To Devour

It was three in the morning when a distant clattering sound of tumbled-down trashcans echoed in an empty lot beside the dark highway. Houses were more than a hundred meters away so it instantly became a hidden and unauthorized dumping site of illegal materials and chemicals. Normally, one would suspect a starving stray cat rummaging for food or a poverty-stricken garbage collector looking for plastic bottles, glass bottles, or boxes which one could sell in exchange for a few hundred pesos but it was neither. An old television with a broken screen and a chopped-off pedestal stand mysteriously flickered on and off, producing weird electronic noises. A scrawny feline sleeping in a ragged box awakened and hissed at it out of surprise before running away. A strong rush of unsettled air circulated the area, whipping garbage bins around and spilling garbage. A deep, sinister sound emitted from the unsettled gas, darkening in color as it continues to rush around in irregular behavior. This dark unsettled gas was a malevolent entity that has been lurking in dark and isolated places. Its existence feeds from evil thoughts and deeds but is also in a constant battle to form and exist as every act of goodness chips away its life. A piercing grave sound was once again heard as the inconsistent body of gas continued to ramble around. The entity is in desperation to once again possess a human, to manifest its power in a living matter that it could manipulate and control. It has possessed multiple vile people from way before. It has possessed both men and women even long before the 15th century, in search for someone in every generation of a certain family that stands as the protector of the one thing it desires to devour and surcease from existing.

A few meters away from the disturbed place was a police officer in civilian clothes dragging a body bag made of thick plastic. He was hauling his colleague's dead body whom he just shot in the head an hour ago. His car was parked and hidden behind the tall grasses not too far from the road but unnoticeable. He knew the place very well, he was certain that there were no CCTV cameras for another hundred meters and no possible witnesses around to catch him in the act. The atrocious killer threw away the heavy corpse with a huff and wiped his sweaty forehead using the back of his gloved hand. He paused for a rest and rammed his shovel to the ground which he carried on his back.

"You are such a pain the ass even in your death, Fernan." He said, inhaling deeply. "Well, you asked for this. I told you to stop nosing around my business. I warned, more than once. Hadn't I?"

After a quick pause, he started digging a grave for his victim to rest in. This vicious law enforcer is Euphert Benitez, a 40-year-old perfidious policeman who had protected several corrupt officials who did not just reward him extravagantly but also promoted him during their reign in exchange for his bloody service. He had done a lot of dragging and burying of people he intentionally killed and those who were ordered for him to execute. This is more or less his tenth time discarding a dead body so it did not take long for him to quickly and cautiously finish the dirty work. Benitez removed his gloves and burned them on top of his victim's grave. As he watched the remaining evidence turn into ashes, he rotated and massaged his tired arms from digging. Once he made sure that everything was clean and unsuspicious, he trudged away like he just disposed of his normal garbage.

"Boy do I need coffee!" He blurted out as he stretched his back.

The uncontained and volatile entity felt his presence and moved quicker than before as if it was being magnetized. There is nothing more appealing to this evil entity than a man with a heart filled with spite and malice. It stormed out of the place where it was first seen and raced towards the sullen Euphert Benitez. Trees and shrubs brushed harshly against the strong trail of wind, alarming Euphert. He swiftly drew his gun and aimed it in the direction of the trees but he saw no one.

"Is anyone there? Show yourself!" No response. He scanned the whole place vigilantly. A strange sound of inaudible deep snarl was heard east of him so, he pointed yonder.

"Putangina, face me!" He yelled.

The black stray cat from earlier happened to pass by. Startled by its sudden appearance, the surprised man pointed his gun at the innocent cat.

"You damned cat!" He said as fear started to grow inside of him.

The black cat hissed with great volume, its eyes dilated, ears back and flat against its head, and its body arched and trembling. He felt a strong, cold breeze behind him. Stricken by fear, he slowly turned his back and before him wafted a black cloud of unearthly matter. With shaky hands, he raised his gun and aimed at it. Before he could even fathom what was happening, what it is, or where it's from, the dark ghostly apparition inhabited his body at warp speed. Euphert fell on his knees as he struggled to breathe. His body ached and his veins strongly pulsed. He felt a hot surge of blood streaming in him, from his head to his feet. He groaned as his brain seems to be on fire and his heart bursting from hyperventilation. After a moment of torment, he fell to the ground.

It wasn't long when he opened his eyes again. It wasn't the vicious police officer anymore. It was someone or something else. He rose from the ground and picked up his gun.

"It's been so long since I last took hold of a weapon." He said as he dusted the sand off his shirt, "This is such a nice body to live in. Tt's as if it is my own." He chuckled. He glanced at the stray cat fiercely glaring at him. He pointed his gun towards it and shot its tail.

"Nice gun." He said as the cat yowled in pain.

He started to walk away with a grim plan formulating in his head. Upon reaching the possessed human's car, he stopped to look up at the night sky, where the moon was still shining brightly. He stared at it with despise and odd desire.

"You contemptuous deity." He sneered, lazily pointing the gun to the sky, "Beautiful, desirable, yet merely lucky." he said, drumming his gun in mid-air after every adjective.

He climbed up to the roof of the car effortlessly, "But I have got to commend you for your bravery, Bulan. That's why Bathala ordered people to protect you from me."

He sat down with crossed legs, still with the loaded gun in his hand. Bulan is believed to be the deity who lit up the night sky. The brave god of beauty and illumination according to folklore. The dark entity possessing Benitez's body, on the other hand, is the spirit of the Bakunawa. The rumoured colossal sea serpent (sometimes a humungous alligator or reptile) who was mesmerized by its beauty, vowing to devour it.

"I have lived in a lot of human bodies, absorbing all their values, beliefs, and even their own selfish desires. I have seen how people, places, and cultures change. I have seen them reform and revamp a lot of ideologies, ways of life, everything. It seems like I have seen the world remodel a lot of times." He continued talking to the moon as if it was a real person.

"But you, Bulan, along with the other deities in either the sky or the earth, you're the only ones unchanging and consistent. I have watched people praise and worship you up to its gradual dissipation stemming from their knowledge of religion, or science, or now merely of sentiment that we're just stories. All of you are rendered mere nature. I have heard people discuss logical explanations about your existence. I have witnessed their thirst for the truth slaked by science. All of their claims, credible and plausible, were deemed factual. They have explained wit-fully what you all narrated in simple terms and explanations. Adlaw, Bulan, even I, Bakunawa, and many others are rendered folklore and hoax. People today are not simpletons anymore, they're complex and curious."

He let out a small laugh as he realized how ridiculous he looked, talking to the moon. He scratched his head using the mouth of his gun, "I definitely look delusional, if someone could hear me right now."

"The thing is, Bulan, with all of these changes, curiosity, and rapaciousness--where people heedlessly scramble their way to the top, heartless and all--I live, I get stronger, and I continue existing. And that's not even the best part yet. With all these revising and adapting, I learn and replenish. It's so nice to be evil yet untampered rather than being untampered per se but benign."

This dark entity has dwelled in a lot of evildoers with different levels of wickedness and wrath, eventually embodying a variety of evil. It assimilated shrewd drills and strategies from the different perspectives he had possessed. He witnessed how evil shifted from aggressive and rash to devious and smart. He now fathomed the canny ways to succeed.

He tapped his gun three times to respite from solid peace before concluding that the moon will never reply. "You make it so easy to believe that you're just a piece of matter orbiting around the earth."

He slid down to the ground and opened the door of his car. "This time around, I'll suppress my intrinsic appetitive desire to consume you as much as I can and focus on flourishing and devising strategic ways to attack instead. I came to an epiphany that my staunch obsession renders me unwary, making me pregnable to your irksome guardians--oh, the thought of them infuriates me!" He smashed his hand to the car out of fury as he remembered all its failed attempts, especially the ones where it's almost close to victory but still ended up in chagrin.

"This time, your protector will perish. And I will finally kill you while I enjoy my time here. This is the gift of being untampered and capable of change. And by the way," He pulled out his wallet and presented Euphert's police I.D to the sky. "I've possessed yet another man with mutual darkness as I have. It's beyond convenient to dwell in someone who's already as evil and dangerous as I am. All I need now is a fresh start."

He gave the moon one last look of contempt before it entered the car.

"I will win this time." He murmured.

The poor inhabited human drove away with a malignant spirit manipulating his body. Once again, the dark entity found a suitable host to control and use to perpetrate his plans. It is now more menacing and dauntless after gaining experience and better knowledge of the material world. And with a body of a diabolical personality, he had grown indomitable.

Clouds in the sky started to obliterate the moon. Suddenly, a loud thunderclap roared from the sky and an unexpected rain poured heavily. The villain took this as a response and a smug smile forms across his lips.

"You did not see this coming, haven't you?"