Shadow Trails (ONC 2021)

Part One

Two old crones flanked the infant in the cradle. Big almond eyes under long lashes looked up at them. Pink soft lips, flushed chubby cheeks and a wisp of dark hair atop its head. There was only one way to describe it.

"Disgusting," Manang Sarah spat out as if the word left an unpleasant taste in her mouth. She may be old but her kind had senses that were sharper than any other. "The stench ruins the appetite". The stench was lost on more ignorant species than hers, but she knew underneath the perfume of baby powder and milk and drool lies a particular evil in the guise of a baby.

A voice emerging from the other room called it what it is, "Tiyanak*". It was Manang Popi. She held two objects in each hand: a rattle in her left and a small stuffed teddy bear in her right. She dangled both above the infant as if presenting candidates for its toy of choice. It was a big decision and the infant understood that as it eyed the toys with surprising scrutiny, lips pursed in concentration. It was amusing, Manang Sarah thought as she watched, how well the tiyanak passed for a human. She had seen the exact same look on the faces of many babies that came before it, all had been left in their care by the church.

This baby was a first, not only because it was nonhuman but because it was an omen. Simple minds would call it a 'harbinger of doom' and move to eradicate it. But what they fail to see is that it is but a sign of something greater in the works. A change was coming that can affect the fate of the whole world. Only those who fear the inevitable fear change. Those beings are called fools. The tiyanak finally made its choice and was given the rattle. It giggled with joy.

"I guess we'll have to report this, won't we?" Manang Popi muttered. It still left a bitter taste in her mouth to think that she was subservient to anyone, much more that it was to a human. To think that a lost wager centuries ago crafted an arrangement that still holds to this day, even if the human party had long since died. A long line of descendants had come after her, upholding and enforcing the contract in the name of peace.

Manang Popi and Manang Sarah had their share of unpleasant encounters with those descendants. Had the omen come at a different time, they might have chosen silence. However, the current generation was a special case and for that reason Manang Sarah decided to comply to the age-old agreement. "That would be best. Besides, it's about time they paid these grandmothers a visit." 

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*Tiyanak - a vampiric monster in Philippine Folklore that takes the form of a child