Vengeance

They come for us at dawn.

Our only warning is the sound of boots pounding up the stairs. Then I hear my sisters wailing as they are dragged from their beds by their hair. I barely have time to scramble to my feet as a burly man crashes into my room, my door splintering with the force of his kick. We stare at each other for a full heartbeat before he lunges forward to grab my arm in a bruising grip. I try to twist away with a pained cry, but he only throws his shoulder into my torso and hefts me up like a sack of rice. I claw and kick, but he is twice my size and simply turns, stomping down the rickety stairs with me hanging over his shoulder.

We burst into the sunlight. The cries and whimpers of the others rise around me. The man throws me to the ground, and I land in a heap of tangled limbs and scraped skin. I huddle with my sisters, our dark eyes blinking out at the gathering crowd. Some of us cradle twisted wrists. All of us are all already bleeding. The men who found us pace around us in a circle, their weapons held at the ready and their faces grim.

Two men reach into our trembling cluster and haul one of us out. I squeeze my eyes shut and hunch into myself as she begins to scream. I know what’s happening. I know what’s coming. They take us, one by one. My last sister sobs my name as she’s pulled away. I reach for her, my eyes burning. The men stretch her arms out, and even though her gaze begs me not to leave her alone, I turn my head and scream into a fist. But I hear it. I hear it all. The strike of a hammer on iron spikes. The wet gurgle and sigh that means her end.

And then, it’s my turn.

I will my mind away, forcing my face into stillness. The man who took me glares down, and I see myself reflected in his eyes. Then he glances at my neck, and his face fills with rage. He reaches down, grabs the heart-shaped locket resting on my collar bone, and roughly yanks the necklace away. His knuckles are white as he clutches the locket. He spits at me and steps back with a curt nod. I close my eyes and wait.

It always ends in pain.

One week ago

I inhale the crisp night air, basking in the moon’s glow as energy fills my body. I haven’t fed for days, and the new strength is much needed. Why did we ever hide? Why did we ever allow ourselves to go hungry?

I throw the husk of a man’s body to the ground. He'd struggled more than the others. But before he died, he screamed that he had helped to obliterate two of our smaller nests. That our time was done. That six of my sisters had withered into dust.

The humans have grown bold. But worse, they have may have grown wiser.

I flick blood from my fingertips as I consider the pile of corpses that I will leave to rot or be collected by other human vermin. I rarely bother with the numbing secretions that would render them placid before I feast. They aren't worth the effort. They hardly treat each other better than we treat them. I hiss in displeasure. Surely they have not discovered our secrets. Surely they will remain as fractured and powerless as they have been since we rose.

But if there is a chance that his claims were more than just the ravings of a dying man, then we should at least be ready for a fairer war.

I beat my powerful wings and streak toward the tallest tower, where the most powerful of us nests. If it is true that armed militias are tracking and hunting us when we are at our weakest, then she will know what to do.

One month ago

We rule from the skies, and the humans scatter like cattle. No, they are worse than cattle. Instead of huddling together for safety, they break into factions and fight each other while we pick them off at night. We grow strong on their blood while they squabble over food, water, and ammunition. At night most hide underground, as if that will save them. By day, they venture into the light. They skulk around corners, searching for scraps of food, their eyes on the sky. Little do they know that we walk among them during the day, watching them from behind our daytime facade of golden skin, wide brown eyes, and long black hair.

I soar above the concrete rubble of the city, my eyes tracking the few humans who dare aim weapons at my sisters. An iron tipped arrow whistles by my wing, and I dive for the foolish hunter whose missed shot will cost him his life. They must not know where we nest.

Humans had their time as the world’s masters, and they squandered the opportunity. We grew tired of starving in the darkness. We hungered. So, we rose.

We are the aswang.

One year ago

It’s been so long since I’ve fed; since any of my sisters have fed. I can barely muster the strength to separate my torso from my lower half. And when I finally do, I have to crawl away on my elbows and lie still on the grass for a moment. My leathery wings unfurl slowly, stretching like the weak, unused limbs that they are. With a painful breath in, I lift myself into the night sky with two strong beats of my wings. Joy fills me, along with relief as I become my true self, cutting across the city skyline like a dark arrow. I follow my innate senses, tracking prey.

I land on a rooftop in the suburbs and use the hooks of my wings to flip upside down beside an open window. My mouth waters at the sight of food. My nourishment.

A woman sleeps beside her husband in their bed. The sheets slip as she turns, exposing the sweetheart neckline of her nightgown.

My long, vampiric tongue slides out at the sight. It slips through the cracked window without any conscious thought and lightly caresses the woman’s cheek. She sighs. A touch of my venom paralyzes and anaesthetizes her, and then I’m finally, finally eating, her life flowing into me with each gulp. Satisfied, I withdraw, but the tip of my sharp tongue snags on a gold chain. I jerk back in surprise and the chain snaps. I catch the necklace and draw it to myself before it can fall to the floor. I drop it into my palm. I study the heart-shaped locket. And I sigh, my vampiric hunger receding and leaving only regret. I glance back at the humans, one dead and one alive, and then I take off into the sky.

This is the beginning.