When Humans Cry Monster (Part 2)

Part II: The Mayor

          Mayor Rubin Aldez stood waiting impatiently outside, tiny tendrils of sweat snaking their way down his glossy forehead. There had been sounds from within the house - a bang! here, a crack! there - but sounds that had been too faint to suggest a struggle. Ilona had only been gone for fifteen minutes, and yet it was as if a whole day had passed.

          The mayor shifted uneasily. All about him, the people gathered grew restless. The nobles, fair and haughty; the religious and the brown-skinned indios who were their fellow countrymen - they were all there. On any other day, this would have been an odd sight to behold, this mingling of the social classes, the sects, the victims of this implied caste system. But today, mingle they did, and they painted a most a surprising panorama of unity in discontent. Noblemen and women cursed and slapped at mosquitoes as they bit into flesh, all the while managing to retain their snob appeal as they lifted their sharp noses into the air and fanned themselves with silken kerchiefs. Women continually crossed themselves, their lips moving in prayer to some unseen deity, while the yayas wrung the hands of their unruly children, squeezing screams of rebellion from their tiny lips. The men stalked around, scratching at their heads in annoyance and spitting at the soil with vengeance. Children giggled impishly as they kicked at the dirt below their feet and tossed rocks at each other in spiteful play. Something small and hard hit the mayor across the back, and he was forced to turn around to discover the culprit. But all he found was a sea of unhappy, disgruntled faces.

          The mayor sighed inwardly. It was only a mere five months ago when it had been handed down to him, the position for mayor. He had been so happy then, so proud. He would lead this town, he had told himself. He would make it rise.

          But that was before the fire had broken out. It was disastrous; the flames would have engulfed the whole town had it not been for the sudden and so seemingly heaven sent rain that had extinguished the fire before it could have threatened to damage and consume any further. After the incident, Aldez had ordered the town to undergo a series of investigations to try and ferret out any of the possible, suspected perpetrators. But when the investigators came back empty-handed, the townsfolk had never looked at the mayor the same way. A good mayor would have been able to do something. A good mayor would have found the arsonists and delivered them to justice. Padre Penitente had said so.

          The fire. It would be the first in a series of catastrophes and misfortunes that would inescapably lead to the eventual tarnishing of his name in the eyes of the townsfolk, the irrevocable marring of his period of government.

          Aldez sighed and shook his head. He had so wanted to be a good leader. He had so wanted the best for his town. But now, after so many mistakes and such unforgivable failure, it seemed impossible to do anything right anymore. The people no longer supported him. And with the help of Padre Penitente's constant slandering of his name, they no longer believed in him. How would he run this town then?

          The crowd howled and at once he was jerked out of his reticent brooding. He looked about the crowd, wondering what had happened to cause the sudden uproar. He saw that all eyes had fixed on something far ahead of them. Aldez followed to where their gazes led.

          Ilona stood at the door of the house, still as stone and pale as daylight. Aldez sighed with relief, but almost as instantly the breath caught itself in his throat.

          Where was the monster? The crowd growled in discontent, seeing this too.

          Then the girl's eyes fixed on him. He realized she wanted him to come to her. There was a desperate look in her eyes that suggested he be quick about doing it.

          Hurriedly he walked towards her. She stepped out of the doorway and down the porch steps as he approached. He smiled a forced, nervous smile in greeting, but the other seemed not to notice.

          He started to speak. "So what happened - "

          "We need to talk," the girl cut him short. Aldez straightened in spite of himself. She took him roughly by the arm and led him on to the porch where an overhanging skin of roof shadowed their forms from the view of growling spectators.

          Ilona turned to face him, an exasperated look in her black eyes. "I cannot do what you asked of me," she said.

          Aldez's eyes grew wide. "Why?" he asked.

          "I simply cannot."

          Aldez shifted about nervously. "But the people!" he said suddenly, no longer able to hide his fears, "the people will be unhappy if you do not kill it! And what about the priest? He will never forgive me, after what it has done to the chapel!"

          Ilona gave him a look that made him start. "First of all, she is not an 'it'."

          "She?"

          "Yes, she!" Ilona growled.

          Aldez looked back at the girl, understanding nothing. "What do you mean by she?"

          Ilona grunted in vexation, then yanked the mayor by the collar of his shirt and pulled him into the doorway and the dark beyond.

          "Where are we going?" Aldez stammered, afraid. But Ilona did not answer. The hand crumpled about his collar was strong and it continued to pull at him as if a chain about collared dog.

          Then abruptly the hand shoved, causing him to wheel about aimlessly in the dark. He heard the sound of metal sliding out of leather, a blade out of its sheath. Abruptly he turned, wary of an attack, only to find himself blinded by a sudden, green light that exploded into his face.

          Ilona was looking at him then, eyes and face ghostly as the light embraced the delicate contours of her skull. In one hand she held a bolo. It was this bolo that exuded the light. Aldez was still staring at the magical little artifact when Ilona gripped him by the shoulder and turned him around.

          The light fell in a wide circle upon the ground. In the center of it a huddled form sat, as meek as the tiniest mouse. Upon closer inspection, he realized it was a girl... a small girl with thick, black hair and dark black eyes. The sight of this sweet, winsome little girl warmly tugged at his heart.

          Then he noticed the stitches and the claws.

          He faltered backwards, stumbling, almost tripping over his own feet, the sudden fear stabbing at his heart like a blade. A devil! his mind screamed, a devil! Then he saw the devil with the doll's face stare up at him, watching him, observing him. "It's..." he stammered "... it's... it's the monst - "

          Instantly a hand came over his mouth, gagging him roughly. "Don't say it!" Ilona hissed in fury behind his ear, "Don't you dare say it! She's a human being, just like you, just like me. And she needs our help. She is not going to die tonight!"

          Ilona released him violently, and he turned to face her in the glow of the strange magical blade. Her expression was unreadable.

          "This is your town," she whispered softly, "your people. Help them realize she is no threat to them."

          Aldez stared at her, helpless.

          "Mayor Aldez," Ilona repeated. "We cannot kill her."

          The mayor turned back slowly, until the little girl once more sat before him, a tiny bit of shadow in the endless dark that was consuming his world. She looked up at him, dark, glossy eyes that peered almost curiously into his own. Her face was a small doll's face - so small, so fragile. And yet changed somehow. Altered so that she no longer appeared human - so that she had become a creature from a fairy tale nightmare.

          The mayor turned away, appalled. Who could have done such a thing to one such as this, to one so sweet and so innocent - to a child?

          Ilona brought her face close to his now, the nearness of her pressuring him, playing with the sensitivity of his conscience and his guilt, forcing the answer from out of him. His visage crumpled into a frown as she peered into his soul.

          He could not do this! He could not let the girl - the monster escape. He could not let this one last chance at redemption slip through his fingers. Deliver the monster to the people as they wanted, and they would see him anew, maybe look up to him again. He would finally have the support of his people, he would finally have the chance to run this town like he had always wanted to! He could not let them down - not anymore. He had already done so countless times before. He could not let this monster live.

          And yet he knew he had to.

          He lifted his face, inhaled deeply, and felt the musty afternoon heat swell into his lungs. Ilona waited patiently. He could feel the heat of her breath on his face. She would want his answer. She would want it quick.

          Mayor Rubin Aldez's shoulders drooped in defeated surrender, his body slouching under the weight of the responsibility that was bearing down on him like some ponderous boulder.

          Without looking at Ilona, he nodded.





          He stepped out of the door and into the open.

          The sky was already darkening, the late afternoon sky roiling away and making way for the dimness that was soon to follow. Yet the heat still scorched, the coolness of the approaching dusk a mere dream, a hopeless wish made by the lost, too intangible to be made real.

          Somewhere the sun was going down, an irretrievable piece of treasure.

          He walked on to the porch, the floorboards groaning under his dead weight. He wondered suddenly what he had gotten himself into. Had he made the right choice? He really had no sure, clear answer anymore. To save the girl, that was right. No one, not the dirtiest pilferer on the street, not even the most atrocious murderer in the world deserved the injustice of the lynch mob's wrath. To punish an innocent, harmless little child for scaring a few sacristans was out of the question.

          Child?

          He reached the narrow set of wooden stairs leading down from the porch, each step uncomfortably balanced as the wood beneath his booted feet threatened to splinter. He laughed a dry, nervous laugh. His doubt was almost comical. Of course she was no monster! No matter how everyone else seemed to put it, a few surgically attached claws and a body lined with sutures did not turn one into a monster.

          But what of the people? Would they think as he did, understand as he had?

          His feet touched the dust as he stepped down the stairs. Ahead of him, his gaze was met by many as the gathered crowd glared suspiciously at him. There were more of them now, it appeared. All frowns, all scowls. Somewhere in the throng he spotted Padre Penitente, his skeletal arms clutching a thick leather-bound Bible to his stomach.

          They would be angry, he knew. They would expect him to bring her to them. They would want the monster dead.

          He swallowed hard. He could still turn back now, he told himself. Turn back on what he had in tacit promised Ilona. And save himself in the process. Why should he risk losing his position for this... this... fake child? She was monstrous and he knew it. A monster given the guise of a human child to win the pity of only the most unsuspecting of fools, like himself! Give the creature over to the town! It would be better that way. Let them kill it like they want. Let them vent their murderous frustrations on the little imp!

          Better her than him.

          No! his conscience screamed. He could feel the tears coming to his eyes. Save the girl. Save himself. Save the girl. Save himself. What to do!

          The crowd stood silently, expectantly before him. Mayor Aldez saw that Padre Penitente had moved up to the forefront of the crowd, wrinkled old eyes arrogant as if the greatest injustice had been done to him to justify the depths of his haughty indignation.

          The aged priest stepped up to him, tall, wiry frame bent, his pale, white skin blotted with slight patches of brown. "So where's the monster?" he drawled.

          Aldez returned his gaze, his own surprisingly cool and composed, a façade for what he truly felt inside. "There is no monster," he said flatly.

          The priest glared at him as if the other had lost his mind. "What?" he hissed.

          "You heard me. There is no monster."

          Silence.

          "But I've seen it!" a man from behind yelled.

          "What does it look like?" another piped in question.

          A farmer came forward now, chuckling, the grin upon his lips mocking and spiteful. "I saw it! And I know a monster when I see one. It's got big eyes, big teeth. Got fangs the size of your wrist. And claws that could rake through a whole tree!"

          "It's a devil!" a woman wailed, crossing herself furiously.

          "Lord, save us!" another screamed, falling to her knees.

          Aldez looked quickly around, seeing the crowd gathering closer and closer. "Why do you hide the monster - the devil?" Padre Penitente growled. "We know it's in there!"

          "Because he's in league with the devil!" a voice shrieked.

          "Yeah!"

          Aldez turned as he saw the people come slowly from behind him. The familiar stirrings of fear broiled anew like a bubbling cauldron within his stomach. "No," he pleaded in dismay, "wait..."

          "It was you, wasn't it?" a woman came forward now, gnarled fingers pointing accusingly. "The one who started the fire!"

          "Funny how all the bad things started happening when you became mayor!"

          "It's almost like the accidents had all been planned!"

          Aldez backed away slowly, the breath choking in his throat, the words refusing to leave his lips. More people came towards him from behind and at both sides, encircling him slowly like wild dogs would their cornered quarry, barring any hopes of escape.

          "I say we kill the traitorous bastard for what he's done!"

          "Kill the traitor and his pet devil!"

          And they wailed in horrifying unison, their voices rising into the late afternoon gloom, the blood-curdling howl of hungry beasts. Aldez became frantic. His eyes darted from one angry face to another, desperately in search for a kind face, a familiar face, anyone whom he might have once known and who might save him still. But the eyes that looked back at him were feral and filled with bloodlust. To them, he had become no more than an annoyance, an insect, a worthless piece of flesh that could be ripped apart and then discarded.

          As they bore into him, as they hoisted him into the air like some cheap featherweight, Mayor Aldez thought he could feel the claws of the monster tearing into him.