It’s all my fault.
He thinks back to when it all started. The signs were obvious, but he had the benefit of hindsight to guide him now. He prayed every day that God would deliver him from this labor. That was just for show of course, even if the lord told him to stop, in his heart he couldn’t go on until he fulfilled his penance.
It was a quiet afternoon when she came back. He met her at the airport with all the warmth he could muster. During her stay abroad, she would always write about how the cold made her feel. She described it as the chill becoming a ghost, doing everything possible to find a way into your veins.
He told her it didn’t matter. She had gone through a great ordeal and he wanted to get her settled in their home. He still hadn’t heard the whole story from her, but he could see in her eyes that she just wanted to forget. In the last letter she sent she wrote about how she couldn’t be away from her family anymore. He agreed, money be damned. He would see his wife through this and their family would come out stronger.
At least that’s what he believed.
The wedding ring on his finger burned. He wondered why he still wore it, considering the memories that played through his mind when it reflected the moonlight. He shook his head and tried to focus. He tracked her here through four different barrios and hoped that he could get to her before she ran away.
In the beginning, he foolishly thought that he would be able to stop her before she claimed another victim, after all she was easy to spot. In the harsh light of day that followed his first month of pursuing her, he had to admit to himself.
She was stronger. She was faster.
She possessed more cruelty than he could ever understand.
The ring felt heavy in his hand, but its glint reminded him of something else. This was his cross to bear, and there were only two ways it could ever end.
After a week of readjustment, she had fixed her jet lag and began to help around the house. The boys were thrilled to have their mother back. He wasn’t afraid to admit that the sight of her, playing with the children she had left, brought tears to his eyes.
When she accepted the offer to go abroad their children were too young to understand the sacrifice she was about to endure. That day, she hugged them tight and promised them that she would be back as soon as she can. She told them she would love them forever.
The last thing that she asked of him was to give his word that he would take care of their children.
There was no hesitation when he made that oath.
They waved goodbye and settled into their new lives, waiting for the day they would be complete again.
Maybe that was the last time she was truly human.
When she fled the first time, after the incident, he did all he could to find out what really happened abroad. He couldn’t travel there himself, but he knew that there was a community of Filipinos where she had stayed.
He wrote to them and their answers were troubling.
They said she never talked about her employer. During their gatherings she would make lumpia and talk about other things like her family back home and how much she missed them. One of the Filipinos there was an old nurse and she mentioned that there was something in her eyes. No matter how hard she tried to mask it, she was afraid.
The nurse wrote back about what she knew about the employer. First that he was a fellow Filipino that gained success abroad, though through which channels she wasn’t sure. He had specifically requested a Filipina be his caregiver and he was willing to pay a good amount of money for it.
Apart from that the nurse only had rumors that weren’t much help. Some said that he had to leave the Philippines because his family was involved in illegal ventures. Others say his wives never lived past two years of marriage and he left to avoid suspicion. There were kinder stories where he left to give his family a better life.
All these conflicting stories made no sense.
What happened made no sense.
How could she do that to the family she loved?
He was too late.
He was always too late.
This time it was a family of three, a young couple that had a bright future ahead of them. Their half-eaten corpses scattered around what remained of their sala*. It looked like the father tried to fight her off but her claws ripped through him easily.
After years of this game he was already numb to all emotions but one.
He counted again and added it to the growing number.
147.
147 innocent lives.
147 people whose blood was on his hands.
He knew that number would not stop growing, not until he finished what she started.
It was almost funny that she was so easy to track. She didn’t even try to hide the scar. Her path cut through the towns of Panay and even beyond. She was seen in Tuguegarao, Cagayan de Oro, Mindoro and Puerto Princesa. Her story was heard by children whose parents warned them that she would take them in the night if they were disobedient.
He knew that even if he succeeded, her legend would live on.
But they would never know of the forgotten character of the story.
The father seeking redemption in revenge, the husband that ignored the warnings, the man that only wanted his family to be complete.
As he stood over the blood of her latest victims, he wondered which ending would prevail?
His triumph?
Or hers?
*Living room
Written by Karl Gaverza
Copyright © Karl Gaverza
Inspired by the Maria Labo Urban Legends
Maria Labo Illustration by Sandra Sison
