Andre had been deeply puzzled by the strange disappearance of items inside their home in Laguna.
As a hardworking father, his greatest joy after a long day at work was simply sitting in the living room watching It’s Showtime while relaxing with his seven-year-old daughter Chantel and his two-year-old son Jaxel.
Since his wife Clarizze was working overseas, Andre was the one taking care of the children.
But in recent weeks, something disturbing had been happening. Every time he checked his wallet, thousands of pesos were missing. Not only that, but his favorite expensive skincare serum from The Ordinary had mysteriously vanished from the bathroom.
Even stranger, one evening he discovered that an entire pot of adobo he had cooked for dinner had completely disappeared.
Andre became convinced that someone had been secretly entering their house. Determined to uncover the truth, he began investigating.
One afternoon, while Chantel was playing outside, a small notebook accidentally fell out of her bag. When Andre opened it, his entire body went cold.
The pages were filled with drawings of a terrifying black figure. Beneath every drawing were large handwritten letters that read:
“MONSTER.”
One page contained a chilling message:
“I gave Papa’s money and our food so the monster in the old house wouldn’t get angry.”
A wave of fear and burning anger rushed through Andre. Someone had been threatening his innocent daughter and extorting money and food from her.
The “old house” mentioned in the notebook could only mean one place—the abandoned mansion at the end of their street, a place long rumored to be occupied by strangers and drifters.
Andre wasted no time. He didn’t ask for help from neighbors. He wanted to personally confront the person who had been taking advantage of his child.
He grabbed his sturdy LA Lakers baseball bat, put on his shoes, and quickly walked toward the dark mansion.
When he arrived, the smell of dust and rotting wood filled the air. Slowly, Andre stepped inside the crumbling house.
The interior was dark and silent.
At the far end of a broken hallway, he saw a shadow sitting on the floor.
Then he heard something unexpected—the familiar sound of the mobile game Mobile Legends playing from a cracked cellphone.
Andre tightened his grip on the baseball bat, ready to strike. With all his strength, he kicked open the broken door and shouted,
“You shameless man! What are you doing to my child?!” Andre’s voice echoed through the empty house.
The figure jumped in shock and dropped the phone.
Moonlight streamed through a hole in the roof, illuminating the face of the so-called “monster.”
But it wasn’t a criminal.
It was an elderly man named Bob.
The entire left side of his face and his arms were covered with deep, fresh burn scars.
On the floor beside him lay the empty container that once held Andre’s adobo, and in the trembling hands of the old man was the missing bottle of skincare serum.
Bob had been applying the expensive liquid to his peeling, burned skin to ease the pain and tightness of his wounds.
Before Andre could speak, small footsteps came running into the dark room.
Chantel burst inside, crying, and quickly stood between her father and the trembling man.
“Papa, please! Don’t hurt Kuya Bob!” the little girl sobbed. “He’s kind!”
Confused, Andre slowly lowered the bat.
“Chantel, why have you been giving this man money and our things? Why did you call him a monster in your notebook?”
The child continued crying as she gently held Bob’s injured hand.
“Because other kids call him a monster because of his face,” she said. “But Papa… he saved me!”
Through her tears, she explained what had happened three months earlier.
While she was playing in a vacant lot, dry grass suddenly caught fire. She became trapped in the middle of the flames.
Bob had jumped into the fire to rescue her.
He carried her out—but suffered terrible burns in the process.
Andre felt the world stop around him.
He remembered that day clearly—coming home terrified after hearing about the fire in the neighborhood. Chantel had been safe, but he never knew who had saved her before the firefighters arrived.
Bob had been hiding in the abandoned house ever since.
With no family and afraid that people would reject him because of his appearance, he stayed out of sight.
Chantel secretly gave him money to buy medicine, food to survive, and even her father’s skincare products to help soothe his wounds.
Andre’s knees collapsed onto the dusty floor.
The baseball bat slipped from his hands.
Tears streamed down his face as he hugged Chantel tightly and slowly approached the man who had saved his daughter’s life.
With a trembling voice, Andre apologized while holding Bob’s shoulders.
He brought Bob home that very night, took him to a proper hospital for treatment, and welcomed him into their family.
Andre realized that sometimes the kindest hearts hide behind the most frightening appearances—and that the true monsters are often those who judge others without ever knowing their story.
