1: Prologue

According to Mark Twain there are two important days in a man's life, "the day we are born, and the day we find out why". I have found the answer in the manner and situation that I had least expected.

My name is Robin, I recently have graduated from the police academy and finally got my first assignment as an investigator though I didn't expect that my whole life will change because of my first case, the case of Annie Villafuerte.

Twenty years ago when I was still a kid, my parents died in a car accident but the whole world didn't seem to have noticed that except maybe for my grandfather who then took me in and raised me. Anyway, like I have said earlier, the death of my family was not what caught the eye of the world but rather it was the girl involved in it, her name was Annie Villafuerte. She is the youngest daughter of the then Senator Villafuerte and was only two years old back when the tragedy happened. The accident was due to the slippery road, zero visibility rain, and a faulty traffic signal - and with that I became an orphan while poor little Annie was heavily injured and at the brink of death. They took her to the hospital but after a few hours the doctors had given up hope, they said that it was impossible to save her. To the shock of the doctors that attended to her, the family decided to take the girl home despite knowing that she'll die once life support was removed. Still they did what they willed. For the next few days, news about little Annie began spreading like wildfire but it was not the news of her death for they say that she was alive and recovering from her injuries. Back then I was too busy with my own anger and bitterness to listen, I didn't think that it was fair that she lived while my parents died and everything began to change for and around me.

I was still on my way to being a teenager when it started, the dream of smoke as black as the night sky and painful shrieks of agony ringing in my ear. When I look beneath me there was no earth, only unending depths of fire burning and churning leagues and leagues of... I paused, and squinted. My jaw dropped, for the flames were burning people. Dark, forlorn faces were illuminated by the fiery pit and in one strong push behind together they fell. Screams and shrieks were endless and at that moment I knew, I was in Hell, the most painful and worse place to end up in. I was beginning to lose my mind, when a soft voice whispered, "You don't belong here". As if being hit by a strong wave I felt myself being carried away and when I open my eyes I was in my bed.

I had no clue that the dream was the prelude to my case. On the night of my hellish dream, in the house of the Villafuertes an ear-splitting scream pierce its tranquility. It was from their daughter Bethany, the third child of the family. Her mother and father came running towards their room with their guards, and inside the room was little Annie, now seven, holding a knife and seemed to have cut herself on the wrists. Blood covered her night dress as it continued dripping on the carpet beneath her. Little Annie's expression was blank as she watch herself bleed but all changed when her family entered the room. The sweet little girl's face contorted to a frown and anger burned iin her eyes. She looked at her father and gave a sinister grin as she pointed the knife towards her sister then said to her family, "You have made a mistake", it was a voice not her own, it was like the hissing of a venomous snake, cold, slimy and threatening. She darted towards her parents, Senator Villafuerte shielded his wife, falling on his back. Annie's knife nicked her father's ear and said to him in a hair-raising whisper, "You think that you have saved her but you are wrong! The price has been paid, and this girl no longer belongs to you. She and your family belongs to me", then she laughed, a deep booming laughter that shook every fiber of their being.

However, her laughter was sudden put to a halt and the voice of sweet Annie rang clear, "What have you done? This is wrong mama, papa...", they saw tears falling from her eyes. She hugged her father, and looked at her crying mother and siblings. "Why did you do this? I cannot be saved but i can still try to save you," as she let go of her father, her face once again contorted and changed its expression as the demonic voice came out, "What do you think you're doing you stupid girl?" With great strength Annie then bolted towards the window and jumped out three stories high, landing on the ground like a cat. She ran across their lawn with unbelievable speed; it just so happens that the Villafuerte house stood near a cliff overlooking the sea with a fifty meter drop towards the beach, and as little Annie arrived at the very edge she looked back at her family who were running towards her. She gave them one final sweet smile, then allowed herself to fall.

Her mother and father screamed, pushing their legs faster just to get to her; they were in mad hysteria, they knew it was impossible to get to her. They watched as their little girl fall to her death, and as she did, Mrs. Villafuerte dropped on her knees, weak and stunned, each member of the family feeling like a piece of their being went with her. In no more than five minutes police sirens were heard all over the property, members of the family were questioned, but none could give the police any plausible reason for what has happened. The sun was rising when one operative came running into the door, he was pale and cold, his face seemed to be in shock and on his hand he held a bag with a bloody knife. My grandfather, who then was an investigator, asked him what had occurred and the young operative only said, "There was no body. Just a knife. There was no little girl, only a bloody pool, everything was drenched in blood! The rocks sand! Everything was covered with it! If there is a slightest possibility that someone has taken her, it's just going to be a dead mangled body. No one, especially a little girl could survive that fall. "

Deep in his heart my grandfather knew that the little girl died, it was the only conclusion based on what the operative had said. He himself also looked at the precipice in which the demented little girl jump off, and he too came to the same conclusion; Annie Villafuerte died after jumping off a cliff. However, my grandfather couldn't bring himself to tell them that, at least not without a body.