It all happened as fast as a drop of rain.
The sea was painted with blood. Violent streaks decorated the canvas that was supposed to be a quiet evening. Moonlight gave witness to a scene more familiar at a slaughterhouse.
In all this tumult Mhik could only focus on the warm tears rolling down her cheeks. She chided herself, “You’re a big girl now, don’t cry. Kuya will make fun of you and mama and papa won’t take you seriously.”
She couldn’t see her family anymore; she had been holding her kuya’s hand when it started. She wished upon all the stars she could see that he was okay, that this nightmare would soon be over.
The creatures must have heard her prayer. They circled around her like a wake of bloodthirsty vultures waiting for an easy meal.
Mhik could see them clearly now, iridescent scales shining in the moonlight. She thought back to all the times papa told her that monsters weren’t real, that fear only holds you back.
More tears were welling in her eyes now. She didn’t know what to do. There was so much red all around her. She called for her kuya, for her mama and papa. She screamed until her throat burned. She just wanted to be with her family.
The monsters were swimming closer now. Mhik wished she could cover her nose. Their stench was overpowering. The creatures glided towards her, picking up speed. She closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable.
The creature screamed out in pain as a spear impaled its head, blood and ichor spurting out of its wound. The other creatures scattered and Mhik was left alone, or so she thought.
“Nasty beasts.” Mhik heard a woman’s voice cut through the darkness. She spun around and faced the origin of the voice.
“Swim with me. I may have scared them off for now, but they’ll be back. Their kind never likes to leave witnesses.” The woman was fast, in a matter of moments she had swam a few meters ahead of Mhik. The lithe girl tried to catch up to her, but she was never the strongest swimmer.
The woman seemed to have sensed Mhik’s trouble and swam alongside her.
“Don’t worry we’re almost there.” Her voice tried to sound reassuring, but there was a hint of steel from the battle.
The moonlight revealed a small boat that Mhik hadn’t noticed. The woman boosted her up and Mhik could feel the chill of the night creep into her bones.
The woman took out a blanket and gave it to the small girl. She thanked the woman though she was shivering.
“Where’s my family?” Mhik asked through the cold and the tears.
The woman avoided looking into Mhik’s eyes. She gave no reply.
“Please! Tell me!”
Again she was met with silence.
“Please. My name is Mhik. I came here with my kuya and my parents. I don’t know where they are. You must have seen what happened to them.”
“…”
“My kuya’s big, he looks just like my dad. My mom looks a little like me but older. She has a mole on the side of her face. Please ma’am, tell me what happened to them!”
The woman met Mhik’s gaze and didn’t speak. As young as Mhik was she could tell there was a lifetime of sadness behind the woman’s eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
Mhik’s heart sank. She thought back to all the red that was around her.
Her screams broke the stillness of the water as she called out her family’s names.
The sun was unforgiving, but so was she.
She tracked the creatures to a cave near Binurong Point. There were many tourists in the area and it would be a prime feeding ground for the creatures.
She held her rosary tight and said her prayers. It was her ritual right before every hunt.
“May You protect me from the monsters of the sea. Heavenly Father, hear my prayer.” The words were carried on the wind as she prepared her weapons.
The creatures usually hunted at night, but there were exceptions especially when they were around a target rich environment.
Memories flooded her mind and she tried her best to hold back the tears.
It had been years since she made the pledge to hunt these abominations off the face of the earth, to make sure no one else suffered as she had.
“This is for you kuya.”
She readies her spears and swims into the cave.
“Do you ever miss them?”
“Who?”
“Your family.”
“Every day.”
“Why do you do this?”
“So that no one ever has to feel the way I felt.”
“Is it worth it?”
“Sometimes.”
There were only three in the cave, the others must have escaped in the commotion.
She curses herself, “I needed to be faster.” She rips a piece of her blood-soaked shirt and fashions it into a bandage.
The battle was short by her standards. She expected more of a fight. She takes a piece of her blooad-soaked shirt and fashions it into a bandage.
“Too slow, too many of them got away.”
She thinks of their next victims, of the children left behind without parents.
“I need to be faster.” She says to no one in particular.
She grasps her rosary tight and asks her god for forgiveness. She knows someone else will pay for her failure.
“I will fight until my dying breath, dear Lord.” The rosary digs into her skin and she ignores the pain.
“Please bless my spears so they will find their marks. I will purge the world of their evil if you will it.”
The sun is setting now. She looks at the bodies of the creatures and savors the familiar scent of blood and saltwater.
“Forgive me, Lord.”
She takes her weapons and begins her hunt anew.
Written by Karl Gaverza
Copyright © Karl Gaverza
Story inspired by the Magindara description in Bikol Beliefs and Folkways: A Showcase of Tradition. Nasayao 2010.
Magindara Illustration by Jojo Cunanan
Deviantart: https://yamitoki.deviantart.com/
Behance: https://www.behance.net/yami_to_ki937b
