Have you heard a man-eating creature who only targets the dead body of your loved ones?
Around in 1920's in the province of Iloilo City. I am Totoy, a young-boy who has a loving father and mother. Our income is through planting corns and selling to the city or what usually call "bayan". I had a grandfather who just died of old age. The setup of the wake in this time, The dead body of a person lies in a wooden table with only a blanket covering the body, the style of the coffin is only a woven patchwork.
Also, the wake only last 24 hours due to valid reasons. Around the 12th hour of the wake whilst my father is at the wake entertaining the sympathetic visitors and my mother is cooking food for the visitors.
An unexpected visitors came in the wake. My father saw two malnourished old-man who only wore nothing but black hoods, the one usually priest wears instead its black. He kept an eye on them since they don't seem to know who they are. While he is on the lookout if those two might do something irrational or something that will disturb the wake.
The two man approached my father. One of them says, "Can we get a glass of water?". Whilst my father was talking to them, he notices something that is not quite normal for a person. He saw that both of them has black eyebags that is pretty much not normal, the part of the eyes that should be white is red, and the worst thing he notices is the breath of the one who asked for a water. My father says on his mind, "his breath smells like a garbage with a combination of a poop of a dog.". After my father gave them a glass of water they disappeared without giving their condolences to us.
I checked the time, it is the 18th hour of the wake. I am the one who is in the wake to entertain the visitors, when suddenly the two man my father encountered went back. Same description as how my father explained but this time they smell like rotten meat. I called for my father to let him know they came back. They didn't do anything again and just looked straight to dead body of my grandfather.
A friend of my father, told us that always guard your grandfather those two are called "Bal-Bal". A kind of Aswang here in the Philippines that only eats dead people, they love the smell of a body of a person who died recently. My father, sweats and felt a shiver when his friend told him that. I on the other hand didn't understand anything since I don't know what they were talking about at that time. After my father and his friend finished talking, the two mysterious man left without uttering a word.
24 hours has passed, my father and his other neighbors brought my grandfather to his final resting place, the grave has also been dug. Whilst I am waiting for them to put the coffin 6 feet below. I saw two shadowy-figure on the back of a tree just near where my grandfather's grave is located. I noticed that it is the two mysterious man whom my father saw on the wake. After it is all said and done, my family and I went back home. We ate are dinner which is called "Kamoteng Kahoy" , my favorite food. Then, we clean ourselves up and went to bed. I fell asleep as soon as I got in to bed.
On that day, we heard a knock from our door, My father suddenly woke up to this knocking. He waited for a 3rd knock before opening it. When he opened the door, my father was shocked because it was his friend that told him about those two mysterious man. His friend immediately said, "Carpio, there is two man digging your father's grave, I was right about those two." My father felt fear and anger in his heart when heard this. "Those sons of bitches!" my father angrily said. Let me get my Bolo and ask for help from our neighbors. Once they had done it. 5 men, and one of them is my father runs to the grave of his grandfather. There they saw only the coffin with bloodstains over it.
It was a dark and stormy night.
I was alone at home and about to go to bed, when I saw a scary shadow figure at my window. I was frightened and shouted ''who is there''....
The battle with in is always the hardest to win.
Four students head for a research trip in Congo, Africa. Their expedition is cut short by a strange occurrence.
"come in come in! enjoy yourself in this magical bookstore kids!" the old man greets his two customers kindly.
The bookstore would probably be empty if it wasn't the old man's polite words. it is full with old stuff but mostly for...
A chilling flash fiction story, Enjoy and share.