"Dark Mysteries: The Giant Bat that Followed"

"Dark Mysteries: The Giant Bat that Followed"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr MD

When I was 10 years old I had one of the weirdest summers ever. One that involved a demon taking off it's hat and bowing to me and the other was this. A giant Bat that appeared to me twice.

The year was 1987 and we were going to Odiongan, Romblon for our yearly vacation. This year we were not able to board the ship that would bring us directly from Batangas to Odiongan. In our haste to go my parents decided that we would ride a ship to Mindoro and then ride another going to Romblon. This involved staying a night in Mindoro and my folks chose a seaside resort.

I remember that hot night as I was playing on the sand.The beach was illuminated by a couple of lights that were distant from me.I was working on a castle , not mindful of the waves that were a few feet from where I was.Then the shadow passed me and it was the shape of bat. I looked back at the light source and I was not able to see anything blocking it. I was afraid to look up so instead I ran. A gigantic bat near the sea. I didn't tell my folks about it right away but I did ask them to close the window tightly even if we were all sweating away. I tried to forget that night.

A couple of weeks after we have returned to Manila , we were visiting family on my Dads side. The De leons in Novaliches always had mini reunions and I was close with my cousins. I could not recall who I was with that night when the giant bat appeared again but we were on the street in what is now my Ate Eves house. We were talking , laughing about a joke or two when the same shadow , the same shape passed us by from above. I reasoned that it could just be another bat or a bat in the Novaliches area but somehow I felt that this one was following me. As a 10 year old boy who has seen this same creature I had to run indoors and preferred to stay there until we were going home.

I guess this was not the first time a giant bat showed itself to our family, my Uncle Epoy had an encounter when he saw one flying toward him from the dark. After that summer though I would not see that bat again. I wonder why it showed itself in the first place? was it observing me? I still have no clue.