Their numbers rose as the oceans reclaimed

lands that were closest to its wet borders.

The reports—initially laughed at in the cities—

first came from rural coastal towns.

Women giving birth

to twins: one human, one fish.

As the infant survived, its fish-twin vanished,

never to be seen again. Some said

they died, unable to breathe on land,

some whispered they were killed and

buried in shame—no story’s the same.

Midwives and physicians were baffled, then

became dismissive. Mass hysteria,

someone in authority opined.
It didn’t take long for someone to record and upload

something on social media. The grainy and shaky

video managed to show something tubular

and gray slip from the old hilot’s* hands

into a basin of water.

The mother’s screams rang like bells.

A man stormed into the room,

shouted at the person holding the camera

and grabbed it, ending the footage.

The internet went ablaze. No one was

laughing anymore. A public health crisis

declared, experts and epidemiologists

worked to make sense of the phenomena

but found no answers.
As more islands sank beneath the waves more

women delivered twins of human and fish.

People’s violent reactions simmered

into nonchalance—as always—except for

the few times when the fish survived

instead of the infant. Coastal villages

moved inland as the ocean swallowed

their homes. The elder folk declared

This was just nature trying to check

and restore balance.

“We all clambered from the sea,”

one said with confidence.

“And that’s where we’re all going back—

Sooner or later.”
Weeks later, a fisherman was arrested for

his daughter’s disappearance. The child

had been sick a few days. The mother

went to a relative to borrow money

for medicine, leaving the toddler in

her husband’s care.

He was crying on the beach when she returned.

Distraught, he said his daughter suddenly

stopped breathing and as he held her up

her neck opened up like fish-gills.

By instinct, he took her to the water, which

revived her instantly, and she quickly swam

away, as her rumored twin-fish sister did

barely two years ago.


*Hilot – traditional birth attendants in Philippine rural communities