AMARANHIG

Back when I was just 5 years old and we are still living far from the city. I had an experience that until now still haunts me. I can't explain what happened that time and that is the reason why I am here, if anyone can tell me what happened please do so.

I was with my mother washing our clothes in a remote river at 2pm. Mom likes to wash in that area because the water is clean and we can gather firewoods along the way. My dad was on an army camp where my uncle Dranis, his older brother was assigned. My uncle's officer told us that he went missing two days ago in an encounter with the rebels. Some of the soldier says the rebels caught him and others said he was fatally wounded and was left behind when their troops retreated.

While Mom was washing our clothes, I am busy playing with the bugs I found on the bushes. I remember I used to catch spiders and let them fight to death, yeah it's pretty cruel but that's our culture here in the Philippines. Those are the things I learned as a young boy growing up in the outskirts of the city. We Filipino's love to watch fights and some even loves the feeling of being the one who fights, maybe it is in our genes since back in the Pre-Spanish era Filipino tribe fight each other for territories and hunting grounds.

I was enjoying myself watching the spiders fight when I noticed an ominous smell. I thought it must be from a dead animal around the bushes, but why did I not smell that earlier? I ignored the smell and continued what I am doing when the odor intensifies to the point that I am about to vomit. My head got light and I felt dizzy so I stood up to reposition myself. As I was walking, I heard a slight growl in the bushes near where I was first sitting. I looked in deeper in the bushes and saw something moving behind the bush. I walked backwards trying not to take my eyes away from the source of the sound. As the creature walk on the open, there I saw what it was! It was a corpse wearing a soldier's uniform, rotten and some skin was even missing in some parts of its body.

Terrified I stumbled on a rock behind me and shouted at the top of my lungs "Mom!" The corpse continued walking towards me while reaching his decaying hands to me. I quickly got up and ran as fast as my little legs can run to the direction of my mom. My Mom was so confused as I was looking so terrified and was about to cry. I kept on shouting "Amaranhig!" a Filipino word for zombie. Mom hugged me tight and told me it was just my imagination and amaranhig's are not real. I was still squirming on my mom's tight hug that my forehead accidentally hit her chin and sent the both of us plunging in the waters. As we got up, a horrifying growl filled the air along with the foul odor. The smell was so bad that I couldn't stop myself from vomiting. Mom let out a blood curdling scream as she saw the amaranhig reaching his hands towards us. We were scamming to reach the other side of the river that mom's right ankle was sprained, but because of the adrenaline rush she only felt the pain when we arrived home. We told the police about what we saw but we only got a smirk from the officer. That night mom and dad talked about what happened that afternoon, I was in my room listening to their discussion. Dad told my mom that the army found the rebels camp that morning, when the army arrived they saw the rebels already dead. What baffled them is the way they died, not a single bullet was found and most of them died from choking. He also said that being an amaranhig is in their blood, some of dad's male ancestors still walk's the Earth even in death. He said that it only appears once every generation which means me or my male cousin's might become an amaranhig after we die.