April stared at Michael. "Aswang? What the hell is that?"
"It's a Philippine beast," Michael explained. "In myth, it was said to be a sort of witch vampire hybrid, but in reality it is its own species. They are all unrelated."
April frowned. "What's a monster from across the Pacific doing here?"
Michael shrugged. "No idea. Neither do I know why it's hunting campers here in the forest. People like Jake aren't normally an aswang's chosen victims."
"Who are?" April inquired.
"Young children," Michael answered. "Particularly children under the age of two, and the unborn. Aswangs like their taste most."
"Peachy," April said. "Please tell me they can still be killed with machetes?"
"Machetes work fine," Michael assured her.
"Is there any way to track an aswang?" April quizzed.
"Not if they don't want to leave a trail behind," Michael told her. "But aswangs like caves. We'll have better luck searching for caves than wondering through the woods endlessly for it."
April nodded. "Okay then, let's get to it."
She passed Jake's body without looking at it and Michael followed her deeper into the forest.
When the sun rose, Michael and April had failed to find a cave, so Michael convinced April that they needed to catch some sleep. It had taken Michael some time to do so, but once they had the tent pitched and were inside, it didn't take April long to fall asleep.
But by ten in the morning she was up and ready to get moving again, determined to find the aswang and kill it before it could hurt anyone else. Especially since real rangers and other police were most likely now also in the forest searching for Jake and his killer.
Finally, in mid-afternoon, Michael and April found a cave against a cliff were the river dropped in the form of a small waterfall and they carefully stepped inside, looking around it with their flashlights for evidence that the aswang had been there.
"This cave is too small," Michael decided after a couple minutes. "And it does not appear to be used."
April was disappointed but all she and Michael could do was move on.
It was almost dawn when they found what they were looking for. Beside a stream that emptied into the river, there was a large cave in a hillside.
Michael and April approached it slowly with their machetes at ready. They cautiously entered, and though they could not see anything at first, they could smell rotting human flesh.
April gagged and covered her mouth and nose with one arm.
Michael peered into the darkness of the cave and slowly his eyes adjusted. He could see the outline of a body at the back, but before he could recognize the shape of the aswang, the creature, which had been kneeling beside its kill, it stood and turned. All Michael saw was a flash of red eyes before it shot out of the dark and threw him out of the cave.
Knowing it was safer outside, April bolted.
She helped Michael to his feet and they faced the hideous monster together as it stepped into the moonlight.
"Hunters," the aswang hissed. "Bane of my existence. Pesty things."
She took a few steps forward, but suddenly froze. She sniffed the air and grinned as her eyes fell upon April.
"The smell of promise," the aswang sighed happily. "I haven't sensed that in a long time. The mothers of the unborn always smell the sweetest."
April stared at her. "What?"
"You did not know of the child that you carry?" the aswang asked, surprised.
April was taken aback. She was pregnant?
She glanced at Michael, who seemed too stunned to even speak. She herself was feeling shaky with shock.
"You and your child will make a great treat," the aswang declared, drawing April's attention back to her. "So in thanks, I'll make this quick."
"No!" Michael shouted as the aswang charged April.
He pushed April out of the way and she stumbled back as the aswang collided into Michael. They fell down in a tangle of limbs and Michael punched the creature over and over, trying to blind it with pain long enough so that he could have time to kill it. But she was strong, stronger than any human, and April could see Michael losing the fight as the aswang returned the beating and gained the upper hand.
April approached her from behind and was about to swing her machete down through the aswang's neck when the creature somehow sensed her and turned around in a flash to grab her wrist.
April struggled with the aswang for a moment to free herself, but the aswang had a firm grip until three shots rang out.
The aswang howled in pain and anger at the wounds in her shoulder the bullets from Michael's handgun had caused and then she was gone.
"Where'd she go?" April quizzed.
"Off somewhere to heal her wounds," Michael guessed. "She'll be back. We need to get out of here."
He grabbed her arm and they jogged back to where they had hid their supplies earlier.