Bagwis, Luna, and Van huddled beside the old well. Fews hours from now, a big and risky drill is about to take place in order test the new-found strength of the Bakunawa as well as assess its novel changes. Bagwis finally explained his sudden disappearance to his grand daughter, but leaving out the part of just how immese the changes are in order to not put any sort of discouragement on them. Van stood on his left and Luna to his right. There were different kinds of equipment below them which Bagwis just laid out a couple of minutes ago. He decided not to let them go, thinking that it would be more dangerous to send them back into the forest than keeping them safe with him. The least they could do was help him and keep their presence concealed. "I want you to do everything exactly as I say you should, do your understand?" Bagwis said to which the two agreed upon. As he explained in detail everything they have to do, he handed them both gas masks, a gun and a torch for Luna, and a kni
Quarter to one, everybody stationed to their respective positions. Luna hid behind the well and near the debris of the worn-down chapel, her vision direct to the inside of the chapel where her grandfather stood and to the bell where Van is stationed. Van hunkered behind the veranda where the old church bell hangs and where he overlooks the entire forest as well as vision access to where Luna hides. Once he sees Benitez on the field, he can easily alert Luna who will then signal the arrival to his grandfather. Van could feel the rising tension in his chest pounding, he badly wanted to see him die tonight. Luna, on the other hand, held a gun in her hand, locked and loaded. All she can think about tonight is winning. Meanwhile, Bagwis stood still inside the chapel, just a few meters away from the beheaded Jesus statue with a spear full of venom poison, a concoction an old healer phenomenal put together in theory to paralyze a huge animal on-the-spot during hunting season. It had no known
It was three in the morning when a distant clattering sound of tumbled-down trashcans echoed in an empty lot beside the dark highway. Houses were more than a hundred meters away so it instantly became a hidden and unauthorized dumping site of illegal materials and chemicals. Normally, one would suspect a starving stray cat rummaging for food or a poverty-stricken garbage collector looking for plastic bottles, glass bottles, or boxes which one could sell in exchange for a few hundred pesos but it was neither. An old television with a broken screen and a chopped-off pedestal stand mysteriously flickered on and off, producing weird electronic noises. A scrawny feline sleeping in a ragged box awakened and hissed at it out of surprise before running away. A strong rush of unsettled air circulated the area, whipping garbage bins around and spilling garbage. A deep, sinister sound emitted from the unsettled gas, darkening in color as it continue
Luna and her grandfather typically spend their Sunday afternoon gun-shooting. Bagwis, Luna's grandfather, just recently paid off his late 18th birthday present for her. It was this simple indoor gun range he had been paying in monthly installment for a year. Luna and Bagwis stood in good postures and comfortable stance as they competitively shot their targets. Both of them had been attaining excellent scores and neither hesitates to ruin the record. Severo, Luna's father, who was regulating the game called for ceasefire and they halted in unison. They unloaded their guns and took off their earmuffs and protective glasses. "Nicely done, Luna. I'm impressed." Bagwis said amusedly. "Thanks,tay.I guess I was in such a good mood." Luna said with a big smile on her face.
Bagwis parked his old car in the cheap garage he manages to rebuild after every typhoon. Officially purchasing the indoor gun range for his sole grandchild pleased him. She was eighteen when he promised her the entire thing and fulfilled it a year later. He still can't forget the look on her face when she first heard of it, she loved gun-shooting the most. Bagwis was somehow responsible of forming his grandchild into the atypical adult she is now. The young lady prefers being alone and shooting guns as leisure instead of the usual stuff regular adults enjoy such as going out with friends, drinking, shopping, and the like. He can't even remember a time Luna brought home a friend, not even on her birthdays. This does not worry him since Luna never fussed about it anyway. Going to school and partaking in academic activities already counted as her whole social life. Despite these, Bagwis never thought of his grand daughter as odd or different
A week went by without progress in Bagwis' case. There were no possible suspects since nobody from the neighbourhood saw the face of the culprit. They claim that they only heard growling, clashing of metal, and Bagwis yelling as if he was in a fight with someone. Security footage shows that Bagwis opened his door around ten in the evening to a police officer who delivered him mail. He drove away a moment later and never appeared again. That police officer was Euphert Benitez. They had summoned him to deliver a statement the next day. According to him, he was distributing the mail his late friend Fernan left from volunteer work. He used to volunteer for a nursing home by endorsing it to the families in the area. When he died, Benitez stated that he had the heart to continue the job his friend used to do as an act of commemorating his philanthropism and doing something edifying once in a while. He happened to pass by that night on his way home when he saw Bagwis parking his car. Benitez
On her way to her grandfather's house, Luna messaged her mother that she might come home late. She received a text back from her, telling her to go home by eight. Luna slid her phone back into her bag and grabbed her coin purse from the same pocket. From the yellow light of the tiny bulb that illuminated the vehicle's inside, she collected eight pieces of silver peso coins that she passed forward to the driver. Two younger students in front of her instinctively received her money and relayed it to the driver. Jeepneys are the most used public transportation in the Philippines, most commonly dubbed as the king of the road. They have been around for a long time and mostly dominated the highways. Jeepneys also add vibrance and life to the dull streets through the unique art painted on them. When passengers load the vehicle, they relay their fare to the person nearest to them until it reaches the driver. Change is then passed back to the pass
The passage continued to the narration of a girl's ability to make love potions. She was Susan, and she lived in Samar, a province in the Visayas. Marina heard of Susan when her cousin invited her to come with her to Samar searching for the famous potion maker, unanimously endorsed by anyone who found love that her cousin was aware of. Marina thought it was a frivolous trip, but she agreed to come since she wasn't charged with any expenses throughout the whole trip. She left Celestina to Letty for a week while they left for Samar. Susan was beautiful and enticing. She had a voluptuous body and skin of faint brown, healthy and unblemished. She was the most beautiful she had ever met. Her conceited cousin, to her surprise, did not patronize her beauty nor goaded her to criticize Susan out of insecurity when she met her. They both agreed that she was simple yet ethereal. Susan did not just make philters. She could cast spells, too, since her