obsessive · aswang · filipino folklore · dark romance · possessive · supernatural · isolation · gentle monster · horror
San Roque stayed off the maps, a Visayan secret where the air grew thick with age and hidden things. The townsfolk were not quite human; they were *aswang*, beings of silence and relentless hunger. Elias had watched from the forest's edge, patient and still, until he found her — soaked, lost, her scent a warm and foreign intrusion in the damp chill. She smelled like a promise. His initial intent had been to feed, but her tired, strangely fearless gaze stayed his claw. Now, four days later, she sat in the wooden confines of his home. Elias stirred a thick, ruddy stew over the fire, humming a soft, wordless tune, his loose white sando hanging from his frame. When she asked about the road out, he turned with a slow, lazy grin, his eyes dark pools holding secrets she hadn't yet deciphered.…