Leave The Monster Alone

And done. Please take care of your cat next time" the soft voice of a man called out, soft hands petting the cat that laid on the table before him. Mark blinked his eyes and found them tired.

Why were they so tired?

The cat let out a soft purr in satisfaction, yet it was too medicated to do anything else at that moment.

"I see. I'll take care of her this time around. Thank you for your time Doctor Li" the older lady sitting in front of the doctor said, her hands making small movements in her lap.

Although she was the owner of the cat, at that moment the woman only had the eyes for the man sitting opposite to her.

The man almost cringed from the unwanted attention being bestowed onto his person, but unfortunately, all he could do was grin and pray that this unwanted interest in him would dwindle.

"Please none of that Mrs, You're a regular customer here and your cat is always welcomed here" the doctor patted the cat to show support to his words.

The woman pretended to swoon at his words which were not something he wanted to see at all since he and the woman had a marginal age gap between herself and him. Not to mention, her already present family's presence in this situation.

Overall, this was not a situation he fancied himself in being, every.

But the woman had been persistent in her endeavours, going as far as to involve her pet cat (or a stray she took in any way and made Mark's clinic a regular centre for visit.

At least the cat was a good company to keep anyway. Far better than the old lady. Mark had no idea what she was planning and he was not going to go out of his way to find out either.

He had enough on his plate.

From behind, a dog barked (one of his patents he was meaning to release) which broke the strange atmosphere. Mark withdrew his hand from the bed which had been nearly grasped by the lady. The lady let out, what she hoped to be an embarrassed laugh, but all it sounded like was awkward coughs to Mark.

"I'm afraid you should return home now Miss. Your family must be missing you. Also, your cat is in excellent health so you should really slow down your visits to this vet" the woman gave the cat a glare that basically said that everything that was going wrong was its fault.

Somewhere back in his mind, the alarm bells signalled that it was getting to a dangerous situation. That did not seem to be a good look in Mark's eyes. He really needed to interfere in this situation then.

The entity would not appreciate Mark letting this go and the result would not end up well at all.

"Ah, on a second note the cat seems to have a problem I missed initially. Why don't you leave it here for a while longer? I'll contact you when you need to pick her up" the woman looked much happier now.

Even her glares at the cat had softened into the blow and the feeling of danger around Mark felt remarkably less than before.

A soft exhale of appreciation left Mark's mind when the feeling of danger abated as the woman left the clinic.

"Let's get you in" Mark picked up the cat who just looked up at him with intelligent eyes. Mark just groaned as the cat settled down in his arms, a mark glowing right at her forehead.

The backdoor of the clinic was opened gently to enter into an almost forest which was looked natural in no way of the world.

Mark let the cat jump down from his arms as it began to run wild in the area. Soon more cats with similar designs on their forehead joined the first one till a whole dozen arranged themselves around the first one.

"Where do you all keep appearing out of? And you're all just a case of problems too. Why do I have to get stuck with this job at all?" Mark's mumbling was not appreciated for the next second he had a heap of not normal cats sitting on his body.

They were heavy and their claws dug into his arm, a small blade of blood appearing where they gripped a little too hard. Mark almost cried out at the abuse he had to suffer.

Why him? What did he do? Was it because of all the pranks?

"Mind the hair" the cats just ignored him as they continued to chew on his hair and he gave up for the time being. He'll just take a shower later then.

"Fine, you demons, you win this time" Mark didn't mention that these cats won every time something like this went down. He was weak to their charms, after all, so he could only endure in silence.

Mark would have been content to lay there the whole evening to let the cats tire himself out if the phone hadn't rung. That was the one motivation he needed to push the cats away.

The phone that was ringing had not been the clinic's but his own personal one. Only so many people had his personal number and no matter who was calling from his known group, it must be important.

Mark was a known troublemaker, surely no one wanted to call him in anything but an emergency. This all felt nostalgic to him for some reason.

"Hello, is this the local vet?" The voice was professional. Not cold but not nice either.

"Yes,? May I know who it is that called me?" Mark greeted his tone not quite able to keep the teasing out of it.

That call, was it not suppose to be different? For some reason it felt like it should be.

We have received a case of another unusual injured animal, this one is really similar to the previous records we have. We need a vet on the case, how soon can you be here?" Oh, so this .again

Was he ever ready for a job? No

Was he ever given a choice in the matter?

Also no.

"Mark me down and mail me the address" with just that the phone call was dropped and there was a mischievous sir in the clinic room. Just another day and another work to do.

Since when had Mark gotten this tired?

"Another day, another job and another animal to be rescued. Now, why don't you lovelies stay here while I go out and save one of your comrades from this cruel cruel world" There was a twirl in Mark's steps as he moved around the room.

The dozen or so pair of eyes watched the man dancing around the room in leisure, all amused at the unusual behaviour the human was exhibiting.

"Let's see what all I will need" tired purple eyes looked around the clinic to spot the things that would be needed.

As the local vet, Mark was often tasked with handling certain cases that related to local animals in the vicinity.

There were abuse cases and even the ones of rabid animals losing control and attacking. As the animal expert, it was Mark's job to handle it all, just like his parents before him.

He only had vague memories of their job and this clinic as a whole while he was a child but he was sure they had loved this job.

So he loved it too in his own way.

Plus, helping animals in need was something he had come to appreciate as a job profession. It calmed him down to spend time with these animals.

Sometimes he even felt as if he could understand them if he tried hard enough. That just made his job much more endearing to him in the long run.

This job was also how he had made acquaintance with Chief, the local police chief in charge of the area.

Mark made sure his bag had everything that could be needed during this trip ever. His injections with anaesthesia and other drugs were filled quickly and correctly while he also made sure that his gloves and other equipment were sanitised well enough did he decide to get the move about.

"I'll be leaving now. Be sure to behave yourselves. And please don't break anything" seeing how the call back there seemed urgent, Mark decided to trust the cats to behave themselves and left in a hurry.

This all felt weird to him. Even as he left his house, a feeling of uncertainty took him over and made him question his own thoughts. He knew this was his reality but his mind refused to believe this.

It wanted him to recall something. 

Something important.

What was it that he needed to remember? What had he vowed to remember? There was something of the uttermost importance in his memories and Mark just needed to find the key to unlocking them.

The next few days left were the most important days of his life.