A Puppet to Glory
St Paul ' s Convent School , Chan , April - 12
J ustice will prevail in the end . Karma is kind .
Everyone was born to serve a purpose for the greater good . Unless , of course , your name is the White Bone Demon .
I don ’ t look back . I don ’ t stop running when my chest tightens and my lungs seem to fill up with fire . I only stop running when I trip and fall on the cold , hard ground . Then , I get up , breathing heavily , and run some more .
I don ’ t stop until I reach my ‘ lair ’, a small cave atop a lonesome hill . I enter , and collapse on the worndown armchair that I never bothered to mend .
Stupid monkey . Stupid , cursed , wretched little monkey . Why did Xuanzang the monk have to have such a good bodyguard ?
But I can ’ t give up . I need the flesh of that monk , as badly as he needs … whatever those scriptures are called . I don ’ t care .
My parents are the King and Queen of the demons , creatures of the night , bringers of destruction and misery . Our divine nature is literally bloodlust . We feed on flesh and gore , we hunt humans or one another for sport .
I once knew I was different . I was not a mindless brute , I was rational . I reasoned things out . I was different , but not anymore . Now , all I am is a savage , indifferent from the rest .
My first act of treason was caring for a wounded robin I found in the park .
That was back when I was six . Father told me to leave it be , but I refused . I could not bear to see it in agony . I treated his wounds and kept him for about a month . That is , until one of my brothers gutted it like a fish .
My second act of betrayal was not reporting a break-in , and not murdering the culprit .
I really don ’ t know why travellers are so obsessed with my cave . Sure , I do keep my grandfather ’ s dagger inside it , but that ’ s the only thing that ’ s actually worth any money at all , because last I checked , no one will buy an old , broken carpet on eBay .
Anyway , some archaeologist broke in , claiming that my modest little cave was the Lost Temple of Pu-Zao the goddess , and that I was keeping the priceless Goblet of Gidiar for myself . His friends came later to apologise and tell me that he was drunk . I accepted their apology , and offered them some tea , which I should have poisoned , according to Father .
The final blow was refusing to steal .
Once again , I do not know why my cave is so fascinating . I deliberately left rotting pig intestines outside it to ward off others . But people still came in .
A god paid me a visit . He gave me a huge bouquet of roses to ‘ block out the bad smell ’, but both him and I know otherwise . He flirted . He said that I was cute when I was angry . By the gods , I was thirteen , and I was completely disinterested in dating someone . Plus , he was a god , and gods tended to have more wives than you can count .