A heavy half-sister

Jack laughed totally amused by the absurdity of the story that this stranger was talking about. She didn't want to worry at the moment that the image of the woman before her was in no way human.

There were limits to the mind of a sane person and in the last few hours, she was one step closer to crossing all boundaries.

"But who the hell is Haru?" asked, massaging her sore and scratched wrists. She went on, containing all her irritation: If this is another of the mayor's antics because of the golden son ...

It was a question like any other, especially when everything inside her seemed to refuse loud and clear that there were no such things in a normal world that humans knew. It made no difference to her childhood memories with her parents. Magic was something that definitely didn't exist. spells were by no means a kind of miracle for solving problems. There was no way to change the reality around them by witchcraft, was there?

The wizard who knows how to bless, also knows how to curse, daughter ..., Grandma Handall was tired of talking.

Jack groaned in a daze.

The wizard always works with what he has in his hand. Before rituals were performed at campfires, in forests, children, and that fire were taken to the fireplace. In the past, everyone had a cauldron. That was our plan.

Elaine's eyes gleamed faintly silver in the dark.

-You know, my dear half-sister. The eldest son of a female Aswang must give up her first child, handing it over to her mother, who consumes it in order to increase its useful life. Without this, she fatally dies within a month. The tradition goes back hundreds of years, but some Aswangs believe that this is a very barbaric act for modern times.

Jack cringed, his skin prickling. Those beauties were just legends!

My God, Rick! Oh, God .... What the fuck!

-Someone walked around ignoring the traditions, honey ...

-You have serious problems with self-esteem. You should be more concerned about the clothes you usually wear and not be bothering people who have a normal life, you know?

The provocation took another groan from Jack as it was pressed hard against the rough cave wall. The unhappy woman that stranger. She was beginning to loathe her way.

Sisters? She felt even more furious at the hand that descended on her puzzled face.

How dare that bastard? Half-sister?!

Not in a million years would that be true.

-You are crazy, completely crazy. - Jack spoke softly, spitting the blood in her mouth. - Maybe it would be better to see an urgent psychiatrist to treat your obsessive-compulsive mania. You're not mine ... You crazy self-centered ...

Elaine stared at her, containing all the anger and revolt at being put aside by her father in the dispute for attention. If Jack could imagine what was going on in her sister's mind, she would have been more careful in teasing. Aggressiveness and rivalry between siblings was always a cause for concern that required meditative attitudes.

Despite being still very young even for her kind, Elaine acted like the eldest daughter showing hostility and aggression against the younger sister who arrived and with all intent to hurt. A totally psychosomatic reaction that Haru had not even noticed in her daughter's behavior, who was suddenly withdrawn and antisocial.

-I?! - Elaine took a deep breath, adjusting her clothes and recovering the pose of an angry queen. - Not quite me ... Men! They have to be a testosterone problem! I can't believe Daddy decided to have fun with a bitch ...

-Oh! You can't go around cursing everyone like that. My mother ... - Jack was so furious with the insults that all caution and fear left her.

-Your mother?! Ah, give me a break. Spare me. - Elaine replied cold and mean. - Mom? Your mother did what no one should do ... She kept a puppy of us among humans, among sorcerers. Of course, she didn't live long after the nasty betrayal. Aswangs don't tolerate betrayals well, you know? So the kindly Handall couple decided to adopt the small, pathetic, and despicable unprotected orphan to protect her from the mananaggalas.

Jack stopped in a trance, stepping back until her shoulders were pressed against the rocks. Without waiting for some comments from older people in the family, they returned to the anesthetized mind. In general, the Handalls avoided family get-togethers. Jack had always imagined that the whole situation was due to his aversion to witchcraft stories.

-Adopted ?!! - she managed to ask in a small voice.

It couldn't possibly be true.

Only something inside her emerged furious at Elaine's taunts, eager to react and fight. It was by no means a sister to that thing. Her face remained fixed on the image of the woman in front of her, trying not to notice the silver gaze capable of giving her body chills.

There was no physical resemblance between them. It was ... it was impossible ...

Elaine gave up on being cautious about Jack's refusal to accept what he was. That despicable creature had come to the community to share her father's attention. The anger and revolt were overcome as a great dam that breaks through its barriers. Without thinking, the hand reached into the pocket of the tunic that wore a sharp knife. The metal held in her saluted hand found refuge in the target of her wrath and she delivered the blow in a single, possessed, and vindictive stroke.

Jack only managed to register the metallic glow of the gun and then took a deep breath with the discomfort in the body and the burning.

God! Will this thing kill me?

But it didn't kill, not even that. And it wasn't exactly like in the TV movies. Elaine quickly put it in and took out the sharp object. There was no blood.

-The abdomen has vital organs and, when the stab hits organs like the liver, spleen, or important arteries, it can cause death, did you know, half-sister? Please don't make that face. We may not like the light most of the time. But we are Winged. I knew that they say that the first of us was a man who crossed the lands of Spain towards the Nordic countries. He and his pregnant wife traveled only by eating worms that crawled across the land. Until one day he went crazy in a fit of madness. - Elaine paused emphatically, taking in Jack's astonished expressions with satisfaction. - This man tore his wife's belly with his nails and ate his own son and, not satisfied, devoured his wife's meat.

-You are ... you are ... - Jack sighed deeply, touching the wound on his abdomen that very slowly began to heal alone.

-Well, my dear, they say that the spirit of the great mother of the night had pity on the poor woman and her son, and a curse was placed on the man. He would for the rest of his immortal life feed on fetuses of all women and his lineage would live only to try to kill him. He would feel the pain of every fetus devoured and every time that blood touched someone, that someone would become his son ... He would become an aswang.

-You are insane, you know? You could have killed me! - Jack shouted with all her strength in the shock of emotions in turmoil.

-Oh, please! I didn't even throw salt at you and look how the burn hurts a lot. Holy water is also not very nice and we don't even walk on sacred ground. I personally hate the stingray whip and the sound it leaves in the air. Other than that it is always the default. To kill us beheading is more advisable. It was just a stab of nothing in the belly, damn it! Don't look like that poor thing!

Jack swallowed hard, looking around, aware that the whole world was collapsing on his shoulders as he looked at the fingers that should have been soiled with blood and had no trace of it.

Since when had the world gone so mad? Or had she finally freaked out?