CLEANERS

Chapter 1: Festival

The aswang died badly, black ichor spraying across the abandoned warehouse walls as Denmar's silver blade found in its heart. The creature's final shriek echoed through the Manila night before dissolving into silence.

"That's the seventh one this month," Marden said, wiping sweat from his forehead as he secured his weapon. "Still no sign of her."

Denmar knelt beside the corpse, searching through the monster's belongings. A wallet with false identification. Car keys to a stolen vehicle. And a small notebook filled with addresses potential victims, feeding schedules, territory markers that meant nothing to normal people but everything to those who hunted the hunters.

"Another dead end," he muttered, frustration bleeding through his tactical calm. Three months of hunting, dozens of kills, and they were no closer to finding their sister than the night she'd been taken.

"She's out there somewhere," Marden said quietly, the same words he'd spoken after every failed lead. "We'll find her."

But as they loaded the creature's remains into their cleanup van, Denmar couldn't shake the feeling that time was running out. With each passing month, the trail grew colder. The experimental facilities moved locations. The trafficking networks adapted their security.

And somewhere in the darkness, Althea was still screaming.

---

**Three months ago...**

The entire barrio pulsed with color and sound. Yellow bulbs swung overhead between coconut trees, casting warm light over makeshift stalls. The air smelled of charcoal smoke, roasted corn, and cheap gin hidden under tables.

Children darted between adults, clutching small gifts or melting ice cream. Red, blue, and green banderitas fluttered above to the rhythm of kulintang drums and borrowed speakers blasting pop remixes.

In the thick of it all were the twins.

Denmar lounged against a table piled with grilled chicken, dark eyes gleaming with sly calm. Beside him, Marden was his opposite restless, broad-shouldered, quick to laugh and quicker to burn.

"Hey, Denmar," Marden nudged him, pointing toward the pabitin a bamboo grid hung with prizes. "Bet I can grab more than Jun this year."

"You said the same thing last year," Denmar replied dryly. "He still beat you. And you tore your shirt."

"That's because he cheated. Taller reach." Marden flexed as though warming up.

Behind them, Tomas stuffed his mouth with banana cue while Liza rolled her eyes at the brothers. Jun polished his glasses, pretending not to hear Marden's trash talk.

"You'll see," Marden muttered. "This time, I'll win."

The drums picked up. When the pabitin lowered, children screamed with joy, leaping for dangling toys. During the teenagers' turn, Marden shot forward like a bull, clawing at anything he could grab. Denmar followed slower, calculating, waiting until the bamboo frame jerked lower before snatching the choicest prize money rolled in a plastic bag.

The crowd howled with laughter. Marden tumbled down empty-handed while Denmar raised the prize with mock solemnity.

"Unfair!" Marden barked, though his grin betrayed him. He pulled Denmar into a headlock, rubbing knuckles against his scalp until both were laughing.

Their friends joined Tomas joking that Marden was cursed with short arms, Liza calling both idiots, Jun shaking his head while hiding his smile.

For a moment, nothing in the world could break them.

***

Hours later, the music softened. Families drifted home carrying leftover food, guiding sleepy children. The air cooled, wet grass scenting the night.

The twins and their friends walked along the narrow dirt road toward their cluster of houses. Fiesta lights faded until only the moon guided their steps.

Jun carried a flashlight, its beam jittering across the path. Cicadas screamed in the trees. Somewhere far off, a dog barked.

"Still can't believe you got that money," Marden grumbled.

"Because you don't think," Denmar replied. "You just grab. Life isn't always about rushing."

"Life isn't always about overthinking either."

Their bickering carried into the night lighthearted but edged with something deeper. Two brothers is like halves of a coin neither could escape.

Behind them, Tomas belched loudly, earning a slap from Liza. Jun muttered about ghosts in the trees, half-joking, because everyone knew the old stories shadows that moved when wind stilled, voices whispering from rice fields, children disappearing near the creek.

"Stop scaring yourself," Liza said, though her voice tightened.

They laughed it off, but silence stretched as the road darkened.

Denmar felt it first the shift. A pressure in the air, subtle but heavy, like the moment before a storm.

He glanced toward the treeline. Nothing moved, yet the hairs on his arms rose.

Marden noticed too, fists clenching instinctively.

"Did you hear that?" he asked.

"What?" Tomas whispered, suddenly sober.

A rustle. Soft, almost human.

Jun raised the flashlight, but the beam caught only trees.

Denmar forced a laugh, though his throat tightened. "Probably just a dog."

But even he didn't believe it.

They walked faster, conversation dying. The moon slipped behind a cloud, and the world dimmed. The fiesta music was gone, replaced by cicadas, then silence.

The silence was the worst part.

When they reached the fork where their friends turned off, the twins waved goodbye. Tomas gave a lazy salute, Liza muttered for them not to get killed by ghosts, and Jun raised his flashlight like a charm.

The twins were alone now.

"Creepy, huh?" Marden said, shoving hands into his pockets.

Denmar didn't answer. His eyes kept straying to the treeline. His mind worked fast and sharp, but for once he had no clever words. Only the weight of something wrong pressing closer.

Somewhere in the dark, something watched them.

---

The path home was too quiet. Denmar kept glancing at the treeline, every gust of wind sounding sharper than it should. Marden walked ahead, pretending not to notice, though his fists stayed clenched.

The twins stopped when the frogs fell silent.

From the shadows came clicking. Like fingernails tapping wood. Click. Click. Click.

Then the figure stepped into moonlight.

It was wrong. Too tall, the spine arched like it had been broken and forced upright. Arms dangled too long, claws grazing dirt. Its mouth hung open, rows of jagged teeth. Eyes reflected the moon, inhuman, animal.

"What the hell is that?" Denmar whispered, voice cracking.

The creature tilted its head. Its tongue flicked. Then it lunged.

Marden shoved his brother aside, barely raising his arms before claws slashed down. Sparks of pain raked across his forearm. He screamed, stumbling back.

Denmar moved without thinking. He grabbed a rock, swung wild. The jagged edge smashed against the creature's shoulder. It shrieked, black saliva spraying, but didn't fall.

"Marden, run!" Denmar shouted.

But Marden froze. His eyes weren't on the creature they were staring past it.

Denmar turned.

His heart stopped.

Their house lay just meters ahead. The front door was wide open. Light spilled across the yard, flickering against red streaks on the walls.

On the ground lay their mother. Her body was ripped and torn, deep wounds across her chest. Black ichor and blood coated her. The aswang had partially eaten her, leaving limbs mangled. Her hand stretched toward the doorway.

"Mom!" Marden screamed.

Inside, another figure moved their father. His torso had been torn open, meat bitten away. Eyes glassy, lifeless, mouth open in a scream that ended in nothing.

Denmar's stomach turned. "Dad..."

Then a smaller, horrific sound: their little sister screaming from beyond the house. They could see their little sister ten years old being dragged away by two more. One arm hung limp and bleeding, but she was alive, conscious, screaming in terror as the things pulled her toward the treeline.

"ALTHEA!" Both twins screamed, voices breaking with panic.

"What are those things?!" Marden shouted, raw with horror. "What the hell are they?!"

The first aswang screeched and leaped at them. Denmar tackled it instinctively. Both tumbled across dirt. His rock skittered away. Claws slashed inches from his face.

Marden barreled into the monster, not thinking, just reacting to his sister's screams. They collapsed in a heap. Claws raked across Marden's ribs, and he cried out, but kept fighting, driven by pure desperation.

Denmar's hand scrambled, finding a weapon he could use and he found a rust metal pipe on the ground. Without aiming, he swung upward with every ounce of strength. By luck, it caught the aswang in the throat, piercing deep. The creature convulsed violently, black eyes rolling, its wet shriek cut short. Ichor burned across the twins' arms like acid.

Then it stopped moving.

The boys lay beneath it, gasping, shaking. Neither could process what had just happened.

Marden pushed the corpse aside with trembling hands, staring at black blood on his fingers. "What... what was that thing?" His voice was barely a whisper. "That wasn't human."

He looked toward their ruined home, then at the darkness where their sister's screams were growing fainter. "They took her," he said, voice breaking completely. "Those things took Althea."

Denmar couldn't speak. His mind kept trying to make sense of what he'd seen, but monsters weren't supposed to be real. Yet his parents were dead, his sister was gone, and black ichor burned on his arms.

"We have to" Marden started to rise, ready to stumble blindly into darkness.

"Wait!" Denmar grabbed his brother's arm, whole body shaking. "We don't know what those things are! We don't know how many!"

"I don't care!" Marden snarled, tears streaming. "They have Althea! They're going to hurt her!"

"They'll kill us too!" Denmar shot back, voice cracking. "We barely killed one! What if there are more?"

From a distance, Althea's screams had stopped. The silence was somehow worse.

"What are we going to do?!" Marden shouted, composure finally breaking. "What are we going to do now?! Why did this happen?!"

"Look at me! Calm down!" Denmar held him, though he was just as scared and trembling.

They stared at each other in moonlight, both crying, both covered in blood and black ichor, both trying to process the impossible. Their family was gone. Their world had ended. And somewhere in darkness, things that shouldn't exist were carrying away the only person they had left to save.

In silence, the twins barely moved, listening to every rustle, every whisper of wind. The rice fields became their refuge, the reeds their hiding place. Hunger, fear, and grief clawed at them, but exhaustion finally crept in.

The night stretched endlessly. Every sound was a threat. Every shadow, a potential enemy. The twins clung to each other, their bond the only thing standing against the cold, merciless darkness.

Then dawn came.

"HELP!" Marden's voice cracked across the rice fields as he heard voices calling their names. "HELP US! SOMEBODY HELP!"

"Our parents!" Denmar sobbed, stumbling through the reeds. "Something killed our parents!"

But who would believe them? Who could understand that monsters were real, that their family was gone, that their sister had been dragged into a nightmare?

The aswang corpse had already turned to ash, scattered by morning wind. All that remained were two traumatized teenagers and a truth no one would believe.