Aswangs
Growing up in the Philippines, I used to have nightmares about aswangs—scary vampire-like beings who flew around at night, their torsos separated from the rest of their bodies. They were always pictured in folktales as banshee-like beings, with blood frothing at their mouths and wild hair and bare breasts. They were terrifying.
So when I was asked to write a story for this collection based on a myth from a diverse culture, I thought immediately of the Filipino folktales I knew, and knew I had to write about a teenage aswang and connect this folktale to a story I’ve been telling for a long time, about teenage vampires in New York City.
—Melissa de la Cruz