The Timekeeper

Chapter Nine

"Candice?" Jase stuttered. He was clearly just as surprised to see me, as I was to see him.

He looked over my shoulder then, obviously just noticing Ryan for the first time. For a second, I had completely forgotten about him as well. All that I could think about was what was going on in front of me, and why Jase had lied to me yet again. I could feel the anger rising inside of me, and I wanted so badly to slap him across the face again, but I figured it wasn't going to do much. And being in a police station surrounded by police officers wouldn't really be the best place to do it either.

"What did you do?" I wanted to sound angry, I was furious believe me, but all that I could manage was a nervous whisper. 

It must have been scarier than I thought, or maybe I was just over-analysing him, but he bit his lip. I hated to admit it, especially in the situation we were in, but he looked so vulnerable, which made him look so attractive. You're supposed to think he's attractive; he's your soul mate. And what a good soul mate he was. Running away when we first met, stealing from shops, abusing me, and now he had been arrested for God knows what. But before I could find out, one of the police officers stepped forward.

"Excuse me Ma'am, but may I ask who you are and what you're doing here?" His voice was deep and had a slight European accent.

"Oh, um. I'm Candice Smith and-" I wasn't sure what to say next. Why was I here?

"Well I'm here because he's my soul mate," I sighed then, before looking down at my feet. 

It was wrong of me to feel slightly ashamed that Jase was my soul mate. But I felt like I was allowed to be ashamed. He had been so awful to me, and really he had brought it on himself. So maybe it wasn't really that bad of me to be ashamed. I hated the feeling though, and I still felt like a horrible person for it. Why couldn't he just have been an ordinary seventeen-year-old boy that went to my school and liked to play football or something? I could deal with ordinary, but not this.

"Wait, did you say Smith?" the other police officer asked then.

"Um, yeah I did." I replied, raising an eyebrow. 

The two guards looked at each other then, still keeping a firm grip on Jase's arms. He hadn't looked at me since I first got here, and I hoped it was because he felt ashamed. I still had no idea why he was here, no idea what he had done. My first guess was that he had been caught stealing, even though he told me he was done with that. All that he had said to me yesterday had been utter bullshit; how could I have thought he could change so quickly? 

"Are you, by any chance, Malcolm Smith's daughter?" the European officer asked then, which really caught my attention. How and why did he know my father?

"How do you know my father?" I said softly, before looking down at my feet.

"We used to work with him, or for him I should say. He was the Constable here, and a good one at that," European said, before gazing off. 

He must've been reminiscing, thinking back to all the good times he had spent with my father. It was strange really, but it made me jealous and a little bit angry. He had memories with my father, he actually knew my father, unlike me. I'd kill to have at least one memory with him, but all I had were old photos that were scattered throughout our home.

"He was a good man, Candice," the other officer said, as if reading my mind and seeing how much it hurt that I had never actually met him.

I always wondered if it would've been worse if I actually did know him, like my brothers did. They had real memories with him, parts of him they could cherish forever, or would always bring them grief. But I suppose that would still be better than not having any memories at all, wouldn't it?