Every Foul Spirit
She brushes debris away from the footstone: dried dead leaves, a condom wrapper, a willow tree seedpod.
What lies under the ground becomes instantly aware, currents running through its decomposed husk. It tenses and listens for her, eye sockets agape. Its fleshless jaws widen to scream . . .
The young woman catches it in time. “Shhh,” she whispers. “I’m here. They wouldn’t let me out.”
Lips gnashed and gone, finger bones worn away, it shudders in dread anticipation within its clawed coffin inside the grave.
“Sleep,” the woman says, passing a hand over the long-sunken burial mound, and the release begins.
Sikat na Kabanata