However, as soon as she shouted the last words, her strength seemed to have left her body and she stumbled. Luckily, one of the men was already making his way towards her, then he caught her falling body just in time. The man that caught her looked at the direction which she came from but found no one or nothing chasing her. Another man soon came after and helped the other person carry the woman towards the shed they are resting in.

“Lolo Gani, can you look at her? She seemed to have wounds all over.” Said the man who caught her unconscious body.

Lolo Gani looked at the girl who was laid down on the bench they were sitting earlier, from her appearance, she looked to be just a little over thirty. The girl, although unconscious was breathing heavily, almost gasping for breath.

“From her appearance alone, it seemed that she encountered something unfortunate. Looking at her clothes, and the sorry state she is in, it seemed that she was attacked by a wild animal.” Lolo Gani told them of his observation.

“But what animal could that be? Although we have a jungle near here, it does not seem to contain an animal large enough to inflict such wounds.” Said another man.

“Yeah, even if it was done by wild dogs, these claw marks still seem to be unusual.” Said the person who shouted at the woman to help her earlier.

“Yes, this is strange indeed.” One more man added.

“We can only wait for her to wake up and ask her for the full details. For now, go get some water, some salt, and a clean cloth. We need to clean her wounds first. Prepare some food as well, she might be hungry.” Lolo Gani instructed them, to which they obeyed immediately.

The woman was someone from the neighboring barangay of New Iloilo and was one of the lucky ones to have survived the massacre that happened last night. Though she was able to escape from the initial slaughter, some of the bal-bal chased after her and had almost killed her, however, when one of the bal-bal was about to deal a fatal blow, the creatures suddenly turned stiff before returning from the direction they came from. Having survived, the woman ran without rest not noticing that morning had come and was brought to her feet by the group of Lolo Gani.

Thirty minutes later, the woman started to moan in pain, and slowly opened her eyes. Having just woken up, she was not able to make out the people that were standing around her, she only saw their silhouettes, thinking that they are the same monsters that attacked her, she started screaming and flailing her arms in an effort to fight off the monsters. Her sudden actions surprised the group of men looking after her, but they were able to immediately pin her down; the woman however kept on struggling, like it was a matter of life and death.

“I DON’T WANT TO DIE!” the woman screamed.

“Calm down.” Lolo Gani’s voice echoed in the girl’s ears as he poured some lana oil on his hands, and after rubbing them together, held the woman’s head with one hand with his thumb pressed against her glabella.

This action of Lolo Gani seemed to have a magical effect as the woman immediately calmed down and was then able to properly see that the silhouettes were actually those of humans.

“Have you calmed down now, miss? Do you want to eat?” asked Lolo Gani.

“Yes, I have calmed down now, thank you. I…I feel thirsty.” Answered the woman, though her voice still sounded weak.

Hearing the woman’s answer, one of the men immediately gave her a glass of water to drink.

“We are from Dumadalig, it seemed that you ran into something unfortunate. Can you tell us what happened? Where are you from?” the old man continued to ask the woman.

Hearing Lolo Gani’s question, the woman’s pupils constricted, and her body started to shake uncontrollably. Then the woman suddenly grabbed her head with her two hands, as if trying to squeeze out some unpleasant memories from her brain.

“Dead…they are all dead!” the woman blurted out in a wobbly voice.

The instant the people heard the woman, all of them were shocked

“Dead? Who? How did they die?” one of the men fired a series of rapid questions.

“Monsters…Monsters killed them!” the woman was not even looking at them, she was just staring hard into the ground while answering them.

“Run… We must RUN! We cannot stay here…” the woman has started to panic again.

“They are coming! They will kill and eat everyone!” continued the woman.

After hearing the last part of the woman’s statement, Lolo Gani was shaken. He knew what the woman meant, for he also saw it in his dream.

“Bring her to the barangay clinic and have someone take care of her! We must heed this woman’s words! Go back to your homes and tell everyone to leave Dumadalig!” Lolo Gani told the men who were with him there.

“Leave? Where will we go?” Some of the men began to ask Lolo Gani.

“Do you believe what this woman said to you, Gani?”

“Do you know what happened?”

A series of questions were asked right after the men heard Lolo Gani.

“No. I do not know what happened, but I have a bad feeling about this. You do not have to leave immediately, but the sooner you leave, the better. You can go to the town center of Tantangan.” The old man answered vaguely.

As a respected albularyo, everyone took his words seriously, coupled with the incident of the bal-bal a few nights ago, Lolo Gani’s reputation in their barangay went up another level. However, the idea of leaving was another matter. It was fine if there was a calamity, as they could accept the reason for leaving Dumadalig; but to leave just by basing on the gut feeling of someone, even if it were the most respected albularyo in their town, seems to be a bit crazy and idiotic. Furthermore, there was no assurance that the woman was mentally stable, judging by her appearance. The only thing that could add some credibility to her statement were the claw marks all over her body.

Some of the men that were there were also present when Lolo Gani killed a bal-bal, so when he said that they have to leave, these men immediately decided to leave Dumadalig that day. Not knowing that their decision would actually save them from dying in a brutal way. While some of the men were not convinced by Lolo Gani’s explanation.

After giving them a warning, Lolo Gani stood up and started to walk home, some of the men went with him, bringing along the woman, so that they could bring her to the clinic for proper medical care. These men were those that have decided to leave Dumadalig on that day, regardless of whether their family wants to or not.

Lolo Gani did not find Lumawig inside the house when he arrived, however, he did not go directly to the balete tree to look for Lumawig. Instead, he went inside their bedroom and found the librito he gave Lumawig inside the baul. Lolo Gani then took a pen and started writing something on a piece of paper, after he was done, the old man took a deep breath and folded the paper and inserted it inside the librito – a look of reluctance evident in his eyes; he then went to look for Lumawig at the balete tree. It was still around noon, and the heat from the summer sun is at full blast, though Lolo Gani seemed to be affected by this.

Lumawig had just finished another round of nurturing his buntot pagi and was resting when he saw his lolo approaching, he did not immediately stand up though, as he knew from experience that he was in no condition to do so. So, he just waited for his lolo to reach the balete tree before greeting him.

“You’re back lolo?” inquired Lumawig.

“How are you feeling?” instead of answering Lumawig’s question, Lolo Gani asked him a question.

“I just finished a round of nurturing my buntot pagi, so I am currently resting, the agimat has helped me finish around eight rounds of nurturing already.” Lumawig answered.

“Some things happened, and it seems that we need to fast forward your final ritual tonight.” Lolo Gani, in a somewhat grave voice, finally told Lumawig about the reason for his coming home early.

“I am not sure what is happening, but there seems to be something strange today. It is just my gut feeling, but I feel that something bad is about to happen, this is why we need to complete your ritual tonight.” Continued the old man, however, he still did not reveal to Lumawig what happened when they were in the fields earlier.

“When you’re done resting, come see me back at the house.” Before turning around, Lolo Gani said some final instructions to Lumawig.