An Aswang in my Midst Chapter 5: My staff investigates

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I woke up in my room feeling the lack of good sleep. Work should be starting in one hour and I felt that I wanted to get straight back to bed. I went out to the yard and immediately looked to the roof that sustained that hard landing last night. It was then that I noticed Lina going around the perimeter of the staff-house. "Lina, what's up?", I asked. Lina had that smile and stopped, placed her hands on her hips saying, "Sir, did you hear that sound last night?". I immediately responded, "Yes! What was that?!", Lina turned to her side seemingly looking for footprints of some sort. "There are no trees nearby our roof. Not even branches where a large animal would have hopped from to get to our roof!", Lina added.

I heard Pepito shout from our kitchen as he was cooking our breakfast, "Aswang! That was what it was! Aswang!". Pepito started singing as if it was something usual to him. There was no way for anything to get to our roof and slam that hard but from the sky! The next taller house was about 50 meters from ours. There was no way for a cat, dock, monkey,turkey, leopard, tiger, or anything natural to do that! Lina was approaching me as I was scanning the backyard. "Sir, our neighbor has a new born. It might have been the reason why there was an Aswang here last night.", Lina whispered. I said, "How did you know that Lina?", I asked. "I got to talk to the lady while she was hanging their clothes a while ago. They too heard it last night. They intently placed their dogs to alarm them. It's definitely an Aswang, sir.", Lina narrated. "How sure are you it was and Aswang? Common, Lina! There could be some other kind of explanation to this." Lina looked at me with that stare and with an increased volume, "Sir, what else could drop that hard with that weight last night? Didn't you hear it crawl? Didn't you hear the weight it had on our roof?". I turned and looked at the roof. surrendering to Lina's conclusion without saying anything to her. Pepito called us for breakfast and we both went back inside.

Another day at work and we never mentioned anything about that horrible, mystic visitor during work. At 5:30pm, I told Pepito to buy a bottle of brandy. I needed to sleep early. Dinner was served as early as 6:00pm and we were drinking brandy soon after that. We were talking about it again. I was still skeptical but already had my belief inside me that it could have been that creature a few believed in. I told them that it should be something else just to pretend that I didn't believe. Both were almost getting mad at my remarks. But it was my way of shooing away the reality that I too was scared of the fact that I couldn't find any other logical explanation to what happened that night.

By 8:30pm, I was drunk. I could hardly get to the sink to brush my teeth! Pepito said, "Sir, you drank more than half the bottle!", Pepito said laughing. I couldn't remember how long it took me to sleep but it was too soon for me to notice. The next morning, I woke up feeling re-energized. It was 7:30am already. Ah...Saturday. No work. Pepito knocked on my door inviting for breakfast. Oh what a great morning! I went to the breakfast table with a smile. "Wow! Good food!", I told both of them. Pepito laughed at Lina while she looked at me with that sinister stare. "You were too drunk to hear that weren't you?". I said, "Hear what?". Lina said that the same thing dropped by again early in the morning. I was deep asleep and only the two were awakened. "So what did you do?", I asked both of them. Pepito replied, "What can we do?!".

Too much liquor can truly get you hungry in the morning. Gosh, I couldn't believe I gulped more than half that bottle of brandy last night. Romblon is bad for my health! I just munched away. Suddenly, Lina said that she was not going home this evening. She will be going to a distant town, San Agustin, to see somebody.. She will be back Monday before work. Pepito said, "Sir, I too won't stay here for the weekend. I will be going to Alcantara, my home town, to visit my folks. I will leave after breakfast. I will be back Monday morning as well." I looked at Pepito and said, "Oh is that so? Then I want to see Alcantara. I will go with you, Pepito." Then I kept eating. Pepito and Lina laughed without stating the obvious.

(End of Chapter 5)