Mayari watches as the scar on her arm continues to try to knit itself back together. It still remembers Bakunawa’s teeth ripping it off, the searing pain of separation that echoed and pulsed into her back, screaming for her attention as she ignored it and tried to cut through the thick scales of Bakunawa’s neck with her kampilan.
The desire to forget and erase radiates through the scar and is laced with every bit of new flesh it grows. She grabs her knife and digs deep through the scar. Pain moves through her, and she grits her teeth in pleasure.
She decides what’s worth forgetting, and every fight with Bakunawa needs to be cherished.
Dull heat begins to crawl from her core to her limbs, the way it always does when she remembers a fight with her. Torn limb from limb, watching parts of her consumed by the towering sea serpent, victory gleaming in her eyes as she stares down at Mayari. Being so close to defeat and domination heats her blood to boiling. Cold and darkness has ruled her for centuries, alone shining light in the night sky. Heat was a stranger to her. It wasn’t until she met Bakunawa that she understood why Apolaki hoarded the day all for himself.
Unfortunately for him, she’s familiar with it, but she doesn’t want to kill Apolaki to keep it for herself. She’s never wanted to kill him. He didn’t care enough to kill her when he took her eye, so she doesn’t care enough to kill him. The only thing she feels about him is frustration over her body deciding to keep the eye socket he hollowed out empty.
Bakunawa is the only one brave enough to truly try to kill her. The only one brave enough to crave her.
Mayari rises from her perch on the cliffside. She yanks the blade from her arm and tosses it into the sea below her. Her blood will stir Bakunawa into attention and draw her closer. Her eyes scan the water, heart racing as she waits for the telltale sign of ripples on its surface. Heat pulsates through her. Her hand clenches around the handle of her kampilan.
There.
Cold dark water grips her heated skin.
Silver scales shine in the water.
Teeth longer than her whole body snap at her.
A leg shoots forward, her foot connects with the flat of a tooth, bicep strains as the blade of her kampilan digs into the top of Bakunawa’s head.
Blood mixes with the ocean, coats Mayari’s tongue in salt and metal.
Pain sings from her thigh, Bakunawa’s tooth slashing into her. Their blood intertwines in the water around them.
Mayari tries to sink her teeth into Bakunawa’s head, feels her teeth chip and break against the solid scales, doesn’t care, just wants to reciprocate.
Growls vibrate through Bakunawa’s body, entering Mayari through the tooth in her thigh and shaking her to the very core.
The fire in her body is overwhelming. Lightning sparks everywhere, spreading the fire further.
What’s left of her thigh yearns for her missing leg.
It can wait its turn. She’s been yearning for centuries.
She uses her grip on her kampilan to pull herself up and on top of Bakunawa, fights against the water trying to slow her down. Every muscle in her arm tenses and bulges to drag the kampilan through Bakunawa’s skull, bone trying its best to protect the beast it belongs to. It had no choice but to fail against a goddess’ weapon.
She roars, rippling the water around them. Water rushes around her as Bakunawa barrel-rolls and drags her across the sand. Sand grinds against her eye and the back of her body, clogs her mouth and nose. Pain rends at her mind, screams trapped in her sand-plugged throat.
Mayari’s hand lets go of her kampilan. Sharp pain grips onto the exposed nerves of her back. She raises hand and claws away all the sand on her face while she vomits up what sand she can. Her throat is raw, her lungs burn against the grains of sand trapped inside. Blood crawls through the water from her back into her peripheral vision.
The sea floor shakes. Bakunawa has dropped before her on her stomach. Her eyes find Mayari’s. A sliver of her kampilan’s blade shines where it’s still lodged into her head.
Claimed for Mayari.
Pleasure mutates the pain gripping her nerves.
Muscles twitch to push her towards Bakunawa on her hands and knees. Her thigh muscles pulsate and flail to compensate for its missing half.
Closer.
Push through the weight of the cold dark ocean.
Create foot and hand holds in the loose sand.
Closer.
Blood tries to burn through her veins.
Palms vibrate, singing louder every time they dig into the sand.
Light shines from silver scales and pierce into her eyes. Her right arm sings against the teeth embedded in it. Her chin smacks against a tooth, water rushes through her ears as she’s lifted through the water. Everything blurs and she feels her bones snap and muscles loosen, body as strong as a worn cloth as Bakunawa shakes her back and forth.
Ecstasy chars her core, laying waste to her mind.
Numb fingers propel forward, grasp the handle of her kampilan, slice through her skull, freeing itself when it cuts the top of a nostril open.
A yelp as loud as thunder rattles her skull.
Mayari’s overheated body shudders against the cold dark waters.
She drives her blade into Bakunawa’s jaw. She braces against the side of her mouth with her foot and torn up thigh. Her jaw crunches as the blade slices through. The titanic jaw sags down, maw unable to close.
Mayari drives her blade into her ear hole and drags it down with every working muscle left in her body.
A roar.
A whimper.
Each sound manipulates her body, coaxing every movement with fleeting flames.
Each sound belongs to Mayari.
The scorching heat in her brain subsides when Bakunawa becomes still and silent. Her kampilan drifts to the sea floor, her muscles too cold without the sea serpent to motivate them into action. Sand greets her torn apart back when her leg no longer wants to balance her.
Blood obfuscates and dulls Bakunawa’s visage, trying to hide the flayed muscle and shattered bone and missing scales. Her silver eyes are dull and unmoving.
A grin splits apart Mayari’s lips. She fumbles for her kampilan and pushes it back into Bakunawa’s sliced open muscle. She can get it back when Bakunawa finds her another day.
The ground shifts around her. Her eyes widen. Bakunawa shifts towards her, lifts her massive tail to weakly curl around her. She's pushed towards her destroyed jaw until the tip of one of her teeth stabs into her hollow eye socket, jerkily moving around to slice apart the flesh of her eyelid. Hot jolts ripple through her and settle deep inside her chest.
Tears flow from her intact eye. Her slowly healing right arm throws itself on top of her tail, trying with every mangled muscle it has to hold onto her.
Their blood sinks down, blanketing them away from everything.
Noah Micah (he/they) is a half Filipino writer residing in the American Midwest. They write about whatever they want to bloodlet or whatever they think would be really cool, usually through the lens of body horror.
He can be found talking about anything other than writing on Twitter @TheFathersWork and on Blue Sky @thefatherswork.bsky.social.