1 Monyo-monyo

Hello there! I am Chris and I want to share to you my experience when I was a child, oh and this is definitely NOT a children's story. Have you ever had that strange character used by your parents to scare you when you were a kid? Probably that random policeman or maybe the letter-man, for some it could be the next door neighbor. For me there was this very peculiar man that my parents would point out and they called him "Monyo-monyo".

We lived in the outskirts and our place is called Sitio Dyes. This is a place that is rarely visited, we all know each other here and if there is a new person in town, we can easily identify them. This man that they called "Monyo-monyo" is a very strange one. According to the elders, this man appears at a certain season and they heard similar stories from the other nearby sitios.

Let me start by how he looked, his face had this evil smile almost like a devilish smirk, his eyes were crimson red, he was good looking to a point that he has angles that he does look feminine, and he wore very sophisticated clothing. There are urban legends that he owned the usually abandoned hacienda at the top of the nearby mountain, that apparently nobody had ever tried to enter. My lolo (grand father) would tell me stories about the people who built that hacienda for Monyo,

My parents would always tell me not to go out when it is night time and specially never to sneak out when it is past twelve-midnight, stories go that Monyo walks around about 1AM looking for kids to take and nobody knows what happens to the abducted kids, but they are never seen by anyone else. I remember this very clearly, I am really a hard-headed kind of kid so what happened was, my curiosity got the better of me. I was seven years old at the time, I waited for everybody to be asleep in our "barong-barong", yes, you guessed it right! I sneaked out about five minutes before 1AM.

I walked towards the plaza, of course I was hiding in places that nobody could see me. I was taking the necessary precaution NOT to get caught by anyone, mainly my parents, but of course that includes Monyo. Sure enough as the clock strikes 1AM, I noticed that the moon was shining brightly as it was full, and there was a shadow waling along the direction of the plaza. I crawled under one barong-barong and did my best to hide, to my surprise it was indeed Monyo.

His smirk is now a wide grin and his eyes shining crimson red and his presence made me shiver and feel so much goosebumps all over that I am unable to move a muscle. I am unsure but it seemed that he sensed where I was, he glared towards my direction and when I blinked he was gone. I wanted to walk away, I wanted to run, but my body won't budge.

When I was able to make my body follow and turn, he appeared right in front of me. Our faces just a hair distance from each other, I can see how his piercing glare was gazing into mine with his burning crimson eyes, and his devious grin becoming wider and wider as if a grizzly bear who found a meal. I passed out probably cause of my fear.

I woke up and thought I was only dreaming. I woke up to the light and heat of a bonfire in front of me, and beside me were other kids of my age, some are even younger, we were inside a ring of fire and in that ring of fire we were at the center of a big star that was painted in red and I hope it was not blood. Monyo was doing this weird dance and singing in inaudible sound, probably a language we don't know. in my panic I shouted and he looked at me with those wicked eyes. The moon is shining right above us and I figured we were in the courtyard of his hacienda.

I was so scared that time and what made me scared more was when he took one of the kids and dragged him away from us, stabbed the kid's chest, and threw him to the fire. We were all scared, but I told myself that no matter what I will go back home and I will tell the story. After three more kids it was my turn, he took me by my neck, and dragged me near the flames, he held this beautiful knife up to the moon and I took my chance! He was off-guard and his other arm was reachable, I bit the hell out of that arm and ran because my life and the other kids' depended on it. The only thing running through my mind was to escape. I got lost in the vastness of his hacienda, I knew he was running after me, I felt his presence, there was a point where I got into a room and tried to hide but he was able to sense where I was, like he can smell my fear.

I was lucky enough to escape his hacienda, a few distance from the place I was not feeling his presence, he may have come back for the other kids. I was trying to catch my breath, I could not even see where the moon is nor can't even feel anything else. I think this was the point where I blacked out.

My father's voice woke me up, "Nak wake up!" I was bewildered and tired, they kept asking me things, to which I cannot process at that time, my mind was floating, my sight was a blur, I was in trauma. Days passed and my sanity came back, I was sane enough to have a conversation. I asked my father if there were other kids missing the night I was gone and he answered there were, he added that they were lucky enough to find me and two other kids at the foot of the nearby mountain that morning. I asked what time was that and was given the answer that it was around five in the morning when the cock crowed, they noticed that I was missing and some of the townsfolk were also missing their kids, they asked if I can remember anything from that night and sad to say I can remember most of it.

When I remember the other details I will surely take it into account and tell you, but one thing is for sure, Monyo may not be known as Monyo in your town, but please be careful of this kind of story, for there may be a Monyo who takes the kids of your town and offer them to something whenever it is a full moon and he or it walks around at 1AM, with his sophisticated clothing, wide devious grin, and burning crimson red eyes.