Collin and Merikh went outside to scout the place, searching for the thing that made a sharp cry. “What’s with the staff? Are you Moses or something?” Collin asked in an attempt to have a small talk, but Merikh ignored him and continued to search. Collin scoffed, rolling his eyes, and shaking his head as he went to the opposite direction to search there. “Oy!” Merikh yelled, “stay close. You’re not familiar with this part of town!”
“And you are?”
“Actually, yes.”
Collin ignored him and continued walking. Later on, they heard the same sharp cry but this time, they hear a flap of large wings. They both looked up and saw a woman flying over them. She has long black hair, long sharp nails, and the most disturbing part is, she’s cut in half. You can see the end of intestines, along with her other entrails, tailing her. Both Collin and Merikh froze at the creature they saw, then an arrow hit the creature’s arm, making her shriek in pain. I stopped running, and pointed the crossbow at her again, shooting my shot and missed.
The creature then flew overhead, hiding in plain sight. I slowly walked backwards, then my back hits Collin and Merikh’s backs. “You familiar with that thing?” Merikh asked. “Yeah. It’s another aswang, and it’s called a manananggal,” I replied. Then one thing occurred to me about these creatures. They leave their other half some place hidden, and if you pour salt on it, the monster will die. I quickly ran back to the house, Azriel met me outside. “I need your help,” I said.
“Yeah, sure. Anything,” Azriel replied. “Okay, so, uh, what do you need?”
“I need you to look for the manananggal’s other half.”
“Other half? Like her partner? Lover?”
“No, not that kind of other half. Her other half. Meaning her waist down. They usually hide it somewhere dark and probably the last place you’ll look.”
Azriel gave me a weird look when I handed him a shotgun shell, “okay, uhm, what am I gonna do with this exactly?” lifting the shell. “When you find the other half of this monster, pour the salt on it. Just pierce that shell with something sharp and you’re good to go,” I explained. He nodded and left me standing there, then I heard Collin and Merikh calling my name. I ran towards them only to see them fighting of another Tik-Tik but this time, he wasn’t alone. I pointed my crossbow at the creature up the tree, ready to jump at Collin. I ran towards them to help them fight off the creatures, but before I could reach them, a large dog – probably a big ass wolf – grabbed me by the waist, and the crossbow fell from my grip. It dragged me far away from the enchanted house. I can feel my blood soaking through my shirt. I can feel my eyes getting heavier and heavier, then I hear Merikh’s voice in my head, “keep your eyes open, Mia. I’m almost there.”
The big wolf suddenly drops me to the ground and howled in pain. I rolled a few feet away from them, and before my vision gets blurry, I saw Merikh stabbing the wolf with his staff, but it was too strong that it fought him back. I sucked up the pain and tried getting up. I knew I have no weapons to fight off anything, then I saw this as an opportunity to see what I can do. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and begged myself to feel that warm light inside of me. Without any second thoughts, I threw an invisible force towards the big wolf. It flipped him over, but he was able to get back up and shake its head before running towards us again. I decided to meet this wolf halfway, grabbing Merikh’s staff, I ran and slid down then pushed the staff to its chest. The wolf let out a loud cry, before making a loud thud on the ground.
I took the staff out of his chest the moment his eyes went blank. I looked at the staff on my hand, then suddenly, I stabbed the wolf again and again – crying and screaming. Merikh grabbed the staff, stopping me from stabbing the corpse of a werewolf when Collin ran over to us, then Azriel flew down beside him. Merikh pulled me closer, letting me cry on him, “you’re okay. You’re safe,” then I remembered I was dragged by that wolf. I slowly moved away from Merikh, then I fainted. I can hear their faint voices, calling my name.
Azriel laid me down on the couch, he lifted my shirt up to see the bite. I was shivering and sweating, like there’s venom in my veins from the bite. “Is she going to turn into a werewolf?” Collin asked. “No, I don’t think she will. That wolf isn’t purebred,” Azriel said calmly, “besides, whatever it is that’s making her shiver and sweat like this, I can heal it and remove it.”
Rory got a basin with warm water and a hand towel. She wrings the towel over the basin, then wipes my sweat away from my face and all the dried blood. Azriel puts both his hands over my wounds and started whispering a prayer. I groaned as my wounds starts closing up, then one part of the wound made me scream. Aunt Russo started running out of her room and goes to the living room, “what on earth? Mia!” she exclaimed as she saw me lying there. Rory held out a hand to her, and she grabbed it. She held on to Azriel’s shoulder and prayed with him. After all my wounds are healed, I stopped shivering, but I felt tired. Like I can sleep for a week.
Collin volunteered to carry me back to my room.