"Could I please have some water?" Janni pleaded. She had been desperately thirsty after the long journey. Anndi's mother immediately handed her some, but when Janni remembered what they had made them drink at the cemetery earlier, she thought better of it. She handed it to the others, and only the two men drank.
"My name is Lupe. But you can call me Mom if you want. My husband's name is Lino. Please forgive us, but his younger brother died the other day from an illness we couldn't identify. As far as we know, that sickness is brought by a demon, especially when people suddenly start vomiting blood."
Anndi was shocked by what her mother told her. "What? Uncle Perto is dead? Why didn't you tell me?" she complained.
"We didn't want you to worry, and you're all alone in Manila. You wouldn't have been able to come home even if you'd known, and I know students are busier during the last days of classes. Besides, this town won't be troubled anymore. The priest has blessed the corpses of the demons. The sick will recover too. There's nothing left to worry about," Aling Lupe replied to her daughter.
"Even so, you should have told me. I could have at least sent my condolences to my cousins," Anndi insisted.
Anndi's home looked like an ancestral home, with capiz shell windows like the houses from the Spanish colonial era. Their house was large and spacious, yet its old-fashioned style was still unmistakable, especially in the beds arranged in the rooms. Each post was supported by broad wooden beams, and the staircase leading upstairs was bright and polished, decorated with intricate details. Part of the ground-floor storage area had been turned into a place for things they no longer used.
"There's one room downstairs with two wooden sleeping platforms. The two men with you can stay there. You two will sleep upstairs. I had your room prepared already. There are two guest rooms upstairs, so you can each have your own or share one," Aling Lupe explained.
"Oh, I don't want to share a room with Maya. She's messy, and so is her dog. I'd rather have a room to myself," Janni said.
Maya was annoyed by her friend's bluntness, especially since she had said it in front of Anndi's mother.
"Hey, I'm not that bad. Fluffy's nice too. Right, Fluffy?" she protested.
Mikmik and Ichi entered their room. Contrary to what they had expected, it was spacious and airy. The beds were made of expensive-looking narra wood, but they had no mattresses because that was apparently how things were traditionally done there. Unlike the capiz shell window upstairs, the downstairs window was made of glass. A storm had apparently broken it, and they hadn't been able to find a replacement.
Once the two of them were alone in the room, Ichi and Mikmik couldn't help talking about what they had seen earlier.
"I can't imagine people still believing in that kind of thing today. That was so sick. Imagine digging up a dead body, cutting off its head, removing its organs, and then making a sick person drink them. What sane person could think of that? It's like they're stuck in the Dark Ages," Ichi said.
"Apparently, this village still believes in it. We're outsiders, so we can't interfere. Like they say, 'When you're in Rome, do as the Romans do,'" Mikmik explained.
"But we're not in Rome!" he joked.
"Idiot!" they both said, then burst out laughing.
A short while later, they heard a woman shouting outside Anndi's house. The two of them peered through the glass window to see what was causing the commotion.
"Aling Lupe! Mang Lino!" she shouted, sounding frantic and desperate for their help.
Aling Lupe immediately looked out the upstairs window.
"Elsa! Why are you so out of breath?" she asked her visitor.
"My son! I need your help. He got sick after a shadow appeared to him last night."
Aling Lupe made the sign of the cross when she heard the visitor. Mang Lino immediately came out and followed Elsa. Aling Lupe, meanwhile, first took her rosary and Bible. Aling Lupe was deeply involved with the church. She was one of the people who led the rosary prayers at the church. The villagers often called for her whenever something happened that they couldn't explain. She grabbed the veil folded beside the altar, put it on, and followed the two people who had gone ahead of her.
Anndi and the others didn't miss what was happening downstairs. They hurried down and went to Ichi and Mikmik's room. The two men were still peering out the window when they saw them.
"We're going with them. Are you coming?"
Ichi and Mikmik exchanged a glance. Without saying a word, they seemed to agree to follow and see for themselves what was happening.
The man sitting before Aling Lupe was skin and bones. The skin around his eyes had darkened, and his lips were dry and pale. His skin was rough too, a sign that he hadn't been sleeping much at night and was severely malnourished.
"What really happened?" Aling Lupe asked him.
"I've been feeling sick for several days. At first, I kept dreaming about Ofelia, the woman who died last week. At first, I thought it was normal for me to dream about her because we were close," he began, gasping as he struggled to draw deep breaths.
"Why didn't you say so earlier? Then you could have taken the remedy," Aling Lupe said worriedly.
Janni and Maya remembered the water mixed with the dead woman's ashes from earlier. The disgust on their faces was plain to see.
"He only told us everything just now. We thought it was just a simple fever," the sick man's mother explained.
"Last night, I fell asleep early. Unlike the previous nights, I hadn't had any trouble sleeping. But I woke up in the middle of the night and saw a shadow inside the room. I wanted to move, but I couldn't move any part of my body. The shadow came closer and climbed onto my bed. It sat on my stomach, and I felt like I could barely breathe. I started praying and closed my eyes. When I opened them, the shadow was gone, and I could move again," the man recounted.
"Did you recognize the shadow?" Aling Lupe asked.
"Yes. Its body looked like Ofelia's," the man answered.
Aling Lupe and Elsa exchanged a look at the man's words. Fear was visible in Aling Lupe's eyes, and she made the sign of the cross again.
"Didn't Ofelia also die from vomiting blood?" Lino asked.
"I'll pray over him first, but if he still doesn't feel better by tomorrow, we need to go to Father Pio and ask for help," Aling Lupe said.
"Old Hag Syndrome!" Ichi whispered, but the people inside still heard him.
Everyone there looked at him, waiting for him to say more.
"Sleep paralysis, or Old Hag Syndrome. It's that feeling that there's another presence in the room and you can't move. Your mind is asleep, but you feel awake because you're in your room and can sense your surroundings," he explained.
Anndi discreetly tapped Ichi's hand, as if telling him to stop interfering. Ichi immediately understood and decided not to continue explaining.
"Oh, it's nothing. Don't pay any attention to him."
After that, Aling Lupe began to pray. The five of them went outside and moved away from the sick man's house to talk.
"Why don't you explain what's happening in your town? There's a scientific explanation for things like this, and I know you know it," Ichi asked Anndi.
"This is what we've always been used to, and I have no intention of changing it. Turning my back on this town's traditions would be like turning my back on my identity. Besides, who would believe me? Everyone here believes in this stuff. A lie or superstition, once most people believe it, becomes true. You've been a victim of fake news several times yourself," Anndi replied.
"She's right, bro. We'd better not interfere," Mikmik agreed.
"But what will happen to that man? Judging by how he looks, he might die if he isn't taken to a hospital," Janni said, sounding as though she agreed with Ichi.
"A hospital? The nearest government hospital is miles from here, and when you get there, they'll give you one tablet of paracetamol for whatever's wrong with you. The government abandoned this place a long time ago. Didn't you notice the road coming here?"
The other four had nothing to say after Anndi's words. Apparently, the people here had no one to turn to for help except their faith. Those living in places so remote that government services couldn't reach them had nothing left to hold on to but their faith.
At eight that evening, Elsa went to a nearby store. The night was quiet, and the breeze was cold, as if it were crying whenever it blew. The road was dark, lit only by the moon and stars. After passing several houses, she noticed a veiled woman walking ahead of her. The woman's figure looked familiar. Even with her back turned, Elsa was certain it was Ofelia. She slowly stepped off the road and headed toward Aling Lupe's house.
Anndi was having dinner with her parents and friends when they heard Elsa calling again.
"Aling Lupe! Aling Lupe!" Elsa pounded on their wooden door so hard it nearly came off its hinges.
Aling Lupe and Mang Lino immediately stopped eating to receive their visitor. Aling Lupe stood and excused herself from those seated at the dining table, then went to the door to answer the person calling outside. Even before she opened it, she recognized the voice. And she was right—it was Elsa pounding repeatedly on their door.
"Elsa? Come in for a minute!" Mang Lino invited her.
"No, but I saw Ofelia. She was walking in front of me earlier. She's come back to life—the demon blessed her!" Elsa blurted out in a rush.
Mang Lino overheard their conversation and stood from the dining table as well. He hurried toward the two women.
"Lupe, get my bolo knife. We're going to the village and informing the village guards." Aling Lupe immediately went to the kitchen to get the bolo.
A few moments later, the road was filled with men. Anndi and her friends joined them too, even though her parents had forbidden her to go.
"We should split up. Some of you search the forest in case the demon is there. The rest of you go with Elsa to where she last saw Ofelia, and the others come with me to the cemetery," Lino ordered.
Anndi and the others preferred to go with Elsa so they could ask whether she had really seen Ofelia.
"Did you really see Ofelia?" Anndi asked, somewhat doubtful of her story.
"Yes, I'm sure. Even though it was dark and she was still far away, even though her back was turned, I know it was Ofelia. I couldn't be mistaken. Are you doubting me?" Elsa asked irritably.
"Not exactly, but of course we need to know every detail so we can help with the search," Maya said, making an excuse because she didn't want Elsa's anger turned on them.
A few moments later, as they walked, they heard loud shouting from the forest.
"What was that?" asked one of the men carrying a torch.
"It sounded like it came from the forest! Come on, they might need help!" someone said, and they all started running toward the forest.
Mikmik and his friends had no choice but to follow them.
"This is insane! I can't believe we're doing this," Mikmik said in frustration.
"Let it go. You wanted a different adventure, right? And besides, you'd do anything for Anndi," Janni teased him.
Before they could enter the forest, they encountered the village guards coming out, apparently chasing something out of the woods.
"Did you run into anything here?" one of them asked, still catching his breath.
"No. What happened?" another asked.
"Was it Ofelia? Ofelia?" Elsa asked them.
"No. We saw a huge dog inside the forest. We chased it, but it suddenly disappeared. It even bit one of us," they explained.
"Merciful heavens, Ofelia became an *aswang*! This is dangerous," Elsa said.
"Wait, wait. We don't know that for sure. It might have just been a hybrid wolf," Ichi replied.
"What are you talking about? Of course you don't know anything—you outsiders don't understand what happens here," one of the village guards snapped at them.
While they argued, another group of men arrived from the cemetery, led by Mang Lino.
"What's happening here?" he asked those gathered.
"Ofelia became an aswang! A huge dog ran toward the town. And the worst part is, it bit one of the village guards," one of the men explained.
Mang Lino fell silent for a moment. Then he thought of an idea to put an end to everyone's fear of the aswang.
"There's probably only one thing we can do. Kill every dog in town so we can make sure the aswang is gone," Mang Lino ordered.
Maya immediately thought of her dog. She didn't know whether to run home, get Fluffy, and leave this demonic place, or whether they would spare her because, like them, Fluffy was only an outsider too.