2
Malate, Manila
"Yow, Ferdi. Give me another shot of that good shit!", said her.
"Well, for the record, this is your third bottle of Scotch, and we are closing in 30 mins," Ferdi answered.
"Just give me another shot," she quipped as she took a long drag from her Marlboro Red. She irritatingly brushes her short, spiky hair.
"Alright, alright. Here you go, Rocky," Ferdi replied as he puts a glass of scotch on the bar.
"Salamat," then she took the shot, straight
"You never changed, not one bit. You've always been this hard ass since we were kids."
"Shut up, Ferdi."
Then she remembered everything again. How she was bullied in grade school, how she got fed up and hit a boy in the face in highschool. How she always saved Ferdi's ass.
How she was relieved of her duty just earlier that day.
Something that she did not regret. That man broke many mothers' hearts as he left a trail of violated, dead bodies behind. He deserved that fucking headshot, even though her superior had a direct order not to shoot him.
She took one last drag, then killed the fire of her cigarette in the ashtray.
She felt a slight tingle on her chest. Odd. Then the tingle became a focused heat. She held her necklace, a beautiful eye shaped white stone tied to a piece of black string.
She ignored it. "I must be drunk,"she thought.
But the tingling did not stop. Her pendant grew warmer and warmer. She held it, stared at it for a moment, then she snapped back as she heard Ferdi's voice.
"Hey, you were daydreaming. Don't worry about you being relieved, okay?"
It was only then that she noticed that Ferdi's got company. A woman, slender and tall. She was wearing a sultry green dress, stilettos, red rouge and her hair was dyed green. Leaf lady? Rocky thought, but dismissed it.
"By the way, Rocky, this is Valeen. Valeen, Rocky."
Her pendant was making her uneasy. She shook hands with Valeen. Her hands were cold. She looked at her face, she was one hell of a beauty. But she thought she saw something else in Valeen's eyes. She thought that her pupils were also green, and are vertical. 'Must be the alcohol'.
"Hey Ferdi, I think I got to go home. Alcohol's kicking in. And oh. if you two are having a few more drinks tonight, never be drunk enough to tell her your old nickname, Ferdinand," she whimsically said as she grabbed her red leather jacket and red open face helmet.
Her necklace got more restless as she headed to the door. The moment she opened the door, she thought she heard something odd, like the sound of water hitting a hot pan.
She was already outside. She plunged her keys into her bike and revved it up.
She put on her jacket and wore her helmet. She was about to leave when her necklace tingled again, this time it was stronger than it did before.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" she said as she took the necklace off her neck. It slipped out of her hand and fell to the ground
The other end of the pendant was pointing to the bar she just left. She picked it up, and then stared back at the pub. She saw Ferdi come out, together with Valeen. He was smiling, but it was not the usual smile Rocky is used to seeing.
