Ascension
Country: Philippines
Author Name: Eliza Victoria
Publisner Name: Penguin Random House Southeast Asia
Original Language: English
A woman returns to her hometown to attend a friend’s wake – but ends up confronting an inexplicable evil.
Emilia and her colleague, Michelle, are waiting in the hospital for test results when Michelle notices a woman staring at Emilia.
Emilia recognises the woman, Alma, a childhood friend from her hometown, whom she hasn’t seen or spoken to for 12 years.
Emilia comes over to say hello, but the pleasantries soon devolve into Alma lashing out, obliquely referring to another friend, Pauline, and an unfinished ritual from their teenage years in Santa Clara.
Disgusted by Emilia’s denial, Alma walks away, but later collapses.
As Alma is being revived, Emilia recalls the first time Pauline shows her the house where the ritual will be carried out, with Pauline describing that a god lives in the house.
Alma does not survive.
Emilia finds details about her wake on social media, and Michelle offers to drive her to Santa Clara.
Emilia is starting to unravel, mistaking Michelle for a black goat and crying during lunch when they stop by Michelle’s home.
Worried by
...this, Michelle tells Emilia that she will stay with her at the wake.
The car’s GPS go haywire as they enter the town.
Emilia tells Michelle where to turn, and they find themselves in front of the house.
Michelle says she sees a woman wearing a veil inside, and Emilia, horrified, pulls her away.
At the wake, Emilia reunites with the friends she has left behind, to her circle of friends who rekindle memories of a bizarre ritual left unfinished.
Of a dark visitor who sits by their bed at night, of a being who won’t let them sleep.
Must they once again awaken whoever dwells in that lonely house?
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