Manananggal - The Long Tongue from the Roof and the Shadow with Only an Upper Body
That night, my cousin was sleeping in her room.
She was eight months pregnant.
Her belly was so heavy she couldn’t walk far, and she woke up often during the night.
The house was in a rural area.
The windows had mesh screens, and the ceiling was made of thin wooden boards.
When it rained, the sound on the roof was loud enough to shake the whole house.
But that night, it wasn’t raining.
Around 2 a.m., a sound came from the roof.
Thud.
At first, I thought it was a cat.
Stray cats sometimes climbed onto the roof.
But the next sound was wrong.
Squish.
Something wet was dragging across the tiles.
I had been sleeping on the living room floor, and my aunt had come out to get water from the kitchen.
She looked at me immediately.
“Bring the salt.”
I didn’t understand.
She repeated,
“Now.”
Then we heard a faint groan from my cousin’s room.
We opened the door.
My cousin was lying on the bed, eyes open.
She looked like she was trying to move but couldn’t.
She was staring at the ceiling.
I looked up too.
Something was coming down through the gap between the ceiling boards.
At first, I thought it was a snake.
Thin and long.
Wet.
The tip swayed slowly.
But it wasn’t a snake.
It was a tongue.
Too long to be human.
Red and black st