MAI is a KRASUE – a legendary creature that exists in the form of a flying head and entrails known to possess the bodies of young women. As the story opens, Mai is imprisoned on a remote farm in the Northeast where she spends her days watching TV and consuming filth supplied by her aged caretaker, UNCLE PHAD. When Uncle Phad’s call for an heir go unanswered, he packs Mai in a crate and sends her off to the city.
In one of Bangkok’s sprawling markets, Mai escapes and is pursued by SENIOR OFFICER MANUT and his assistant, POLICE SECRETARY PIM. In an ill-timed encounter, Mai frightens the senior officer and takes possession of the police secretary. The sight of Mai’s flying head and entrails scrambles the senior officer’s senses and sets him off on an obsessive search.
Elsewhere in the city, lifelong entertainer, and current host of Channel 77’s Bangkok Ghost Story, MICKEY McCORMICK is on the hunt for the show’s next big story. To aid him in his supernatural pursuits, he enlists MR. CHART, a streetcorner mystic who specializes in filth ghosts. Mr. Chart has some startling news of his own. Ghosts of the city are abandoning their haunts and rallying to some mystical presence. As filth begin to overtake city-dwellers and corrupt their thoughts and morals, Mr. Chart comes upon Police Secretary Pim wandering about in a daze and leads her straight to Mickey’s 11th floor office.
As the sun sets over Bangkok, Mai’s head and entrails separate from the host body, leaving both men astonished. Mickey, spotting an opportunity, gathers the nerve to communicate with the creature and discovers she’s a fan. As he dreams of introducing her to the world on nationwide TV, they are interrupted by an onslaught of filth ghosts and forced to fight their way free.
At dawn, Mai rejoins with the body of Police Secretary Pim. Senior Officer Manut, half-crazed and armed, kidnaps her in the belief that she will bring about a momentous transformation. Mickey and Mr. Chart track him to Samet Island and come under attack by an invasion of filth that crawls in from the sea. This time, Mai comes to their rescue. Despite this, Mickey realizes she is quickly losing her humanity and regressing to a feral state. If he is to tell her story, the curse must be broken.
Back in the body of Police Secretary Pim, Mickey and Mr. Chart escort her back to the farmhouse and find Uncle Phad held captive by ancestral spirits. The old man informs Mickey that he is the heir to the Choonchai burden. Meanwhile, a storm tears the old farmhouse apart as the transformation begins. Mr. Chart, seeing there is only one way to break the curse, plunges a pitchfork into Mickey’s back. In the aftermath of his death, Mai transforms into a girl that so strongly resembles Mickey, she could be his daughter.
In the wake of Mickey’s “disappearance,” Mai is given a job as the new co-host for Siam Today. Mr. Chart encounters her one last time where he summons the ghost of Mickey to say goodbye. Mickey tells her that he is proud of her new role and hopes she’ll serve as an inspiration for new stories to be told.
Genre: FICTION / Horror
"Filthy Appetites" was introduced at a Bankok Book Fair in December of 2023. Reviews have been good but sales have been low. It currently ranks
#1,596 in Horror Comedy
#2,544 in Asian Myth & Legend eBooks
Across the room, the police secretary raises her hands to her temples. Her lips draw back, revealing a machine-gun clacking of teeth.
“What’s happening?” Mickey cries above the din.
“The filth made flesh –” replies Mr. Chart, “is becoming the flesh made filth!”
The clacking stops. An eerie silence follows. The being opens its eyes. She lowers her hands and regards the men with a hollow indifference. The silence ends with the sound of dry twigs snapping and sap peeling from a rubber tree. The stench of something old and rotten fouls the air. An area of flesh at the base of the woman’s throat loses its integrity and a tear slowly encircles the neck. Then, like a snake wriggling from its hole, the head lifts from the torso, an attached esophagus extending upwards as the body slumps to its knees. With a final tug, the coil of throat slides free, carrying with it a clenched miscarriage of entrails. It isn’t until the body has completely fallen away that the huddle of organs burst into an abnormal bouquet.
Mickey and Mr. Chart stand dumbstruck. The floating head turns slowly. There is confusion in its eyes as it gazes about the room. At least until it lights upon the darkening sky burgeoning through the windows.
And then it flies. Does it ever! Both men hit the floor as the head and entrails hurtle past. The being stops just short of colliding with the window and hangs transfixed by the lights of the city below. There is a moment of uncertainty before it spins round and darts from one end of the room to another.
“It’s looking for a way out!” says Mr. Chart.
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Spanish
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Translation in progress.
Translated by Angela Fernández
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