It was usual for the people of the Barrio to believe that silence evokes a sense of fearmongering. The absence of something is where one is truly present, after all. At that particular moment, one can say that Kali was identifying who that absence was.

“It can’t be Anito,” he thought. He squinted his eyes to grasp the silhouette’s identity. Unsurprisingly, it was that of a face he’d never seen before.

The silhouette had dull, gray eyes, and pale skin, and his head was almost clear of hair. His teeth were chaos, and his wrinkles cut deep into his face like bruises. Kali squinted one more time, aiming his vision at the silhouette’s eyes. To his shock, his reflection wasn’t flipped, It was upside-down.

“Oh, so you’re a ghoul, too?” Kali asked the ragged shadow.

Shaking, attempting to nod its head at the answer, the silhouette spasms. For Kali, it was his first time seeing such a transformation, and from a ghoul who seemed to hate it, no doubt.

The ghoul’s iris turned white as it popped out of his eye sockets, his teeth growing into each other as it turned into fangs. “It didn’t look like he had braces,” Kali said. Even at such concerning sights, his primary thought was that his teeth looked like blades of grass. This was a huge problem; Kali loved eating grass, as he learned doing it from his classmate who was named after a famous notebook brand. If he were to eat his teeth, that would conclude his wonderful eleven years.

Even with his smart intellect, he can’t help but subvert the reasons for his hypotheses and conclusions, even if reality offered the same answer with realistic methods. Interestingly enough, he’d be dead either way if he thought of running instead of eating the transforming ghoul’s teeth. Out of all the things he could be afraid of at that moment, it was the thought of being unable to eat the grass from the ghoul’s mouth that instilled Kali’s much-needed fear.

Oh, have I mentioned that the ghoul grew bat-like wings during the entire debacle? Kali didn’t even notice; he was busy thinking like a cow.

The transformed ghoul started to take its first course of action. Even with the fetuses nearby, his transformed mind still can’t help but think of the gourmet he was served, standing right in front of the alleyway. He did what other hungry people would do at that moment: Eat.

He tackled Kali with full force, but his quick thinking allowed him to evade the attack, his slender and short body fitting perfectly in between the ghoul’s hips. Now what? They had swapped positions, and Kali was nothing short of cornered. The two were at the edge of the alleyway.

Kali clutched onto a nearby stick broom and aimed it at the ghoul. “Don’t bite me, rabies man!” He said in horror. Not a slight sense of insult is intended on his part, he merely ran out of things to describe the monster.

“Rabies man? I'M~ SUFFERING~ BECAUSE OF A~ CHICK IN MY GUTS~ AND YOU'RE CALLING ME~ RABIES MAN!?” The ghoul complained, attempting to take control of his own body. His reply made Kali tilt his head in confusion—was it a common sight to see a murderer break character?

Nevertheless, the ghoul did not lose physical prowess. His arm charged Kali at full speed, but he evaded his attacks again. On the other hand, the wind started picking up, whose gust was not strong enough to blow them away, but just enough for Kali to notice the wine bottle rolling in front of him.

Just those few seconds were enough for Kali to become vulnerable. The ghoul struck hard once more, this time, pinning Kali hard into the ground. The poor kid clung on to dear life, but then the wine bottle started rolling further into his right arm, propelled by the wind from the ghoul’s tackle. He swiftly grabs it and bonks the ghoul violently in the head. It wasn’t enough to render him unconscious, but he slightly flinched at the attack and was in excruciating pain.

Kali took the opportunity to do his defensive stance. “Please don’t make me do this, mister!”

Without batting an eye, he noticed a large bell-shaped dome made of steel on his right. He would’ve admired its intricate details so much, but he wasn’t really in a state to appreciate art at that moment. The wall was a few feet further, so he used the dome instead for his next trick: Breaking the wine glass and turning it into a sharp weapon. However, as he did, a ridiculously loud ring emanated from it. Turns out, it wasn’t just a bell-shaped dome; it was an abandoned church bell left to rust on the alleyway.

“My ears…” Kali exclaimed in tears.

“Eh, I had it worse, kid. We ghouls are hypersensitive to loud sounds, you kinda blew my eardrums there…”

It wasn’t the first time the ghoul broke character, so Kali lost all sense of surprise. He let go of his stance and awkwardly stared at the ghoul.

“So… should I run away, or…?” Kali bewilderedly asked him.

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“That’s a bad idea. You’re still cornered and that makes things easier for him.”

“For who?”

“ME!” The ghoul shouted, somehow transforming his mental state again.

He jumped on Kali and having lost his stance, he chose just to stand there, screaming dementedly. At least, from a few blocks away, one of the two kids is having fun.

“Well, well. Look who’s back?” Anito fruitily exclaimed. He was talking on behalf of a five-nit coin, which had been dressed accordingly by an orange peel from a trash bin for non-biodegradables.

“IT’S YOU! The one we rich people oppressed so badly that returned eighteen years later with a sidekick that turns out to be your long-lost child to DESTROY US ALL!” He responded to himself frantically with odd specificity. This time, he was talking on behalf of a ten-nit coin, to which he dressed in a bloody cotton ball he found scouring a trash bin for biohazards. The bizarre thing about the situation is that the waste was actually in the right container this time around.

Anito talked on behalf of the five-nit coin again. “Heh. Good thing you noticed.” He made the five-nit coin hop towards the ten-nit coin. Each hop sports an aura of fashion that can only be done through professional hand choreography.

“Now let’s do the first thing people like us always do when revenging.” The coin valiantly uttered, drawing closer to the ten-nit coin’s imaginary ears, and whispered:

“I stole your husband.”

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” The ten-nit coin screamed at the skies. Well—perhaps Anito’s scream wasn’t that loud in reality, but that’s how he imagined it to sound. However, as he continued screaming, a series of sound waves impacted Anito’s ears; it was the bell that Kali had rung by accident. Thinking something had gone wrong, he gathered the coins and shoved them all into his pocket.

“K~ Kali? Hold on! I'm~ Oops… I'm coming!” He said, almost tripping as he sprinted towards the commotion.

Miraculously, Kali was able to evade the ghoul’s attack. His intelligence doesn’t give him fighting capabilities, and his brain is of no use in his situation; even the brightest minds get taken down by panic. Fortunately, the attack made the two entities swap positions again, this time, giving Kali the chance to escape. The remaining brain cells that kept him awake did what every weakling would do in such a scenario: Run.

And so he did. He was pretty swift, actually, but even so, the breeze was flowing against him. In that case, he thought, that it would be better if he went in the opposite direction instead. Sure, it led him further from the park, but he was certain that there could be a route somewhere.

“SOMEONE! ANYONE! HELP!” He screamed. There were suddenly eyes in between the window blinds. The people inside weren’t keen on contacting emergency services though, for they thought that would mean sending more important people to their graves. Kali was only a child, after all; he can be replaced by another one in twelve years or so.

The clicking sounds were getting louder by the second. Of course, Kali knew why that was, but he didn’t know why fate seemed to go against him at that instance. As he sprinted, he noticed another silhouette, wearing brass knuckles. It’s a given that Kali doesn’t have a good track record with shadowy people, so he was understandably frightened by its presence even further.

Luckily, the silhouette was on his side. She inexplicably jumped above Kali and punched the ghoul right in the face, breaking two fanged molars which came rolling down the streets. Kali picked one up and… started chewing it.

The shadow, wearing a striped purple shirt with a red hoodie tied around her waist, thought she was pretty badass as hints of relief started to show off her face.

“Kali…” She said as she looked at him. “You know that~”

It took the girl a few seconds to realize what Kali had been doing.

“Oh, for the nth time already. Just because it looks like grass DOESN’T MEAN IT’S GRASS!”

“I’m panicking…” Kali tearfully replied, his mouth still filled with enamel.

“Well you can’t spell valedictorian without ‘dick’ now, can you?” She annoyingly replied.

The shadow bonked Kali painfully, but at least he was sane—for now.

“There’s no K in valedictorian, though,” Kali responded, using the tip of the fang to floss some of his gum buildup away.

“There is if you’re not street smart, idiot.” The girl clapped back, preparing her stance against the knocked ghoul.

A concerned Anito managed to track Kali down from the other side of the road. He was oblivious to what was going on, so he sensibly asked what was happening.

“Kali! What’s going on~”

The monster implied his answer. The look, the twitching, and the absurdity he showed Anito all screamed “I’m the problem” to him, so he was abhorrently frightened to see someone like him in the flesh.

“You’re a tiktik…” Anito anxiously claimed.

Sporting a sociopathic face, the tiktik’s eyes took time to check him out. He explicitly looked at Anito’s eyes, specifically, at the reflection of what he, the tiktik, had become physically. He was amused at what he looked like; his feet were on top of him and his head was hanging low beneath the pavement. His fangs were over his bulging eyes, looking like a grass block more than anything.

That was kind of weird, the monster thought, as the tiktik are usually humanoid. It wasn’t until he took another look at his reflection that he realized just how stupid he was. He turned his head 180 degrees and realized that his reflection on Anito’s eyes was upside down.

“Ah, I get what’s going on.” The tiktik excitedly whispered to Anito. “You’re one of us…”

At that moment, Anito was just cautiously waiting for the monster to reveal Anito’s identity, and so he did; and by doing so, Anito smacked him right in the face.

The tiktik was deeply hurt. To think he’d receive a punch from his own kind. “Ow, hey! What the heck was that for!?”

“…Who’s that?” The girl nonchalantly asked Kali.

“My friend! He’s moving here with me.”

“Huh, I’m gonna be housemates with that guy?” She squinted.

“Wait, Uncle never told you?”

“Duh. I only expected you; I wasn’t expecting two!”

“Guys, are you still gonna beat his butt?” Anito curiously asked Kali and the girl.

“Oh, right…” The girl realized. “Stand down guys, this will only take a minute.”

A flying fang pierces through the air, much to the startlement of the three children. The tiktik had risen, having learned to use his teeth like darts. There are thirty or twenty-eight more where that came from— it depends on whether the tiktik visited the dentist or not.

“Five. Five minutes.”