PSYCHESTRAIN

06| Lost Souls

Author's note: I seriously don't know how to properly narrate a backstory or if I am doing it right in this chapter, so just allow me to write it this way. This might be boring, but I still hope you'll read it because certain information from this chapter will be relevant to the next few events.

06| Lost Souls

That night, Irwan opened the notebook. The second entry was another heinous crime. a beheading of another man named Fausto Leal. Every detail of his torture is documented. How he was beheaded alive by an axe, how he is still able to talk and gasp after the first shallow hit, and how the killer never stopped chopping his neck until it was removed from the rest of his body. 

The third entry on the same page was almost the same, but it's too violent for a man to imagine. It's still detailed, and it was written with morbid desire and satisfaction. It didn't really tell if the victim died, but sure, after torture, he couldn't live the same. 

"A slaughter house was mentioned," Irwan said as he took a sip of his black coffee. They're again in the judge's office. "Do you have any idea where that was?" 

"We have had a slaughterhouse before. It has never been used since we started living in the downtown area. Pero giniba na 'yon around 3 years ago, kasi pinambabahayan na." 

"Have you read the second and third entries?" 

"I bet I did; I can't really recall. But you know, I really didn't finish reading each entry. What I've read in the first few sentences seemed enough." 

"The second is the beheading of a man named Fausto Leal." Irwan stood and started pacing back and forth. "The third entry is another brutal dismembering—of the genitalia of another man named Jericho, just Jericho." 

The names rang a bell for the judge, and yet he denied any familiarity with any of them. Irwan wasn't quite convinced by him, the way the judge's brows knitted for moments after hearing their names, and how he looked away. 

"I seriously don't know how to make your daughter confess to these crimes. Or maybe the right words would be, how to determine who did those crimes or if they really happened," Irwan explained. "One thing I noticed about each entry was how it was well written, as if the author is writing a novel. The narration is passive and creative. It somewhat makes it less convincing; it doesn't seem true-to-life."

It wasn't really part of his job before. There were assigned offices to investigate the credibility of the situations. To verify the crimes committed, whether there was really one or if it's just mere accusations, It doesn't seem to be the easiest job the way he thought it was back then. 

"I want you to be transparent, Attorney Trevejo. I want you to help me. The thing is, I need to know if those crimes really happened." 

"It's kind of hard to disclose information knowing how most crimes are being hidden on record in this city. Ilang krimen na rin ang hindi nababalita, tinatago ng mga awtoridad." 

"Are you hiding crimes in this house, Attorney?" 

"I wasn't, or at least not in an illegal way. The authorities knew; the incidents are recorded. I just pulled some strings to not have it publicized. I am just protecting my family's name, Cipriano." 

"There are only 30 entries of those heinous crimes; well, it's not a few; it's literally 30 lives or maybe more. There were entries where there were more than 1 subject. But how many, among those entries, did you know happened before you ever found the diary?" 

"Okay," the judge pulled himself, trying to make himself comfortable in his own seat. But he knows it's not his position that makes everything uncomfortable. "I could have told your institution enough information before they sent you here, shouldn't I?"