Nobody really like doing this. But someone has to do it.
She was selling herbs and liquids when this beautiful woman asked for “it”. She had done this several times to know that the woman is so confused and scared. It really does not require any job experience to know this is her first time for “that”, nor it really does not require any age nor wisdom that lust is what brought the woman to her.
Well it is still money. So she comforted the woman. Praised her wise and mature decision. She also adds that she is a modern woman, a woman who owns her body and that the thing inside her is just a malignant flesh, destined to ruin her life.
The sales talk work. The woman’s teary eyes disappear with these reassurances. She feels like the devil bargaining for the woman’s soul.
But what the heck, surely even priests must think “it” to be right if used to correct what is wrong, even God takes all life just for the sake of it. Why cannot she take life so she can live with the good money that will be paid for her services.
The sun sets.
The pollution of the city is getting worse as it corrupts the yellow sun into a brooding orange.
The shadow of the church tower imposing but surely, she thought, even God takes all life just for the sake of it.
She called for a pedicab, the woman following her lead.
The vehicle leads into an alley, filled with human smell and inhumane filth. Children ran and laughed while toothless women and drunken husbands looked at them with curiosity. They already know what will happen, but surely even God takes life just for the sake of it.
She opened a door made of rusty metal, and the door leads to her small rat hole. She prepared the instruments and boiled some hot water. The woman sat over to what look like a dentist chair, something that is chewed and pissed upon by dogs.
The woman starts to be nervous. But the woman thought to herself that she is already a modern woman, a woman that owns her body. Surely progress always require human sacrifices.
She came with the tools and squatted below the spreaded legs of the woman. The act was really easy you see, incisors in, a little pressure and a yank to pull out the flesh.
That act was really easy, but the only problem is that it was really dirty. The smell of blood is nauseating. Well all deaths are easy to do but hard to clean after.
And yes, the woman cried. It was worse than the time that woman was molested when she was eleven, the feeling is worse when her boyfriend beaten her for sex, it was worse when she learned she was pregnant. But progress always require human sacrifices.
The woman left two-hundred pesos for her and left in a hurry. No one really wants to see the bloody flesh afterwards. No one really does.
She gathered the flesh and placed it in a plastic-bag. She left the bloodied chair and went to her window. There she threw it out to the river. To be forgotten among the black filth of the metropolis. She saw the plastic-bag flow away with the murky water, she saw it lost to the horizon.
Then the pot and plates made a noise. Maybe a cat was chasing a mouse. Then a figurine fall, and she only manage to catch a glimpse of the feline. And it was a really big cat, a really big and fast cat.
Silence.
Then her neighbour shouted to the children playing outside. “Mga anak kayo ni Janice!” (You’re a children of Janice!). And she had to smile at the pun, because the children are really playful and mischievous like the tyanaks(fiends in the form of babies) of the movie.
Silence.
Then there was a cry of a baby. She listened. It is not from her neighbour. It is coming from her “operating room”. She approached with caution. The chair’s back is facing her and a mirror in front of it. As she approach the chair, the angle of the mirror adjusted.
It was already dark and the light in that room was turned off. But the lights from the other room aid her to see what the mirror has to reveal.
The mirror, a wooden framed one, revealed a baby, a fat baby of six months.
But that baby is licking the blood on the chair. Enjoying every red sticky stuff and every bit of the flesh that was left over the chair.
Then it stopped from feeding from the blood, and looks at the direction of the mirror. The baby notices her and smiles at her fear and disgust. The baby’s smile reveals a set of sharp and yellow teeth. It’s eyes are bloodshot and erratic, veins are revealed and abound over it’s body.
Then it laughed heartily, then the laugh becomes a shriek, then the shriek becomes a numbing echo. The bulbs in the house exploded with the echo and the darkness outside flooded in.
She covers her head, protecting it from the carnage of glasses and refusing to see where is the baby in the darkness that surrounds her.
Then she tries to remember prayers and novenas and incantations. She tries to remember if whips of sting-ray, water from Banahaw or bulbs of garlic will work. She tries to remember where she kept the handkerchief of the El Shadai.
Then nervously, as silence regain it’s dominion, she maintains her pathetic position. Covering her head and closing her eyes. This surely will protect her from that Evil.
Then she prayed slowly.
He…Hel…Hail Mary… Fu…fu…full of Grace…
Silence.
…the Lord is with you…
Then a plate fell. She prayed harder and more vocally.
…ble…blessed are you…
The mirror, where she saw the horror, fell. She continued praying clumsily and shoutingly.
…a…among wo…women…
Then the television fell and broke.
… e… and blessed i…is the fruit…
There were tiny steps closing in to her, breaking shattered glasses as the tiny steps near her.
…of your womb…
Then the baby laughed in front of her.
…Jesus…
Silence.