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.
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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
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