While alone in the house, Patrick (Joshua Garcia) finds inside Matmat (Carlo Aquino)’s bag a book by Mia (Anne Curtis) titled "Ang Batang Tiyanak." He begins to read it. Beautiful, haunting visuals unfold on screen as Patrick narrates the tale.
Set in a remote town, a child unlike any other is born. He has no feelings and his only desire is to eat without end, for he is a tiyanak, a demon child. To keep him hidden from the world, his mother locks him in their basement, venturing out each night to hunt animals, sometimes a chicken, sometimes a pig, so her son would never go hungry.
The story tells of how the mother and child live this way for many years until a plague sweeps the land, claiming countless lives and even animals. The survivors flee to safer places, all except the mother and her demon son, for she cannot bring herself to leave him. To keep him fed, she severs one of her legs to give to him, then one arm, until she has no limbs left to sacrifice. She offers the rest of her body so he can eat until the very end.
The scene cuts to a flashback where young Patrick woke in the sweltering heat to see his mother Tess (Meryll Soriano) patiently fanning Matmat so he could sleep peacefully. Over this moment, the voice of older Patrick continues reading from the book—the part where the demon child embraces his mother tightly and, for the first time, speaks, “Nanay, napakasarap ng iyong yakap.”
Back in the present, Patrick sits with tears streaming down his face as he finishes reading the book.
Catch “It’s Okay To Not Be Okay” on Kapamilya Channel, Kapamilya Online Live (KOL), A2Z, and TV5, weeknights at 8:45 PM. Watch it in advance on Netflix and iWant.