I - Aswang 

"Do you believe in mythical creatures such as ghosts or fairies?" Our teacher asked us. Of course, because all my classmates are from Manila, they don't believe in such things, except for me.

I'm also from Manila, but my dad is from the provinces, so I was influenced by his beliefs. Not only me, but also my mom and my whole family. At first, I didn't believe in those folk tales. But everything changed when I went to my father's province for the third time.

It was my dad's sister's wedding, Aunt Beth. Just after the wedding and banquet that night, I took my drunk cousin to his room.

"Insan¹, let's drink more!" I sighed and forced him to sleep because he was really drunk. "Insan, just go to sleep." I stopped him and laid him down in his bed.

After a few attempts, I finally made him fall asleep. I went to the back of the house where they cooked the food that was served at the wedding to pee. There was no one there since it was late at night; people must have gone home or maybe they were talking and drinking in front of the house.

"Shin, can you get the bolo there for me!" Dad shouted at me when he saw me at the back of the house. I took the bolo that was hanging from the branch of the mango tree; I was about to take it to papa when I heard rustling in the woods. Behind the house is a forest.

I heard someone scream there, but it was just an echo, so I flashed it with my cellphone. I saw a shadow from there, if my suspicion was correct, it was a woman. I walked closer to it and was a little far from the house, but my attention was on the woman with her back turned. The breeze was also cold because besides being surrounded by trees, the night had gotten a bit darker.

"Ate², what are you doing here? It's dangerous here," I said while still pointing my flashlight at her. She didn't answer but moved her head and hands.

I swallowed and felt a strange sensation; the cold wind hitting my skin made my skin hair stand up.

Her hand was full of blood and it was still dripping on the ground. I immediately felt as if something was different, so I held tightly to the bolo in my other hand.

"What about you, what are you doing here?" My hair stood up even more at her voice. Her voice was sweet, but something seemed strange.

My eyes widened and seemed to freeze in place when she faced me. Her mouth and clothes were also full of blood. She was wearing a white dress, so the blood was so obvious.

"What... the fuck?" I exclaimed. She giggled. "Looks like I'll be full tonight." I grabbed the handle of the bolo when she stopped giggling and grinned at me.

She let out a screeching sound. I instinctively pulled the bolo and swung it at her when she suddenly attacked me. I injured her chest, so she backed away; she couldn't believe it as she looked at the wound, then glared back at me.

"A Hidalgo?!" There was a trace of shock and anger in her voice.

What?

"What?"

"Who are you? What's your name?" Her voice changed and seemed to be two people speaking at the same time. I frowned. "Shin... Hidalgo." Even though I was surprised, I still answered her. She gave me a creepy smile.

"You're Joselito's son. The baby I couldn't kill before." My forehead furrowed even more.

She laughed. "Ah~ It's like giving me another chance to kill you." Her face was serious.

She's bipolar, isn't she?

"If I didn't kill you then, I will do it now."

She attacked again, so I prepared my bolo. When she got close to me, I cut her hand again, which was about to grab me, causing her arm to be cut off.

Her scream echoed throughout the forest. I took that opportunity to slash her in the neck again; I cut off her head. The surroundings immediately became quiet.

At the corpse of the woman I killed, my breathing was fast, and my heart was beating fast. Her blood was scattered on the ground, especially on my head and also on my face and clothes. I don't know how many seconds or minutes I was stunned by the corpse.

"Shin!" I blinked and turned to the source of the scream. I saw dad running towards me, some men following him. They stopped in front of me and looked at me in shock, some of them holding flashlights. There are many of them, and they are carrying guns and bolos as if they are going into a battle.

"Shin..." The worry on dad's face was obvious, then he hugged me tightly.

From that day on, papa taught me everything I needed to know about the creatures of the dark. And that's when I also found out that the woman I killed... was an aswang³.

= ❈ =

"Are you sure about that?"

"Yes, that's what our informant said. The aswangs are said to be in Manila. They even met and killed some of our members." I stopped walking. _'What? Aswang?'_ I hid in a tree; we were behind the building of Grade 7. There were students gathering here who based on their ID were Grade 11 and 12.

I was just hanging on the tree next to them while they're talking, it seems like they haven't noticed me yet.

"Based on their report, they say the aswang they fought came from a province in the Visayas. In..."

My eyes widened. That place is close to our province.

"Alright. We'll go tonight."

Because I was curious about what they would do with the ghosts, I followed them at night. I literally didn't go home to even change and just said call my mom that I was going home late.

They stopped in a rather crowded hallway, the place looked like a squatter. I just followed them, and sometimes, I looked like a ninja in what I was doing. I don't know if they knew I was following them or they just didn't care about my presence.

I looked at the oil I was holding in a small bottle and it was boiling, which meant there was aswang around. The same thing happened with the oils they were holding; they kept boiling.

The incident happened quickly; in a second, the aswang attacked and the fight began.

The aswang moved fast and agile, but the students are twice as fast and agile. Hidden and amazed at what I saw, I watched them fight the aswangs. But even if the student's forces are strong, they cannot stop someone from getting injured and dying.

"Got you." It was as if all the hair on my body stood up and turned pale.

I quickly stabbed the dagger I had been holding in its stomach. The dagger was just hidden in the blazer of my uniform, the tip was up as I held its handle.

I tightly twisted the aswang's hair; I circled towards it and deeply slashed its neck with the dagger I also used to stab its stomach.

It was held while holding its bleeding neck, it vomited blood before falling to the ground. I wiped the blood splattered on my face with the hem of my long sleeve uniform. 

I cringe. My mom will kill in this.

= ❈ =

Filipino Dictionary:

Insan¹ - Cousin in english. Some Filipino address their cousin as 'insan', sometimes it serves as a nickname to their cousin.

Ate² - It was a call sign out of respect to an older sister. 

Aswang³ - Is a shape shifting monster in Philippine folklore usually possessing a combination of the traits of either a vampire, a ghoul, a warlock/witch, or different species of werebeast, or even all of them together.