Curse Of The Aswangs (The Vasquez Brothers #1)[COMPLETED]

5: ASH

I hadn't even step onto the front porch, another battle had begun. I knew too well that Zade and Jasper were always brawling each other to death since they were little.

"What the hell is going on here?" I bounced my eyes between my brothers.

"He started it!" Jasper pointed at Zade.
"He did!"
They're pointing at each other, folks. "Okay, both of you did it!"
Before I could strangle them, I handed Zade a two thousand pesos money. "This is a 2 thousand pesos."
"Yes?"
"Is, uh, 2k going to be my allowance?"
"If you don't want it, give it back." I said.
Zade hurriedly shoved the money into his pocket."No."

"Then it's your allowance." I smiled, but that sarcastic smile I'd always place on his face when he finds people stupid.
"I'm not hungry." Zade said.
"Me either." Jasper replied
I grabbed both of their ears again. "OOW!" They both gave a painful shrill.
"You two will do as I say." He said. "We don't have time for this. Let's just sit down and eat."

****

"The who?" Zade repeated as I came into the kitchen with the laswa I cooked. Laswa was made with shrimp and vegetables such as ampalaya, calabasa, patola, eggplant, sitaw and okra. I could see that their mouth watered from its delicious smell.
"The Aswang. if you're on social media, maybe you know what's going on." Jasper said.

"There have been reports that an aswang or a wild animal are attacking farmers and people working in the subways." I told them.
"And in the subways where disgusting rats like Zade lives?" Jasper chuckled.

"I noticed it. I check on Facebook about the incident earlier in Arcuit." said Dylan.
"I don't know about that, Dylan but Emily said it might be a wild animal." Zade scooped the laswa with the table spoon.

" I think it's not a wild animal, smart mouth." Dylan replied. He took out his phone and showed me a picture of an old man on a mint jumpsuit, with another young man, around in his 30's wearing a yellow cap with flashlight. "Look. Subway repair man. His coworker said the aswang got him."

"That's the guy I saved from earlier." I said.

Zade frowned. "Ash, I think this whole Aswang thing is just a big hoax."
"If they're real, why don't you ask them why they don't fly during daytime?" Dylan said to me, and he looked back at me. "You haven't seen an aswang."
"Frankie said that his uncle saw it." Jasper said.

"You are telling me that his uncle has seen a group of mythical monsters, and a Lord, so evil that hell itself spat him back out on earth?" Zade asked dubiously.
"Yes."

"Look guys, there are a lot of problems we need to focus on. Bills and jobs." I said, putting a calabasa on my rice. "This aswang thing is just a myth."

****

After losing your job because your boss and his employees were a jerk to you., I had expected that I would be free. I realized my savings weren't enough for another three years. The least of my problems turned out to be a bigger one. My brothers will always be my first priority.
"Don't tell me this is the spirit board we used to play when we were kids."

"I saw it at the extra room when I was looking for the main switch. It's not real isn't it?"
I scoffed, finding that silly. "To my three handsome boys, this renders you light to your darkest times. The power it holds will protect you. -Love, mama." He read the inscribed words behind the spirit board. "You know, we never knew what this meant."

"Maybe it's just a cool inspiring quote from mama." Said Zade.
"We don't know baybayin and we don't know what mama meant." I said with a mock smile. "Just proves that being idiot runs in our blood."

"You're not hearing yourself, are you, Ash?" asked Zade. "You're literally the youngest literacy editors in the Philippines. You've earned much."

"Yes, because Reggie's company is US-based."