Aswang

            Raisa’s round sunglasses reflected the light of the waning day. A soft breeze caught the stray strands of charcoal black hair that hung around her face. I couldn’t imagine her as the monster she claimed she would become. She was by no means like any other woman I knew, but she wasn’t a monster. The only monstrous thing about her was the fact that she never smiled. I could hear the sounds of the night begin their soothing song as the cicadas let loose their shrill cries in the fading light.

 As the first stars began to prick through the sheet of the sky she slipped her sunglasses off and into her jacket pocket. Then she let the blue leather jacket slid smoothly off her shoulders to the ground.  I was shocked to see the long twisted black tattoos that covered both arms.  I had no idea that she was so extensively marked. I was further shaken by how the markings seemed to writhe and change in the last rays of the setting sun. She knelt upon the ground wearing just the purple sports bra and cotton sarong.

“You’ll stay here,” she said as the crest of the sun began to touch the horizon.

“But then how will I get to see the monster?”

“You will see it, but someone must watch my lower half.”

“You really believe all this don’t you?”

She was silent. I waited expecting a response, but none came.

We sat in the stillness for a long while. I could hear the birds and beetles chittering away around us. Bats flew back and forth in front of the moon chasing moths. As the night began to settle over us I tossed the can of salt she’d given me between my hands.

She didn’t move at all and suddenly everything went completely still. The insect and bats fell silent, even the breeze died. Her hands clenched against her knees and she began to shake. A deep and terrible moan escaped her lips quickly growing into an agonized shriek. She tossed her head back and her shoulders twisted from side to side painfully. I fell to the ground as her torso began to split open just above the waist. She wasn’t lying, she wasn’t crazy, and as a thick membrane began to stretch out of her back, I realized she really was the Aswang.

I fumbled right into the side of the truck as the upper half broke free of the lower and laid grunting on the ground. I forced myself as far into the wheel well as I could manage watching as the creature lifted itself up on its hands and bat wing talons. The long black hair hung down over its face but I could still see the long fangs extending out of the jaw. I watched the head bobbed this way and that as it sniffed at the air. I couldn’t stop myself before a small squeal of fear escaped the back of my throat.

The head shot towards me and I saw the big glowing red eyes through the black spider web of hair. At the sight of the spine dragging along the ground as it ran at me I lost all control and let lose the wildest scream I have ever heard myself utter. I gripped the can of salt and as the severed upper body got close I waved the can with holding nothing. Salt sprayed everywhere and most importantly it covered the face of the monster that reared back just shy of my knees before flapping its massive wings and taking flight.

I cowered next to the truck for a while longer after the creature disappeared waving the can of salt wildly at any movement I saw out of the corner of my eye. It didn’t come back. This project was turning out to be a lot more terrifying than I thought it would. Talk to a few villagers, take some nice scenic shots, do a lot of reading that was all fine. Facing a real live man eating monster was an entirely different matter. After the jack hammer stopped smacking inside my skull I finally notice that her legs were still sitting on the ground at the top of the hill. After that I really don’t remember much since I hit my head pretty good against the mirror of the truck when I passed out.