Filipino Scares: a Collection of Short Stories

After Midnight

Arvic was tired. The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority had just unleashed a new traffic scheme on the public, and his hour-long commute was now two hours long. And then, when he arrived at work late, his boss informed him that they're going to spend all-night at the office to finish a new deadline for a regular client.

Saying the whole day was a nightmare would be an understatement, but the important thing was that Arvic survived. Now he was heading home with the beginnings of a plan on how to skip work the next day.

Then he heard a woman scream for help.

He surveyed the area and met eyes with four other people. A police officer heading back to their makeshift precinct under the flyover. An elderly man rummaging through the trash of a closed carinderia. A young woman who looked like she went to the gym a lot, talking to someone on her phone. And a skinny tall man who quickly averted his gaze upon meeting Arvic's eyes.

In an ideal world, Arvic would have done something to help the damsel in distress. Run towards the scream. Fend off whoever was doing the bad thing. Save the girl. But it was way past midnight and he was exhausted. Besides, he wasn't the only one in the vicinity.

Arvic walked away.

He hailed a passing bus, and sprinted up its steps.

He headed home and tried to drown the woman's screams from his mind by plugging his earphones in and blasting the loudest music he had on his phone.

The body was found the next day.

Although Arvic had wanted to stay home and rest, he thought it would be better to get his mind busy with something else. Anything else. So he went back to work. No one stayed later than 10 p.m. that day. Everyone was spooked.

A week passed. A month. People moved on from the tragedy. Maybe the woman hadn't been careful. Maybe she wasn't dressed properly. Maybe she invited the violence to herself. The uncaught criminal forgotten, the victim became the new point of blame. And even that became buried in the past as time went on.

Until another body was found. A skinny tall man. In the exact same place where the body of the dead woman was found. With an anguished expression frozen on his face.

Arvic felt transported back to the night of the scream. He recognized the man. He remembered how he averted his gaze. Arvic felt a chill run down his spine. But it was just a coincidence, he assured himself. The area was already a scene of one crime before. It was the skinny tall man's fault for going back there.

Three weeks later, during a late night at the office, Arvic heard gunshots outside. Everyone stopped what they were doing. The fear was palpable. His officemates decided to spend the night inside, where it was safe. Arvic couldn't argue with this logic.

The crime scene hadn't been cleaned up when they left the next day. Nosy passersby were taking photos of the dead body with their phones. Arvic felt sick.

It wasn't until he got home, when his mother started interrogating him about the safety of his place of work, that he found out who died. It was the police officer. From the night of the screaming woman. His face was all over his Facebook feed. There were no details in the news reports about his death. Nothing was said about the gunshots in the wee hours of the night.

Arvic turned in his resignation letter the next day.

It took him a couple of months to find new work. The pay wasn't better, but it was closer to his house. He figured he could work his way back up this previous salary. What matters now was that he was as far away as possible to his previous place of work. And that he was safe now.

And he was.

A year passed. He started going out with a guy. It was going great until the guy wanted to take him to a newly opened restaurant near where Arvic used to work. He asked that they eat somewhere else. He explained his fear of the place. The guy said he was being irrational, but conceded. They went on a date somewhere else, but they broke up soon after. Irreconcilable differences. Arvic was becoming a recluse, and the guy wanted to see more of the world.

Another year passed and he started dating a girl from his current work. A homebody, she didn't like going out. Their dates were mostly spent watching movies at her place or his. They were happy. He was happy.

And then, during one of their dates, the girl's phone rang. A friend was having an emergency. The girl, having consumed wine to get through their Star Cinema marathon, asked Arvic if he could drive. He didn't think, he just said yes.

It wasn't until he was on the EDSA highway that he started getting goosebumps. A couple of years changed nothing. Every building was the same. Every landmark.

His girlfriend told him they needed to make a U-turn. Arvic didn't want to. But it was an emergency. He turned the steering wheel.

Then he heard the scream.

And he was back where it all began.

He could even see the woman who looked like she went to the gym a lot, frantically dialing on her phone.

Then Arvic lost control of the car.

Arvic was taken straight to the nearest hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

His girlfriend survived. She kept repeating she needed to find her friend. The police who responded to the accident thought she was incoherent. Or just drunk.

The woman they hit was found three hours later by an old vagrant. Nearby witnesses said the vagrant lost color and started shouting about someone screaming. That he was the only one left.

And then he was gone.

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