Unchangeable

Chapter 1

“He sees me!”  He feels the unholy glance on him. Escape is impossible. The monster turns back to his victim and he feels a sense of relief mixed with shame. He longs to move forward and stop the crime being committed in front of him but he can’t. He is an observer not a participant. As much as he longs to stop it, all he can do is watch.

It takes him awhile to come back to himself.  It always does. The sense of being observed, of being seen, makes this recovery harder. He shakes as the police officer writes down all he seen. 

“Mr. Rosen, Saul, are you alright?” He shakes his head, not in negation, no, to clear it. 

“As I can be. Is it enough to get him?” 

“Yes, you did incredibly well.” 

“He is a monster. I saw into his soul. It was pure black.” The officer puts his hand on his shoulder and gives it a squeeze. 

“He will soon be a caged monster.” He promises.

He doesn’t want this, this ability. Some call it a gift, others a curse. Saul Rosen calls it a burden. It is a burden he has bore since he was sixteen. What is it? He is able to see murders as they occur, see them but not change them. They are unchangeable. He stands like a patron at the zoo, watching the animals on the other side of the glass but unable to change their behavior. He has helped the police solve many a murder. It was satisfying, yes. Seeing all that violence though.. and now something that had never happened, a strong sense that the murderer knows he is there.  A shudder goes through him as the police station erupts in reaction to the information he has just shared. He sits in the middle of it, a slight man with his curly hair cut tight to his head and his brown, almost black, eyes still reflecting the horror he has just witnessed.

At thirty he has lived with this ability for almost fifteen years but this is the first time he is worried about his own safety. One of the female detectives stops on the way out. She sees something in his eyes that catches her attention.

“Saul, what is it?” Shall he tell her? They accept his sight as it has proven true but this.. No he won’t tell her, not until he takes time to work it out himself.

“It was just so brutal and she so young.” Detective Hannah McKay nods. The missing fourteen years old has just been found through Saul’s strange sight.

“But thanks to you, her parents can bury her, get some closure. She will receive justice.” 

“Yes, there is that.” She hurries to join her colleagues and Saul decides to head home. This is one monster he doesn’t want to see in person. 

As he drives home he thinks about his first episode with this strange gift. One moment he was laying in bed,  stressing about his upcoming finals, the next he was standing on the side of a street with a heavy fog surrounding him. Before he can take a step, there is a car approaching. Someone steps out from the side of the road. His thumb come out. The car slows. 

“No! Keep going!” He tries to cry out. Something deep in his soul is screaming danger. No one seems to hear him. It is like he isn’t there. The next thing he knows, the car is stopping. A window goes down. The man that stopped him lifts his other hand. At the end is a gun. He shots the driver. He then opens the door and drags him out, dropping him like trash before climbing in and driving off. Saul stands, his mouth open, his eyes wide with terror. He tries to walk over to the victim, who’s blood now runs red on the side of the road, like a animal hit by a car. He can’t move. He feels his lunch come up and the next thing he knows, he is home, back in his bed. What the…

A horrible dream. He must have fallen asleep without knowing it. He has to believe this. He does until he sees the article in the newspaper. A man killed in a car jacking, police seeking information. The picture that accompanies it has him dropping it. It is him! The man he saw!

He calls the tip line and the officer that answers takes a report but his questions are full of skepticism. “You saw this in a dream?”

“Or a vision. Look I know it sounds crazy but… The car it is a gray Buick, license plate…” he gives him the series of numbers and letters. Now the officer is interested. 

“You need to come in for an official interview. Is a parent available to bring you?” 

After an interview that includes the testing of his hands for gun powder residue ( makes sense they think he is the gunman) they finally believe him. He describes the gunman to a sketch artist. The picture goes out and he is picked up the next day.  That is when Saul’s life changed. Now it is changing again.

“Did he see me, sense me?” He asks himself as he enters his house.