Tahong — -2024-

“Mama, your eyes,” he said one evening. “They’re not brown anymore.”

She blinked. For a moment, her reflection seemed to move a second too late, a lag that made her stomach drop. Then it passed, and she laughed, and she told Kiko to stop telling stories. Tahong -2024-

“That’s not tahong ,” he said quietly. “That’s something wearing its shell.” “Mama, your eyes,” he said one evening

Ligaya laughed, but the laugh caught in her throat. “What else would it be?” Then it passed, and she laughed, and she

Behind her, the village of Tulayan began to sing. It was a low, clicking song, a song of pressure and darkness and the long, patient memory of the deep. Ligaya felt her own mouth open. Felt her own throat produce the same sound.

That night, Kiko woke screaming.

Ligaya noticed none of this. Or rather, she noticed, but the noticing felt distant, like watching a bad storm through a window she couldn’t open. She spent her days on the water, her hands moving automatically, prying tahong from the ropes. She no longer ate anything else. She no longer wanted to.