A story written by Kurl Adrianne A. Aringo | Uploaded by Bulalacao Film Productions (AB-Literature 3B)
“Behind the Closed Windows”
She would hear the thing every now and then, happening behind the closed windows of her home. And when she does, she would freeze, and the only thought that would remain in her mind is the question she continuously ask herself in her own thoughts: What could be making all those noises?
Harry lives alone now, or at least, without any other human being around in the house to talk with; her mother just passed away several months ago. Only Charlie, her Aspin dog, keeps her company every day and night. Not wanting to be alone inside the house, Harry would allow Charlie in sometimes, and she had no problem with it; he was a surprisingly well-disciplined dog. She works at the municipal office as a full-time assistant secretary, which is still promising despite how it doesn’t really get you anywhere. She lives in a two-storey house, which had two uninhabited rooms at the upper floor; she now much prefers to sleep in the room at the ground floor now that she’s the only human being living in the house.
The young woman lived in Banderas her whole life; a small town that stands its ground right in the center of a busy highway. Its geographical location shows hills surrounding the town’s center, and everywhere you could see trees and plants growing lusciously. She had also known some of the townsfolk her whole life, particularly those who lived in the town long before she was alive. The town was excellent despite its flaws like the pollution that plagued the rivers, creeks and canals at some places, but what makes it different from other towns is its enduring belief on the things that go stalking in the night. The things no one talks about. The things that all of them strongly believe are real at some instances.
Harry was aware of these folk stories. She had heard them since she was a little girl. She could even remember how her mother would tell her how the creature in the folk story would take her away and eat her if she keeps misbehaving. She used to believe in it, but now, she had outgrown that belief and the fear that came with it.
It all began a month ago, when a drunkard claimed that while he was walking home one night, in an obviously drunken state of mind, he heard a wail from a distance. Then he added that after a moment, something big with huge wings lifted him by his shoulder and arms and into the air. He couldn’t remember how many minutes or maybe even hours he stayed in the air, but all that he could was that fear rushed towards him and he found himself terrified for a moment. The next morning, he woke up near the creek, with some parts of the fabric of his shirt near his shoulders torn open. Gladly, no wounds were found around him.
Some people believed the story of the drunkard, while some simply dismissed it as an effect of the alcohol that rushed into his mind. Harry was a part of the people who dismissed the story. Nonetheless, the story still endured the verdict of the people, and the time even came when another rumor surfaced, where this one tells of how they heard something perched above their roof. When Harry heard about that new rumor, she dismissed it too as something not real, but she suddenly felt the fear telling her: what if it was?
That fear though, should have been nothing. She could have shrugged it when, and if, she wanted to. But then, she began hearing things outside her house late in the night, behind the closed windows. She could not make out what it was, but she was sure that the loudest among the noises was the noise of something falling off to the roof of someone’s house (or maybe, landing into someone’s house). It triggered the barks of the strays outside, which Charlie also joined through barking from inside her house. She would shush him, not wanting to attract any attention from anything real or not, human, or… She tossed the other half of the thought at the back of her head.
One sunny morning, Harry was walking Charlie on the sidewalk, when they were seen by her neighbor, the lovely and also lonely lady Mrs. Milena, while she was watering her plants near the gate of her home.
“Lovely morning for a walk, Harriet,” Mrs. Milena greeted with a smile, referring to Harry by her real name.
“Good morning Mrs. Milena”, Harry greeted back, stopping right in front of the maroon colored steel gate. Charlie tried to pull Harry away, demanding to get going in a hurry, but Harry overpowered him, and they stopped for her to talk with Mrs. Milena.
“How are you, deary?” the old lady asked.
“I’m okay, Mrs. Milena. Just out here, on Charlie’s daily morning walk”, Harry politely responded.
“That’s very lovely for the two of you”, she replied with glee. “The morning sun provides a strong dose of Vitamin C when you catch it early. That’s why I always look forward into watering my plants at this time. It makes me feel healthy and happy”, she added again with a smile.
At a distance, their neighbor across the road, another old lady named Mrs. Lazaro, just came out of her house to look at whatever was outside the road and sidewalks now. She looked more haggard and tired than Harry or Mrs. Milena. She looked at Harry with her unchanging stare composed of a grumpy old woman’s expression. Mrs. Lazaro hasn’t been the most welcoming neighbor near Harry’s home. She heard that the old grumpy-looking woman’s two children left her because of unknown reasons that caused a heated argument between all of them long ago. They haven’t been on good terms until now. After staring at them, Mrs. Lazaro went back inside her house.
“Strange hag”, Mrs. Milena commented. “Her days of not going out anywhere, or even outside her house already took a toll in her looks.”
“I wonder where her kids had gone to now”, Harry asked herself, while staring at the old woman; she saw her cough mildly.
“Well, I have no time to wonder about that”, Mrs. Milena said, dropping the hose, twisting the valve of the faucet close, picking the rake leaning in the wall, and started gathering the dead leaves scattered in the ground. Harry noticed this, and she offered Mrs. Milena an alternative for her tool.
“Oh! Mrs. Milena, I have a walis ting-ting back in my yard. Do you want to–“
Mrs. Milena interrupted Harry before she could even finish what she was saying.
“Oh, no. I’m okay with this rake, dear. I’ve been used to it for a long time now, and I much prefer this over those walis ting-ting.”
“Are you sure? You know, walis ting-ting is much more convenient and easy to use.”
“Harriet, I’m okay with this. Really, dear. You don’t have to worry about me”, Mrs. Milena replied with a soft smile.
Harry was a little surprised. Although, Mrs. Milena’s eccentric and rich-like way of living wasn’t new to her, or to anyone who knows the old lady. Not wanting to prolong the conversation, she just smiled and bid Mrs. Milena a goodbye as she and Charlie continued their morning walk in the sidewalks.
Later that night, while she was busy reading in the living room while the electric fan gives her some cool air, and with only the lampshade near her and the kitchen light keeping the inside of the house bright (other than the open light bulbs outside), the stray dogs suddenly began barking again, violently this time. As they continued to bark outside, she felt the fear rush back to her again like an on-and-off cold.
Harry looked at the time: it was just ten o’clock in the evening. She calmed herself down, not wanting the fear to drive all her moves and thoughts for the moment. Charlie was awakened from his slumber and attempted to bark along with the strays outside, but Harry shushed him again like last night, not wanting to attract any attention. She went away from the glow of the lampshade and to a dark corner in the dining room near one of the house’s translucent windows, leaning her head towards it, and listening carefully. And then, there it was again. The noise on the rooftop.
Goosebumps crawled under her skin like a spider crawling quickly in its web. She heard one of the strays inside her front yard. It was growling and barking at something. To her mounting dread, she could hear something growling back, and it didn’t sound like a dog. She cannot describe what kind of growl it was, but from just hearing it behind the window, it made her heart sink and her body petrified. She slowly looked back at Charlie. He was petrified as well, hiding under the wooden chair placed in the corner. She mustered up the courage to move herself away from the window, and into the chair near Charlie. And when she reached him, the strays outside began barking violently but scared. Like something bigger than them is out threatening them.
Harry looked at the time: it was five minutes after eleven. She rushed quickly to check all the doors and windows in the house, but while she was checking them quietly, one by one, she heard a loud and sudden wail outside. It sounded like a woman’s wail, and it sounded far. No one could possibly wail that far, and so it must be… She tried throwing away the thought out of her head, but this time, it stayed: it must be an aswang. And she knew what it meant if the wail was far: it meant that whatever made it was near. The fear finally got into her, and she almost cried because of it. But she again gathered her courage to check all the doors and windows, and then afterwards, get some sleep and ignore what could possibly be outside causing some ruckus with the strays.
The noises she heard behind the windows continued for several days. All the same noises: barks from stray dogs, clanks from the metal roof, which she thought to be Mrs. Lazaro’s roof, and the loud distant wail which only indicates that if ever the aswang is real, it’s near her home. This made her sleepless at some nights, but terrified in all. And all the more terrified to brush her teeth in the sink, as she couldn’t help but think that there could be a face staring at her from the small (closable), square-shaped window above it, whose translucent glass had been broken (and left broken) by reasons she doesn’t really know. It is only covered by a screen cut into a square that would fit to fill in for the broken glass, but it doesn’t help lessen her dread at all.
One day, while she was hurrying to go to her work, Harry noticed Mrs. Lazaro outside her home, putting some pieces of a newly made walis ting-ting all around the windows and doors of her house. Curious, she went across the road and into the front gate to talk to the old lady right after she locked her house’s front door.
“Hello, Mrs. Lazaro?”
She heard the old woman coughing as she approached her, and she was greeted by her with an unsmiling face.
“What is it?” Mrs. Lazaro asked Harry grumpily.
“May I ask, what are those for?” Harry asked, and pointed out the few sticks tied to the window with a straw. Mrs. Lazaro coughs, and then answers Harry’s question.
“Nothing that concerns you. Now go away.”
Given no answers, Harry thought that these might be related to the noises at night, so she went and asked the old woman.
“Have you heard any noises out here, in the night?” Harry asked.
The question caught Mrs. Lazaro’s attention, and a grave expression painted itself on her face as she stared at Harry.
“You heard the noises?” she asked her, covering her mouth when she coughed right after asking. Harry nodded, and this made her eyes wide in a worrisome manner.
“Ignore it. Close your doors and windows, and ignore it. Whatever you hear, don’t get curious to know what it is. Do you hear me?”
“You know about it? Was it on your roof?”
“You saw it?!” Mrs. Lazaro’s voice suddenly raises its tone.
“No. No, I heard it”, Harry answered in a fearful manner. ‘I just heard it from my window.”
“Stay away from this! If it notices you, you’re done for. It’s either it leaves you alone and untouched or it will lash itself to you until you’re nothing more than a corpse. You hear me?! Stay away!”
She came home a little early after that horrible morning of being yelled at by her neighbor across the road. She was embarrassed, but couldn’t stop on thinking about what Mrs. Lazaro warned her about.
After having dinner and cleaning herself, Harry went to bed early, but did not sleep. She couldn’t. She lay awake in bed, checking her phone every five to ten minutes. She knows the thing will once again be near at ten o’clock in the night. And she only fears that it might notice her just as she notices it. She holds a rosary near her, just in case.
She waited for any noise that might shake her, but nothing stirred. Not even the stray dogs outside the street. Harry guessed they must have run away from this part of the barangay at night. She waited, and waited, and waited, but no noises were really made, and the silence doesn’t make the dread any easier to bear. She checked the time: it was nineteen minutes before the clock strikes midnight. Restless, she reluctantly went out of bed and walked near the window facing Mrs. Lazaro’s house without opening any lights. Her heart was pounding, and drops of sweat were raising down her forehead and nape. Deep inside, she was curious to look at what could be outside at the moment. She carefully opens one window, twisting its knob, and pushing it open.
Nothing was there. The cold wind blowing the leaves of the malungay tree she planted near her fence. Only the street light near Mrs. Lazaro’s gate, the darkness that shrouds all over the place, and the dreadful silence. Until, two pairs of glowing eye-like orbs showed itself from the house’s rooftop. As it slowly moved forward to the light, it showed a pale hand with sharp claws.
Harry’s heart sank from the sight of the creature above the house, and she grew pale out of the dread that went through her like a gunshot. She quickly but quietly shut the window and backed away. She looked for Charlie, and he was under the chair again, looking grave and anxious.
“Charlie”, she whispered, and rushed towards her dog. But then, she heard a swift sound of gliding down, and saw a silhouette of a person with long hair standing outside the window.
Harry ducked towards the floor, and crawled away backward from the windows while looking at the silhouette with fear. She picked herself up, and ran towards her room, quickly taking the rosary left in her bed and went back to the living room where she saw the shadow in the window. Only problem is, the shadow wasn’t there anymore.
This made Harry terrified even more. And she slowly began to feel helpless in the situation she never thought she would be in. She could hear footsteps walking outside, circling the house. Leave us alone! It’s all that her mind screams, but her mouth can’t. She kept looking all around her, jumpy but alert at all the movements that she may see from the window all lit up by the street light. She could only see movements from the branches of the malungay trees being blown steadily by the wind, but no human-like figure or quick running movements. Then suddenly, the figure began toying with her by swiftly running across the window and hitting the glass with its hands, making her shudder and jump.
She thought a rosary won’t be enough to arm her, so she instead wrapped it around her wrist and quickly rushed to the kitchen to get something sharp; a cleaver would be great perhaps. Using the flashlight she knew was left above the fridge, she blasted a ray of light to the kitchen and waved it around the place in frustration, looking for the cleaver or any sharp utensils to use. She thought, Damn it, Ma! Why didn’t you buy that thing where we could keep all our knives together?
After not being able to find the cleaver, she resorted to taking the bread knife as a weapon, but just when she got hold of it, Charlie came barking at her, causing her to drop the knife and the flashlight altogether.
“Charlie?” she yelled at him in a very quiet manner, and stooped down to get the knife and the flashlight. But Charlie won’t stop barking, and from this Harry just realized that she wasn’t the one he’s barking at.
Harry heard the piece of metal screen fall down the sink. When she turned her head to look, she saw a pale face, dead yellow eyes staring back at her and smiling insidiously in the small square window. Its mouth was open, exposing its sharp teeth tainted with black saliva that drools out of its lips, and an elongated tongue rolled out down near the faucet. Harry screamed in horror. She tried to stand and run away, but the creature’s tongue swiftly pulled her, causing her to fall back to the floor; she dropped the flashlight and the bread knife once again. It then wrapped its red, slimy self around her neck and pulled her up the sink with massive strength. The creature snarled at her, pulling her up the window using its right pale arm.
When she reached the window, the creature’s tongue was back to its original length, it held her by the neck using its right arm, and its sharp teeth were about to take a bite into her shoulder. Thankfully, she managed to catch its head using her left hand and prevent it from biting her. Though, it wasn’t enough, as the creature is much stronger than her. She quickly thought of something. Her eyes looked around her desperately. Not long after, she saw a pair of scissors hanging alongside the spatula and other utensils, and she reached for it using her right hand, while she struggled to keep the sharp teeth of the creature from diving into her shoulder. When she got her fingers into the scissors, she carefully took it out from the hook where it hanged and, right when she finally held it in her hand, she used it to attack the creature. She first stabbed the creature’s forearms to make it let go of her neck, but when it wasn’t fazed, she went to stab its head while still keeping its teeth away from biting her. Her first stab in the head was near its forehead, then multiple times to its right cheek. The creature began to feel the pain inflicted to it by the scissors, and it wailed in pain when Harry stabbed it through its throat three times. Black blood oozes out of the wounds. And in a fit of rage, Harry also managed to stab the creature right in its right eye.
The creature, wailing in pain, let go of Harry. She then fell down to the tile of the sink and almost fell down to the floor too if she didn’t manage to regain her balance; the scissors were still in her right hand. The creature’s long tongue captured Harry around the neck and tried to pull her up the window again, but this time, Harry managed to pull it down and stab it with the scissors, opening it so wide that it snapped the half of the tongue’s width.
It again let out a wail of pain, and pulled its tongue back, releasing Harry. While lying in the sink, trying to regain her strength and focus, Harry could hear the gust of winds made by the flapping of the creature’s wings. She thought that it must have huge wings. Then she thought of the rumors and stories that were told to her. She stood up and out of the sink, holding her neck, and ran towards her room. Charlie followed, and when he arrived in the room, Harry immediately locked the door, ducked down on the floor, and scooted towards the edge of the bed; her arms shaking. The creature let out another wail, and it made her point the scissors towards the windows in her room. Charlie went hiding under the bed.
When there were no more flapping of huge wings or wails heard, Harry eased up a little, catching her breath and relaxing her neck. She stayed awake for almost an hour out of the fear that the creature might come back. Not long after, she dozed off on the floor.
Later after sunrise, Harry woke up. Her head felt tired and heavy, and she was shocked to realize after waking up that the reason behind it was her encounter with the possible aswang last night. She checked if she had any bite wounds, and was glad she didn’t have any; only scratches and marks of the creature’s saliva that dried up around her neck. That made her body jolt in disgust. She checked her clothes, and saw that it was stained with black fluids.
She checked up on Charlie. The little guy was terrified, but was still physically fine, and she was glad for that. She stood up quickly, opened her room’s door, and checked at the kitchen. The window was indeed broken, and some of the utensils have fallen off from where they were placed or hanged before. There were also black fluids, which she assumed as “blood”, all over the sink; in the wall, rolling down the white tiles, and some were even on the floor. It was very messy. Still, she can’t believe that what happened last night was real. And that her encounter with such an unimaginable and horrifying creature was real.
She cleaned herself first and tried to drink some cold water to calm her down. She relaxed for a little, and decided that she will tell all of this to Mrs. Milena so that she will have someone to believe her when she takes this story to the authorities; hoping that they will not suspend her as a mad woman. She ran out of the house and onto the sidewalk, where she saw Mrs. Lazaro standing at the foot of her gate, looking at her. Harry stared at her first with displease, still unhappy that the old woman yelled at her publicly just by asking some questions. But by the looks of her worried face, she somehow knew that Mrs. Lazaro may have been aware of what happened that night.
Harry walked toward Mrs. Milena’s gate and called out for her. She called as loud as she could, but no one answered. Because of what happened to her last night, she began to feel worried for Mrs. Milena, so she approached the gate to see if she could come inside and check if she’s okay. To her surprise, the gate was left unlocked. She quietly opened it and went inside, straight to the front door. When it was locked, she circled around back, and saw that the back door wasn’t.
“Mrs. Milena?” she called with caution. No one answered. “Mrs. Milena?” she called again, and still, no answer.
Harry took a deep breath before she slowly walked towards the door. When she reached the doorframe, she was shocked to find traces of black fluids in the floor, looking like the creature was crawling towards the inside of the house. Thinking that it probably attacked Mrs. Milena by force, Harry ran inside the house, where she saw more traces of the black fluids.
“Mrs. Milena?! Are you okay?!” she yelled in desperation.
Running from the kitchen and dining room to the living room, she saw the fluids scattered everywhere, making it look like the creature was trying to stand but kept on falling because of its wound.
“Mrs. Milena?”
Harry took a turn for the stairs, but got shocked to find Mrs. Milena there, dead in the middle steps. She had one wound near her forehead, multiple wounds in her cheek, and her right eye was stabbed and damaged, which made her face bloody with red blood mixing with the black-colored one. She also had three stab wounds in her throat, which also caused it to be messy with the red and black blood. And the last thing that she saw was the dominating red blood that kept oozing out of her mouth, where her tongue seem to look like someone tried to cut it out.
Harry stumbled down to the floor and recoiled to the wall in shock. At that moment, all that she could do was to stare at the bloody dead body in horror, while she slowly put the pieces together like broken glass.