“Wait, wait! You can’t kill Fluffy. I’ve been with her for a long time, and I assure you, she can’t be a demon like you’re saying.” Maya took Fluffy from a man holding a blade and hugged her.
The man with the blade looked at Mang Lino as if asking for confirmation on whether they would let the dog live or not. Anndi immediately approached her father to ask him to spare the dog that had only just arrived in their village.
“Dad! We just got here. There’s no way she could be an *aswang*.”
Mang Lino stared intently at his daughter, who was brimming with defiance.
“Fine, fine! Leave that one alone. As for all the remaining dogs, gut them and throw them into the fire,” he ordered the village guards.
And that was exactly what happened that night. It became a night of slaughter for innocent dogs, all so they could destroy the *aswang* they believed had disguised itself as an animal. One by one, the dogs were lined up before the village guards, who held sharp objects in their hands. These were dogs their owners had lived with for so long, and yet they were willing to have them killed for the sake of everyone’s peace.
The owners tied the dogs’ legs, then wrapped a cord around their mouths. They held their dogs’ heads while a village guard stabbed them and opened their bellies. After only a few cries, the dogs were dead. Then they threw the lifeless bodies into the fire Mang Lino and the others had built.
The scene was disgusting and heartbreaking. The very owners their dogs trusted were the ones who led their own pets to their deaths. It was crushing to watch them throw the dogs into the fire, then hear everyone shouting while three of the village guards drank together as if they were celebrating the slaughter.
A little while later, Father Pio suddenly arrived and was stunned by the sight of the animals being killed.
“What. . . .” Father Pio could barely get the words out in his shock. A mountain of burning dogs lay before him, and he couldn’t understand why.
“Father Pio, one of my village guards saw the monster change its form into a dog. In fact, it even attacked him. Come here, Roberto,” he called to one of the men leading the dog killings.
The man showed them his wound, marked by a dog’s teeth.
“Tell us what you saw,” Mang Lino ordered.
“We split into groups to look for Ofelia. When we reached the woods, we saw something moving. I thought it was a stray cow, but it moved too fast. Then we realized it was a dog. It attacked and bit me, but I struck it with my bolo knife too. When the others were about to arrive, the big dog ran away.”
“Ofelia? Hasn’t Ofelia been dead for a long time? We already cleansed and blessed the corpses possessed by demons. Why is this still happening?” the priest asked.
Mang Lino immediately called Elsa, who had said she saw Ofelia.
“Elsa! Come here. Father has some questions about Ofelia.”
Elsa quickly approached, looking somewhat flustered by what had happened.
“Because, Father, my child’s illness started just a few days after Ofelia died. She told me she saw Ofelia at night, and then she started vomiting blood. Tonight, I saw a woman in front of me. I couldn’t have been mistaken. It was Ofelia.”
“A person cannot change into the form of an animal. It is impossible for her to have such an ability,” Father Pio explained.
“Then what did we see?” the people there asked.
“The demon may have deceived you. It made its servant appear to you as a dog. But in truth, it did not actually change form. It can change into the form of a person, but not an animal.”
“What are you saying? That one of us could be the Devil’s servant right now?” Elsa asked.
The people there looked at one another as if each suspected everyone else.
“But Ofelia became an *aswang*. I’m sure of it,” Elsa insisted.
“All right, all right. First thing tomorrow, we’ll dig up Ofelia’s corpse,” said the priest.
“Are you going to cut off her head too?” one of the men there asked.
“Yes, like the others.” After that, Father Pio left the ongoing slaughter of the dogs. Mang Lino and the others continued cutting up the animals. When it was over, they left one by one. The three men who had continued drinking were the only ones left at the slaughter site.
The next day, the people gathered again behind the church, where the village cemetery had been built. Anndi and the others were there as well, once again witnessing the expulsion of the demon said to have possessed Ofelia. Elsa and her child, whose body could barely move anymore, also arrived, hoping that the ashes from Ofelia’s heart and liver would heal her.
The people stood along the edge of the cemetery. Only three men holding shovels and Father Pio stood near Ofelia’s grave. After Father Pio recited a short prayer, he ordered them to dig up Ofelia’s corpse.
A few moments later, Ofelia’s coffin had been lifted out. They opened it, and as expected, her body was still fresh. But they noticed something on Ofelia’s corpse: there was blood on her lips, which terrified one of the men who had dug up the coffin.
“Look, there’s blood on her mouth!” he said, terrified.
Loud whispers spread through the cemetery, and the people immediately moved closer to get a look at Ofelia’s corpse.
“She does.”
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. I knew it. That woman was a sinner.”
“Cut off her head.”
“That’s a sign she was the one who bit the village guard.”
All kinds of disgusted comments echoed through the place. Only Anndi and her group stayed away. They didn’t approve of desecrating the grave of someone who was already dead, but that was how things were done in their village, and there was nothing they could do.
A man carrying an ax approached and took his position over Ofelia’s corpse. With one powerful swing to the neck, he severed the head from the body. Insects of all kinds began pouring out, along with tiny rats. The people screamed and panicked at the sight.
“The demons are escaping from her body!”
“Kill them all! Make sure none of them gets away!”
Everyone joined in killing the insects and animals that were there. Unfortunately, several small rats escaped.
“Some of them got away!”
“My God! What if the demon’s corruption spreads through our village?”
The people who had come to witness the event were thrown into chaos. They were afraid they might be the demon’s next victims.
“Calm down! We’ll all pray to stop evil from spreading through our community,” Father Pio ordered.
After they prayed, they immediately cut open Ofelia’s chest with a sharp knife. They removed her heart and liver and burned them. Then they returned Ofelia’s body to the coffin. They took a pointed piece of metal and drove it into her chest. They returned her head as well, but unlike in the previous cases, they also drove a pointed piece of metal into it. Ofelia’s brains and blood poured from every opening in her face that could let them out.
Father Pio prayed over the corpse, and they buried it again. They mixed the ashes from Ofelia’s heart and liver into water and gave it to Elsa’s child to drink. After that, the people once again left the cemetery.
Anndi and her friends remained in the cemetery. Once they were alone, they discussed what was happening.
“This place is getting sicker by the minute. Shouldn’t we enlighten them about the explanation behind things like this? And why is Father allowing this? Didn’t the Church already forbid desecrating the graves of the dead?” Maya said.
“Madness! Everyone in this village believes they’re being attacked by an unseen force. It’s so infuriating.” Janni stamped her foot.
“I think we should get out of here. Like Anndi said, this place is superstitious. Something else might happen, and we could get caught up in it,” Ichi said.
“No. We’re here for a vacation. Let’s just enjoy it for a few days, then go home,” Mikmik said.
“I told you this place was a mess, and people like you from the city would go crazy here,” Anndi told them.
After talking, they immediately went back to Anndi’s house. It hardly felt like they were on vacation, not with how exhausted the events in the village were making them. By now, they expected someone to show up at any moment asking for help with another demon.
And just as they expected, the townspeople arrived in the late afternoon, accompanied by three bound men. They were the men who had been left at the dog slaughter site the night before, drinking together.
“Mang Lino!” one of the people called.
Mang Lino immediately came outside and faced the townspeople.
“What’s all this commotion?” he asked those gathered there.
“Someone said these three ate the dogs that were killed last night,” answered an older woman.
“They ate part of the demon. The demons have entered their bodies!” another person shouted.
Mang Lino paused to think of a possible solution. Then he ordered them to take the three men to the woods.
“Take them to the woods and hang them!” Mang Lino ordered.
They dragged the men toward the woods like dogs. Some of the people punched them from time to time. It never occurred to them that these men had once stood beside them hunting the *aswang*.
When they reached the woods, they called Father Pio. Father Pio hurried there as if he were on his way to some important feast. Elsa and Aling Lupe arrived with him, apparently having already been told what was happening.
“Father, bless them,” Mang Lino ordered.
“That cannot happen yet. We need to hear them confess that they are servants of the demon.”
“You want a confession? Wait here.”
Mang Lino dragged the three men farther into the woods. Father Pio and the others simply waited there. After a while, Mang Lino returned with several other men and the three bound prisoners. They had clearly been beaten. Their faces were covered in blood, and they could barely stand.
Father Pio approached them and urged them to confess their sins.
“Admit that you are servants of the demon, and you will be forgiven,” Father Pio said.
“Yes, Father. I admit it.”
“Yes, we were tempted by the demon,” another said.
The third man nodded but could no longer speak because of the beating his fellow villagers had given him. His jaw was still swollen, and he couldn’t open his mouth.
“All right. Hang them,” Mang Lino ordered.
The three men panicked. They had thought they would be forgiven as soon as they confessed and asked for mercy.
“Father, help us. We confessed and asked for forgiveness. Please, have mercy. The Devil only tempted us,” one of them said.
“Yes, my son. God will forgive you. But your bodies are already unclean, and they must be purified through death.” The priest blessed them.
The townspeople worked together to restrain the three men while they prepared the hangings on the tree. They lifted the men one by one using a wooden chair. Then they pulled the chair away and left them hanging. The laughter and applause rang out as if they were celebrating the defeat of three beings blessed by the Devil.
A few minutes later, the three men breathed their last. They had even urinated in their pants, a sign that they were dead. But the mockery of their lifeless bodies did not end there. One child picked up a rock and threw it at the hanging bodies. Others followed until they grew tired of throwing stones at the corpses.
“Should we take the bodies down, Mang Lino?” one of the people there asked.
“No. Let them rot until their heads separate from their bodies on their own. That way, we can also be sure they no longer have the ability to come back.”