The Girl Between Two Worlds

by Kristyn Maslog-Levis

  “Shhh. There’s something outside the window. Alyssa, give me your phone, hurry.”

  I grabbed the phone from her hand and started dialing my grandfather’s mobile phone. It rang several times but there was no answer. Frustrated, I dialed our home number, hoping my dad didn’t turn the bedroom phone on mute. He answered after two rings.

  “What’s the matter, Karina?” he said.

  “Dad, where’s Lolo? There’s something outside and it’s huge. I think it’s not from his world,” I whispered.

  “Hold on, I’ll check on your Lolo.”

  I could hear him walking and opening a door. “He’s not here, I don’t know where he is. Stay there, I’m coming to get you.”

  “Dad, no, I’m okay. I’m not going to go outside. I’m safe inside. We don’t know what it is and I don’t want you in danger. Just try to contact Lolo for me. I’ll call you back soon.”

  I got out of bed and sat on the floor beside Mark. I needed to know if this thing was trying to get inside the house. I couldn’t let it harm us or Alyssa’s parents.

  That was when things became much worse and the creature tried to slice us with its tongue.

  It went away, thanks to Lolo—leaving behind the images of jagged sharp teeth in our heads. The entrails hanging out. The missing lower half. The stench of rotting meat.

  I didn’t die that night but I finally saw the reality of the fight in front of me.

  Chapter Nine

  MAMA’S DIY

  ENGKANTASIA BOOK

  Manananggal

  The manananggal (sometimes confused with the wakwak) is not a mythical creature of the Philippines. It is an evil, man-eating and blood-sucking monster.

  It is hideous, scary, mostly female, and capable of severing its upper torso and sprouting huge batlike wings to fly into the night in search of its victims. The manananggal preys mostly on sleeping, pregnant women, using an elongated proboscis-like tongue to suck the hearts of fetuses, or the blood of someone who is sleeping.

  The word “manananggal” originated from the Tagalog word “tanggal” which means “to remove” or “to separate.” It literally translates as ‘remover’ or ‘separator’ or “one who separates itself.”

  The lower body of the manananggal is left standing, and it is more vulnerable of the two halves. Burning the lower half is fatal to the creature. The upper torso will not be able to rejoin itself and will die by sunrise.

  I woke up to the sound of birds chirping outside my window, the sun streaming onto my bed, the sky cloudless and perfect for a day of picnic. I marveled at the beautiful scenery straight out of a travel show. Rose Garden was a gifted place and even with all the chaos we were going through, I paused to appreciate that we ended up here.

  The weeks following the incident at Alyssa’s place hadn’t been good to my family. The strain caused by my heritage had doubled, maybe even tripled after we figured out what the creature was that night.

  I was right. My little magic trick created a ripple through the human world and landed on the radars of the worst enemy of the engkanto—the manananggal clan. I guessed they were my worst enemy as well. Apparently, they had been trying to topple down Mama’s family for hundreds of years—using everything in their resources to take over Engkantasia.

  The manananggal clan did not share Lolo’s view of separation of the engkanto’s world and the human world. They did not understand why my family was against taking over both worlds. Humans, to them, were toys and food—the bottom of the food chain. They had dark allies willing to give their lives for the cause, but it was the manananggal that was the most dangerous group.

  Although Lolo didn’t want to reveal the whole story to us, I insisted. If I was expected to fight these creatures, I had to know what my enemies were so I could protect myself better. He finally agreed, but on his terms. If I finished the next phase of my training, he would answer all my questions. I took a deep breath and started preparing for school, mindlessly putting my uniform together, not really thinking about the day ahead.

  I knew I could do this double life, but for how long, I wasn’t sure. Mama always used to tell me I was a clever little cookie with heaps of confidence to boot. I didn’t really know what made her say that while I was growing up but those words were giving me some confidence.

  I remembered when I was five, I chased around a bully to kiss him. He was scaring the other girls with spiders and various bugs and I knew it was only a matter of time before he did the same to me. I was scared of bugs—even today with my abilities and all, I’d still cringe at the sight of them. So I decided to take action instead of waiting around like a useless little duck. I told him not to chase me with bugs and in return, I wouldn’t chase him around for kisses. He thought I was joking. Even though I didn’t get him on the first attempt, I managed to catch him off guard during class recess. He screamed in disgust, wiping my kiss off his cheek with his arm. He never tried to scare me with bugs after that.

  I wished it were that easy to solve things. I wish I could just kiss my enemies away and that was it. Unfortunately, violence was the only thing they responded to. After Lolo saved our behinds from the manananggal, he had been very civil to me. He didn’t tell me off for being irresponsible. It was as if it never happened. I wanted so much to ask what he did to scare the creature away but I had to follow his terms.

  It was hard not to think about it though. At school, it was all Alyssa, Mark, and I could talk about. We saw the red bulging eyes and the huge fangs salivating outside Alyssa’s window. We didn’t know what would have happened had Lolo not gotten there in time. Not knowing how to defeat the manananggal just made things worse.

  The six weeks of training had been good, but I still had a hard time trusting that my new abilities could save me. I had learned how to grow plants, manipulate nature and elements like water, fire, wind, and earth. It had been a challenge trying to juggle several abilities at once, but Lolo was a great teacher. Still, it was hard to have faith in myself when I had never tested my abilities in a fight. Could I kill a manananggal by drowning it with water? Could I choke its sharp fangs with flowers and leaves? Was I strong and quick enough to think of a defensive move when I was being attacked? Based on what I saw, the manananggal was as nasty as nasty monsters would get, and I was certain they’d be more than happy to chew on my insides after they had ripped me to shreds.

  I shuddered at the thoughts running through my head. Concentrating on my classes had been a huge chore given the things I had to focus on. Had it not been for Mark’s help, my grades would have tremendously slipped. Dad thought having a regular life and focusing on school was more important than my training—like everything was going away after two months. I was torn. My world was splitting into huge chunks and I didn’t know which way was the right way to go.

  We started training on communicating with live creatures, animals and bugs. I found myself actually enjoying the process. I had always been close to animals. I had always found myself caring more for animals than humans. After knowing my history, I finally knew why. This skill was something I was looking forward to mastering. But first, I had to survive another day at school.

  I walked to school on my own again, refusing a ride from Dad. I could see he was hurt that I was walking instead of our usual ride together. But I used that time to think and reformat my brain to being just a normal girl. It was my transition walk. Every step I took away from home was like a step to being normal. Not that they treated me any differently at school. In the three years of studying there, I had never had a boy ask me out, or heard of anyone having a crush on me. I had been plugged into a pigeon-hole and they were not letting me forget it. Being a pariah had its advantages though. For one, I never got picked on. I barely got invited to parties but at the same time, I also missed out on trouble caused by these binge drinking parties. It balanced itself out, or so I told myself.

  I found Mark and Alyssa waiting for me near the gate. Alyssa had a bandage wrapped around her lower ar
m.

  “What happened to that?”

  “Training, the usual,” she said, like it was the most normal thing for her.

  I suppose it was. Since the manananggal’s visit, Alyssa had upped her Wing Chung training at the local sports center. She had always been athletic and loved being a cheerleader, but last year Alyssa decided to casually try out Wing Chung. She dropped her other activities and had been focusing solely on self-defense training.

  “Try not to kill yourself, okay?” Mark said, worried about Alyssa’s weekly injuries.

  “I have to do something, right? And since I don’t have your giant brain and your inventions, this is something that I can do to protect myself.”

  “Inventions?” I raised my eyebrow.

  “Yeah, well, I’ve been reading up on your folklore and there are some weapons I’ve been trying to design to help us, in case, you know, they attack again,” Mark said, almost shyly.

  “You know those are only stories. We don’t even know what hurts them and what doesn’t. I’m going to get more from Lolo and I promise you will find out the truth. I want you to arm yourself the best that you can, but we have to get all the facts first,” I said to them.

  Alyssa placed her good arm around me, leading me in the building. Mark followed behind us, muttering something about finding resources for his work.

  “Let it go, Mark. Let’s just wait for the real information. Focus on the day ahead.”

  I let Alyssa lead the way, enjoying the few minutes when I didn’t have to make a decision for myself. I had deliberately been avoiding Jason, too, knowing that I would probably get him in trouble if he got too close to me.

  It hadn’t been easy. I saw the pang of hurt in his eyes every time I changed direction when I saw him waiting for me. I made sure I was constantly with Mark and Alyssa during my breaks so he didn’t get a chance to talk to me.

  One afternoon, I got a note in my locker, a white piece of paper with nothing but a question mark on it. I saw him watching me, as I crumpled the paper and tossed it in a bin. Better I hurt him now than the manananggal later on.

  When I finally finished for the day, I rushed home to start the animal training session with Lolo. I took a shortcut through the back streets to cut travel time. As I turned into an alley, the familiar jab in my gut knocked me over. I grabbed on to something when someone behind me caught my fall. I pushed myself off the person and knew immediately where that scent of citrus came from.

  “Are you okay?” Jason asked.

  “Yes, I’m fine. Thanks for your help,” I said before turning around and resuming my walk much quicker than before.

  “Did I do something wrong?” Jason asked as he followed me. “Was there an imaginary boundary that I crossed to piss you off?”

  I said nothing and continued to walk. It was hard not to answer him. But I couldn’t say anything without sounding like a liar.

  “Karina,” he said, grabbing my arm. A zap traveled through my body, burning the spot where his hand met my skin. I immediately pulled my arm away.

  “Whatever it was that I did, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you in any way. I’m not going to bother you anymore if that’s what you want,” his eyes pleaded.

  All I could do was look at him because I was afraid if I opened my mouth I might actually tell him the truth. I started walking away.

  “The book was my grandfather’s gift to me before he died. I hope you appreciate how important it was to me,” he said before disappearing around the corner.

  I was tempted to run after him, to explain about my heritage and the creatures trying to kill me. To run to his arms with the perfect lighting of the golden hour, like in the movies. But I didn’t. Instead, I kept walking home.

  I found Lolo in the garage, standing tall, waiting for me. He didn’t say a word, and I felt a pang of sadness by his cold demeanor. I could usually charm my way out of trouble with Dad, but with Lolo, I didn’t know how. I nodded to him, walking to the center of the room and looking at the mouse in a box. I guessed communicating with animals would be much simpler if we started with a small one, instead of, let’s say, a tiger.

  I placed the mouse on my hand and focused on telling him what I wanted him to do. Its pink tail curled around my thumb as I stroked its white fur. I smiled and whispered to Wilbur—it seemed like an appropriate name for a mouse. Wilbur looked at me, standing still, waiting for my instructions. I focused even more and whispered for Wilbur to stand on two legs. Gingerly, the mouse uncurled its tail from my thumb and pulled itself up to a standing position. I gasped as quietly as I could, afraid I’d drop him on the ground.

  “That’s a good start, Karina,” Lolo whispered, trying not to disturb the connection between Wilbur and me. “He is able to understand your thoughts, but now you have to try and comprehend what he’s trying to tell you. Concentrate and feel the mouse’s energy. Make your hand sensitive to its aura and let it travel through you. Each creature is made of mana, a form of energy that’s abundant in Engkantasia. In order to communicate with each other, you only need to tap into their energy and let them tap into yours.”

  I reached for the necklace with my other hand and felt its power. A vision passed through me, of Mama and her training, her joy of mastering this skill. I saw Wilbur’s essence in the colors of the sunset, covering my arm. I knew that my own emotions triggered Wilbur’s emotions at once. We had become connected now.

  I snuck a glimpse at Lolo and saw a deep sadness in his eyes. The necklace was showing me Mama’s training. Lolo was standing beside her, beaming with pride. This had reminded him of Mama and the pain of losing her. He saw me watching him and he smiled the same smile he gave Mama.

  I started humming the song I hummed when I had to concentrate and relax at the same time. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. When I opened them, I was suddenly very aware that I had an extra sense that had come to life after being dormant for sixteen years. It started as a whisper in my head, a quiet nudge in the background. After focusing on the sound, I realized they were Wilbur’s thoughts conversing with my own.

  He wasn’t speaking a human language. I wasn’t really certain what language he was using but I could understand it like it was a language I had been using all my life. The excitement I felt after such a discovery rushed through my body, sending a jolt to Wilbur, who reacted by jumping up and down my hand. I started to giggle uncontrollably as Wilbur scampered up my arm to rest on my shoulder.

  I wasn’t entirely sure how the connection happened. All I knew was that I could understand Wilbur now, and it was very clear he wanted some food. I walked to my backpack and looked for leftovers in my lunchbox. I handed Wilbur a tiny piece of bread crust and he happily nibbled on it.

  We continued the training, honing my skill to communicate with Wilbur even from afar. By the end of the session, Wilbur had become my new best friend. I decided he would be sleeping in my room from now on. The training had lifted my spirits more. Every session could only make me stronger and better.

  “Nature is everywhere and it’s everything. Imagine if you can communicate with animals. They can warn you of incoming dangers from miles away. If one of your friends is in trouble, a bird might spot them somewhere and contact you for help, a house pet can easily communicate with you or another creature who can relay the message to you. It’s not just about growing plants and manipulating seeds. It’s about harnessing the things around you for a good purpose. It’s all connected together and you’re at the center of it,” Lolo said.

  “But how do you kill a manananggal? Can I use fire or water? Can I use plants to kill it?”

  “The stronger your powers become, the better you can control them. Think of it this way. If you punch someone and you’ve never trained before, your punch will be very weak and won’t injure anyone. But if you’ve been training for a while and have mastered powerful punches, you can inflict really severe injuries on your opponent. Right now, all you can do is make vines grow, but imagine if you can make th
em whip someone or even stab a manananggal’s heart. That would be a useful skill to have.”

  I had to admit, it did sound very cool to be able to command nature. But I knew Lolo was just skirting around the real reason why we were having this conversation. I wiped my hands on my jeans, trying to get the courage to finally ask him.

  “Lolo, you need to tell me more about our enemies. What are the manananggal?”

  He sighed and sat down beside me. He hesitated, but I looked at him, waiting for answers.

  “The manananggal, like the one you saw, are women who merged in the human world hundreds of years ago. At first, it was just an experiment to venture into the human world. But soon it became more of a quest for domination. It all started with the first manananggal who crossed over. Her name was Marila, a manananggal whose beauty was so alluring it stunned every human who saw her.”

  Lolo waved his hand, summoning light from thin air, creating a screen of some sort to show me his world. I saw a beautiful woman walking in the forest, her black hair reached to her thighs, perfectly framing her face and wonderfully contrasting her smooth, fair skin. She had the reddest lips and blue-gray eyes that would change color when the sun’s rays hit them. She looked surreal, like she was designed by the gods themselves.

  “Marila lived on her own in the thick jungles of Mindanao. She wanted to experience the daily grinds of being human and decided to try living with the folks of a nearby village. What she didn’t realize was that no matter how common her clothes were, she could never hide the beauty that she radiated. Soon, the village men were smitten, even the married ones pursued her. She easily became the center of ire of every woman in the village.”

  The image on the scene changed. I could see Marila, walking on her own at night. Lolo waved his hand and the whole thing dissipated.

  “Why did you stop?”