tears welling up in my eyes.

  Mr. Foster looked at me, then walked over to the door. He pried the door open enough to ask someone to get Detective Alvarez. He turned back around, walking back over to his seat and wrote more notes down.

  Detective Alvarez was in the room a few minutes later. Mr. Foster informed him that he needed to have the officers out there in the meadow look for a shoe not belonging to either of the victims.

  Chapter 20

  “Why should I have them look for a shoe not belonging to the victims?” he snapped.

  “The vision and what she saw out there today didn’t match up. I know you may not believe her about her visions, but as her attorney I do. What if you have the wrong person in for questioning? How would the police department explain that to the families, knowing the real killer is out there wandering around free?”

  The detective stood there, shifting his eyes side to side between me and Mr. Foster. I had a feeling he was hoping to catch a glance between the both of us, the kind of glance that would let another person know they were lying or something. But I wasn’t lying about the shoe. He finally left the room a few minutes later, and Mr. Foster followed him out the door. He was going to see what had to be done about letting me go home instead of sitting here. About twenty minutes later, Mr. Foster was back with Detective Alvarez to release me to go home. He explained that I couldn’t talk to anyone about the case or see Braedon and Sophie. He couldn’t stop me from seeing Kurt because he was in the same house.

  Mr. Foster escorted me down the hall toward the door that led to the front lobby of the station. The officer buzzed us through, and when I looked up, I saw my parents sitting over in the chairs across the lobby from me. My dad had his arm around my mom, comforting her. I knew there was no humanly possible way, but they each looked like they had aged five years since I saw them this morning at breakfast. I could see Mom’s eyes were puffy from crying, and Dad’s crease on his forehead between his eyes looked deeper than usual.

  Before I could even say anything to them, Mom was up out of her chair and had her arms wrapped around me in less than a few seconds. She kept asking me if I was okay without giving me a chance to answer.

  “Jenna, let’s take our daughter home,” Dad said, holding the left door open for us. Once outside the police station, my parents talked to Mr. Foster for a few minutes, thanking him for representing me and assuring him that they would begin to make payments for his charges. He told them his fees had already been taken care of, and that they didn’t have to worry about paying him. He also told them that I wasn’t allowed to talk to Braedon and Sophie for a while, at least until the police were done investigating the crime scene. He walked over to me and shook my hand, telling me that he would let me know the minute he heard anything. We got in Mom’s car and headed home, where Kurt had probably made a hole from pacing the house. Dad started in the minute we pulled out of the parking lot about looking for another city to move to where no one would know us. After ten minutes of listening to him go on and on about where we should move, I couldn’t stay quiet anymore.

  “Dad! I don’t want to move away from Braedon and Sophie. Constantly moving away doesn’t make it any easier on me. In fact, it makes it harder. I have to worry about my visions and keeping them a secret from people. Then my visions come back with a vengeance because I have tried to keep them under control for too long. So, no. You aren’t helping me at all by wanting me to start over when someone finds out about me.”

  We were home about fifteen minutes later. Kurt came running out the front door and swooped me up in his big arms.

  “Kurt, I can’t breathe,” I gasped in his ear.

  “Oh, sorry. I’m so glad you are home. I have been worried out of my mind, pacing the house. How did you get home so quickly?”

  “Sophie’s dad got his attorney to represent me. He is also paying the fees as well. The attorney’s name is Nathan Foster. He talked the police into letting me go home early. He told me I’m not allowed to talk to Braedon or Sophie though. I don’t know how long I can go without talking to them,” I sighed, walking toward the house. Once in the house, I walked into the kitchen to get me a glass of apple juice and went upstairs to my room. Kurt was a few steps behind me with a drink and some chips. I heard Mom go to their room to change out of her dark grey skirt and pink blouse. That was one of her pet-peeves, never cook dinner in her work clothes. I had just sat down on my bed with Kurt when there was a knock on my door.

  “Can I come in for a minute?” Mom asked.

  “Sure.”

  Mom opened the door just enough to fit between the door and door frame. She had changed into a pair of jeans and a long sleeve, navy blue, knit shirt. “Dad is downstairs, so you don’t have to worry about him hearing us. I just want to make sure you are doing okay. Dad just wants to keep you safe from everything. He worries about you so much, Karsyn, but I don’t agree with him wanting to uproot our family all the time either. I’m not going to do that to you again. I promise. I’m going to go start dinner,” she smiled, closing my door.

  “What did she mean about Uncle Stephen wanting to move again?” Kurt asked, popping a chip in his mouth.

  “Dad went off in the car on the way home about packing up and moving to another city. I told he’s not helping me by moving me each time someone finds out about me. I told him he’s actually doing more harm than good.”

  “What did he say?”

  “Nothing. Now he won’t talk to me much because I yelled at him. I am not leaving Braedon and Sophie. They accept me for who I am and are willing to stand up for me too. How can I move away from that, Kurt?”

  “No one would expect you to, except Uncle Stephen. I must say, you are taking this a lot better than most people. They would be freaking out right now, with the police trying to pin murders on them. I am freaking out.”

  I hugged Kurt in hopes it would help calm him down. I had to stay calm for my own sanity. I knew deep down that everything would eventually be all right. I just didn’t know when that time would be. I couldn’t let Detective Alvarez make me feel guilty for something I didn’t do. No one knew the guilt I felt and would continue to feel, knowing I wasn’t able to help Alexina and completely missed Tyler in the vision. I carried the guilt of Rylee’s death with me every day, and I knew the guilt of them would be with me forever too. Kurt and I sat there on the bed talking, and before we knew it, Mom was calling us down for dinner. I wasn’t that hungry, but I knew I had to try and eat something to keep my strength.

  Kurt and I went downstairs after the third time Mom yelled at us. The aroma of garlic and Italian spices filled the air the closer we got to the bottom of the stairs, which meant Mom had made one of my favorites, spaghetti with her homemade meatballs and garlic bread. She knew I couldn’t resist her spaghetti and meatballs, and I would eat something even if I wasn’t that hungry. I walked up behind Mom, wrapping my arms around her shoulders and whispe
red a mere, “thank you,” in her ear.

  She patted my hand and whispered, “You’re welcome.” She walked over to get the garlic bread out of the oven, looked over at me, and smiled. Mom knew exactly how to make things better, even if for just a little while. She stirred the meatballs, then spooned some out into a serving bowl. While Mom finished getting dinner on the table, Kurt and I got everyone drinks.

  ****

  Kurt came back upstairs with me to my room after we cleaned up the dishes from dinner so we could talk in private. I didn’t want Mom and Dad to hear about the details of the crime scene. Dad would have us packed up and leaving tonight for sure. I knew he meant well, but he was on the verge of being so over-protective he was smothering me and pushing me away. The minute we sat down on the bed, we both realized that we had left our drinks down on the kitchen island. Kurt ran downstairs to get them so I could change into my joggers for bed.

  Kurt was back upstairs with our drinks within five minutes, and I was in my comfy spot on the bed. Kurt sat our drinks on my nightstand before propping up a couple of pillows against the headboard, then scooted next to me on the bed.

  “Are you doing okay, Karsyn? It’s just the two of us. You don’t have to pretend around me,” he said, putting his arm around me. “You know you can tell me anything and I won’t say a word to anyone.”

  “I know. I am doing okay, for the most part, believe it or not. I know I was a basket-case after Rylee’s death. I don’t know, maybe this time I know I have people other than family supporting me. Don’t get me wrong. I love you all, but it’s different when you have people believe in you that aren’t family. The rest of the family doesn’t have to worry about people being scared of them because of something they don’t have any control over.” I wiped away a tear before it had the chance to escape down my cheek. “People I had been around my whole life were suddenly afraid of me and avoided me. I know a lot of them believed I had something to do with Rylee’s death, even after the case was dismissed.”