Salamangka: 12SS 2020

The Seer

"LEFT!" Phil Hidalgo said as the naked young woman with stab wounds in the abdomen and blackened ligature marks around her neck, wrists, and ankles appeared on the other side of the road, pointing to her right – their left.

"Shit!" NBI Senior Agent Eric Ramirez slammed on the brakes and turned the wheel, stopping their black Starex van in a diagonal across the road, away from the steep rocky hills and towards the open field of tall grass dancing under an 11 AM sun.

The three PNP cops in the middle row behind them cussed as well.

"Dammit, Phil!" NBI Supervising Agent Ellie Dela Vega yelled from the back row. "A little heads-up next time!"

"This is bullshit," Police Staff Sergeant Tom Gonzales said as he turned around in his leftmost middle-row seat to face the back row. "Agent Dela Vega, I demand we turn around and return to Manila at once! This so-called 'psychic consultant' of yours reeks and is clearly drunk!"

"Wait," Phil said, turning back to face Gonzales. "You can smell me through that N95 mask?"

"YES!" everyone else said in unison.

"Huh," Phil shrugged, turning away and sitting back into his seat.

"Left, Jeeves," he pointed.

"But there's no road –" Ramirez started to say.

"Wait," he said. "There's tire tracks over here."

"Like I said, left," Phil said – then burped. "Sorry."

"Fucking hell, man," Ramirez shook his head, fanning the air before his face mask with his hand. "Next time you show up for work drunk, I'm going to shoot you myself."

"Agent Dela Vega, please!" Staff Sergeant Gonzales glared in disbelief, both palms turned upwards in a shrug that pointed towards Phil. The two other police officers – Corporals Hector Fuentes and Jack Velasco, also looked expectantly at Dela Vega.

Dela Vega rubbed the bridge of her nose.

"Tell me, Gonzales," she said. "Was Captain Dominguez lying to us when he said you would give us your full cooperation in our investigation?"

The three cops looked at each other.

"No, Ma'am," Gonzales finally replied, "he was not."

"Good," Dela Vega nodded, the three cops sitting back in their chairs.

Phil flipped up the passenger side visor as Gonzales caught him looking at them through the visor's mirror.

"Follow the tire tracks, Ramirez," Dela Vega ordered.

"Yes, ma'am," Ramirez muttered, stepping on the gas.

The van lurched forwards, rolling over the shallow ditch at the side of the road, and following the tire tracks into the wide, uneven field of grass. The tracks started to gradually drift to the right in a shallow arc when Phil saw the ghost again, a tiny figure standing maybe a kilometer further into the field and away from the tire tracks.

"STOP!"

Ramirez slammed on the brakes, to much cussing again.

"We don't want to accidentally run over a corpse," Phil said, stepping out of the van. "We'll need to walk the rest of the way,"

"Sarge?" Fuentes, the fat one between the two corporals, whispered as they walked out onto the field.

"It's okay," Gonzales muttered back, subtly touching his sidearm.

They all walked over the field, Phil leading the way, Ramirez walking to his right and behind, while the three cops walked directly behind, Dela Vega walking after them, off to the left.

About 500 meters on, Phil stopped before a figure lying on the ground, wrapped in black plastic garbage bags and generous amounts of duct tape. The naked ghost girl appeared next to the corpse. She pointed at the body, then pointed at the three cops.

"Crap," Ramirez was about to run to the body, but Phil stopped him with an arm across his chest.

The three cops muttered expletives amongst themselves as well.

Phil turned around and faced them.

"This is Anna Salazar," he continued, indicating corpse. "She was a prostitute in Manila. These two officers, Fuentes and Velasco, hired Anna last week as a surprise birthday gift for their senior and buddy, Staff Sergeant Gonzales."

"What? How could you –?" the skinny of the two corporals blurted out.

"Shut up, Velasco!" Gonzales shouted from the side of his mouth like a bad ventriloquist.

"They went to Gonzales' house in Cavite, where they started to party," Phil continued. "And against quarantine rules, too."

"Anna was only getting paid for one customer, however, not three, and they had a drunk argument that quickly escalated. These guys beat her, raped her repeatedly, and finally murdered her."

"Oh yeah?" Gonzales stepped forward, standing less than fifteen feet away. "Where's your proof?"

"Well," Phil shrugged, "you didn't use a condom, so the forensic nerds will find your semen in the body. And they'll match that folding knife you keep in your back pocket to the stab wounds."

"Son-of-a –!" Gonzales reached for his weapon.

This was it, Phil thought, as his vision revealed the next few split seconds.

The three cops were in standing in a triangle, with Gonzales in front, facing Phil. Agent Ramirez was standing to Phil's left and in front, while Agent Dela Vega was standing behind the cops and to the right.

Gonzales fired at Phil twice.

Phil willed the bullets away, curving them mere inches from his temple and cheek as he pretended to fall backwards to the ground.

Everyone else started drawing their guns as well, but Ramirez wouldn't be fast enough against the already-drawn weapon of Gonzales – Gonzales shot him twice in the chest.

As Ramirez fell to the ground, Dela Vega already had her weapon drawn.

Phil nudged Dela Vega's mind to aim for the head.

POP-POP-POP.

The three cops did not have time to shoot Dela Vega as they turned around. All three fell dead to the ground, each with a new hole in the head.

"Whoa!" Phil sat up, pretending to feel his body and face for injuries. "Am I dead?"

"N-No," Ramirez winced as he pushed himself up from the ground on his elbows. "Unfortunately."

"How the hell could Gonzales miss you at that range?" Dela Vega came over and helped Phil stand up.

"Dunno," Phil said as he and Dela Vega in turn helped Ramirez get up. "Just lucky I guess."

Ramirez took a sharp breath as he opened his shirt and felt the two slugs buried in the bulletproof vest underneath.

Phil saw the ghosts of the three cops appear next to their bodies. They glared at Phil and were about to rush him when a shapeless mist-like shadow rose from the ground behind them. Tentacles of darkness reached out from the shadow and wrapped themselves around the ghost cops.

The hairs on Phil's arms stood on end as he felt the shadow... smiling at him?

The ghost cops disappeared into the darkness, and the darkness in turn sank and disappeared into the ground.

Phil looked around to see if the naked ghost girl was alright, but she wasn't there anymore either. Was she swallowed by the shadow too? Or did the Light take her up?

If the Devil was the ruler of Hell, and Hell was the place where evil people were punished, would the Devil then be the jail warden? But that would mean that the Devil was part of God's judicial system, just like jail wardens on earth served under a nation's judicial system.

Was Phil serving the Devil by sending souls to hell?

Phil undid his mask, pulled out his flask of Black Label from his back pocket and took a swig, as he looked on at Dela Vega and Ramirez walking back to the van. With each passing day, he felt more and more jealous of people without the Inner Sight.