Aswang
Photo: ChapPyroN/Deviant Art
The Aswang is a monster from Filipino mythology that has many variations depending on the cultural source of that particular story. There are, however, a few characteristics that remain the same across the stories. Aswang are shapeshifters, by day they tend to appear as quiet and shy individuals with a dark complexion and a lot of hair, but their eyes will give them away as what they truly are because they’re bloodshot and your reflection in them is inverted. At night they either take the shape of an animal or their true form: an ugly monster with wings they flap loudly when far away and quietly as they get closer. Aswang have to feed every full moon, but it’s what they eat that really warrants their addition to the list of monsters in the world. Aswang will steal and eat corpses, but they aren’t limited to the dead, they like to attack young children as well, replacing them with a likeness made from tree trunks that takes the child’s place for a couple of days before growing suddenly very ill and dying. They prefer to consume the heart and liver, but they aren’t limited to just those nor are they usually very picky.
There are a lot of ways to keep Aswang away as there are a lot of very common items they tend to avoid, anything from the standard salt, garlic, and silver to the more obscure calamansi, charcoal, ginger, and coconut sticks, but hunting them is a little more difficult. I’d recommend carrying around any spare change you have, as that is apparently enough to keep them from trying to lift you, but don’t ask me to explain that because I haven’t the foggiest why it works, and keep a small vial or other containers of oil boiled and decanted from coconut meat and mixed with plant stems as it will boil in the presence of an Aswang no matter what shape they take. As far as killing them goes, I haven’t found evidence it has to be with anything specific, but as long as you destroy the heart, an Aswang won’t be coming back again. Just to be safe, I’d probably recommend using silver or a coconut wood stake (similar to what you’d use on a vampire) to do it just as an added precaution… or dismember the body, burn the pieces, and bury the ashes in multiple places just in case they have some insane regenerative ability I wasn’t able to find evidence of.