“The Beef Stew”

The sisters Anna and Kara were home alone one night and decided to watch the latest
episode of “Shake, Rattle and Roll entitled “Ang Pagpag”. After watching a family movie
in a house haunted by demons and going through all that stereotypical stuff, they
decided to go to bed. Neither had ever been bothered by the scary movies, so neither
had a problem going straight to bed.

One of the sisters, Anna woke up in the middle of the night, feeling like something was
wrong. She got up from bed and went to her sister Kara’s room to check on her and
make sure everything was all right. She walked in and saw that her sister was sleeping,
however, she went further in, just to make sure. She looked around her sister's bed and
then turned around to the mirror.

In the mirror, her sister was sitting up, awake, and her eyes were red–pure red like the
eye of a blazing wolf. The reflection opened her mouth and said fast asleep. She turned
back to the mirror again and it was normal.

Unnerved, she went back to her room and back to bed.

In the morning, Anna asked her sister if she was playing around since they pranked
each other a lot.

The sister tilted her head to the side and raised an eyebrow.

” What are you talking about, Anna? I slept in the living room last night.”

Anna is bewildered by the thought of it, she cannot be hallucinating.

Normally, she’d gone unnerved, but as an intuitive person, she knew something was
wrong.

She has been feeling weird ever since Kara returned home from her field trip. She is
now so stoic and grim, unlike her usual bright self.

One morning, Anna was awakened by the smell of morning beef stew and someone
humming in the kitchen. This felt like a strange morning, as usual, she and her sister
were late birds and so as her parents and she wondered who made such a nuisance
early in the morning.

She got up and ran down the stairs. She was greeted by her sister vivaciously preparing
their breakfast. This made her think that the person in front of her was unlikely her
sister. Ever since she came back, she had shown multiple personalities and mood
swings.

“Hi there Sis, call up Mom and Dad, and let us have our breakfast.”

“But we never had breakfast early this hour, Mom and Dad just came home from work.”

“Oh, I must have been forgotten due to my long trip, come, and join me.”

Anna was hesitant and felt so alarmed as her sister is the most indolent who ever
existed, she had never even washed her dishes. Seeing her skillful maneuvers in the
kitchen, was uncanny.

She takes a small sip of the stew, and it brings so much life to her being. She tasted it
again and it tasted so out of this world. So delectable. She hurriedly sips the stew and
eats everything to its tiniest drop. In her peripheral vision, she saw her sister smiling
deliriously.

She was as if under a spell as what she thinks is that she wants more. More of it to
satisfy her desire and starvation.

She was snapped by the reality when she heard a chuckle from her sister.

“You have been so famished lately as you finished all of my stew, you did not even
leave some for Mom and Dad.”

“You never learned how to cook in your entire life, how is it possible that you can make
this scrumptious food?

Her sister just creepily smiled and said, “Just that, I want to make the world a better
place.”

Though, suspecting her, she chose to give her the benefit of the doubt. She thinks that
perhaps she has been hit by realizations during her trip. She gets excited thinking that
every day they won’t no longer eat lousy foods but savory ones.

Not long ago, a lot of people now discovered the succulent taste of Kara’s beef stew. It
became a mass hit and a lot of people kept on begging for more. It was like a nicotine
drug that once tasted, will always be wanted.

Anna’s family even quit their job to start a business out of Kara’s cooking ability. They
invest their money to build an infrastructure for their food business.

They supported her throughout the process but there is the only thing that is an
exception. They are forbidden to enter her kitchen to see her cook and to even ask the
special ingredients as it will alter the stew’s taste. No one even tried to ask as the
majority will not risk making their stew taste horrid.

Their business skyrocketed. This gives so much delight to her parents, however, not to
Anna. All of it happened so fast that it felt like a dream. So idealistic that she cannot
even think of it happening. Every pile of events seems manipulated for a larger price.
Now and then, her suspicion accelerates. Then, she decided to devise a plan to
discover her sister’s secret.

At midnight she sneaked around her sister's kitchen, a place that everyone’s been
forbidden to enter.

Surprisingly, the door was not even locked, however, the entire place was completely
dark. She felt an eerie feeling, and her heartbeat went into a frenzy thinking about the
things he would soon discover. As she stepped foot inside, the rusty and bloody smell
illuminated her senses. It smells like a slaughtering house and the squeals of rats and
bats intensify its chills. She was tiptoeing her way inside and groped the walls to find the
light switch.

As the light illuminates the room, her jaw dropped by the sight of how horrendous the
place is. Thousands of jars filled with various human body parts. Blood splattered
everywhere and horrifying flesh hung in the ceiling. It was like a preserved meat for a
cause. She checked the cooking pot, and there she saw a head. Their neighbors head
who’s reportedly missing for weeks. She vomits uncontrollably thinking she has been
eating human flesh all this time. Not just her, but all the people in their village. She
cannot believe they have deceived all this time and that explains why Kara’s stew tasted
unbelievably different.

She was about to run away to report what she saw when she heard someone just
closing and slamming the door.

“I know you are here darling, it’s great that you willingly offer yourself for dinner. “

Anna terrifyingly shuts her mouth as she listens to her sisters sermon while slowly
sharpening the edges of her knife’s blade.

“Come out now, I won’t hurt you, I’m your sister remember?”

Anna scanned the place to seek a tiny opportunity to escape. There she saw that the
back door was slightly open. She crawled her way out minimally and when she was
about to take her last step out from hell, a strong grip of her hair pulled her back in.

“You think you can get away from me? Look at these people, they did the same but
what happened? They become my prey.
“Who are you and where is my sister? Anna said with her gasping breath.

A sinister loud laughter filled the room, “Me? I am Lilith, and your sister? She’s here,
(pointing at her heart), within me, trapped in my sanctity. Oh, poor girl, sacrificed herself
for the sake of love that’s worthless. Now, you are the 333; the one who will complete
my ritual so this body will forever be mine. You will be offered to my Lord, and all of you
will be born again.

Suddenly a huge tornado hit the village and loud shrieks howled in the entire
community.

“He’s here, it’s happening” Kara exclaimed with delirious joy.

Anna slipped out on her grasp, there she saw before in her eyes, the people in her
village who consumed the beef stew were flying, courageously flapping their way
towards the tornado. All of them transformed into a “mananangal” even her parents.

Suddenly, she started to feel itchy. Something in her body wants to wobble its way out.
In one second, she found herself flying hand in hand with her mom and Dad towards
their destiny.

Anna looked down and smiled, “And now I’m reunited again with you my love, my Lord,
my Hades and together we’ll rule the underworld”.