1 Prologue

Hunger. No matter how much she devoured, there was no satiating her insatiable appetite. It has always been that way and it never changed. She smashed the cement as if it was just a brittle eggshell and clawed her way through the loose dirt. She dug some more until she felt her claws touch the wooden casket.

Her stomach growled some more, to a despairing torment. Her skin prickled as the hunger became more intense, it was maddening. She felt the wooden coffin and pulled out the lid, exposing the deceased body out in the cold, moonless night.

The corpse was fresh, maybe about a day old. The stench of formaldehyde didn't deter her appetite. Her stomach violently growled; the hunger was strangling her guts that it hurt the more she stalled. She never wanted nor wished to be the way that she was now, but the monster inside of her was telling her otherwise, it needed to feed on human flesh. Preferably fresh, but her human side would rather settle for these dead ones.

She took the head and buried it on the side of the coffin. It was one of those things that she never wanted to see their faces. She hated dealing with them in her dreams. Those faces of those she had devoured. It was something she learned after all this time. Once she's satiated and shifted back to her human form, she had to deal with their specters bugging her in her sleep.

Burying the head made her feel at ease. No one told her this; she's not even sure if her kind does this, but to her it was the most humane thing she could do. The most humane thing. She often told herself. A hypocrisy she stood by because there was nothing strong enough to tame that monstrous side of hers. A side which she despised to the very core of her being, but slowly accepted out of its crippling nature.

If given a chance, she would rather die than suffer this situation she has. But there was no stopping it. Once, she tried to starve herself to death, but beast inside her controlled her body and began devouring everything in its path, humans included. The worst part was, she remembered everything, and she couldn't stop herself from doing it, she just couldn't.

She tore up the well-fitted barong from the corpse. The poor man died young, three stab wounds at the left side of his rib cage; a gang related incident either a part of one or just an unfortunate casualty. Her hands moved automatically, and by using her claws she ripped the man's chest open.

What a poor thing. She thought. What could've been his dream when he was still alive? Does he have friends?

It wouldn't matter anymore, her monstrous self, tugged her back to her prey and begin her feast.

She devoured the foul meat from the corpse, even breaking the long bones in the thighs to suck out the marrows. The cold air blew and a distant howl from stray dogs filled the air. She ate him in the darkness of the night, away from the eyes of any wandering townsfolk. After all, it was a cemetery located outside of town with little to know people living nearby.

The corpse never tasted good; all corpses never did with the exemption of those freshly dead ones. But she couldn't find one here. There were no huge hospitals that would store them by the lot or a mortuary establishment big enough that would store their corpse. She wasn't in the city anymore. Eating the newly dead would've been easier if she never left the city, but she did. She has to; there were too many things that happened back then and also, she couldn't forgive herself for devouring that poor girl.

Too many sad memories filled her mind as she finished eating the corpse. She would've chosen to think about that rather than her ravenous hunger, but her instincts won over her all the time. She left the hands and feet intact, burying it along with the head.

She jumped out of the grave sniffing the air, looking for another grave to desecrate. For some reason, she was hungrier tonight. She wanted to leave, but her hunger tormented her to go back and hunt. She ran across the brambles, not minding the prickly thorns that entangled the ground. She easily navigated through the coffin apartments and sepulchers until she found a small make-shift mausoleum made from coconut lumber and some iron bars to keep potential graverobbers from stealing the tiles and candles inside.

She closed her eyes and sniffed the air; it was the right tomb. She easily tore the chains off the door like it was paper and went inside the mausoleum ignoring the crucifix on top of the sepulcher. She immediately broke the tomb from the side and pulled out a small child-sized coffin.

Suddenly, something inside her wanted her beastly self to stop. She stood beside the coffin heaving and salivating as her insatiable appetite punished her innards, twisting her insides as it tried to coerce her into feeding the corpse.

It was the first time in a while where she hesitated to feed. She couldn't bring herself into it. She just can't! The haunting memories of that poor child plagued her in every waking minute of her life. That child whom she loved and cherished so much, Anna.

She looked around and saw the picture of the dead girl. A lovely child with hair flowing down her shoulders, over a white dress. Her smile sweet and radiating. It reminded her of that sweet girl.

Her stomach protested against her heart. It cramped and tormented her more, the beastly voice inside of her taunted her to eat what was inside the coffin, but she wasn't able to; she can't. She swore she wouldn't, not anymore. Children was off her list, dead or alive.

The pain became more unbearable. She lashed out in anger and began to scratch herself, trying to distract herself from her own twisted hunger. Refusing to give in to her nature, she immediately ran out of the desecrated tomb and went into the open where she stumbled from the pain in her stomach.

The hunger felt like it was eating her inside, her disobedience was becoming more of an undoing for her. But she still resisted her ravenous craving. She curled on the ground, wailing in pain as her stomach growled and cramped. She gnashed her teeth and tried to satisfy her hunger by eating the dirt on the ground, but it never sufficed her.

Suddenly, she heard a motorcycle passing by. Her instincts kicked in again and controlled her body. She tracked the motorcycle down and no matter how much she tried to stop herself, her body wasn't letting her.

She ran salivating across the graveyard, then into an open field until she arrived at a small, cemented road. She followed the scent of burnt gasoline and sweat until she saw the motorcycle parked on the side of the road.

She looked around and saw two silhouettes underneath a mango tree. She went in closer and saw the lovers torridly kissing underneath the tree, ready to undress themselves. She tried to take over her body once again, but the hunger was too strong. She salivated like a rabid dog and gnashed her teeth giving off a loud grating sound.

"Did you hear that?!" The woman asked.

"What is?" The man asked as he continued to kiss her neck.

"T-there was a grating sound… like… kik kik kik…something like that."

"Come on, you're just thinking of some weird things!" The man guffawed and continued doing his business.

Out of nowhere, she emerged. She won't forget how the woman's eyes widened as she saw her crawled out from the bushes. The woman's mouth was ajar, she couldn't speak a word. The poor lady froze in fear as she continued to stare.

When the man turned around it was already too late…for the both of them. She bared her teeth, and her mind went numb. The rest was blurry, but she recalled blood spurting everywhere and her hunger finally satisfied.