Sneak Peak Chapters 2 & 3 released!!

CHAPTER 2

The small town of Burlington, Massachusetts was far from the busy streets of Boston, and not half as exciting, but Aaron Belle had made his home here. As the youngest man ever to achieve the rank of detective within the Burlington Police Department, he was proud of his accomplishments, even though he quietly longed for more. Had he not taken the position of police officer for the small town of Burlington when he had, then he certainly would not be in the position he was in today. Aaron had worked very hard to make his way through the ranks of the department and now that he had succeeded, he understood that the busy streets of Boston might not have been the best place for him to be. After all, he thought, everything happens for a reason, and it might not always be the way we plan it, but it’s always the way it’s meant to be.


As a detective here in this small town there was usualy not much more than petty theft cases for him to investigate, but it was good work, and something that he loved to do. Burlington might not have been the largest of communities in the state, but they had their share of problems just as anyone else had. Burlington had been the type of town where new couples came to settle in and make families. That being the case there was never a shortage of bored teenagers doing things that they should not be doing. That in itself was usualy enough to keep Aaron busy. Having grown up in this town he knew that the teens here were generally harmless, they just needed more to do.

The center of town was the home of the Burlington Mall. A large upscale mall that might not have had the type of stores a teenager would normally shop in, but it did give them someplace to hang out. A typical Friday or Saturday night usually found the mall to be packed full of teenagers and slightly younger children wandering and causing trouble. It was an extremely normal sight to see a soccer mom pull up in front of the large glass doors of the mall in her mini van. The side door of the van opening and releasing a small flood of youths ready to spend hours doing nothing at all. Mothers and fathers would then spend the rest of the night dining out or perhaps seeing a movie, expecting the mall security and local police to watch over the children they had had enough of for the week.

They were good kids, Aaron had always thought to himself, they just needed someone to give a shit once in a while and not just drop them off at a mall or movie theater. Before he had become a detective, Aaron often took the weekend detail at the mall, assisting security in what was not so fondly known as babysitting patrol. This had always been a detail that Aaron was good at, considering that he was a younger guy, he had a few tattoos and knew about most of the music that the locals were listening to. It also didn’t hurt that Aaron made a habit of talking to the local teens like they were in fact humans, and not just dismissing them as others had. Having once been a local teen himself, he knew that it was a life not easy to live, with never anything to do, and rarely anyone that cared enough to do it with. Burlington sat just outside of a large corporate city and that was where most of the mothers and fathers of the town spent their time.

The best part of it for Aaron was that he had found himself with the ability to converse with the local youth, knowing that if anything did happen, they trusted him enough to speak with him about it. This was something that Aaron had always found to be incredibly useful. There was very little that went on through the small town in the way of major crime, but when something did happen, Aaron had very little trouble getting to the bottom of it. The rapport that he had been able to establish with the locals was a great tool to have for a man in a position such as his.

It was also something that his mentor, and training officer could never understand. More than twice the age of Aaron, Jack Willis often paid little attention to the youth of the town. He was far more focused on playing out his few remaining days before retirement safely and trying to make sure they were uneventful. It was Jack’s job to make sure that Aaron would be fine for whatever his future as a Burlington police detective might hold for him, however, it more often than not seemed that it was Aaron that taught Jack a thing or two about dealing with the generation of today.

Jack Willis was a typical old school detective. His aged leathery face rarely showing any expression at all. In the eyes of Jack Willis, if you were not a cop, than you might as well not exist. The youth of the town were going to be very happy when Jack finally decided to retire, knowing that the old man and his ways of policing the community were as out dated as the clothes he wore.



CHAPTER 3



The old Victorian building sat just slightly outside of the center of Burlington, deep in a section of the old town that at one time was exclusive to the rich, and well off. Now however, owning such a large old house was impractical in this area. The harsh New England winters made places such as this far too expensive to keep as a single family home. This building, and others like it in this neighborhood had all now suffered the same fate. Its many rooms had been dissected and sectioned off to make office space for smaller businesses and doctors. The building was old and creaked with age, its floors and walls sending out the slight musty odor of age. The rooms and hallways always dim, surrounded by dark mahogany wood and faded wallpaper. No matter how many lamps were turned on, it never seemed to be able to shed enough light throughout the aged building. It was the creepy feel of the surroundings that made Angela Smiles never want to be here, but it was something she needed to do for her son Jeffery. A text book member of the tortured soul generation, Jeffery Smiles was just barely fifteen years old, and already carried the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Black on black clothing hung lazily over his thin pale frame. Jet black hair hung down one side of his face covering his black eyeliner-accented eyes. His style, like many other kids his age in this town, fell teetering on the line between neo-gothic and emo. Emo, a slightly new phase for teenagers was starting to be something more and more popular. Emo stood for emotional, and had become more of a life style than just a type of fashion. A lifestyle that usually led to teens cutting themselves with razor blades, not in an actualy attempt to harm themselves, but usually because the feeling of pain was far better than the feeling of nothing at all. Jeffery was no exception to this activity, although thus far he had been able to hide the small thin cuts within his flesh in places where no one would usualy look. The blade never going deep enough into the skin to cause real damage served solely as a life line to pull the emotional youths back into reality. Something to keep them tied to the life we live every day.

Angela Smiles sat in the Victorian style chairs that lined the waiting room for the office of Doctor Alyssa St. Claire, family psychiatrist and therapist to the community. Thumbing her way half-heartedly through a copy of People magazine that was several months old. She understood completely that these weekly meetings were a necessity for her son, but the sheer boredom of the silent waiting room was starting to wear on her nerves. Had her husband Michael not always been tied up with work, she would surely make him bring Jeffery to these appointments, considering that she had a much better bond with Jeffery’s sister Jennifer, than she did with Jeffery. It wasn’t that she didn’t love Jeffery with all of her heart. Of course she did. But Jeffery, as a typical teen boy, wanted very little to do with his mother. Unfortunately he wanted very little to do with his father as well, which was one of the many reasons these meetings were necessary.

Jeffery would spend a great deal of his time during the week complaining about the visits he would have to have with Dr. St. Claire. Stating that he had no need for them, and any problems he might have, he could deal with on his own. Secretly however, he loved his meetings with Dr. St. Claire, knowing that he could say anything there and not have to worry about his parents finding out. He knew that he could be himself and not worry about the ramifications. He knew that the doctors office was one of the few places he could tell his secrets. Some secrets however, he would keep to himself, and rightfully so. He knew if he told anyone about them, anyone at all, they would surely have him locked away, thinking that he was a danger not only to himself, but to those around him. Locked away to the point that they would never let him out again, and that was something that Jeffery wanted no part of.

He had no idea of whether or not his friends had the same visions that he had, but he did know that if they did, they surely never talked about them. Aspirations of world domination was something that never came up as a topic of conversation at the cafeteria lunch table. Not with his friends, and not with anyone else at the school that he was aware of. These thoughts and visions were sometimes so brutal in their bloodlust that they would frighten even Jeffery, added fuel to the fire that already raged out of control in Jeffery’s mind. Jeffery knew for certain that he was far better than all of those around him, adults, or people his age. He was something special, something that could change how all of mankind lived their life, and that he would one day stop at nothing to prove. He could see the future, and manipulate people with his mind. There was little doubt in his mind that he was far better than everyone he knew.

These however, were thoughts and visions that would never be spoken about in front of Dr. St. Claire. These were things that he could never talk about with anyone. They would simply sit in the dark corners of his mind until it was time for any of them to become reality. That would be the day they would all be sorry. Anyone who had ever teased him, made fun of him, or bullied him, would pay for what they had done, and there was nothing, or no one that would be able to stop him. His darkest of secrets kept locked away deep within him, knowing that if he were to ever talk about them freely, they would lock him away. He couldn’t allow that to happen, not if he planned to follow through with plans that had been laid out in his imagination for most of his life. Plans that he had always thought would never be a difficult thing to follow through with. The idea of taking another person’s life was something that he felt he would be able to do with very little problem. It couldn’t be all that difficult to take the life of another. He had already done this from time to time with small animals, so a human might not be that different, just larger. He knew however that if any of these thoughts had come out during a sit down session with the good doctor, he would never get the chance. It wasn’t so much that he desired the chance to take another humans life, as much as he was prepared to do so should anyone get in his way. He wasn’t sure of what his placement in the new world evolution might be, but he suspected that it was an important one.

Jeffery might have only been fifteen, but already at his age, he felt that he could do just about anything if he put his mind to it. It just had to be something that he truly wanted to do. Silly things like school and so on held little interest for Jeffery, and required little attention from him. He did only what he needed to in school, and nothing more. Always enough to get by without involvement or unwarranted concern from his parents, or other figures of authority. The last thing Jeffery wanted to do was spend any amount of time explaining to adults why he wasn’t living up to his full potential in school. Jeffery had long ago decided that it was best to stay as an average student, doing average things and always keeping himself just under the sights of adult radar. By doing this, if the time to take his place in the new evolution ever arose, then they would never see it coming, he thought. It would be so much better to take them all by surprise, and then leave them wondering what the hell had happened. All of this is what ran through Jeffery’s mind as he spoke to Dr. St. Claire. Thoughts rolled endlessly around in the back of his mind while on the outside, he tried to say everything that he knew the good doctor wanted to hear.

Dr. St. Claire sat across from Jeffery in an overstuffed chair that looked more like it might be for lounging rather than discussing things with a patient. She had a pleasant way about her. Long dark brown hair and a full face. She was a rather round woman that always seemed to have a smile on her face, accenting her rosy cheeks. She had always dressed herself in business casual, but it amused Jeffery that he had never seen her in any other color than black. It seemed to suit her however. She had a slight olive tone to her skin which seemed to accent well with the dark clothing. She sat in her chair, as she had every week, leaning slightly to one side, chin resting on one hand, leg crossed and a notebook on her lap. She spent the majority of time in these weekly meetings asking Jeffery how he was doing in school, and how he might be spending his spare time. Eventually the stereotypical “How do you feel about that” question popped up and brought the conversation to other directions.

Almost like a well trained animal Jeffery always knew just what to say. After all he had been doing this for years, and it didn’t take him long to understand that therapy sessions, no matter who they were with, could be very easily manipulated. He knew that if you told them almost anything they wanted to hear, things would go much more smoothly, and that mother would receive a thumbs up explanation after the session. Angela Smiles would never get anything more than a “Jeffery seems to be doing well, and is making progress with his sessions” if Jeffery had anything to do with it. Giving Angela anything more than that to work with might make things harder for Jeffery, he thought. Smile and nod, tell them what they want to hear, and never let on to anything else. This was a personal code that Jeffery thought he had to live by. No one really knew for sure what the future held, but Jeffery suspected it was going to be something good, and he wanted so very badly to be a part of it.

The meeting would soon come to an end as it always had, and Jeffery would leave the office together with Dr. St. Claire. Angela and the good doctor would go into her office for just a moment, speaking privately about the meeting and any recommendations that she might have, and then they would be done for another week. Jeffery knew that this was a necessary evil, a game that he had to play with these people, but he never minded. He would do what he felt had to be done until he thought the time was right. Jeffery waited until the office door closed until he stepped quietly across the waiting room to a point where he could hear what was being said. He moved his head closer to the door, facing his ear as close as he could get it without actualy touching the door itself. This was something that he often did at the end of the weekly meetings. He considered it to be somewhat of a self preservation thing. Making sure that the doctor was telling his mother only what he wanted her to know.

“Jeffery is doing pretty well”. The doctor said. “He seems to be making a lot of progress with the things that he’s been feeling, and the depression factor doesn’t seem to be as strong now”. Jeffery smiled quietly inside of himself. Thinking he had succeeded yet again in his little game. Angela then thanked the doctor and assured her they would be back the same time next week. Jeffery quietly rushed back to his seat, trying to make it look like he had been there the entire time. His mother and the doctor stepped out of the office and Jeffery stood up, ready to leave. Angela reached out in a somewhat loving manor to embrace her son, a young man she loved more than anything, but simply did not understand.

Jeffery and his mother left the building and walked through the small parking lot to their silver SUV. It was not going to be a long ride back to the house, but for the both of them the time spent getting there would seem like an eternity. Angela never had any idea of how to talk to her son, and Jeffery was never eager to spark up a conversation. They would do as they had done every week for the past few years of Jeffery’s therapy. After a good meeting with the doctor, Jeffery was rewarded with a trip to the video store. There he could rent movies and games if that’s what he wanted to do. After that they would get some sort of take out dinner and bring it home to the rest of the family.

Angela would often rent a movie that the entire family could watch in hope that is just what would happen. Jeffery had little desire however to spend time with anyone other than the few friends he had at school. It was a small group of teens that he had usually spent his time with, but those were the people that Jeffery had considered to be his family. He had always been much closer to them than he had ever been with his blood relatives. This was simply how Jeffery wanted things to be, regardless of how his mother, father or anyone else felt about it. The small amount of time that Jeffery had spent at his house, was usually done so in his room, on his computer, listening to his music. He would spend hours on end chatting with his friends over instant messaging services. He felt that it was his escape from a world that he wanted no part of.

This is the way things were, the way he wanted them to be, and that was exactly how he had intended them to stay until the time was right. Until the time that he would make everything better for himself, and those he truly loved, his friends. He saw nothing wrong with it, and cared very little if anyone else had.