The sun is high overhead, but the breeze isn't particularly hot. Inside a university, a short young woman sits beneath a lush tree. She keeps trying to avoid the rays that slip through the gaps between the leaves and branches. Every now and then, you can see her stomping her foot and furrowing her brow. A little later, you'll find her massaging her shoulder, a sign that the part of her body has grown sore from the weight of her shoulder bag. She finally sets it down on a stone seat in front of her. She is about to sit down too, but when she touches the concrete seat, she jerks her hand back—it is scorching hot.
Several more minutes pass, but the woman does not move as she waits. It seems as though the important thing here is simply to remain where she is. This is Anndi. Anndi is the type of woman who likes wearing simple shirts, usually without prints and in only one color. Her skirts always fall below her knees, and she always wears flats. She wears no rings, necklaces, or any other body ornament, except for a pair of old earrings that she apparently inherited from her grandmother. Her hair is always tied high, and the darkness around her eyes is noticeable, the result of frequent sleep deprivation from studying. Her complexion is pale too, as though she gets far too little sunlight.
Only a handful of people are still walking around campus. Most of them are scrambling to finish their final requirements, dealing with incomplete grades, or begging their professors to pass them. This only makes Anndi feel more self-conscious. She doesn't want to be mistaken for one of those students. It isn't that she looks down on their abilities, but she's different from them. She just doesn't know how she ended up becoming friends with two girls who treat life at the university like a game.
Anndi lets out a deep breath. She reaches for her bag on the bench and takes out her phone. She checks the time, then sighs deeply again. Of all the things she hates, being kept waiting is the worst. Her two friends plan to join her in her province for semester break. But she had no idea she would spend forever waiting for them.
A little while later, she spots two women in the distance walking in her direction. Even from far away, she is sure they are her two friends. With the colors of their clothes, not to mention their bizarre taste in fashion, it would be impossible not to recognize them even in the dark.
The two women immediately approach Anndi as though nothing has happened. Their smiles stretch from ear to ear, completely unconcerned with the frown and apparently hot temper of the person they have kept waiting.
“What is wrong with you two? If I'd known you were going to make me wait this long, I would've just waited at the apartment,” Anndi complains.
“Maya had to beg her professor not to give her an incomplete. She turned in a special project, after all.” The two of them laugh as though they are sharing some huge secret. They don't notice that Anndi is already offended because her waiting seems completely meaningless to them.
Maya, or Marianna Corpuz, is tall, and her skinny jeans cling tightly to her body. Her physique is fit, comparable to that of the school's athletes. She wears a leather jacket over a tube top. She also has a silver necklace that looks like barbed wire and three earrings in her left ear.
“Janni, keep your voice down. Someone's going to hear you and think I'm a delinquent,” she scolds her friend Janni.
Janni, or Jannina Alejandro, is a member of a band at school. She is the lead vocalist, but she can also play lead guitar, bass, and keyboard. Her hair reaches only to her shoulders. She wears a leather armband covered in metal studs and chains, making it look like a pair of handcuffs. She has a tongue piercing and a frightening number of rings on her fingers. She is shorter than Maya and Anndi, and her complexion has a rosy hue.
“Why not?” Anndi replies irritably. Her anger over what the two of them did has not yet faded. “And another thing, why aren't you dressed properly yet? Isn't it the province we're going to? That place is old-fashioned. You can't go there looking like that. My parents might lose their minds!” she adds.
“We'll just stop by the house. Mikmik and Ichi are there too, and we'll change there,” Maya says, trying to calm Anndi down. “You know, lighten up. No wonder you still don't have a boyfriend—you’re so grouchy.” Maya and Janni high-five and laugh.
A few minutes later, they arrive at Maya's house. Mikmik and Ichi are already waiting for them there. Unlike the two women accompanying her, they are already dressed and ready. Their bags are packed and all they need to do is carry them. Ichi and Mikmik look completely different from the two girls.
Ichi, or Richard Corpuz, is Maya's older brother. He is already in his third year of college, while Anndi and the others are only in their second. He is a member of the school's varsity basketball team, thanks in part to his height, which seems to run in their family. His build is that of an athlete. He has a mole on his left temple, supposedly a sign that he is intelligent.
Mikmik, or Michael Andrew, has been Ichi's best friend since they were in secondary school. The two began seeing each other more often after Anndi became friends with his sister, Maya. He secretly has feelings for the girl, and it seems those feelings will remain a secret. Whenever he approaches her, his nerves get the better of him. He thinks it would be best if they remained friends. Mikmik has brown skin and a high-bridged nose. His teeth are perfectly even, further accentuated by an unusual dimple beneath his lips. He is fit as well. Because of his friendship with Ichi, he has also grown fond of spending time in the gym.
Whenever school is in session, they make a habit of meeting up, especially after their last period. Anndi, Maya, and Janni are taking the same course, and every afternoon Anndi helps them understand what they studied. They usually go to the school gym. Maya and Janni often watch Ichi play basketball. Mikmik spends a lot of time there too, which is how they all grew close.
“Hi, Anndi,” Mikmik greets the girl. He immediately notices that Anndi is in a bad mood. “You two really made Anndi mad again, didn't you?” he says to the two women heading up the stairs.
“She’s just being weird because she’s sulking. She’ll be fine in a minute. You know, the way you talk, you'd think Anndi was your girlfriend. You can't even admit that you like her,” Maya says bluntly to Mikmik.
Mikmik looks embarrassed that Maya said it, especially in front of Anndi. He chooses to stay quiet, afraid Anndi might get the wrong idea.
“Hurry up. We have a long trip ahead of us. Why did you choose to spend semester break in our hometown anyway? Our place is old-fashioned. It's hard to find a signal, there's no cable TV, and you'll feel like you've gone back in time. Some of the houses there don't even have electricity,” Anndi reminds them, hoping they might still change their minds and back out.
“That sounds great—a new experience. We want to experience the old way of living too. Besides, semester break is only three weeks. If we don't like it, we'll just tough it out. But I know Mikmik will enjoy it.” Ichi pats Mikmik on the shoulder.
A little while later, Janni and Maya come downstairs, looking different from before. Their clothes are now extremely simple, probably because of Anndi's warning. But Anndi still doesn't miss Janni's skull-shaped bracelet. Without saying a word, she yanks it off. The bracelet snaps at the clasp.
“Hey! That's mine!” Janni protests.
“People in our town are superstitious. They might think you're a Satanist. You might not make it home alive.”
The four of them laugh at what Anndi says, but then they stop when they see how serious her face is. “Oh. Okay, let's just leave it,” Janni says.
They are about to leave when Maya's pet dog approaches her. Its tail wags back and forth, and it jumps against Maya's legs as though asking to be picked up. Maya catches the dog like a baby and rocks it in her arms as if lulling it to sleep.
“Let's bring Fluffy. No one will be here to take care of him. Is that okay?” Maya asks Anndi.
“Sure. My parents aren't allergic to animals,” Anndi tells her.
The long wait for their friend, combined with the time they spend lining up at the terminal, means that night has fallen before they finally board the bus.
Their trip lasts nearly twelve hours. It is already morning when they reach Anndi's hometown. They feel the fresh air brushing their faces, proof that they are far from the city's polluted air. The tall buildings are gone too, replaced by nothing but fields and towering mountains in the landscape around them.
After a few more turns, the bus conductor approaches them and reminds them that they are nearing the bus stop. They fix themselves up. Mikmik and Ichi retrieve the bags from the overhead compartment and hand them to the women one by one. A few moments later, they reach their destination. When they get off at the terminal, Anndi immediately speaks to a tricycle parked in front of it, already carrying passengers. She doesn't waste any time, knowing that transportation is difficult in their area.
Mikmik looks at the passengers in the tricycle. Three women are on the seat, along with a child on a small seat and a man beside the driver.
“We should take the next tricycle. We might not all fit in this one,” Mikmik says.
“A dozen people can fit in one tricycle here. It's not like Manila, where passengers only ride inside, and anyone hanging off the back gets arrested. Here, you can ride in the back, on top of the roof, or in the luggage rack,” Anndi says with a laugh.
“What? How are we all supposed to fit in there?” Maya complains.
“Just get on. You'll find out,” Anndi insists.
When the driver notices the dog, he immediately points it out.
“The dog has to pay too,” he reminds them.
“Yes, yes. Just start driving!” Maya replies irritably.
“Start driving? We still have to wait for more passengers,” he says with a teasing smile.
A few minutes later, the tricycle is indeed full. They are packed together like sardines in a tiny can, with their luggage piled in as well. It is unbelievable that they all manage to fit into a single tricycle.
They endure the cramped ride for nearly thirty minutes, until the passengers begin getting off one by one. In the end, only the five of them remain in the tricycle. It is still cramped, but compared with before, the relief they feel is enormous.
A little while later, they stop at a cemetery in front of a chapel. There are many people there, as though someone is about to be buried.
“This is our stop!”
The five of them get off one by one, but the attention of the other four is fixed on the cemetery. Anndi, meanwhile, pays no attention and pays their fare to the driver. Once she has paid, she approaches the other four, who are still staring at what is happening in the cemetery. They are stunned for a strange reason. It looks as though a ritual is being performed on the dead inside the cemetery.
“What are they doing? Why are they digging up the bodies of the dead?” Maya asks fearfully.
“I thought you were brave. Come on, let's get closer.” Anndi walks inside, and the other four follow her. When they reach the people, Anndi takes the hand of a woman and a man who look to be between forty-five and fifty years old and presses it to her forehead in greeting.
“Mom, Dad, these are the people who came with me from Manila. They decided to spend their vacation here,” Anndi says.
“Good morning,” the four greet Anndi's parents.
“Are these two men staying in the house with you?” her father asks formally, frightening both Mikmik and Ichi.
“No, sir. I'm her blockmate's brother. This is my friend,” Ichi explains quickly, but Anndi's father does not smile at them.
“Oh dear, it seems you picked a bad time to come here. The demons have started spreading terror again,” Anndi's mother says.
“Demons?” Maya grabs her brother's arm tightly, as though nervous.
“Yes, but don't worry. Father Pio will drive the demons away. In fact, we're already looking for the culprit,” Anndi's mother explains.
The corpses inside the cemetery are dug up one by one, and the sight nearly turns the four visitors' stomachs. Some are already decaying and covered in maggots. The smell of rotting flesh hangs thick in the air. They still bury their dead in the traditional way. They do not embalm them, because that goes against their beliefs.
The priest separates three corpses. The others are buried again and blessed by the priest. Compared with the others, these three are still fresh and look as though they died only recently.
As the priest performs the blessing, they are startled when Maya's dog suddenly begins barking for no reason. It is not usually like that. It is accustomed to people and is not vicious. Anndi's father immediately calls attention to it.
“Stop that dog from barking. It's disturbing everyone,” he says.
“I'm sorry,” Maya apologizes. She strokes her pet and tells it not to make so much noise.
After that, their attention returns to the three separated corpses.
“Why were those three separated?” Mikmik asks.
“They were cursed by demons. Look at them. They died two or three months ago, but they still look fresh. Look at that one. It even seems to have grown fatter from drinking human blood.”
“Huh?” Mikmik cannot understand what Anndi's mother is saying. A corpse naturally swells, especially when it has not been embalmed, but he lets it go. He does not want to interfere with a village's traditions and beliefs.
The priest approaches the three corpses one by one. Just as he blesses them, the wind blows and lets out a low, haunting moan.
“Did you hear that? It sounded like someone screamed!” a man shouts.
The others make the sign of the cross, clearly frightened.
After the bodies are blessed, a man carrying an ax approaches and chops off their heads one by one. Blood sprays across the surroundings, terrifying everyone even more.
“Look, they still have fresh blood in them. It's obvious they drank a lot of blood!” a gossip in the cemetery says again.
After decapitating them, the man takes a knife and cuts open the chests of the three corpses one by one, then pulls out their livers and hearts. Maya and Janni can no longer hold it in and seem to empty everything they ate during the trip. The gruesome sight before them, combined with the nauseating smell, is enough to turn their stomachs inside out. The people there pay them no attention, focused as they are on the ceremony.
They set the hearts and livers of the three corpses on fire. While they burn, they return the three bodies to their coffins. The severed heads are placed between their thighs, and stones are put inside their mouths. They also take the sharp iron rods and drive them into the corpses' chests before burying them again.
A little while later, the hearts and livers have turned to ash. They mix the ashes into water in a jar and give it to the sick people in the cemetery to drink. Janni and Maya gag again at the sight. The body parts that had nearly rotted away, their stench filling the air moments ago, are now being forced down the throats of sick people.
“Surely they'll get better now, and whatever's happening in this town will finally stop!” Anndi's mother sighs and turns away.
After the short ceremony, the people begin leaving the cemetery. The other four are unable to move, stunned by the bizarre spectacle they have witnessed. Anndi approaches them and urges them to go home.
“What? Can you still walk? Maybe you'd rather go home now? Things like this are normal in our town. Just don't interfere. If you still want to come home with me, pick up your bags and follow me.”