As I slowly backed up from the room with an eye on my surroundings, I heard it. The faint tapping noise that everybody fears, I had heard an aswang.
Like the usual way I deal with problems, I ran away, down the stairs quicker than a rabid dog. I had accidentally run into blind darkness and hit my right elbow into an electric fan.
I kept listening to what was happening upstairs. "Nom, nom, nom." The someone, the something that was there was feasting. Crash goes the swivel chair as I dash through the corners and make way to paradise. Somebody, I know, was there.
It was my grandfather, happy as can be watching a video on his phone. I was finally in the clear, No monsters, creepy sounds, nothing.
I look back at the area beneath the stairs again, checking for any signs of something else there. There was only a shadow that was the top half of a person with wings.
I go to the bathroom for some well-needed relief after holding my pee for so long. Then, I circle the kitchen looking for something to eat.
Suddenly I thought a banana shifted appearance right in front of me. I looked back again, and it was just a regular old banana.
I looked back at the area under the stairs, and suddenly tons of cold tingles wash over my body like cold water. I could even feel my hair slightly spiking up as I slowly walked away from that area.
"CLANG, CRASH CLANG." Something crash-landed outside. And it was not a bird. My grandfather offers to go out and tells me to get the flashlight. The only thing that he could find was a tattered piece of tan cloth.
Suddenly, we heard something from the streets. The distinct crash sound I heard earlier followed by a large thump. He opens the gates only to find nothing.
A few moments later, while standing at the gates, we heard a distant screaming coming from the distance. In no longer than a split second, a figure flew by me like a bat.
It was exactly like the shadow I saw earlier in the area beneath the stairs. The screaming got louder and louder until we saw someone my age sprinting forward in the middle of the night wearing a mining helmet and
carrying a bow and arrow.
At this point, my grandfather's seen enough and walks back into our house, with me telling him I'll be right there.
"RUN." The person tells me as they grab my hand and pull me to the other side of the road. Another figure swoops by us, this time with a tongue as long as a snake.
He hands me the bow and arrow and tells me: "Keep them busy while I find another one." The person then runs inside the nearby vacant plots filled with trees.
I've had no prior experience using the bow and arrow, plus my reaction time is painfully slow. One by one, my ammo fails to fly and hit one of those figures just hovering in the sky.
When they finally go behind the moon, I see them clear as day. Mananangal figures. Three of them thirsty for blood and hovering over the streets without their bottom halves.
I slowly try to load the last arrow to shoot them down. Just then, another mananangal swoops in and takes it from me and soars up into the night with its allies.
I realize the gravity of the situation, and if they catch up to me, there is no doubt in their drooling mouths that they will kill and eat me. I take my chances, and I run as fast as I could, screaming for someone to help me. Unfortunately, it's the middle of the night, and all of the people in the neighborhood are asleep, and no one can help me.
The person I saw earlier is nowhere near me, and I'm going to be a goner. The aswangs were slowly getting faster and faster until I've reached the end of the street and couldn't run anymore.
I was out of breath and a goner, as they kept getting faster and faster and their claws getting sharper and sharper.
"CLASH, CRASH, CLANG."
