That damn bird.
It’s always following me every night on my walk back form work. I can’t always see it but I know it’s there. I can hear its annoying call. Tik-Tik-Tik. Ugh. I’m glad I bought new headphones to help me deal with that. Every night it’s outside my window and it’s driving me insane. I can’t sleep knowing that it’s there watching me. I know it’s just some dumb animal but there’s a point where I just can’t stand it.
I finally had enough and I threw a rock at it yesterday. I didn’t want to hurt it, just scare it enough so I could have one night without being bothered, but I guess it was slow. I hit it right in its face and it came crashing down. I’m not a violent person, I swear. I rushed to see if it was okay and it wasn’t even moving.
It wasn’t like any kind of bird I’ve ever seen before. It was ugly, really ugly. I don’t even know how to describe it. It was as if someone took a regular bird and distorted it. The eyes were… I couldn’t even look at the eyes, they were red and gave me the chills.
The strangest part was the bird’s neck. It had a collar on it. What kind of crazy person has a pet bird like this. It read “Aswang” and I guess that’s an appropriate name for a bird as ugly as this. There wasn’t a number or a return address or anything like that so I put the bird’s body somewhere it wouldn’t be bothered.
I feel bad so I’m going to try to find its owner and apologize. But it’s going to be hard, I don’t even know where to start. Maybe the owner knows where his pet has been going all these nights.
Hopefully he’ll be able to find me.
————————–
Written by Karl Gaverza
Copyright © Karl Gaverza
Story inspired by the Tiktik description in Bikol Beliefs and Folkways: A Showcase of Tradition. Nasayao. 2010.
Tiktik Illustration and Watercolor by Nightmaresyrup
Tumblr: http://