Everyone on that island looked suspicious.
They couldn’t blame me for being such a paranoid. They way they looked at me, the way they treated me, it’s like I was different. I felt like a fish out of water. I didn’t belong there.
I didn’t remember how I got to that island. Or so it seemed thinking that I was indeed on an island. I didn’t know what lies beyond those mountains in the east. The villagers didn’t want me to explore. I just stayed there, near the sea, living among those people with red eyes and red hair and stained teeth. I ate their food, mostly fish and what they call, ‘tinabal’. The latter looked gross but I was used to eat it somehow. I had no choice.
It was a bright full moon when I woke up and discovered my existence there in the island. Since then, I was stuck there for three months without any idea who I am, where I came from, and whatever happened before I lost consciousness. They called me Lumot. Whatever that means. They said they found me on the shore covered in green slimy seaweeds, almost lifeless. Girong and Dadang took care of me. They said they don’t have a child. They became my foster parents.
Girong, my foster father, has those same red eyes and red hair and stained teeth like the others. He was the one who found me first and took me home. When I woke up in their bamboo bed the next day, he didn’t ask me who I am, where I came from, whatever happened to me. He just gave me soup he calls ‘sinanggop’ that Dadang, my foster mother, prepared for me.
Rumors then spread in the village of my existence. My paranoia was born since then. I couldn’t help myself but to be scared of those red eyes and red hair popping out anywhere around our hut (wherever there are holes to peep). I didn’t know why but, somehow, I could understand whatever they were saying. Though, I felt deep in my heart that I came from very far and should not be able understand them.
“Maligno! Sunugon siya!’ A woman with a very long red hair said.
“Aswang nga nag-tigbaliw! Patyon ina siya bag-o pa siya kapang-yanggaw!” A bald old man said. He was holding a sharp weapon they call ‘binangon’.
“Syokoy ina. Syokoy nga nagpakuno-kuno tawo. Ibalik siya sa dagat!” I didn’t know who said it. It must be a woman from the back of the crowd.
Dadang explained to me by nightfall whatever those people had thought of me. They said I’m a ‘maligno’, a black spirit from the underworld who wants to take souls of the living. They said I’m an ‘aswang’, a monster who eats humans and can transform to any living form. They said I’m a ‘syokoy’, a creature of the sea who pulls little children into the deep.
“But don’t worry, Lumot,” Dadang said before she turned off the lamp. “They’re just a bunch of tactless people who jump to conclusions. We don’t care whoever you are. From now on, you’ll be our adopted son.”
I translated whatever she exactly said. They didn’t speak my language but as I mentioned, I seemed to understand somehow.
***
Adopted son. I hated the thought of it. I hated everything. I didn’t want to stay with those people for so long. I was thinking I might find myself one day looking at the frameless mirror downstairs and get stunned seeing my eyes and hair turned red, and my teeth as black as Girong and Dadang’s. It’s not that I hated them too, my foster parents. I hated whatever happened to me, why I had to wake up and suddenly I was an adopted child who has no memory and that people think I’m abominable while they themselves look obviously abnormal. Fuck that place.
A week after I was found on the shore, someone visited us in the hut. As usual, the crowd was present. It was the village leader who wanted to see me. They call him ‘Amang’. He’s old. I could only see his eyes and nose for the rest of his face was covered by curls of grayish beard.
Like I said, he just wanted to see me. He didn’t talk to me. He talked to Girong and Dadang instead.
“Halongan niyo na ang bata,” Amang said. “Indi siya pagpa-balika sa kung diin siya naghalin. Pwede nga mangin salot siya.”
I peeked thought the curtain made of seashells. Dadang seemed to be sobbing. And Girong had nodded for like nth times. Then after almost an hour, the village leader left and so were the crowd. Then my foster parents told me THE RULES.
No. 1, I can play on the shore but never to touch seawater. The water was contaminated with some unknown fungus that affects children (13 years old and below) and would not be cleared for swimming until the village leader says so.
No. 2, I shall not go beyond the mountains in the east. Even if I wanted to try, it would be impossible. The rocks at the bottom of the mountains that meet the sea seemed sharp and dangerous.
No. 3, I should not visit the cave at the west side of the village. They said it’s sacred and only people with red eyes and red hair and stained teeth can go there and worship their ‘anito’.
I agreed to the rules.
But that was my foster parents’ greatest mistake. You see, the more they kept secrets from me, the more I got curious. I didn’t want to stay in the island forever. I felt like there’s some place waiting for me, that I’m someone important. And I was beginning to get more scared of the people. Well nobody ever talked to me after Amang visited our hut. I was only communicating with Girong and Dadang…and for a change at times, at the gecko that was sharing my room.
What if the people were just doing what they call reverse psychology? That instead of me, they are the real maligno, aswang, syokoy, or whatever monsters they have in their minds? What if they are cannibals and Girong and Dadang were instructed to fatten me up? What if they are aliens and they abducted me from a distant planet in a parallel universe?
Fuck. Now you know how paranoid I was.
YOU ARE READING
How I Escaped the Island of People with Red Eyes, Red Hair, and Stained Teeth
ParanormalRumors then spread in the village of my existence. My paranoia was born since then. I couldn't help myself but to be scared of those red eyes and red hair popping out anywhere around our hut (wherever there are holes to peep). I didn't know why but...
