Mari: Year One [Completed]

Chapter Twelve: Precipice

He stifled his rage, none of the things he wanted were happening his way. Elizer Duque, a congressman of Manila, nearly tipped over the table in anger. There were no leads, no clues, no ideas about who attacked his family and killed them in brutal fashion.

Various criminal groups have been rounded up, but none of them admitted to the killing.

"Putang ina!" he shouted to no one, his brains were spent, in one night his family has fallen apart, and there's no one to pin the blame on, no one to cast his vengeance upon.

He buried his mutilated son and whatever was left of his wife, and then what.

"You'll be fine, sweetheart." a woman told him, patting his shoulder.

"Don't you fucking tell me what to feel, whore." Elizer roared, slapping her away with his hand. "You know not of my pain, you know nothing, you are but a toy used for my pleasure, and here you are trying what? To take my wife's place?"

"No.." the woman said sadly, "I'm just..."

"Just shut your damned mouth and do what you have to do!" Elizer growled, forcing her head down into his crotch.

"I will find who did this" Elizer muttered to himself, as the woman went to work on his phallus, "If I have to search every nook and cranny of this damned country, I shall and I will make him pay for the pain he caused me a hundredfold."

—

He entered the Duque mansion quietly, he was dressed in a black coat, his hair reaching his shoulder and a beard that has been unkempt for what seems like months.

Duque was in the den, still being 'serviced' by the woman.

"Congressman Elizer." the man said politely, raising his hand.

Elizer motioned for him to sit, as if oblivious of the woman who was between his legs.

"Are you the expert they recommended?" the congressman asked, "You don't look like an expert."

"I need to confirm a few things first, before I tell you about my deal." the dark man told him, and started looking around, "This is where it happened?"

"Upstairs, my boy's room and the hallway that leads to it. You better be worth the money I spent for you." Elizer growled, as the man left him to his 'business'.

He went up the stairs and it immediately assailed his nostrils, the scent of something almost malevolent tinged with... pure retribution.

The man moved further upward where the stench, which seemingly only he can smell, started to focus his thoughts.

He brought out a black candle stick and lit it.

The flames erupted gloriously, burning higher and thicker than the candle is.

"Tell me..." he mumbled, as if talking to something, someone invisible, "What happened here..."

He could hear distant voices, screaming, shrieking for justice, they came to him, phantoms, ghosts, restless spirits yet they were not spirits of the congressman's wife and child.

"Who are you...?" he asked, but they simply shrieked and tried to grab him, but failed.

"Congressman Duque..." the man asked loudly, a few seconds later he heard his footsteps close in.

"What is it?" Elizer asked from the foot of the stairs, "It better be worth the interruption."

"Just how many people died here?" he asked calmly.

"Too many to count, most of them were useless people who tried to get in my way." Elizer said nonchalantly, "Why, what have you found?"

"There's..." he staggered for a bit, he sensed a lingering energy, different from those who have departed. It was primal, almost monstrous. "What in the hell?"