u/Cyrink

When I was a kid, we used to live in this old massive ancient barn that was passed down for 2 generations and with a massive combined family. With Aunts, Uncles, Siblings, my parents and especially our grandpa and grandma.

The place was rural and surrounded by trees and nature, and you really won't find it easily if you don't know where to go.

One fateful night my cousin and I, Mark who was thirteen years old at the time decided to sneak off through the sleeping adults and go to the massive forest near the barn, like we always do.

The two of us would pretend and act like wolves, kings, servants, and act like the trees were walls or playgrounds and anything you could think of as a 9 year old.

When we were at the property line, me and Mark were preparing to jump over to just crawl down, until a few feet away we both saw a man holding a bolo and standing over something.

A bolo in the Philippines was a big knife commonly used for gardening, it's night, what business or logical reason would he have to do at night?

The man swung his bolo and a painful agonizing scream followed, Mark and I heard and saw everything.

Mark immediately ducked and he whispered.

"Yumuko ka pababa."

I immediately ducked, following his order, the tall grass really helped us hide from the man, even if it was uncomfortable feeling the sharp grass on my legs and arms.

For minutes, the screams didn't end until the sound of swinging stopped.

For a second I really thought the man left until we heard footsteps near us, he was literally just over the fence, standing up, probably looking for witnesses.

Mark saw the boots covered with blood and immediately signaled me to never make a move and quiet down, and thank god I did.

The smell of the man was horrendous, it copper mixed with rot, blood, dirt, and stale sweat.

This was the scariest moment of my life, we could hear his breaths and the sound of him sharpening his blade.

During the moment, my heart was beating fast and faster as the second grew. I can't believe a killer was just in front of me, and literally in front of me.

The man's feet were suddenly gone, and that's when I felt someone over us, the wooden fence squeaked over the man's weight, and I knew he was jumping over the fence.

but out of nowhere a scream rang out right where the man stood earlier.

"TULONG!"

The scream was painful and as if the person screaming it had their throat cut or destroyed, the person was yelling for help.

But I don't think any help would fix their wounded body or should i say, bleeding body.

another scream rang out and mid yell, and coincidentally the man jumped over the fence on the other side and ran back where the direction of the scream was, the grass shuffling under his feet once more.

Looking from it as an adult, he probably ran to the person and delivered the final blow before running off to another direction.

We still hid for minutes and probably hours on end, but once we knew damn well that the man was gone we were now safe.

and that's when Mark whispered.

"Takbo."

Run. Before running off, I didn't need to be told twice and of course ran off after him fearing I would get caught.

When we arrived at the massive barn we were dripping in sweat, I had asthma during this time in my childhood so i was trying my best to calm myself down and Mark tried his best too.

Luckily I calmed down a few minutes after, we both decided to shower, change clothes, and go to sleep.

I showered quietly, I set the shower to run at a very slow speed to lower the sound.

after I finished, I climbed on top of the bunk bed and i tried my best to sleep, my wet hair soaking my pillow.

I was scared that if I fess up, that they would ground me for being reckless and especially sneaking out at night and what if the man would come after my family if i told the truth, I physically couldn't sleep that night

The next day while having breakfast, I couldn't speak, I was scared my parents would be mad at me and Mark for sneaking out.

I was torn between fessing up or keeping quiet Until Mark himself spouted out everything we saw, and heard that night.

They didn't believe us and even laughed at us believing it was just nightmares.

My aunt Jenny was confused, if it was really a nightmare then why did both of us experience it? there are no such things as shared dreams or very similar dreams, the details we gave were too specific to even be a dream.

"Wait lang, impossible na bangungot lang yan, walang bagay na pareho ang napapa ginipan nila. Mark, may nagyare ba talaga kagabi?"

Aunt Jenny pointed out that shared dreams don't exist and questioned Mark if anything he said really happened.

The room shifted its mood, the laughs stopped and everything was now serious.

Mark said that everything we saw was real, and even told them about how the Man was so close to finding us because the man himself was searching the grass and preparing to jump over the fence over to our side.

Our Grandpa asked where this happened and after breakfast we all went to the place where it happened.

When we arrived by jumping over the fence, it was clean.

Clean as if it never happened.

Our Grandpa was a hardened man of dignity and always remained calm when handling very serious stuff, and he never gets scared easily.

"Sandali, na aamoy akong dugo kahit mukhang malinis dito."

The place reeked of blood even if the place looked ridiculously clean coming from our grandpa, grandpa's tone was serious but still had a little panic in it.

And that's when everyone finally believed us and got cold, our grandpa would never lie about such very serious stuff and especially the case here, everyone knew even if we told the police they wouldn't do shit.

And after a week or so, we all collectively decided to part ways with each family.

Some returned to their old Apartments, and some scrambled to buy new houses.

Our grandpa sold the barn and sold the animals even if it was painful letting go of his precious animals and barn.

My grandma and grandpa soon moved in with us after what happened and they are still with us to this day.

As an adult, i will never ask who the man was and never will.

As of typing this, the television is on the local news and i almost didn't pay attention until i saw a familiar face.

They identified the man i saw that night as Juan Gonzalez, and he was the local butcher that sold meat at the local wet market.

But something really freaks me out, why was he planning to jump over our fence? was our family next? what if the person never screamed?, or what if the man found me and Mark hiding on the grass?..

What if the people he killed was the meat he sold, i remember it always being tender and even weirdly sweet.

Oh god.

Did we fucking eat human meat?