The Girl

Chapter 12: Rae Manor - The Vision

It’s been a week since everyone last saw Claire. She’s still missing. The search was on-going for 3 days straight, the police had swept the entire corners of San Rafael, yet they found nothing. Not even a clue or even a hair of her was found as if she vanished like thin air.

Her disappearance became national news, due to the possibility that she’s not in San Rafael anymore. I saw her parents on the tv one morning, her mother was crying while holding her picture. A beautiful blonde-haired girl with bright blue eyes was the focus on the screen. Nobody knew what was going on, this could be k********g or human trafficking but no solid clues.

We were in Jason’s car when we heard it over the radio. We all fell silent, listening to it carefully although nothing new was broadcasted. My stomach churned every time I saw or heard the news about her. I didn’t know, perhaps I feel guilty?

“I don’t want to go home yet,” Reinn suddenly said and broke this awkward silence among us. She’s looking through the window, to the street outside. “Can we go somewhere?” She asked Jason, leaving Oli confused.

“Where do you want to go, baby?” Oliver asked.

She shrugged. “Anywhere, just not home right now.” She’s back looking through the window.

I noticed that she grew strange, ever since we found out about Claire’s disappearance. I didn’t know why she hadn’t told me yet like she used to. Jason was looking at me and I nodded. I also needed a bit of distraction.

“Alright, I know just a place.” Jason took a left turn toward the national park. “The lake is beautiful during this time of the season,” he smiled while looking in the rearview mirror - to Reinn.

We reached the park, it’s quiet in a solemn way, peaceful and surreal. We walked side by side down the path that led us to the lake, none of us was saying a word, we’re enjoying the quietness. The lake view was breath-taking. The fog was hanging low above the lake, moving in slow motion with the breeze. You could hear the birds chirping happily and the leaves - or what’s left of them - moved by the wind. It’s getting cold now as the season is in the middle of Autumn.

“Reinn!” Oliver cried. I turned around and saw Reinn was sitting on the ground, holding her head with both hands and gasping. I ran to her, Jason followed behind.

“Reinn, what’s wrong?” I held her head with my hands, trying to see if she got hurt but I couldn’t find anything.

“Argh!” Reinn grimaced in pain. “Rae it hurts,” she cried.

“Reinn, tell me where it hurts?” Oliver knelt over next to her, terrified.

She pushed her head back, both of her eyes rolled - you could only see the whites in it. The memories of my nightmare came flashing back at me, I froze in horror.

“No! No! Reinn,” I cried. Claire was like that in my dream before she was taken by that being and killed.

Jason reached for his phone to call for help when suddenly Alex rushed through the bushes. He sat in front of Reinn, cupped her face with both of his hands. I looked at Jason, confused. Jason replied with the same look as me.

“Reinn, don’t fight it,” Alex calmly said. “Just go beyond the pain and let it show you what you should see.” I was about to say something when I saw Raphael run toward us.

“Reinn, just breathe slowly and go beyond the pain,” Alex said again. I saw Reinn’s chest move up and down in a calmer way, not as frantic as before. Reinn was sitting still, not moving. Her eyes now closed as she held on to Alex’s hands.

“Good girl,” Alex said. “Now see it.”

I heard a soft gasp from Reinn, her forehead frowned. Then slowly she opened her eyes, she looked into Alex’s eyes. Her right hand rose and was pointing toward the thick bushes 3 feet from us. Alex turned to see at the bushes and looked at her again, he nodded. He started to walk in the direction Reinn had shown him, Jason was about to follow him but Alex told him to stop. He then walked there by himself. Oliver was confused and looked at me for answers. I told him what was going on.

“Rae! Jason! Come here!” Alex called us. We ran to him and were shocked. A completely torched car was behind the bushes. I heard footsteps coming near us, Raphael was coming toward us with Oliver, who’s holding Reinn in his arms, followed behind.

Jason reached out to the license plate on the wet ground and cleaned it with his jacket sleeves. “Oh my God!” He cried. “Oliver come here!”

Oliver gave Reinn to me, as she still seemed powerless from her experience. He went to Jason who showed him the license plate. “Wasn’t it Claire’s?” Oliver asked in surprise.

I looked at Reinn, wondering how she knew where it was. Reinn shook her head and also looked confused.

“I didn’t know it was hers,” she said to me as if she could read my mind.

“Rae,” Raphael called me. “Call the police now and your Mom.”

“I will call the police, Rae,” Jason said. “You just call your Mom.”

“I will go to your Mom, Rae,” Alex said. “I will explain everything to her so she understands.” Alex suddenly disappeared, he had left us. He had found a new ghostly power. Teleport.

******

The police squad came 15 minutes after we called them, they already cleared the area and hung the yellow police line around the bushes. I saw the forensics team searching around and inside the torched car, putting everything inside the evidence bag. It’s like watching a movie but now we’re part of it. In reality.

We’re sitting not far away, we had blankets around us now and some warm coffee in our hands - given by the police. Oliver was talking with his father, he was looking at Reinn now and then, worried. They were both now walking toward us.

“Ms. Manor,” Captain Wright called us. Both Reinn and me looked up toward him. “May I have words with both of you?”

“I want to come as well,” Jason suddenly said with his arm around my shoulder, protecting me.

“Me too,” Raphael said while taking his blanket off of him, moving closer to us.

“I will come to you after I talk with the ladies,” Captain Wright said, trying to find an excuse to separate us.

“Are we suspect, Captain?” Jason asked. He was baffled by his question. He looked at Jason and saw the seriousness in Jason’s eyes.

“No, Jason,” he said calmly. “I just want to know the whole story because Oliver said you guys just found it out of the blue.”

So I guessed Oliver didn’t tell him everything. I mean, how could he. The real story would be bizarre as no logic could ever justify it.

“Does that mean we are witnesses?” Jason asked again. Captain Wright swallowed and sighed, he lost words. He nodded in agreement.

“In that case, since we are minors we have the right not to say anything without our parents present.” Jason confidently said like he was an experienced lawyer. Well, he could be one since his father and uncle are lawyers. “Could you please wait until Rae’s parents arrive and I will talk with my parents to give their legal consent to Rae’s Mom and Dad to supervise me.”

Captain Wright lost the legal argument with Jason, a 16 years old boy while on the other hand, Captain Wright was a long outstanding head of the police precinct for many years.

“Raphael, you should do the same. Call your parents and ask them to come here or give their legal consent to Rae’s parents.” Jason looked at Raphael firmly. Despite their disagreement, Raphael nodded and called his dad - my uncle Hugo.

“Alright, I’ll be back later.” Captain Wright walked away, defeated.

Oliver moved closer to Jason. “Burrow, you should consider a law degree,” he grinned.

“Not bad eh?” Jason grinned back.

It was not long until my parents arrived. I could see them rushing toward us, looking worried, while Alex followed them from behind. They hugged us tightly when they reached us. When Captain Wright saw my parents had arrived, he then came back to us. He greeted my parents. He looked surprised to see my Dad, I mean who wouldn’t. I even saw one of the police drop his pen when he saw my dad.

Jason gave his phone to my Dad, it seemed that his father was on the other end. They were talking about the thing Jason called ‘legal consent’ while my Mom was talking with my uncle Hugo. After they finished talking, my Dad came to Captain Wright and asked if the kids could give their story in the precinct, in an hour from now, as his counsel advised him. Captain Wright defeated once again, he had no choice but to agree. We all now walked freely, if you could say that, from the crime scene.

Back at my home, Rosie already prepared a light meal for us. I didn’t feel hungry before but I’m now. We all sat down at the dining table, shoving the delicious food in front of us into our mouths. Oliver, on the other hand, sat awkwardly in silence while looking at my Dad. He looked at Jason across him with this why-didn’t-you-tell-me look. Jason ignored it.

After our meal we all sat in the office room, my Mom told me to tell them everything. EVERYTHING - emphasized that. So I began to tell them about my nightmare, in which Reinn confirmed that she had the same as mine. About Alex’s memory about Alrend’s cafe, Alex then shared his story about meeting Raphael’s grandfather and his side of the story. I was surprised to learn the deep connection between Alex and our family, in this case, the Alrend.

“How did you know where we were?” I asked Alex.

Alex looked at me. “When I was in the car with Raphael, I suddenly had this strong feeling of trouble. Not the dark feeling I felt before but more like an alarming feeling.” He now frowned. “Then I saw Reinn in my mind and I could feel her pain, that she was fighting it but there’s this voice in my head that said she should not do that, she needed to embrace it.”

“You just experienced your real ability Reinn,” my Mom said, looking at Reinn. “Your real ability is vision.”

“Like my great grandmother,” Raphael said.

“Yes, like Anne Alrend.” She walked to Reinn and hugged her for comfort. “It’s a rare gift, Reinn. Not many Sameera bloodlines have it, only a few, perhaps right now you are the only one.”

Reinn crunched and moved closer to Oliver while he circled his arm around her shoulders.

“I had a headache for almost a week already,” she said while her eyes were focusing on the wooden floor. “I kept taking medicine and it would be gone, for a while.” That sort of explained the change I saw in Reinn. All eyes were fixed on her now.

“Every time it came back, it came back stronger than before, more painful. In the end, today at the lake, as if a thousand hammers rammed my head at the same time, again and again until I really couldn’t bear it.” Reinn shuddered.

“You almost gave me a heart attack, girl,” Oliver said while gently caressing her back. I remembered the worry in his face, how pale his face was. Reinn looked apologetic at him.

“I thought I would die,” she cried, looking at both of our parents. “It was so painful, I thought it must be the end of me.”

My Mom rose from her seat and reached for Reinn. She embraced her and her body rocked softly to calm Reinn down. “But you manage it, love. You will learn to handle it better in the future.”

“Alex's presence and voice soothed me, I followed his direction. I tried to go beyond the pain and when I did that I saw many images running in my head, so overwhelming. Then I heard Alex say to me, ‘now see it!’ I tried to focus, pushing all the images into one.”

Everyone still silently heard Reinn’s story. Jason reached out to touch my hand and squeezed it gently.

“I felt like my soul was pulled out of my body, then I saw the car behind the bushes and I saw Alex was the one who found it.” She looked at Alex and smiled. “Thank you, Alex, you helped me.”

Alex gently returned the smile to her.

I was so thankful for Alex when I suddenly remembered another thing. “And you could teleport now, Alex?” I asked Alex again.

“That boy,” Raphael scoffed. “Suddenly disappeared after he said Reinn was in trouble.”

“Well, at least you managed to find us.” Alex chuckled.

“Thanks to my telepathy ability, I just focused on Reinn and I could find where you were,” Raphael said.

Oliver’s eyes widened in amazement. “So now you not only can see ghosts but also have visions?” He asked Reinn. “And each one of you has a special ability?”

“Oliver! Welcome to the bizarre family,” my Dad joked and made us laugh. “Okay let’s try to have the same story, we need to edit the vision part and the ghost part out from it.” My Dad was in his directing mode. His experience with acting comes in handy in making us have a good convincing story, minus the supernatural part.

We finally agreed to our storyline, the edited one. When my Dad left the room to talk with our lawyer and Captain Wright.

“Radne, when I was looking into the old newspapers in the library back in Angeles, I read about cases of missing girls around the time when I died,” Alex said.

“Me too,” I said. “There were a lot of them that went missing around San Angeles, Redwood City, and San Rafael.”

“What do you feel Alex?” My Mom asked.

Alex was hesitant, I could see the trouble in his face. “I feel…” he sighed. “I feel like it happens again.”

Jason moved closer to the edge of his seat. “Is this connected with your dark feeling?” He asked Alex.

“Yes.” Alex grew anxious. “I don’t know how to describe it, Radne. I have the feeling I’m connected to these cases.” My Mom nodded, understood. “I have the feeling that Claire was one of the victims.”

“That she is dead,” I suddenly said, I couldn’t ignore my feelings anymore. Jason and Oliver were shocked by my statement. “But we can’t prove it since we still can’t find her, or what was left of her,” I continued in my horror.

“I will try to get Detective More involved in this case,” my Mom said. I looked at her. I knew that she knew something, something that she couldn’t tell us.

“Let’s go to the precinct,” My Dad called on us from down the stairs. We all rose and went to the car, drove to the appointment with Captain Wright.

When we arrived at the precinct, we were escorted to a big meeting room. We passed Captain Wright’s office and I saw both of Claire’s parents were there, sitting across the Captain. Her Mom was crying in her husband's arms, a cry that was full of agony as if now she had lost all hope to find her daughter alive. I guessed, Captain Wright had told them what we’d found today.

I felt someone touch my shoulder. I turned around and saw Jason stood there, reaching out to me. It seemed I stopped walking because I saw Claire’s Mom crying. I could feel my eyes were watering, my tears started to flow. Jason pulled me in his embrace and kissed my forehead.

“Everything will be alright, Rae.” He softly whispered in my ear. “I will protect you.” Those 4 words were enough to pacify me.

We walked together into the meeting room, where our friends and both of my parents were already there along with 2 police officers. As my Dad would say, ‘the stage is ours.’

It’s late at night when I reach back home, it’s a very tiring day. I felt exhausted. I just wanted to lie on my bed to pump some power back in before I took my shower, instead, I fell asleep immediately.