Leave The Monster Alone

"Welcome back, Doctor Li? I was waiting for you to return back here. I'm sorry if I helped myself to your delicious tea in the meantime" there was a shadow of someone inside who Mark did not recognise at all.

Those words seemed familiar enough, and yet they sent a chill down Mark's spine.

Someone had broken into his clinic and none of his cats was anywhere in sight.

"If you're looking for those creatures that looked like cats, then I'm afraid I disposed of them. They were a danger to everyone you see. Now, I do hope we can have a decent talk with each other-" the person did not get to finish his sentence before he had a stool thrown in his face.

The person barely dodged before it was followed by a petri dish and then some other things.

Mark was beyond furious. He should have been terrified, an intruder was inside his clinic and threatening him and had killed his cats.

Yet all he felt was fury hot enough to burn. He had killed those stray cats he had so painstakingly raised.

"Hey, I was kidding. Those monsters are alive in the back room. As if they would die so easily. Hey, listen to me. Put the phone down" those words did not register till the last second.

Knowing his cats were alive did nothing to avert the fury he felt.

And then he dialled the phone to the police station. They owned him a favour or ten after all.

Mark felt his body lean forward on the closed door and he opened his eyes in a jolt to righten himself, that had been dangerous and he was not sure why he had dreamed that scene. It felt so real that he had been afraid of being in it.

But he was not inside his room right now, was he? He was outside his home, looking forward to going in there and having a good rest. There was nothing much to it than that. It was not like someone would be foolish enough to break inside his home in the broad daylight like this.

It all have to have been because of the weird feeling he had been having recently which he could not place. It was unsettling, to say the least, and for him, that much had been enough to put his mind on alert.

He opened his door with caution and found no one there. 

Of course, no one was there. Who had he expected to be there than his kittens who came to greet him? But had he not already locked them in their special room? Maybe that was another trick his mind had decided to play on him.

Mark picked up a kitten and observed her. The small kitten licked his nose but otherwise seemed content to let him take the lead on this topic. How cute of her to do so when they all were just wild beasts otherwise, intended to make his life a living hell.

"You all are much more high maintenance than I would like you all to be" Mark let out a sigh as he put the kitten down. The feeling of wrong did not go away entirely though. There also seemed to be something missing there, something crucial here.

"Must be really deep hallucination to still affect me. If only I could remember what it was. Maybe I need a doctor as well, a human one this time" Mark muttered as he made his way deeper. Kittens followed him, looking for food only the larger human could provide.

There was something about a black kitten and danger inside his mind but every time he tried to poke that train of thought, it slipped his mind. It almost felt like there was a film of fog between him and his thoughts.

The kittens had made one hell of a mess around the place he needed to clean up now.

With a sigh of relief, Mark left the room and closed the door right behind him. His eyes took in his workshop which was in need of a dire cleaning. The tussle with the intruder had really messed up its natural arrangement and it would cause a lot of trouble tomorrow if he did not fix it as soon as possible.

With a sigh of resignation, Mark picked up the nearest petri dish as he began cleaning up the clinic. The glass had broken and it was in sharp pieces. He gathered as many pieces as he could, his hands were careful of the broken glass and their sharp edges.

His ears picked up small moments in his vicinity but he chose to ignore it, for the time being, his hands too busy with the glass he had inside his hand at that moment. It must be a cat that followed him outside.

He would deal with it later when the coast was clear of most of the obstacles which littered throughout the place.

Then the sound happened again and Mark felt his breath caught up in his throat. The sound was too much like human footsteps, not animal footsteps.

He was not alone in the room, there was another human inside.

En?" Mark called out, his head still down and his hands otherwise occupied. There was a sudden moment from his right and his hands moved faster than his brain as they made a slashing motion with the glass inside his hand.

Much to his relief, the shadow dodged with quite a distance and made small leaps back.

"Hey, calm down now. I'm not your enemy here. In fact, I can even be called as a god in your world" Mark just made another motion to slash the intruder who just dodged skillfully.

This person may be mad, but he had really good skills to dodge every attack Mark made.

"Hey, I said to calm down and listen" there was a hand on his arm and just as quickly his arm was twisted behind his back by a strong hand. The intruder had Mark captured and defenceless in a matter of seconds.

Mark felt his breath shorten at the threat that hung in the air that very second. It was not good for anyone involved, but not especially for him in such a situation.

Mark wanted out and fast.

"Who are you?" Mark cried out, his fear evident in his voice. The person behind let out an amused hum but did not give way. Mark only saw one solution out of this, one thing he never really wanted to employ.

He bulked his body around to kick the person between the knee but luckily for the person, the dodge timing was flawless as ever.

"Don't move or I will call the police again. They're just outside" Mark threatened the person but unlike last time the person just seemed amused this time at the threat.

"Police? Ah yes, go ahead. I made arrangements this time so that you do not escape from here. Why couldn't you be another brain dead NPC in this world again? What a pain" Mark could not understand anything the person was saying, his panic was too high.

He tried to make a call to En but the phone held no signal. Then he tried to open the door but again, the knob did not turn.

This was all so unnatural, it almost felt organised.

"Hahaha, is this a prank? Am I finally being pranked by everyone? I fell for it you hear? Now stop it all" Mark was getting more and more panicky with each passing second. His breath was getting short too.

And the intruder was getting annoyed.

"Doctor Mark Li, please get yourself under control here. Don't act like a brain dead NPC here" that made the doctor panic super hard.

Mark found himself with his phone in hand, ready to make a call to his friend. But which friend? He did not have many friends in the police and the chief was also more of an acquaintance than a real friend.

"This is really not good" Mark rasped out in a rough voice as he felt his head throb. There was something more to this whole mess now he was sure. His body was trying to tell him something and he could not listen to his own self. 

What was it that he needed to remember? What was strong enough to even reach him this far deep and left an impression? If only Mark could remember, then he could have an answer to his long-awaited question. 

"Let's go out and take a walk, shall we. I should also take the dogs out for a walk" because there were dogs in his clinic, weren't there. Or was that his mind playing tricks on him as well? Mark wished he had an answer to his questions but he did not have one for now. 

Mark left the house, his brain empty and filled at the same time.. But he lost awareness of his thoughts pretty quickly in the dark empty night.