“I honestly don’t see how this is a problem.” Angela was beaming. “Less work for us.”
This was the fifth time they were beaten to the punch. The stench from the flaming carcass of the aswang left an acrid aftertaste in the air. Angela was still smiling while Diosdao, as usual, had his face crumpled into a grimace.
“I don’t like this,” Diosdado said. He walked away from the corpse to get some fresh air.
“There weren’t that many human victims, Dio.
“Whoever’s doing this is using fire to deal with aswang.”
“To be fair, at a certain point fire becomes everything’s weakness.”
“This isn’t the time for jokes!”
“But now we have time!! Don’t you get it, we’re not competing with whoever this is. The only good aswang is a dead aswang.”
“Don’t use my own words against me.”
Angela rolled her eyes. Diosdado was always like this. He always had to know.
“Look Dio, what do we do when we find out who this is? Tell them politely to stop? That there’s only room for one set of aswang hunters in this Metro?”
“They could be a valuable source of information.” Diosdado was still grimacing.
There was no way to escape this, Angela thought. She had no choice but to surrender. “Fine. Okay. Fine. Let’s get through this.”
“Ok let’s look at the victims.”
Angela’s eyebrow shot up. “These were aswang, not exactly what we’d call victims.”
“Ignore the fact that they were aswang. Let’s do this our way, like we always do.”
“If you say so.”
“So, the first victim.”
“The first one was a kiwig, it was attempting to hunt children near a public school. Based on what information we gathered, multiple children said that they saw a dog with fiery eyes. One of them even took a picture of it and her parents called us.”
“It was then—”
“Don’t interrupt me Dio. We found the remains of the kiwig on the roof, most of the corpse was burned to ash. It was in its human form, that of a middle-aged woman. There was nothing else in the scene that was worth noting.”
“Okay the next one.”
“A typical wakwak stalking a maternity ward. There were multiple miscarriages before we were called in.” Angela’s face contorted.
“Ange—-” Diosdado started.
“We can’t be everywhere Dio.”
“I know.”
“Let’s continue.”
“Based on the footage we were able to get, the wakwak disguised itself as a visitor in the maternity ward. It spent its nights feeding during graveyard hours. It looked like it was a woman. Most mothers would trust another woman more.”
“It was surprising that we didn’t find its body in the hospital.”
“Whoever killed it was kind enough to make things easier to clean up.”
“The wakwak was found in the parking lot in a burned-out car.”
“I’m surprised no one saw what happened. It was like a bomb that detonated suddenly.”
“There was also no CCTV in the parking lot.”
“Lucky for them. And now we go to number three.”
“The tiktiks?”
Angela nodded.
“It was like looking in a bucket of Chickenjoy. The familiars were burned as well. I counted 4 tiktik in addition to the aswang master. She was hugging one of the birds when she was burned.”
“Anything interesting there?”
“That’s the thing, we were called after the fact. There were no victims that we know of. Whoever killed the tiktiks struck without waiting. Like he was able to see that it was an aswang right away.”
“Like we do.”
“Don’t feed your ego, Dio. We’ve been in situations where we couldn’t be sure if someone was an aswang.”
“But this whoever can.”
“You’re right, that could be useful.”
“Anyway, the fourth victim.”
“The sinasa’ban, my favorite kind.” Angela was dripping with sarcasm. “I can still remember the smell.”
“This one was different though.”
“Yeah it burned from the inside out. When we got to it, it burst and showered us with all the filth it had eaten.”
“It was disgusting.”
“That’s an understatement.”
“The last one?”
“Okay this is the one that was most surprising. Even we couldn’t handle an asbo by ourselves.”
“And whoever this is they were able to do it alone.”
“We don’t know that.”
“I went through the whole site, there was only one set of footprints.”
“Well good for them.”
“Ange—”
“Okay okay – the asbo was in its beast form when we got to it. Same as the others, burned to an absolute crisp.”
“So what do they have in common?”
“They all got fried.”
“I’m serious, we have to look at the details.”
“Hmmmm..”
“Okay let’s pretend we’re them. We somehow find the aswang and then what? We pour gasoline on it and light a match?”
“Wait. Say that again.”
“The match?”
“No, the gasoline. In the sites did you ever smell gasoline or oil?”
“Did you?”
“I don’t think whoever did this is human.”
“Like another aswang?”
“No, nothing like that. I’ve never heard of an aswang that can control fire. It’s something else.”
“So, let’s expand our search. What kind of entity would hold a grudge against aswang?”
“Apart from us?”
“Apart from us.”
“I think…..”
“What?”
“You’re not going to like this.”
“Tell me.”
“We should consult with the spirits of the trees.”
“She owes us one favor.”
“I’m surprised you’re agreeing with this. I thought you hated her.”
“Hate is an emotion better saved for battle. My gut says there’s something here, I have to trust my instincts.”
“If you say so.”
=—————————————————————————————=
The fireflies danced in front of the Balete tree beckoning the two hunters in. It had been long since they have entered the realm of the spirits and they were not used to the shift in reality, but they trudged on into the light, seeking their goal.
She finally came into view in what seemed like days of walking, a small girl holding an umbrella.
“My wonderful playmates have returned!!” The little girl leaped into the air.
“Not today, Aura. I request a boon.”
“Oh no, but we had so much to play with last time Mr. Diosdado.”
“We don’t have the time for this,” Angela said.
Diosdado nodded. “Aura, you owe us.”
Suddenly the girl’s face contorted into a scowl. “What do you want party poopers?”
Angela answered, “There is an entity hunting aswang in the Metro. They prefer the use of fire when they dispatch their… victims.”
Diosdado added, “There have been no human victims for now, not directly at least.”
“That’s strange, he must have gotten soft in his old age.”
Angela and Diosdado both exclaimed, “He?!”
“You two have hunted the aswang for how long now? I’m surprised you haven’t met him sooner.”
“Tell us,” Diosdado’s eyes were stern.
Aura closed her umbrella and walked towards the two hunters.
“Let the story flow.”
=————————————————————————————————–=
There was once a man
(If you can call him that)
Completely in love
With a monster
They spent their lives together
And if things were different
Eternity would have meant nothing to them
The monster
And her husband
Had centuries
In each other’s arms
Until one night
The monster betrayed him
She vanished
Leaving him with a broken heart
And his eyes burned
For vengeance would be his
So, he travels the land
Hunting monsters
Until he finds his
=————————————————————-=
“Wait, so there’s an immortal creature looking for his aswang wife to kill her?” Angela
Aura replied with a sarcastic smile, “Wow you actually listened! And here I thought I was talking to myself.”
“And he can spew fire from his eyes?”
“Did you even listen to me? I swear you humans get dumber every time I talk to your kind.”
“Dio, this changes everything.” Angela grabbed Diosdado’s arm.
“I’m bored now, you know the way out.” Aura opened her umbrella and flew upwards. As soon as she was out of sight, tremors violently raged through the earth.
The two were prepared for this, after all it wouldn’t be their first time escaping from the engkanto’s realm.
The portal closed behind them and they savored the acrid air of the human world.
=———————————————————-=
Diosdado and Angela stared at each other. It was Dio who broke the silence.
“What do you think?”
“I think we need to prepare.”
“For what?”
“When we thought it was another human, I was fine, but this thing sounds like he has his own agenda. It won’t be too long that something or someone is going to be collateral damage.”
Diosdado nodded.
“More for us to hunt.”
=———————————–=
Written by Karl Gaverza
Copyright © Karl Gaverza
Inspired by the Bonggo description in Bikol Beliefs and Folkways: A Showcase of Tradition. Nasayao 2010.
Illustration by Art of EDOY