Tightly, she grips his
hands and looks straight into his dark, unflinching eyes;
hers all lit-up and asking, Anything, anything at all, you say?
Yes. My love, he confirms. Whether it be the first drop of
September rain or stardust, the morning dew on Mount Manabu,
or a goat's eyelash. The young lady smiles. Very well. A
grin spreads across her delicate lips which then pucker up
and whisper her request into her lover's blush-red ears. She
quickly stands up and walks away, leaving him wide-eyed and
speechless.
A moment to think.
Will I?
Yes, yes. For my love.

Snakes hiss and dogs howl along the path
that the determined suitor takes on his way home. He
sneaks through the backdoor. A clatter-clang of pots and
pans resonates as the young man rummages through
rusty kitchenware. The racket alerts his mother
who is kneeling in front of the altar, reciting the orasyon.
Is that you, my son?

A bang and a thump and a break in a prayer. A balisong ,
then, swings full force and lands firmly on his mother's
back. He plunges the weapon deeper into her, vigorously
tearing skin, tendons and tissue, carefully carving out a
circle around her chambered organ. With trembling, bloodied
fingers, he digs into the poor old woman's gaping wound and
pulls out her heart, still warm, still throbbing. The
prized gift for his lady.

Sweaty, shaking and blood-wet from his
deed, he hurries back to his precious who he promised, Anything,
anything at all. But the trail disappeared as sinister clouds hid the
moonlight and the dogs howled more fiercely as if they all
knew that a killer was on the loose. And his own heart beat
faster and faster as his steps grew quicker and quicker as the
sky grew dimmer and dimmer. Then,
he
tripped,
and his mother's heart
slipped
out of his hands and into the darkness. And it must have
split open and grown a mouth for he heard his mother
pleading for an answer, a reason:
Why, my son, why?

And the young man wept like he had never
wept before as he crawled back to their house. And as he cried and
crept, he felt his body shrink, his tongue lengthen and his skin
become leathery. He grew a tail and beady eyes and
since then came out regularly at night, praying the
orasyon with every household, asking his mother for
forgiveness.