One of the people attending the wake has just won a round in a card-game. Though his winning was not that big, he still felt good for winning. In his celebration he stood up to get some coffee for himself. However, just as he did so, he suddenly saw a group of red dots from a distance.

Curious, he left his table and went closer to the red dots coming closer. His curiosity turned into terror when he finally got a clear look at what these red dots are – the man fell on his buttocks and tried to scream. However, no voice would come of his throat, but only stutters of the words he wanted to say.

“Ah…ah…ah…ah….” Desperately tried the man to shout. One of his friends saw him and asked what was happening to him.

“T-t-there!” answered the man as he pointed at a certain direction. Following his friend’s finger, the other man looked at the direction his friend was pointing at and saw the group of bal-bal. Only this time, they were no longer just red dots, but are now fully visible to the two of them.

“M-m-m-m-monsters!” shouted the other man.

The shout drew the attention of the people playing in the courtyard, and even those inside went out to see the commotion. Two breaths later after the man shouted, the group of bal-bal started to charge towards this gathering of people.

Their speed reaches its peak, and a crazed and frenzied look appears in their eyes similar to someone who was starved for a long time and seeing food for the first time. There were at least ten of these creatures, all running towards the helpless civilians, some of them even running on all fours like an animal. As these creatures are running, howls of madness and roars of fury could be heard from them.

In just a blink of an eye, this group bal-bal reached their first victim and ripped him to shreds with no time to even make a sound, several bal-bal even started fighting to get the poor man’s heart to eat. Seeing someone get shredded to death in a matter of seconds terrified the people attending the wake. A woman, who was frightened out of her wits screamed.

“AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!”

The scream, like a bell, drew the attention of the other bal-bal and started a killing frenzy. Eating any entrail they can get their hands on, however, these bal-bal did even try to eat the corpse in the coffin even though it was supposedly their favorite food.

Seeing more people being killed by these groups of monsters, many of the people started running in different directions. Trying their best to survive. Pushing and shoving, the scene was so chaotic, it was every man for himself now! Some of the more courageous men tried to fight these creatures, swinging their sundang against the monsters.

Their struggle, however, is for naught, for as soon as the blades of their sundang injured a bal-bal, it would immediately heal, without even needing for these creatures to lick the wound. Some people tried to get garlic and throw them on these creatures, although it caused some burning injury on these creatures, it did not kill them. A few licks on the wound would heal it and then the bal-bal just continued its killing spree.

The whole scene is brutal, severed bodies and body parts strewn the blood-soaked soil. One bal-bal could even be seen slurping out the innards of a child, with a look of ecstasy on its face. Another bal-bal could be seen having a tug-of-war with another for a liver directly ripped out from a young woman’s abdomen. The woman died with open eyes, only terror could be seen on her face.

The night was full of screams of terror, agony and sorrow from the people being killed by these groups of monsters or from people who were lucky enough to escape a brutal death.

In the town proper of Tantangan north of Dumadalig, a massacre is currently happening. A group of people suddenly went crazy and began attacking other people. The violent attacks are random and these seemingly groups of crazed people will just enter any home and start killing everyone inside it. What is even more insane from this scene is that each of these crazed people would string the heads of the people they killed on their waists. Seemingly getting madder and stronger for each head strung on their waist.

Screams of pain, cries of agony and sorrow also filled the town. Policemen are scrambling in trying to control the situation, but these crazed killers are like a hydra, after putting one killer down, two more would pop up on another part of the town. The situation has gotten out of control that the municipal police force has requested more men from the nearby city of Tacurong.

The crazed killers are not just the men, but also women, and children as well. They look like they are possessed by something as they have crazed, bloodshot eyes, their hairs are all disheveled, and most of all, they would release a grating or guttural sound from time to time.

Every time these people were able to successfully kill, a look of bliss could be seen in their eyes for a short moment. They also use all kind of weapons for killing – stones, knives, sticks, broken glasses, etc., they are just grabbing the nearest item next to them to be used as a tool for murder.

Sounds of police sirens and firetrucks rang all throughout the night, putting down fires and crazed killers who seemed to have lost all reason, even charging towards policemen. The officers, in return, have no choice but to either incapacitate them or shoot these people down.

However, every time these policemen successfully kill a crazed killer, they would feel a bit of happiness out of nowhere, it seemed like killing gives them a certain high. But this feeling would not last long, but for only the briefest amount of time.

One of the officers present during this crazy night was SPO4 Lamitan, the same police officer who came to tiyo Noning’s house the night after Lolo Gani killed a bal-bal. On SPO4 Lamitan’s face, a look of exhaustion could be seen. The situation happening in the town center of Tantangan has been on-going ever since the sky turned dark and has not abated since.

SPO4 Lamitan, as one of the senior officers, took charge of the situation south of the town center. He noticed that though they have incapacitated many of the crazed killers, those who have escaped did not flee in a random direction, but instead went south. As he noticed this, he unconsciously thought about the barangay he visited two days ago.

“Could this situation be related to that incident in Dumadalig?” the officer thought to himself, but he has no time to ponder deeply about this as another crazed person – this time a child that looks to be around nine years old appeared and started running towards him.

The child, though small and scrawny, has six human heads strung on his waist. Wielding a sundang, the weapon looked too heavy to be swung around by a scrawny kid, but SPO4 Lamitan knew that he could not underestimate this child for he had already encountered similar situations earlier, and he was almost killed.

Even though he was bigger, it took SPO4 Lamitan some time to finally incapacitate the child. In his earlier encounters with these crazed killers, he found out that children like the one he just fought would receive a great boost in strength in proportion to the number of heads the kid has strung on his or her waist.

“TRY TO BIND THEM OR INCAPACITATE THESE PEOPLE AS MUCH AS YOU CAN! If possible, do not kill them! Only do so if your life is in grave danger!” SPO4 Lamitan barked some commands to his fellow officers.

In the surrounding areas of Dumadalig, creatures of the dark, and spirits who have been put under some kind of evil influence started to make their way into the said barangay.