Life in 1953 Philippines was hard for 17-year-old Clarita Villanueva, whose family had all either died or abandoned her in her young age. Clarita had turned to prostitution as a means to survive, and eventually found her way from her home island to the big city of Manila, where she was picked up and jailed for vagrancy.
shortly after her arrival, Clarita woke up in the night to the sound of pebbles bouncing off the concrete floor outside her cell. She called for the guards, only to be told to quiet down and go back to sleep. Laying in bed, Clarita stared up at the ceiling, just to realize that something was up there in the beams, staring right back at her.
The "thing", as it would later be called, leapt on top of her and
sunk its teeth into the flesh of her upper body.
Clarita screamed out in agony, waking her confused cell mates. She told them that she was being bitten by a large dark figure cloaked in black, and a small, pale creature with white hair. But when the guards arrived in response to all of the commotion, there were no perpetrators in sight. All of the witnesses at the scene that night, however, reported seeing bite marks appear all over Clarita's upper body.
The attacks from these invisible creatures continued throughout the night, until about 2:30am, leaving the institution's doctors and Chaplin at a complete loss for how to help Clarita.
It didn't take long for the story to hit the newspapers, prompting Manila's Mayor to request that Clarita be brought to him for his own inspection. After only moments of the Mayor sitting next to her, he noticed bite marks appear on Clarita's neck and index finger. A medical examiner on site described the marks as otherworldly, and not those of a human.
Clarita continued to be visited by these demons that only she could see, until Rev. Lester Sumrall was called in to help. At first, Clarita greeted Sumrall with an eager enthusiasm to be rid of these creatures, even declaring her love for Jesus Christ. As the exorcism commenced, her eyes flashed like flames, and she became wildly excited, cursing god and telling the reverend to leave.
After an arduous hour of the violent thrashing by Clarita and the relentless praying the the Reverend, it seemed that the "Thing" had finally made its exit and fled through the window in defeat.
After this entire, unusual affair, Clarita was transferred to a welfare facility. Upon her release, she moved back to her home province where she married and started a family, never to be visited by the "Thing" again.
For a more detailed account on this story, I highly recommend listening to the podcast DARK HISTORIES SEASON 5 EPISODE 8: Clarita Villanueva & The Thing.