Two girls sit by the bench as they share a headphone,
the headphone has a sparkling wire covering it,
when the sun rub its light on the wire it glitters and sparkling pink color reflect upon it easily attracting the eyes of the passersby,
or maybe,
because the girls look so much alike and they dress the same,
but what catches my eyes are the black smoke coming out from one of the girls,
Let me introduce my self first as this is our first time getting to know each other, and i hope you keep following me as I tell my stories.
My name is Kin, I am from a tribe in the Philippines, let us not be specific as you might seek for us, our tribe has long been guiding the people on what is "Just" but people has stopped rellying on us and so we stopped guiding people,
now we just watch, and observe how people do as they want.
People emit smoke from their body depending on their nature or thoughts, what I see are black signifying evil thoughts or evil nature, I often see blacck smoke from people planning something bad which catches my eyes and I tend to follow them, to watch them.
Back to our story,
how can a beautiful lady be emitting black smoke,
you really cannot judge people by looks nowadays.
I take a seat behind them,
"Anna, do you want to come to Ilocos for this weekend?" says one of the girls,
"Sure, I have never visited there before" says Anna,
"Annie, it's about lunch now, lets find the cafeteria?" she added, as they stood up and leave.
Anna and Annie,
Annie emited the black smoke, she is evil, the amount of smoke I see means she is evil by nature, I am fascinated so I shadow them.
They eat lunch, they chit chat, then they try to find their classroom, their freshman, that explains why they do not know where to go.
Anna drives a car, and she invites Annie to ride with her, then she drops off Annie at her apartment not far from her's, I still see Anna parking her car,
but Annie intrigues me so she is who I follow.
Nothing weird, normal room, normal body, no scar, so sign of beating, just a birth mark that looks like a crescent moon, aside from that, nothing, an average girl,
oops...
she sees me by the window,
she was shocked,
no worries,
I took the form of a small rat.
I leave her be as she changes her cloth,
nothing extra ordinary about, just the black smoke she emits,
I got bored tailing her and watching her wake up, bathe, eat, go meet Anna, ride her car to school, then to class, then lunch...
ugh....boring,
if it was not for the black smoke I have left them 2 days ago,
but the black smoke keeps me obsessed with her.
I cannot keep doing this.
So I "accidentaly" bump to Annie so I can introduce myself and got acquainted with them,
I am also a student at this Catholic school at Baguio City.
I have become friend with them, Anna is a funny girl, she does what she want and has no actual plan on her future, she says she will just take over their family's business and that was her destiny,
Annie is from Ilocos Norte, her family is a pig raiser, she is more of a cowbot type, she often drags us along to try ang eat exotic foods here at Baguio,
weirdest,
dog meat,
tasty actually.
Friday afternoon,
"Kin, you want to join us on our trip to Ilocos?" asks Anna,
"You sure you want to bother Kin?" says Annie,
"Sure, we going to spend the night there?" I asked,
"yeah, just 1 night" Annie replies, "So we meeting place at Anna's by 8pm sharp, do not be late" she added.
8pm.
Anna and I see Annie running towards us,
"Don't be late, my ass" says Anna and I laughed so hard Annie hit me.
We ride the car and I drive.
5 hours and i see boarder mark, it has a church like design on top and it says "Welcome to Ilocos Norte",
It is around 4am,
We enter San Nicolas and we reach Annie's house,
very remote,
I see a woman standing by the door, she has a black smoke around her too, she wears old clothings, like spanish era style, she has a black laced cloth over her shoulder,
this signifies mourning in our culture,
she looks old,
I see her smile as we stop by the door,
"They are here!" she shouted as she looks inside informing those inside of our presence,
Annie jumps out and gives her a hug and a kiss,
"This is my mother" she said,
"Who are you mourning?" I asked,
"My father, he died last week, we bury him tomorrow" she replied,
Annie's siblings come to greet us, youngest is brother and 2 younger sister, apparently she is the eldest amongst them.
They invited us to eat,
we sit down as they prepare the food,
"you never said anything about your father nor his wake and not even the idea that he is going to be buried tomorrow?" as I raised my eybrow directing my gaze at Annie,
"I am sorry, I wanted you guys to visit our place and enjoy Ilocos, don't worry, we will go touring Ilocos after the burial" Annie replied.
We ate, and chit chatted.
8am
I mix my coffee and light a cigarette,
everyone in the house except for Anna emits black smoke,
I do not fear death,
I have been around for 3003 years,
I do not simply die,
I am guessing a whole family of murderers,
now that is a good story,
I could probably kill these humans if they try to harm me.
I see a man driving a Tricycle or Kurung-kurung in their dialect, he emits black smoke and so does the woman with him,
I see 8 kids with towels on their shoulders, probably going to bathe somewhere also emiting black smoke,
what the heck,
something fun is about to unfold here.
Lunch time,
I see Annie's sister holding 2 chickens, she holds them by the wings,
1 in each hand,
she gives 1 of the chicken to their youngest,
he twists the chickens head and just snap it off,
I hear Anna shout "No!" and she covers her eyes and turns around leaving me and Annie.
I follow her to the back of the house where we see some banana plants,
she wipes her tears,
I laughed at her,
"1st time seeing a buther do his job?" I joked,
she just nodded her head and hug me,
"next time warn me when something like this is about to happen, ok" Anna mumbled
and I gave her a pat at the back.
2pm,
after eating we went to a nearby river,
I see the kids cooking meat by the river,
the black smoke still emits from them,
It seems like only Anna does not emit black smoke in this town,
we swim and catch fishes,
4pm,
Annie's mother tells us that they will hold a feast tonigh for her father's last night with them,
"It is a long ritual of prayers, probably bore you to death, better go rest, we will just come wake you up when the feast is ready" she said.
We were tired from swimming so the three of us went up stairs and sleep,
Anna called me to sleep in their room to keep them company,
I sleep on the floor and they each get a bed,
I could've slept in the other room and have my own bed but this seems to be part of the story,
something is going to happen in our sleep,
5pm,
Anna couldn't sleep so Annie gives her the pink headset sos he can listen to music as she tries to sleep,
9pm,
I hear footsteps, 4 or 5 men coming to the room,
I raise my senses,
they open the door,
let me observe first,
I change to a mouse and climb the window,
I peek and watch them,
black smoke covers the room,
the man goes to Anna's bed,
raises the sheet,
the earphone reflects pink color from the light on the lamp beside the bed,
he puts down the sheet,
the other guys surround the other bed,
each holding woods and knives,
the man raises the wood that he holds and them slams down to the bed,
the others also follow him,
red stains the bed sheet covering Annie,
the men rolls the cloths and carries it with them,
the man goes near Anna,
touches her head,
and says
"Feast going to be ready soon, come down".
and leaves,
I go to the roof to see where they take Annie,
I see them chopping her piece by piece,
among them is the mother,
she removes the cloth around the waist area,
she sees a birth mark,
a cresent moon,
she weeps and wail,
the people wail with her,
her face,
morphing,
angrier,
fiercer,
teeth becoming fangs,
nails growing longer,
aswangs,
this is a town of Aswangs.
They ran to Annie's room where Anna sleeps,
they open the door,
the room is empty,
then the sound of a car engine starting,
screaching tires as I sped away from that barangay,
some try to give chase,
I release my essence,
they stop chasing us,
they know who I am,
they wail,
but I feel their fear.
Annie was also an Aswang, that explains the black smoke from that barangay,
as practice of passing on the power, the eldest child must bring home food,
it would seem like Anna and I were suppose to be that so called food.
I take the pink headphones,
souvenir,
from visiting San Nicolas, Ilocos Norte.
