DEVOUR YOU
In her best state, she is just a connoisseur for human scents and flavors. She likes the fragrance of newly washed hair or the smell of fresh sweat on one's neck. She takes pleasure in the taste of one man's salty skin under the sun's heat. She adores the smooth and tender texture of a boy's body going through his pubescent stage.
In her worst state, she is a man-eater, in its most literal sense. She descended from a ritualistic tribe from the jungles in the south who consumes human flesh as part of their diet. It is their belief that consuming human meat gives them life and that regular consumption will give them immortality. That makes her an undying cannibal of sorts.
***
He walks away from the wreckage as if nothing happened. The nuns say it's a miracle, him surviving scratch less and all. The police say he's just one lucky bastard. The truth is that he has very good regenerative abilities. He can heal a broken limb in minutes, or a deep wound in seconds.
He is a master practitioner of the Indian sutra of healing--an art long forbidden in the culture but still flourishes in brutal underground cage fights. Add that to the fact that he is from the Uuulu tribe (AKA the lizard tribe) whose healing factors are better by a few notches than the normal human.
***
She is 220 years old. He is 180.
The short of it is that they met -- in a regular fashion for regular people -- in the subway. Their eyes met, both unaware of each other's 'condition'. And as cliché as it may seem, sparks began to fly.
They fell in love passionately and lived together while hiding each other's secret to each other. In this arrangement, she gets the lower hand. She must be very discreet when she goes to the morgue to have her fix. Or when she goes to various crime scenes just to get a bite. Meanwhile, he gets by using only make-up, prosthetics or a splash of catsup to feign being wounded.
This arrangement, though, won't be kept for long.
***
The body was found in studio A of the film outfit where he works in. She was called to investigate. She arrived at midday while everyone's having their meals. The studio is vacated so she goes straight to the crime scene. It's lunchtime anyway.
He arrives at the studio with takeout Thai food for two. He goes straight to Studio A to eat with her. What he saw completely put him off balance. He saw her squatting down on the lifeless corps, with her hair flowing down unruly on her face and with blood all over her hands and mouth. He wasn't surprised or scared or freaked out, for he himself is a freak.
There was a long moment of silence, both staring at each other's eyes. It was only interrupted by his soft words.
"Let's talk about this at home."
A heated argument erupted at home. All sorts of questions were hurled at each other with varying degrees of intensity. How did it happen? When did it start? Why does she do it? Why did he hide it? Why can't she stop it? Why does he care?
This would soon be resolved thereafter once they realized that each has their own reasons, own strengths and weaknesses. He will live forever but he'll live alone. She will live forever but only if she eats human flesh. And she will live alone. They realized that they are destined to be together.
So they make a pact together.
"I will live forever but I want to live with you
So I offer my flesh to you today and for the rest of our days."
"I want to live forever beside you but
I promise I will taste no man's flesh but yours."
He makes a promise,
"Everyday I will give you life."
And she answers back,
"Everyday I will devour you."
