Twelve-year-old Emily knows when adults are lying. She keeps a list - notebook, timestamps, the true story read out of what nobody will say. So when Mom's too-bright voice sends her and her little brother off to their grandmother's village in the Philippines "for an adventure," Emily already knows something back home is quietly coming apart.Lola's house has two rules: stay inside after dark, and never, ever follow the tik-tik. The clicking in the night is just a gecko. The smiling neighbor is just a nosy old woman. The old stories are just stories.Except they aren't.Before the summer is over, Emily will face three creatures out of Filipino folklore - a manananggal who separates at the waist and hunts on bat wings the size of a door, a kapre who keeps his little fire in the balete tree and expects to be greeted properly, and a tikbalang who owns every road on the mountain. None of them can be beaten the way the last one was.And the oldest thing hiding in her grandmother's yard isn't a monster at all. It's what Lola did fifty years ago - the kind, careful, unforgivable thing she did to a friend, which is the same thing Emily's mother is doing to her right now.Getting her family through the summer will take more than following the rules. It will take the truth, the right name spoken out loud in a language she's only just learning to claim - and the nerve to put the weapon down.A spooky, tender story about grief, belonging, and the words you didn't know you needed.A Note on ProcessWriters have always relied on tools: editors, critique partners, research, and conversation. This book was created with the help of AI as one of those tools. It assisted me in drafting, revising, and exploring ideas along the way. I also used AI image-generation tools to create the cover and interior artwork under my creative direction through iterative prompting, selection, and refinement.The story, along with Emily, Ethan, Lola Celia, and the world they inhabit, began in my imagination, shaped by my own research into and love for Filipino folklore. The characters, the plot, the themes, and the countless choices that brought this book to life all reflect my vision and many rounds of revision.I believe readers deserve to know how a book is made. Thank you for joining Emily and Ethan on their journey. I'm grateful to share it with you.- Peter
