5: The Old Villafuerte House

I was too dumbfounded to answer, I immediately looked around and my eyes somehow landed on my desk. I found myself walking towards it and saw that everything was in the folder without even the slightest trace of blood or the demon, but as I turned over Annie's photo, I knew I was livid, for words were written in blood on the photo's back, saying, "You have been warned".

Thirty minutes later I was sitting inside my grandfather's car on the way to the old politician's home. On the way I can't help but think on what had happened back at the house; it's been years since I had these hallucinations. My therapist insisted that I was just grieving the loss of my family and it really takes some time to get over it. At that time I honestly believe that; I did, and that was twenty years ago, but this time these things that I see are becoming crazier, and it's literally driving me to insanity - slowly. I touched my face as if trying to wake up when I felt a stinging pain on my cheek. Rattled, I pulled down the blinder and saw on my reflection on the mirror; a thin nearly invisible scratch was there; the exact place where my hallucinated demon struck me with its claws. This is insane, I slowly pulled out my wallet and took out the business card that I never wanted to see: Dr. Ian Sobreviga, Psychologist. I need to get myself a schedule with him soon - again.

We pulled over in front of a large gate and almost instantly the guard went and opened the gates for us, my grandfather grinned at me, we were thinking the same thing, money has its perks. He drove in and parked on a space near the garden. The place was large and it was an old brick home with a Spanish architectural design. It had an old but well maintained tiled roof, sliding wooden windows with capiz paneling, the terraces and balconies were all made from the same white washed wood that was elaborately designed to meet the standards of those who will be using them. My grandfather grinned again at me, what's he thinking? This isn't a vacation, I sighed. We were welcomed by a man that I only see on the papers; Senator Ricardo Villafuerte. White thinning hair, a smiling eye and a once handsome face. "Inspector Alcalde it's been quite sometime since we had you here", he said with a smile. My grandfather was looking at him and just smiled, "well let's continue this conversation inside", said the senator as he motioned for us to get inside.

The inside was as magnificent as the outside. There were pictures all over the place, as if documenting the growth of all the children and the whole family, but in the middle of the mantle was a family photo where the children were sitting together but there was an empty seat near the end of the group. "Annie's place", I heard a voice said from behind, it was the senator, seeing that I was fixated at the the photo. I smiled back at him. Once more I looked up at the images on the wall, at the far corner of the wall there hanged a framed photo of an angelic child smiling with the happiest smile I've ever seen.

"She's a real happy child ever since", again the senator said.

"She looks a lot like her mother", I replied to him while my grandfather silently watched us.

"We thought so too."

"Well, Senator we really didn't wish to intrude in your lovely weekend but we had to come and see you", my grandpa said all of a sudden.

The senator looked at him with a questioning look, "We came here to inform you that I'm retiring", my grandpa finally said. The Senator stared at him with a small ounce of disbelief, I stayed silent, he knew that this was to happen, he was a father after all and to know that the man responsible to look for your daughter's body was to retire and let the case go is simply something hard to swallow. "That's why I came here with my grandson, Robin, who is to take up my mantle and continue what I have not finished", my grandfather said as he gestured towards me.

"He's young and got the bones to do the job", he added, but he wasn't sure how the senator would take it. The old man was silent, pondering and looking at us to and fro. I was silent, I knew it wasn't my place to say anything about it, but the look on his face was a bit forlorn and shocked, this is a man who firmly believed that his youngest child is still alive somewhere just waiting to be found. I knew that my insight that the possibility that she's dead will not be welcomed, much less accepted. In the midst of my pondering I heard a familiar laughter echoing all over the house; it's that same shrilly laugh that I heard when I was inside the evidence storage, then as I was looking around my eyes caught sight of something that made my heart fall. It was a large framed photo of a girl wearing a red dotted dress, with goldilocks-pigtails and smiling the most beautiful angelic smile I have ever seen - it was the little girl that broke my arm inside the evidence locker; it was Annie.

My chest tightened, I began to lose my breath, my head was hurting, I was afraid. This was impossible, it can't be her, and if it was she didn't age a day. I stared at the picture as I slowly watched her eyes turn into slits and burn red, they were staring right at me. I couldn't move, I was frozen and the whole world was put into a sudden halt, infront of my eyes everything was suddenly put through a sudden rewind, everything melted into oblivion. Then I heard a voice, it was crying, it belonged to a girl. She stood before me holding a knife, her wrists had two deep cuts and blood was gushing out. She was smiling maniacally as she watched the horrified faces of those around her. What the hell is this sick dream? I screamed but I can't speak; my voice was was non-existent. Then she looked back at me, I knew she could see me, she mouthed with that devilish grin, "Too late Traveler", and like glass the whole scene shattered, the last thing I saw was the view of the ocean under the light of the moon - the beach.

I felt a hand on my shoulder, dumbfounded I looked up and saw the smiling face of the senator, what the hell just happened. He was saying something but it felt like he was speaking a foreign language, I opened my mouth and found myself saying, "I need a moment, please", without waiting for a reply, I walked out of the room. I walked and walked, clueless where I'm going until I felt the wind on my face and sand under my shoes - how did I got here? I asked myself as I looked around, I was at the beach.

Without warning an image popped in my head - it was the ocean, but it was already dark out. I looked around and under my foot was a pool of blood, my wrists were bleeding, head pounding and a sense of control over my own body was missing. I felt my head turn, I saw a shack, hiding in the shadows was a man shaking, cowering in fear. I don't know who but I knew I wasn't in my own body, I was just watching through the eyes of a stranger seeing whatever it is he was seeing. I have no clue when all of this is happening but I was scared. My mouth twisted into a smile, my body moved towards him, grabbed him by the neck and placed my forefinger on my own mouth and said "shhh".

I blinked, what the fuck is wrong with this house, I said to myself, my hallucinations are going nonstop. I was about to go back when I saw it, the shack in my hallucination, I felt my chest tightened, slowly I approached it. To be honest I have no clue why I'm doing this, damn this mental illness I have! I knocked and a reply came soon, the voice was old and a bit hoarse, the man who opened it was the same, old, wrinkled, and features were weather beaten.

"Hi", I said to him, "I'm Robin, I'm a police investigator", I added pulling out my badge. The man looked at me nervously.

"What can I do for you sir? ", he said slowly.

I took a deep breath, I chose my words carefully, "You see, I'm investigating the disappearance of Annie Villafuerte." His expression twisted into a nervous almost scared frown.

"I was wondering, how long had you been here? " I asked slowly.

"T-thirty y-y-years Sir",he answered shakily.

"Oh, I see, you must have heard about her going missing, right?" He nodded, "was it hard to have this place cordoned off for some time?" he shook his head.

"I see", I looked at him, his face was pale with what seems to be terror. The man averted his gaze, "Excuse me, are you alright?"

The man looked at me, faking a smile, and slowly said, "Fine officer." I felt awkward, this man was either terrified with men in uniform or he's hiding something important. I wanted to question him further but there was not enough ground to have him called for questioning. In my mind I sighed, "Well if you are, I guess I better get going", I said, while the old man looked sad but at the same time relieved that I was about to leave. Before I left I took a card from my wallet, gave it to him and said, "If ever, you remember anything related to her, please call me", I smiled and bade him goodbye.

I returned to the house and found my grandfather and the senator looking at me, I smiled at them and told them that I was sorry for the sudden reaction, but they seemed to have understood. In the back of my mind something was nagging, an intuition, a feeling that something about this case is going to surface, something very important. The itch at the back of my mind continued to nag me as I absentmindedly flipped the pages of Annie's file over and over in the car on our way back. When we got home I locked myself in my room and called the office of my therapist. "Curses, it's official", I thought, I'm mentally ill.

Two days later, I filed a leave from the office, and slowly I waited at the lobby of the office of Dr. Ian Sobreviga.