An-anito

In a far away small village where the local was do farming and planting crops in the mountain side there lived my uncle and his family (far relatives). They built their small houses near their farms. Neighbors are far and it takes a few minutes walk before you reach the nearest neighbor then.

One day there is a wake in the main proper (the bigger village with lots of residences). So every people went down to the village proper to attend the wake of their relative and friend. No body left in the small village aside from our uncle with his five dogs. When sunset came he prepared all of his things including his bolo thinking to hunt wild pigs in the nearby mountain valley around three AM in the morning, the preferred time to set a trap if you want to hunt wild pigs with dogs.

After his dinner he is already preparing to sleep when suddenly his dogs outside his small house bark altogether. It seems they saw an enemy approaching. He tried to stop the dog from barking but to his surprise upon peeking to a hole from the wall of the house he saw a hairy legs slowly walking outside. The dogs keeps on barking but this time cowering under the house. Then the being outside starting to frighten our Uncle by tapping each side of the house, it sounding like a giant breath in his roof. Grunting like it's chewing a stone in his mouth and sounds was like coming out from underground. By then my uncle freezed to his feet, wondering what kind of element was outside. After a few freezing moment He slowly moved his stiffened body and reached to his bolo hanging on the wall and unsheathed it. Grip the handle and get ready though his knees was already shaking out of fear. The thing outside continuously walking and trying to find an entrance to the house but thankfully the dog keep on barking at it. Then again a sound heard by my uncle, it seems a lot of buffalo's in marathon was approaching, different sound was heard outside already, the situation outside was gone wild, there is banging, throwing of twigs and cracking of branches. My uncle by then gone in panic too, his about to go crazy because of the noise outside his house. Some of his dogs are crying already instead of barking, they fear something outside. The dog outside was clinging under the house aside from the two male dog which is trying to chased something away from the house. Uncle can still heard those grunting teeth, banging and breaking of branches around. It seems those being outside was towing tree branches to create creeps whoever inside the house but my uncle never give in though full of fright he manage to stay calm and think carefully what could he do to drive away those devilish being outside.

Next thing he heard was a sound of a horse neighing in high pitch over his roof, mooing of cow and carabaos was also heard. He tried to peek again in the hole and saw two pairs of hairy legs walking nonstop. He is now sweating cold. One is okay he thought, he can survive but by two is too impossible to drive away by dogs. He is losing hope of survival then. He said those kind of AN-NITO was dangerous, if not because of the dogs maybe they already rip out the house and took him as food. Or if not, toyed him untill he lost his sanity. They now trying to bumped the house that caused the movement of the pillars. The small house was only made out of bamboo and a cogon as roof and a medium size of log as the four corner pillar that is why it is easy to swayed.

Uncle prayed hard. He wants to survived at least untill dawn, because during that time in the morning the eastern light illuminate the whole village already, its a sign that morning is coming and those An-anito can't stand to stay during day lights. Untill then when trying to seek some salt he accidentally drop the jar with some hot chillies in the floor and a thought came to his mind. He hurriedly look for his matches sticks and create a fire in the local stove then put a small pot over the fire with some hot chillies on it then begun stirring the hot chillies as they toasted inside the pot. The aroma arises inside the house that make my uncle cover his mouth and nose to avoid inhaling the hot chillies aroma. Untill then when the aroma reaches outside as when the hot chillies burning slowly and emitted a lot of smoke towards the roof. My uncle them heard a continuous coughing and sneezing outside. Grunting as if being hurt by the eyes. The coughing and sneezing continuous in few minutes untill it slowly disappeared. Then suddenly uncle heard a rooster doing its duty crowing from the top of a tree.

By then,He was in relief knowing that he is already safe from those An-anito who gives him troubles through out the night. The plan of hunting was put on hold because he doesn't feel good anymore. Instead of going to sleep he gathered all his dogs and lead their way to the village proper to meet with his family. He told them everything he experienced the whole night. Some says he is lucky to have his dog with him and the hot chillies was really a big help especially in driving away bad spirits, they believed that the hot aroma of the chillies can drove away unwanted spirits that lurking in an abandoned houses too.

My uncle's family then came back from the village proper and found out the house was intact and nothing was damage from the trees around. Then my Auntie teases her husband but uncle was desperately swear that all he said was true and he is not lying.

This story was told by our father to us as a bed time story when I was still a kid. I don't know if I fully believe it or not. Some says its true, some says its just a folk tale. AN-ANITO in our native tongue was those dark spirits dwellers in abandoned villages and houses. With dark features, tall and all hairy, dangerous that it can hurt human by freaking them out.

I wrote this one as my entry to @Theblackdoll #Halloweencontest2021.

You can join also if you feel it so. Don't be scared to share those scary moment you know or else the AN-ANITO will visit you in your house👻👻👻. You can visit her post here👇

https://read.cash/@Theblackdoll/day-20-of-31-days-of-halloween-halloween-contest-7682eb8c

That's all for now,I hope I didn't creep you out👻. And before I go I wanna say THANK YOU again to my dearest sponsors, likers,upvoters and readers. Thank you so much to all of you🧡.

Article # 24
Published: October 24,2021 
Time: 2: 53 AM Philippines 
Lead image from Unsplash