The Aswəng

1673 Words
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!" An ear-piercing shriek of a woman tore through the silent woods near an isolated resort.  The woman,  an aspiring writer aiming to meditate and gather ideas alone in the silent shrubbery on the wee hours of the night.   "Scream your lungs out,  but no one can hear you.  Resistance will only make things harder for you,  baby" gnarled a contorted figure in the dark,  eyes glowing red,  fangs protruding in his mouth atop a nose that resembles a pig,  hairy and tall with bat-like wings on his back,  sharp talons on his hands and feet and hair fully envelops his contorted body as the light of the full moon illuminates this monstrosity.   The creature taunted and laughed maniacally at the woman as she begs for her life.  Inch by inch the creature draws closer to the helpless girl who is now cold as ice due to her impending doom. The creature now bored at torturing the poor woman,  now attempts to pounce and aim his sharp fangs at her slender and beautiful neck,  ready to savor her warm and fresh blood,  when suddenly a loud laugh of a man from atop a tree interrupted him that made the creature backed a step a little as it was astonished.  At the top of the branch of the tree,  a young man,  wearing a black hoodie and a black jogging pants.  A triangular medallion is seen hanging on his neck that has an eye on the center that swayed with the wind as he jumped from the branch of the tree as she secured the position of the young woman.  He has eyes of crimson red that glowed in the dark same as the eyes of the creature earlier.   "Your lines are so generic that I can't stop laughing from up there.  Sorry to ruin your moment bro. " snorted the young enigmatic man with red eyes.  "Who the f**k are you!?  Your eyes!  You're an aswang as well!  Are you here to steal my prey?!  This is my hunting ground!  My territory!  I will f*****g rip your heart out boy!! " hissed the creature in rage.  "Well,  you're not technically wrong,  but I'll deal with you later.  You there! " said the mysterious boy towards the puzzled woman.   "Me? " said the woman as she was trying to comprehend the weird string of events "I don't see anyone here.  Do I?  Of course you!  Do you want me to protect you? " the unknown man asked with a slight hint of annoyance.  "O-of course! " the woman said shakily "Done,  but you and I will have to make a contract later okay? " the young man said as he devilishly smiled towards the young woman.  "Anything for my life! " she said with signs of confusion accompanied by relief.  "Hahaha! My oh my!  This is an interesting sight,  boy!  I am an elder Aswang and you want to challenge me? You?  A greenhorn?   I will have to teach you a lesson,  a lesson that involves your life" shouted the aswang as he charges towards the mysterious boy.  "As I've said,  I'm not an aswang like you.  I am an Aswəng! " the boy said as he smiled and draw a bolo on the back of his jacket as he aimed at the charging aswang in a very unique stance.  "Impossible! But the likes of you are---" the creature said in terror as his head quickly decapitated and rolled on the dead leaves in the cold ground.  And It was silent again.  Everything happened in a flash.  The young boy was suddenly behind the creature as he wipes and sheathes his bolo that is covered in blood. The body of the creature suddenly caught fire. The young boy slowly walked towards the damsel in distress.   "Tha-Thank you for--" uttered the woman still in shock and confusion "I don't need your thanks.  In exchange for saving you,  you need to pay me." smiled the boy sinisterly as he gazed to the young woman up and down.  "Wha-! " she said in horror as she covers her chest with her arms.  "Hey!  It's not like that!  I'm looking at you that way because you look like a pampered rich kid.  What I want is for you to give me all of your money that you possess at the moment.  So anything that is in your ATM is not included.  Only what you possess at the moment we made our contract is what I will take" said the young man sheepishly.   "Oh..  Okay" said the woman still puzzled from what's happening as she opened her purse and gave the man who saved her life 7 thousand pesos.  " I can still give you some more if you want" offered the woman.  "No,  this is all what I want. " smiled the mysterious guy.  "Until we meet again,  and oh,  just in case,  it's better for you if you forget all of this sweetie,  okay? "  And in the blink of an eye the mysterious man throw a small needle-like thorn towards the girl's neck and she collapsed.  The young man picked up the girl as he whistled whilst strolling out of the woods as the moon illuminating the path.  I am Faustino Jose Dela Cruz.  People usually just call me Faust. I am 20 years old. I carry the most common surname here in my country.  It means "Of the Cross".  I am a college student who happened to be in the resort when this incident happened with the girl.  I am not a normal kid,  because I am of the Dela Cruz.  We the Dela Cruz,  are monster exterminators.  Hunters of the creatures of the dark.  During the olden days,  In my country,  Entities of the dark that are acting malevolenty,   those who cannot coexist with humans,  those who prey on them for food,  my family hunts.  My ancestors developed a method in which we collect parts of different entities and they inhumanely force this collected mixed parts to a male child.   Mortality rate is high and and only 4 out of 10 kids survive during this inhumane act.  This is the secret ritual that we perform back in the day to fully and effectively counter the dark,  malevolent entities that walks and causes havoc back in the day.  If a kid survived he will gain abilities that can help him during monster hunts.  Most of those abilities are enhanced physical strength,  Quick thinking, enhanced vision in the dark,  inhumane reflexes,  and immunity to common diseases with minimum immunity to certain kinds of poisons or venoms.  I never had the opportunity to snuggle on a blanket on a cold weather while suffering on a cold.  Also,  during the full moon our powers are more enhanced and our eyes change into a glowing bloody crimson red. It feels like I wear a superior night vision goggles. Maybe it's because of the mutation from the monster's genetics in our body.   We are then trained and schooled various informations to the entities we ought to fight.  Our main weapon is the traditional bolo, but  gosh I wish Katanas were mainstream back then because that would be a lot cooler than the bolo.  The bolo by the way is soaked in blessed holy water.  Somehow we are not affected with holy water. I tried cutting myself with the holy water infused bolo but nothing happened.   We possess a blessed amulet tha can make us feel or sense more when an entity is nearby.  This looks like the generic amulet or Anting-anting in our native tongue  with an eye at the center.  My grandfather calls it as the "All-seeing eye" or sometimes "Roma".  I don't know the mechanisms and it looks uncool and cringey to wear but it works.  What can I say?  We work in the shadows and as for payments, the rule is to take only what your client has with him. The reason is still unknown to me.   Aswangs,  Kapres,  Manananggal,  Tik-tik, Tikbalang,  this creatures are so rare nowadays right?  You're welcome.  It's because of my ancestor's work.  They still exist but they know how to coexist and they are relics in the past.  But they still exist.  I still encounter malevolent entities every now and then and those are the ones I eradicate.  The peaceful ones,  I leave them be.   But as time went by,  and the country developed our services are no longer needed as much as before and certain factions in the clan who knows of our secret trade decided to put this inhumane act to stop permanently.  All the elders agreed and so this method is scrapped and our secret trade was forgotten. As to what happened why I am still one,  is because of my father. He learnt all about our clan's secret trade and he really didnt want this method to stop or maybe he took pride in our family tradition so he performed it on me.  I survived and so here I am.  But as to him,  well he got so greedy and performed it to himself as well and maybe he ignored the fact that chances of the ritual to work on an adult is 0.01%.   And so my grandfather my only living relative raised me and  since I am a successfully mutated kid,  he taught me the old ways of our family.  All the knowledge,  all the arts and techniques.  He said that a situation might arise that I could help someone in need. And he trusts me with all of that heavy tradition and legacy,  in which I blindly accepted.   We are called as Aswəng.  It's like a schwa sound s**t.  Even I dont know why my anscestors named us,  the chosen few who survived the trials like that.  It sounds like "Asweng" for some reason. I know It sounds kinda cringey and weird.  I am Faust and I am the last  Aswəng (or so I'm told),  and this is my tale. 
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