No one knows what it’s like to be me.
Well, that isn’t totally true.
The one that cursed me knows.
And she taught me how to curse others.
I am an Ungo, human by day and a monster at night.
I was a traveler, settling for a night at a town and I was impressed by her hospitality.
Lola Ading, a name that leaves disgust in my mouth.
She said it was a special occasion that I was there so she prepared dishes of lechon and stuffed bangus.
Hunger accompanied me so I ate with great gusto.
That night the transformation began. It was the worst pain I had ever felt in my life.
My bones cracked, my skin stretched and my teeth confined in a beak. As the moon hit her pinnacle it was finished. I became an Ungo.
Lola Ading also transformed and talked to me in squawks, which I could understand.
She said she was lonely, but could not find companionship in the village, all ostracized her.
But no one would miss a backpacking tourist.
She bade me to fly and she said that today was truly a special occasion.
There was a wake.
She explained that part of our power is surged through food.
And what better meal than a freshly dead person?
She taught me patience. We would have to wait until there was no one watching the corpse.
Hours we waited until we found an opening.
I was surprised that she was strong enough to carry the entire casket, but I didn’t know the extent of my powers then.
She dropped the coffin in a clearing and proceeded to extract the corpse from it.
We flew back to her house, it was nearly sunrise. I must have passed out because of exhaustion since the next thing I knew it was late afternoon.
Lola Anding entered the room. She thanked me for she had not had a companion in may decades. Her smile was apparent, but it did not fool me.
She turned me into a monster.
She took me to the kitchen and demonstrated one of the powers of our kind.
The corpse was there, set upon the table.
There were no incantations or eldritch gestures. She merely put her hand on the forehead of the body and it instantaneously turned into a small whole lechon.
This is how she cursed me.
I was filled with rage.
I took a knife and stabbed her in the chest.
She was a monster, not a person.
And she needed to be killed.
As I stared at what I had done, I cried.
I would never be the same again.
That all happened 50 years ago.
And I am so lonely.
I crave someone, anyone who knows what I am.
There is another wake happening tomorrow and they’re serving lechon.
It wouldn’t hurt if I give another one for their troubles.
And then I won’t be alone.
=———————–=
Written by Karl Gaverza
Copyright © Karl Gaverza
Inspired by the The Creatures of Midnight , Maximo Ramos, Phoenix Publishing, 1990
Ungo Illustration by emirajuju
IG: https://www.instagram.com/emirajuju/
Watercolor by Catherine Chiu
Leave a Reply