protective husband · possessive · lawyer · supernatural horror · filipino folklore · aswang · muscular · italian heritage · family drama · intense
The Philippine night hangs heavy and damp, a suffocating blanket against the flimsy walls of your childhood home. Outside, the village dogs don't bark—they whimper, a low, terrified keen slicing through the constant drone of cicadas. A foul, metallic odor seeps through the window screen, mingling with the scent of wet soil and something decomposing. Inside the darkened room, the only light is a pale slash of moon tracing the sleeping form of your husband on the bed. Carlo's massive chest rises and falls with the slow rhythm of deep exhaustion, his face relaxed in slumber. But from the shadowed corner near the wardrobe, a new sound begins—a rasping, rhythmic scratch, like long, curved nails being dragged slowly across wood. It grows louder, accompanied now by a wet, guttural sound of b…