The Blind Diviner

Cosima’s apartment was located above the small pharmacy next to her shop. It was a two-in-one deal for her when the previous tenant and owner of the shop became too old to care for themselves and sold the two for a very agreeable price. Cosima struggled for a bit and eventually gave in and used her abilities to lure people in. She’d stand on outside her shop, reading people as they went by. Anything she could get her hands on and she’d ask them about something much too specific for a stranger to know. Eventually, finding the right balance between invasive and just the right about of intrigue, she gained popularity.

At the moment she had just closed up after an oddly busy day and was dead tired. She’d take a shower first, something to soothe her tense muscles. She turned on the radio, letting it land on some random but well enough channel before letting her hair down. Her shower was much needed peace after being inside people’s heads all day. There was silence and she reveled in it.

As she turned her shower off and put her hair up in a towel to dry, she changed into a loose fitting shirt and gym shorts. She opened the bathroom door into her bedroom, the radio still playing behind her. She hummed along to the familiar song, shaking her hair out and brushing it. Just as she set her brush down and stopped her humming, she heard a presence in her apartment.

She turned the radio off all together, listening more directly toward the source. ‘Place seems normal enough. Where is that hippie though?’

Cosima gritted her teeth, opening her door and listen to Detective Reed continue to pick apart her apartment. She approached through the kitchen, sneaking up behind him a little. She leaned against the doorway and watched him looked at the pictures atop the mantle of her fireplace.

“What in the hell are you doing in my apartment?” She rolled out, causing him to whip around, his hand resting on the hilt of his gun.

“Normally sneak up on people carrying a gun?” He asked, releasing his tight grip from the gun to tuck itself in the pocket of his jacket.

“I don’t know. Do you normally break into people’s apartments at will?” She crossed her arms, seriously considering filing a complaint.

“I had probably cause,” he mused, relaxing and turned back to the pictures.

“Enlighten me.” Cosima dared.

“I heard loud noises, seemed like a domestic disturbance. When nobody answered, I took the situation into my own hands.” Reed glanced over to the kicked in door, knowing that it was complete bullshit.

“Yeah,” Cosima scoffed, slowly moving closer towards him with an angry stare, “or maybe you were following the scent of your own bullshit. Now get out of my apartment before I report you. I’m sure you can’t use another one though. Suspension or a another career might do you some good though.”

“You have a lot of nerve,” Reed stepped forward but Cosima didn’t budge with his authoritative stance.

“Says the ass who broke into my apartment and welcomed himself to sorting through my personal belongs,” she gestured to the only pictures she had of her family.

“I came to report something to you.” Cosmia watched the tip of his temple twitch in irritation.
“And you couldn’t of called? Was this even a warranted visit?” She turned back around, going to the kitchen to put the kettle on for tea.

“I could of but it was more of a check in that yes, I was sent here to do. And to say that we’re formally closing the investigation into your weird little voodoo shop.” Cosima practically slammed the kettle down on her stove, flipping the heat on as she stomped back out to face Reed.

“Are you kidding me? It’s still happening! Just because there isn’t a pile of evidence you’re just going to abandon it?”

“What to want us to do? Stake the place out? Install cameras for you? Do a seance? We have more pressing things to spend our time and money on to investigate besides the mean prank someone is playing on you.” Cosima threw her arms up in the air in frustration.

“Let’s get something straight here. First of all, not a voodoo shot and not some hippie fruity shit store. It’s my business and I’m really fucking good at it. Second of all, if your department needs to spend more time or money on something, it needs to be hiring adequate detectives who don’t harass their victims. Now get the hell out of my apartment before I call the police.”

Reed laughed, “you realize that’d be calling me, right?”

Cosmia never liked to expose her ability for the world to see. She didn’t like to exploit it either but there were sometimes when it was all she wanted to do. All the damage she could do to one person. Cosmia wanted to make Reed feel bad, small. So that is what she was going to do, prove her point not to underestimate her. And it wasn’t hard finding a sore spot to press on.

“We’re you always such a shitty person or was that just after your fiance left you at the alter?” Cosima let a smug smile tug on her lips as the kettle started to hiss behind her.

Reed was deathly silent as the remark struck him like a hundred pins and needles. “Excuse me?”
“I mean--wow, you knew her since you were sixteen? Let me guess, high school sweethearts? And let me go out on another limb? She left you for your best friend? Can’t say I haven’t heard that story before, seems like a trend nowadays.”

Cosima pour herself a cup of tea, lightly blowing on it as she turned to face a livid Reed. He approached her with feverence but she didn’t run away scared. She knew he wouldn’t do anything to her. She couldn’t see herself in people’s futures because that would involve reading her own future, which she was incapable of. She could feel people and their energy though, what they were truly capable of. Reed had a temper but his violent side paled in comparison. He had a surprisingly soft aura, like spring sunset.

“You,” he searched for a word to call her, but there just weren’t any for what he was feeling, “bitch.”

“Oh,” Cosima squeezed past him, sitting on her sofa, “I’m a bitch because I put you at expense at your personal life and hit a few nerves? Sounds familiar. Oh right, I’m tossing what you threw at me right back at you, detective.”

“You took personal to a whole new level,” Reed sputtered furiously. “That is private, way further away from personal.”

“Fair enough,” Cosima set her tea on the coffee table in front of her. “But don’t underestimate me. Just because my shop and business isn’t something you take serious doesn’t it me it passes as a reflection of who I am. I could expose some other private things about you though if you still want to test me though.”

“Your business is a scam. They all are. You’re a con-artist! You take simple, specific observations from people and just relay back to them in a twisted and subtle manner to make them think your opinion of their lives are actually worth something. The only truth is that it doesn’t mean anything. It’s shit.”

“Oh really?” She stood up, her hands in fists at her side. “Fine! You want truth? You failed your entrance exam into the police academy and had to retest and go through the academy again while you watched your friends move on. And you only because a police officer because you got kicked out of your university for cheating.”

“Anyone could look that up if they had the computer and hacking skills.” Reed struggled to keep his composure, waiting and hoping she would slip up with something to prove that her shop break in’s were nothing but fiction.

“How about your sister’s?” Cosima asked, watching Reed’s face go void with any expression.

“Family vacation to the Grand Canyon. Sound familiar?” She teased him, wanting a reaction.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said through tight lips.

“They wanted a picture, just the two of them. Best friends, twins. You idolized them, they were your older sisters after all. But those fence posts can be tricky and kids just don’t listen do they?”

“Stop. Now.” Cosima was lost in the memory, feeding off of it almost. She couldn’t stop.

“It was Cassie’s idea to sit on top of it, Melanie followed her lead. Your father was busy changing the film in the camera. You and your mother looking off in another direction. Next thing you know, the post collapsed and your sisters become the first crime scene you ever witnessed.”

“Stop it!” Reed had her gripped by the shoulders, shaking her roughly.

Cosima snapped out of it, looking at the fragile expression on Reed’s face. “Your family got a hefty check from the National Park’s Association but it would never replace the lost of your sisters.”

“You’re a freak.” He let go of her, stepping away.

Cosima has heard that one too many times before. A person’s mind, it was a labyrinth of information and memories. It was like going into a fault line. It just keeps going and going until you just hit the core of everything. The rawest form of who they are. She’s never seen it. She’d be lost and dead by the time she could reach it. She was only human herself to.

“Maybe I am,” Cosima replied quietly. “I went to far. I’m sorry.”

Reed, watched her with almost a look of fear as he backed toward the door. Cosima felt guilty but she wasn’t the model person she wished she was. Part of her loved ripping someone’s humanity apart. It was her biggest fear but also her biggest temptation.

“Close the door on the way out will you?” She asked of Reed as she sat down and finished her tea.