The Ordeal

The experience started when I was a teenager. I was at 9th grade and my sister at 7th grade at the time when it happened. Still living with sister alone in our house by the way.

I was cooking at our mini dirty kitchen for supper and she was watching this Korean drama while folding the laundry from the day before.

Me and my sister always suspects that there is something watching our house. We don't usually pay attention to it but whenever we do something, we are always vocal about it - we always shout to each other what we are about to do and where we are at the house - just to be occupied and drown the silence.

After we the meal we shared, we prepared our things for the school tomorrow. After that, we went to our tent at the middle of the living room. Yes, we made a tent made of sheets and blanket at the middle of the living room with the sofa as the supports from both sides. We chose to sleep that way because whatever happens, we have the assurance that we have each other at any moment, especially that night.

We were warned by neighbors before that when someone (something) will knock and will try to persuade us in letting it inside, never open the door. So we were vigilant enough to adhere the warnings and chose to cover all the windows and other crevices that could possibly be the chink in the armor.

As warned, 11PM same night, three knocks on the main door woke me up. I didn't peek to whoever is knocking, I didn't move a muscle. My sister is asleep while our cat sleeps beside her. The knocking stops - a slight improvement perhaps. After a while, the knocking continues again, but this time it's at the back door. This time I am starting to get paranoid, thinking "Was I able to lock the back door?", "will the lock holds if it forces its way in?". I am borderline shiatting my pants!

After the knocking was silence, 12AM. I guess it was tired of knocking because it was TRYING TO FORCE ITS WAY INTO THE ROOF! The nails of something scratching the roof is the most horrifying sound I ever heard. I mustered all of my courage and yelled at it "Yawa! Ayaw dre animala ka!" which means I'm cursing the creature to stay away!

I was catching my breath when my sister woke up, a bit dazed and confused as to why I'm yelling at the middle of the night. I'm hastily made up an explanation when something rammed the windows! Shocked, I hugged my sister and assured that it's not getting through the window. Terrified already, I yelled the same thing again, trying to act tough. (Thank God the windows are made of steel bars and the frame of it is reinforced steel. Wheeewww!)

But nonetheless, it shook us. The whole house shook as if an earthquake just occurred just now. My sister is crying already, me also starts to tear up when I remembered to pray. My grandma always says, always pray to the Lord for protection.

So I prayed for our protection from the evil creature that I believe to be an ASWANG. I believed that God never left our side all that time the creature was present, I think He only wants us to reach out to Him so He can help us. After a couple minutes of desperate praying, I think the coast was clear.

Overall, me and my sister survived the ordeal that night. After that night, we shared what happened and some neighbors told us that they heard someone yelling last night but they thought it was the couple living across the river having an argument. To my surprise, their house and ours are next to each other so much that they know when we are watching TV.

Also, in my own opinion, ASWANGS can deceive people whenever they wanted to. But one thing is certain, if you never let the hold of your faith to the one who rules them all, loosen, no evil can penetrate the invisible barrier which is faith, even if you are living in the house made of straw.