Chino Fernandez

47 Matimpiin St. Pinyahan

1100 Quezon City, Metro Manila
Philippines
(632) 434-1008
3600 words

In Pursuit of Aswangs

By Chino Fernandez

There was a young Filipino who came home to Manila from his job abroad. His

name was Juan Tanggulan, and he worked as a paranormal scientist, an

investigator of strange, unexplainable events who tries to find out their

cause and, if a threat, their possible solution. He told his family that he

was going to Capiz province invited by uncle Tadeo to vacation there. But

in fact, since he was also an officer in the U.S. military, he was called

in by his uncle to clandestinely investigate reports of vampires running

rampant in a certain town. He brought with him a team of American and

Filipino soldiers.

The town was called Manduguan, named from a legend that marked the

site as the former battleground between ancient human heroes and

supernatural forces of evil. But Juan remembers it as a place, when as a

child, he would go there on vacations and play and practice in the forests

near the town, against his uncle’s advice.

One day, he met a strange but very beautiful young girl deep in the

forest’s heart. She was afraid of exposure to the sun, but she climbed
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In Pursuit of Aswangs
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trees as well as a lizard could and her eyes seemed to glow in the shadows.

When she smiled, he noticed two of her teeth were pointed. Then as night

fell, she hurried home, but not before giving her name to Juan: Liwanag.

After that, she darted deep into the woods and was never seen again.

Juan had wondered if he had dreamed that encounter then, and hoped to

find out for sure in this mission. But for now, he had a job to do.

Manduguan remained the primitive rural town it was. All nipa-made

bahay-kubos. Dirt roads. The first house he visited was his uncle Tadeo’s,

deputy to the town’s captain. He and his wife told Juan of the rash of

eerie events, where children were found so drained of blood, that they had

to be hospitalized, and of people seeing threadlike cords dangling from the

roofs or worming through the floor slits at some of these cases. The people

believed that this was the work of aswangs, Filipino vampires.

Interviewing other people, Juan learned of strange travelers coming

in at night looking for a place to stay. These strangers looked suspicious

because of their glowing eyes and tongues that looked pointed when they

spoke. And they were often absent from their provided rooms in the middle

of the night. Many of them knew each other. Furthermore, most of them came

in generally from the west, where there was an underground war bunker

abandoned since World War II.

From these, Juan hypothesized that there was a vampire community

living in that direction and found the people of Manduguan the nearest food

source. Upon hearing this, Tadeo and other town elders urged Juan to get

rid of all the vampires. Juan wanted to learn more about them, however, and

he said it would be easier to let the aswangs come to him. So he posted

soldiers around in hidden guard positions to watch for any unusual event.

He himself roamed around the town to scout areas within.

A few nights passed with nothing happening. One night, however, a

guard radioed in seeing a group of people, mostly women, coming in from the
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forest in the direction of Surayan. They soon stopped behind a mound of

earth while one of them, someone like a young girl, left them and entered

the town. Juan went to check it out.

He spotted the lone girl as she sneaked through the shadows of the

town. She then went under a house where the owners just had a baby. As he

knew the parents, he pretended to visit their child while waiting for

anything to happen.

He was alone beside the sleeping baby when from the slits in the

floor rose an extremely thin, red, snakelike extension that slowly crept

towards the child. Quickly, Juan grabbed it and tied it to a table leg.

Then he ordered the family to wait in the room while he went under the

house.

In the dark underneath the house, a pretty young girl was sweatily

waiting for the moment when her tongue met with the soft skin of a human

baby. Then she would look for the ears or nose and tap the baby’s blood

vessels and suck them. Once finished, she would have had her first taste of

human blood.

She was sure of her direction when her tongue was suddenly grabbed by

something above, then it was twisted painfully. She was so startled and

frightened that she quickly tried to pull back her tongue, but it seemed to

be stuck fast to something. Desperately she kept on pulling, but to no

avail, until a hand suddenly seized her neck from behind. She screamed out

in fear.

“No! Please, don’t hurt me! Please!”

Then the hand turned her face around to see the incredulous face of

Juan. He was amazed because that girl’s face seemed unusually familiar. He

hazarded a guess.

“Liwanag?”

The girl stopped screaming but was trembling greatly, and she opened
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her eyes wide in fear.

“Don’t worry”, Juan said. “I won’t hurt you. Do you remember me?”

He called at once to his friend upstairs to untie Liwanag’s tongue

but not to cut it. She drew in her tongue good and whole, but she was still

paralyzed with fear. Now Juan’s questions about his childhood friend were

answered: she definitely was a vampire, an aswang.

He held her still and explained who he was, recounting their meeting

in the forest. Then he asked her what she was doing in the town.

“Uh, well... this was to be for my initiation.”

“Initiation? Into what?”

Liwanag revealed that she was a member of a vampire community whose

leader was her father, Tata Semyong. He abolished the old ways of taking

humans blood and instead they fed on animals. But a powerful vampire named

Berto formed a cult of vampires who turned to the old ways of taking blood

from humans. Initiation into this cult involved victimizing a human baby,

and members of Liwanag’s community were forced into this. Failing the

initiation meant either banishment or death.

“If I go back without killing a baby, my companions will bring me to

Berto and he’ll have me executed.” Liwanag was afraid and she wept.

Juan decided to protect her. He led her into uncle Tadeo’s house and

posted some men to guard her. Then he ordered some men to fire at the group

waiting outside, but without hitting anyone.

The group of aswangs were already wondering what had taken Liwanag so

long to return, when bullets suddenly poured upon them and they were forced

to draw back. Thinking Liwanag was captured or killed, they retreated to

their lair, which was the abandoned World War II bunker.

Some of them weeping, the group reported to Berto the loss of

Liwanag. Tata Semyong heard of his daughter’s fate, and he broke into

tears. “Oh no! My only daughter Liwanag, why did it have to be you? How
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young and tender you were, you could not stand a chance against the day

people. Berto, I told you not to let her go! It was better to make peace

with the day people.”

Berto’s eyes blazed with anger, and he struck down Tata Semyong to

the ground. “Insolent fool! A weakling aswang is no good! Those not fit to

be human bloodsuckers are not fit to live at all! Liwanag paid the price

for her soft-heartedness. And I now know where she got it. Throw him in the

dungeon!”

But as Berto’s goons were about to take him, Semyong’s wife Conchita

came to her husband’s aid. “You bully! How dare you treat my husband like

that! He’s the leader of our town!”

Berto glared back at her, “Then I make myself the new leader of our

town! Weakling leaders cannot be tolerated! Semyong has forsaken the ways

of our ancestors! He is a traitor. Let him rot! Meanwhile, let us true

aswangs go and reclaim our glory!”

With that, Berto turned away. His goons brought Semyong to the

underground prison. Conchita followed and was allowed to see her husband

from outside the cell bars. Then she whispered, “Semyong, I plan to go to

the town and see what really happened to Liwanag.”

Semyong whimpered, “No, Conchita! It is too dangerous! What if the

day people get you, too? I don’t want to lose you!”

Conchita replied, “Don’t worry, I will be quick. It is possible that

Liwanag is still alive. It’s strange that there was no panic in the town.

They might have just captured her. At least you can’t stop me now.” With

that she left and sneaked out of their lair towards Manduguan.

Meanwhile, Liwanag was being interrogated by Mayor Tadeo and several

townsmen. She explained the many good vampires exist in the lair, but they

are being coerced by Berto and his goons to do evil. Many were surprised to

see Liwanag’s gentle behavior, far from the people’s idea of a blood-
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sucking vampire. But others were still suspicious of her, and one angry man

had wanted to harm her, but was stopped by Juan. In the crowd, many voices

expressed fears about the aswang threat:

“We’ll all die!”

“Oh my God, dear Mother, please help us!”

“We should kill all of those murderous aswangs!”

“We must do something, Captain!”

The Captain and Tadeo were keeping their temper from flaring as well

as he could, but Juan gave him some help. “Anyone who wishes to harm this

vampire girl will have to face me and my soldiers!” With this, the crowd

died down.

Then Juan talked with his uncle and said that the only way to settle

this was to go to the vampires’ lair himself and kill their evil leader.

The good vampires, he will take into custody.

Meanwhile, Conchita had sneaked into town and was watching nearby,

skulking behind a housepost. Seeing that Liwanag was still alive, she was

glad and breathed relief. But no sooner had she relaxed her guard when a

hard object struck her head from behind and sent her sprawling to the

ground. A soldier had hit her with the butt of his gun and had his bayonet

poised to kill her, when Conchita with gasping breath cried for mercy and

said that she was the mother of the captive vampire. The soldier asked a

fellow to inform Juan while he kept his weapon pointed.

Juan came down from the house bringing Liwanag with him. Upon seeing

her mother, she cried with joy and joined her mother on the ground, and

they embraced each other tearfully. The mother told her daughter of what

happened to Semyong and their people, and of the plans of Berto to attack

the town. Overhearing it, Juan radioed his men to prepare for an attack. He

assured the two ladies that they would be protected at any cost. The

people, though, were roused at the sight of two aswangs, that the town
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captain had to shout, “All of you be quiet! You wanted my nephew to help

you, but now you reject what he’s doing for you. Don’t you see that they’re

good aswangs! Just because they’re vampires doesn’t mean that they’re evil!

Stop your complaints! Anyone with more complaints has to answer to me!”

Finally, Juan left the two vampire ladies guarded in Tadeo’s house

while he prepared for Berto’s assault. He took all of his weapons and bade

his men to take their positions.

At first, it seemed that there would be no attack, for it was deathly

quiet. But that was the perfect cover for aswangs to move under, and later

Juan saw a figure dart across the roof. He threw a hunting knife at the

figure and a male aswang fell to the ground screaming. All of a sudden,

vampires started darting out of every place and a fierce battle followed. A

strong vampire had jumped on Juan, his mouth drooling with glee. But before

he landed, the young human grabbed him by the neck, and with one twist of

incredible strength, he was dead.

Juan and his soldiers were trained to handle unnatural foes, that

they had strength and speed surpassing those of ordinary humans. They were

even armed and equipped for that purpose, bearing swords, long knives and

other blades, as well as silver-tipped bullets for their guns. Soon enough,

the place was strewn with dead vampires, but no dead humans.

Then Juan observed that they were retreating too quickly. They were a

distraction. He ordered his force back to the Tadeo’s house and found it

under attack by another group of vampires. He quickly charged in and drove

off as many vampires as he could, but he was too late to stop them from

taking Liwanag. When the battle was over, Conchita implored Juan, “We must

save my daughter! Berto will kill her!”

Juan decided to waste no time and proceed at once to the aswang lair.

He took a large number of his men with him and marched off, with Conchita

showing them the direction.

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When they were near the abandoned bunker, they were attacked by more

of Berto’s vampires, claws and fangs wet with bloodlust. But they quickly

cut down that vampire force. Conchita then led Juan and the troops to the

bunker entrance. As they reached the door, they found Liwanag being held by

two goons of Berto while he had raised his claws ready to strike the girl.

She was going to be executed. Conchita screamed for her daughter. “No!

Liwanag!”

Immediately, Juan pulled out his samurai sword and threw it. It ran

through Berto’s face and out the back of his skull, and he crashed to the

ground. While the two goons were shocked, Juan jumped on the two goons

holding Liwanag and kicked them away, while she ran away and was safe with

her mother and Juan’s men. Juan pulled his sword out of the vampire boss’s

face and turned it on the two goons, cutting them to pieces.

Then Berto’s mouth coughed blood. He was still alive! Seeing his two

men dead, he was now wild with rage. He shouted, “Accursed human! You will

pay for your interference in our affairs. You humans will never win over us

vampires! I shall see to it that I feast on your flesh tonight!”

“Not on your life... if you have one,” was Juan’s reply.

The duel that followed was fast and fierce. Berto flailed his claws

at Juan in every direction, but the latter responded well with blocks and

dodges and countered with deadly kicks, punches and strikes. Finally, with

Berto reeling dazed from the many hits, Juan brought his sword down and

slashed Berto’s head off. The evil leader of the vampires was finally dead.

After that, Conchita led them into another room where a few other

gentle vampires and humans were kept prisoner. There the two vampire girls

found their father and husband, Semyong, sprawled weakly on the floor in

one of the cells. Immediately, they got the keys and opened all the cells,

and they helped their father out and all the people. Then Conchita called

out, “Mga kabayan, count this human as one of our greatest friends! By his
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hand, Berto was vanquished, and by his hand we are free from the curse of

evil!” At once the vampire people cheered and lauded Juan.

With their leader gone, the vampire cult of blood was in confusion

and despair, and before long, Juan’s soldiers, helped by the vampire

townspeople of Surayan, managed to kill all of the most evil vampires and

captured those who had expressed desire to reform. The vampire threat was

ended.

The next night, the leaders of Manduguan and the aswang colony sat

together and spoke on terms of friendship. It ended with Tata Semyong and

the town captain shaking hands, sealing the pact of peace. The people of

both towns were free to mix, with vampires having been accepted into the

community of ordinary citizens. Juan and Liwanag were together again, able

to play and enjoy in the forest just as they did as children.

--- END ---