The Witness

Beatrix gave Zillet and Airo a coy look. Her young brown eyes were screaming naivete, but the truth of her life was as bitter as a raw coffee bean. Her uneasiness was made conspicuous by her frequent eye movements as if she was searching for someone lurking somewhere. Watching her. Listening to whatever she was about to say.

“Why am I here again?” she asked, although her eyes were averting the penetrating gaze of the two cops in front of her.

“We just want to ask for additional information about Dean Castro’s case.” Zillet smiled at the teenager, whose pale face couldn’t be covered by the layers of foundation makeup she used. Her scarlet lip quivered at the mention of Castro’s name.

“Can you tell us more about what really happened that night?” Airo urged her to speak in a calm tone, even though he was in a hurry to finish the session. He didn’t want to pressure a teenager who had had a traumatic experience.

Beatrix scanned the police station one more time before speaking again.

“Can we talk somewhere private?”

The two cops’ brows furrowed at the request, making them feel suspicious. This could be no ordinary case if ever the girl would spill the beans.

“Sure. Let’s talk in our house,” Zillet said and gave her address to the girl.

Beatrix stood ready to leave when Zillet called her back.

“What is it?” she asked, playing with her fingers.

“While you were about to make out with the Castro, didn’t you say an enormous dog leaped on the bed?”

“Yes.”

“What did you do after that?”

“I picked up my clothes and ran out of the room.”

Zillet flinched at her statement. She studied the young girl’s face for any trace of treachery. It was there! There were discrepancies in her testimony, but Zillet pretended to believe her.

“Okay. We’ll just talk about the other details in private if you’re uncomfortable here.”

“Thank you.” Beatrix took the piece of paper where Zillet had written her address and contact details.

When she left, Airo threw a sharp glance at Zillet.

“What?” she asked, noticing his eyes again.

“Why did you give her your personal information? Did you bump your head or something?” He slammed his palm on the table to show disagreement with what his partner did. Some officers on duty glanced in their direction because of the noise.

“Haven’t you noticed how evasive her eyes were?” Zillet whispered, bowing apologetically at their colleagues while glaring at her hyped partner.

Airo paused, remembering how dizzy he was just following the girl’s restless, flickering eye. He clicked his tongue to still emphasize that he didn’t like what she did because it can put her life in danger.

“What you did is still unacceptable! What if she has something to do with the crime?”

Zillet smirked at her furious partner, grinning at the fact that they share the same thought.

“Bingo! You exactly think the way I do. No wonder we’re a match made in heaven.”

“You're giving me goosebumps! Give me a break! You know we’re not meant to be.” He raised his eyebrows at Zillet’s hilarious statement.

She walked closer to him and beamed menacingly at him before drawing closer. Her lips were on his right ear.

“I know… because you like BOYS.” She winked at him before collecting her files on the desk and transferring them to the next room to put them in their proper places.

***

Back in their home, Zillet locked her room after giving her parents a goodnight kiss. She scattered the photos of the crime scene she photocopied for her to figure out at home.

“She said she only heard breaking porcelains downstairs when she ran out of the room, but how weird could it be that she didn’t even find the culprit?”

She took the photo depicting the parts of the house that seemed to be secured, and there were no closer exits except the main door where Castro’s lifeless body had been found.

“Something's really off about that teen.”

No matter how she looked at it, loopholes were too obvious, and one thing was certain — Beatrix was lying to them. But why?

It was late at night, and Zillet was driving along the gloomy road of their town. This bothered her because of the unusual, eerie vibe it gave off. The streets there used to be lively with bright light posts and resto-bars.

She was driving, but she couldn’t remember why and where she was even going. She took her phone and dialed Airo’s number to ask if he was available to meet him, but his number was out of the coverage area.

Zillet kept on stepping on the gas that she couldn’t control the speed of her car.

“What the hell was going on?!”

She panicked, stepping on the brake, which didn’t seem to work. She had no control over her car: it kept running faster. What made her worry more was the fact that there were only houses, but they looked deserted, like that of a ghost town, until a glimmer of faint light ahead calmed her erratic heart.

The car had a brake of its own without her even doing it. The tires screeching broke the stillness of the night. When it stopped, she got off with her flashlight and lit the area to know where she was. She walked ahead and saw a pair of red eyes glaring at her.

She pulled the gun from the holster on her waist and aimed it at the unknown creature.

“When you point, you must fire,” a deep voice teased her. The voice seemed to come from a tunnel underground, but she couldn’t decipher whether it was purely human because the manner in which the statement was spoken sounded from a source that was watery like drooling saliva.

Saliva.

The idea reminded her of the traces of liquid found in the remains of Castro and his goons.

Goosebumps crawled all over her body at the speculations which took form. A realization that horrifying as death itself.

“Who are you?” she bravely asked, still aiming the gun at the owner of the bloodshot eyes.

“You really want to know who I am?” the being asked her back, followed by a burst of chilling laughter. “Do you even know who you are?”

***

Zillet woke up from yet another nightmare to happen. She glanced at her mini clock on the bedside table held by her favorite anime character, Kakashi Hatake figurine. It was only two in the morning.

‘Do you even know who you are?’

The creature’s question kept her awake, that she was no longer welcomed in the Realm of Sleep. Dreams, for all she knew, were just the manifestation of the subconscious mind, yet that one was as vivid as the dream she had when Dean Castro was slaughtered. It was like she was watching a mystery novel on the television screen, only that she was on the actual scene.

She switched the lights in her room on and spent the remaining dark hours browsing her mobile phone, searching for dream meaning.

“A future event will make you worry,” she started reading aloud when she searched for the meaning of red eyes in dreams. And when she searched for the meaning of a wolf with red eyes, she shivered because the article said,

“You need to look at your team, or someone is offended by you. The wolf, whose eye sockets in a dream emit a bright crimson color, portends fierce competition for the desired place. If a girl dreamed of such a thing, then this portends her the envy of her colleague; setting the rest of the team against her.”

She put her mobile phone aside, shaking her head at how absurd it would be to believe such. She went to the kitchen to get herself a glass of water when a weird shadow outside the window caught her attention.

A silhouette of something or someone was lurking in their garden was visible from the window under the faint light she switched on. She walked normally towards the drawers to retrieve a taser gun before walking to the kitchen door leading to the backyard garden.

Twisting the doorknob, she put her index finger on the trigger of the taser in case the owner of the silhouette would jump out of nowhere. She silently scolded her pounding heart so that it couldn’t be heard by whoever or whatever was spying on them.

With cautious and feather-like steps, she swung the door open, only to be surprised by a pair of red eyes several meters away from her.

“Who are you?!” she asked, aiming the taser at the owner of the eyes. ‘It’s just like in my dream.’

She pinched her arm that held the taser and winced, proof that she wasn’t dreaming. A low spine-chilling growl filled the misty, icy air in the garden, which reminded Zillet that she was only wearing a loose shirt made of thin fabric, with no undergarments, and her shorts.

Soft paws on blades of grass created subtle friction as the unidentified animal stepped back into the bushes until it disappeared in the dark.

***

Airo snapped his fingers in front of Zillet’s face to pull her out of a trance. He furrowed his brows when she didn’t even blink. He stared deeply into his partner’s eyes like bags of bleach with dark circles, making her appear more panda-like than human.

“Do you know what sleep means?” he asked, taking a sip of his own coffee. He pouted and took Zillet’s cup to her nose so that she was smelling the aroma of the freshly brewed coffee.

Zillet pouted at what he did and grabbed the coffee from his hand.

“Sleep evaded me last night; we broke up.” She let the smoke of the cup warm her face before sipping its content. Her head slightly hung because of light-headedness due to lack of sleep and brains that floated between dream and reality.

“Didn’t know you are familiar with that word,” he teased while combing his wavy raven-black hair with his hand.

“What word?”

“Break up. You haven’t even been in a relationship.”

“Well, have you?” she asked with raised eyebrows. Airo snarled at her.

The day was just beginning when chief Lionel Zamora walked in with a heavy vibe as if he was in mourning. His sharp eyes found Zillet’s stunned face. With torrential steps, he moved across the headquarters as if his bulky body had been turned into boulders, that every stride sent light shocks shaking the ground.

“Officer Ramirez,” he said in a deep voice. He placed an envelope on Zillets’ desk without even looking at Airo. “Here are the results from Dean Castro’s autopsy and other details on his gruesome slaughter. Something is off. I want you to look into it.”

Zillet gave him a querying look, placing her hand on her chest to calm her shocked heart.

“Why you?” Chief Zamora continued reading through her reaction. “He’s been under your surveillance for quite a while now, right? You know all, I mean at least most, of his enemies, connections, and deals. You might help in resolving this case… might even apprehend the perpetrator, since you're good at strategizing arrest.”

Zillet’s jaws hung open, wanting to voice protest, but the chief immediately left after giving her the orders.

“I guess that makes the two of us since we’re partners?” Airo asked, although deep inside, he felt like an outcast, not being acknowledged.

Zillet noticed his half-hearted comment and grabbed his hand from across the table, giving it a squeeze of assurance.

“Sure partner.” She smiled to make him feel better. “Are you free tonight?”

***

Photos of Castro and his bodyguards spread across the table. Zillet rolled her eyes at how unsettling the view was; meanwhile, Airo took a lungful of breath to block the building puke in his stomach, that any minute might burst.

“Good thing your dad has this study dedicated for personal investigation,” he said, scanning the spacious room with lots of filing cabinets resting on the four walls. A white glass board stood at the center, where Zillet posted the photos one at a time.

“Castro, being a notorious drug dealer, sure has plenty of enemies, plus that he was a sex offender.” She pinned the photo of one of the most wanted drug lords next to Castro’s picture. “Khalil Agaton.”

“His rival. Most of the districts under Agaton had been seized and run by Castro.”

“Bingo! But that’s not all there has to be. They used to be partners, yet it turned out that Castro had backstabbed Agaton. More than enough reason for him to be our prime person of interest.” Zillet walked back and forth in front of the board while tapping her right cheek with her index finger.

“But he could come out innocent, depending on his alibi.”