Filipino Scares: a Collection of Short Stories

The Kids are All Right

2009.

SPO3 Jim Castanejas was beginning to wonder where all the missing kids had gone.

His precint started to receive reports about missing children three weeks ago; but because they were all from Payatas, no one really cared... And no one could tell him the exact date when the kids disappeared. Not the parents who reported them. Not the istambays who drank their gins and rhums at two o'clock in the afternoon. Not the men and women who worked through the dumpsite. The place where all the missing kids were last seen.

The best case scenario was that the children had run away. Although looking at the parents and siblings who reported the kids, Jim knew that scenario was highly unlikely. Worst case scenario was that the children were kidnapped. God forbid whatever the plans their abductors had with them.

Jim held the fat folder of cases filed by the worried relatives, sighing. According to these reports, all the children disappeared near a ravine--an area grown adults left alone for fear of going under and being buried under tons of trash. He closed the folder, placed it on the backseat of the patrol car, and proceeded to get out. His assigned partner and designated driver for the case, a young man of early 20s, followed him out and immediately retched at the smell that wafted from the garbage baking under the scorching sun.

"Ang baho," PO2 Dario Cosramos complained as continued to dry heave.

"It's not as bad as it used to be," Jim remarked as he drew in a breath. It really wasn't as bad it was but he knew it could be better. If people cared enough.

Jim scanned the dumpsite from where he and Dario parked. It looked normal. Busy. Except for one area: the deep area of the ravine. Jim noticed that the people working the site were consciously avoiding the area. The only ones daring to go near where children, the same age as those who went missing, that were being pulled away by grown ups as soon as they were seen.

He and Dario made their way to the edge of the ravine. When they reached the area, he heard Dario immediately take a step back. "Something wrong, Cosramos?"

"There's something wrong here, sir."

Jim sighed. He couldn't argue with that fact. It was wrong to have an open dumpsite in this day an age. But he was just a policeman. He had no power over this dumpsite. And besides, some people make their livelihood here.

Dario took another step back, which made Jim turn to him. Terror filled the younger man's face. It was as if Dario was seeing something horrifying. But, when Jim looked at the ravine again, there was nothing there.

"Sir, let's get out of here," Dario whimpered. "We're not gonna find the children here."

"We don't know that." Jim sighed as he surveyed the ground before him, trying to figure out the best way to go down the ravine and into the trash. "I can't let those kids just disappear, Cosramos."

Jim took a step into the sea of trash--and felt a change in the air. Dario, behind him, let out an involuntary gasp as a shadow creature emerged from the garbage. Jim's right hand quickly moved to where his gun was, but the shadow was faster.

He felt something cold on the back of his hands, immobilizing them. And then he heard it speak.

"What do you want, mortal man?"

"The children. We're looking for the missing children who were last scene scavenging here--"

"Not anymore." The shadow let go of Jim's hands. Jim forced himself to stare at the shadow, but none of its features registered in Jim's mind. It was just a shadow. He wanted to take a step back. He wanted to tell Dario he was right and they should've just left. But he needed to know where the children were.

Jim cleared his throat. He didn't know what kind of creature the shadow was, but he didn't want to show fear in front of it. "Do you have them? Are they okay?"

"The kids are all right."

With those words, the shadow melted into the garbage. Jim was somehow waist deep into the trash, several feet from the edge where Dario continued to gape. Frozen. A few of the dumpsite divers was staring at him as well.

Jim shook his head and proceeded to make his way out of the sea of garbage. Reaching the edge, Dario started to help him get out. "Sir, what happened? Are you okay?"

"I am... all right."

Jim turned to the ravine again. The shadow was gone. The change in the air was gone. The kids were all right.

He didn't know how he was going to tell that to their loved ones.

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