Growing up and Scared

August 24, 2021

This article is inspired by @JonicaBradley Monsters, Myth, and Legend. I want to post this article last night but there is a problem and I can't access my account. Luckily I can now.

Like any other child, my parents used to scare me every time that I wouldn't listen to them. Sometimes, my father used to scare us as he pretends to be one of those scary monsters that he tells us every night.

Before we talked about my childhood and growing up with scary stories, let me first tell you about the Philippine Folklore that my parents used to tell us.

Scary monsters that My Father used to tell us

• Aswang - according to what my father have told us, aswang is a human like monster with sharp fangs and finger nails that cut like a sharp blade. He says that aswang's favorite victim are children. They love to eat the organs of children because they are fresh. You can know if the aswang is near when their sounds are faint, and their sound is loud when they're away.

• Tik-tik - From my father's story and from what I have seen in TV, Tik-tik are human like monster that would crawl up in your roof. Their target are pregnant women aand newborn baby. Tik-tik has a very long tongue which they used to suck up a child inside the mother's womb.

• Sigbin - Sigbin were describe by my father as something that look like a kangaroo. According to him, Sigbin are the pet of aswang. They feed on the squash sprouts and usually go out at night. They were hidden inside a jar under the house or in a dark room. When you hear sounds like those of a clapping hands, it is told that those are there long ears.

• Manananggal - is a human when it's an ordinary day but their wings would grow in the night of full moon, their upper body will be detached from the lower ones. It is told that they will hid their lower body so that no one would see it while they were away looking for a victim. On the other hand, the upper body with the wings on it will be flying around to search for a victim. They also have sharp teeth and finger nails.

• Kapre - they are like giants that lives on old huge trees. They are described to have shoulder length hair. They have loud voices and a huge cigarettes in between their fingers. They love to scare people.

• Tiyanak - Tiyanak are babies that were aborted who turn into monsters. Their teeth are very sharp to suck up one's blood. My father said that it would attack at night.

Growing up

As a child I used to believe that everything that my parents had told me were true. It's your parents so, who wouldn't right? I grew up being scared ever night that one of those mentioned above well come to our house or attack us. When it's already dark outside, I'll just stay inside the house and wouldn't let myself be alone in one room.

When I was still a child our house at that time was made of bamboo, our floor used to have those small gaps and we have these space underneath the floor that can fit a person and we call it "silong". I can still remember one night when my father had arrived from somewhere and we are inside the house with our bare feet, he went in the silong and poke our feet using a stick. We were scared and startled at the time. Meanwhile, my father continues to poke our feet while we were up scared. We got up in the table, chair and anything as long as our feet was not on the floor. When my father was already satisfied on scaring us, he burst into laughter.

There are also times that he would make some strange sounds when he's outside our house like those of the sounds of monsters he used to tell us. As usual, we always got scared every time that he does that. But their are also times that strange things would happen in our place. I can remember this one in particular where our neighbor's sacks of rice that were piled in their porch have slits as if a sharp blade is used. There is also a scratch on the floor right under their door as if it wants to enter their household. The scratch are not like those of the cat's or dog's, they're different.

With my Father's stories, constant acts of scaring and the strange things that would happen around our neighborhood, I grew up really believing that monsters really do exist.

Good day everyone. Ciao😘

Disclaimer: All photos used are not mine but rather from Google.