Monsters in the midst part 3

When Mark woke up later he felt no more well-rested than before. In fact, he felt downright doozies in the morning. His head was all over the place while the body didn't even feel as if it was his own anymore.

It was really a surreal experience to be had. Not to mention, the aches in his body just proved how real yesterday's experience had been.

Just as Mark had expected, his home had no indication of any breaking except a small pistol left on the table.

It was the same weird design Liam had used yesterday which had almost caused a little panic attack to Mark at first.

It was an understandable panic too, for one doesn't really find firearms in their home left behind by acquaintances who almost killed you a day before.

However, once he had overcome his shock, Mark decided to snoop around for information. He was still not convinced about Liam's whole theory about their world at all.

After all, just how can anyone take him seriously after such a claim? Video game? Their world? It would have been better to say that this world was a book.

At least that way there would be a tone of fantasy to it. But the person had directly joked about such a serious topic and even with enough convection to drag Mark into the joke.

Now, Mark was sure that Liam was not crazy, just a little misguided in nature and that was by no fault of his own. Maybe it was the circumstances around him that shaped him to say these weird things?

Then again, yesterday had been bizarre The dog from yesterday had been something right out of a horror movie or even a video game.

Mark shook his head a little to clear it out. Thinking fruitless thoughts would not help him out at all.

He needed to clear his head here so that he could do important work here.

The internet search just solidified what Mark had been thinking this whole time. The weapon that laid on his desk had not been from this world at all.

For the first time in this whole mess, Mark actually considered Liam's words to be true before shaking his head.

Now he was entertaining useless thoughts inside his head too.

Deciding to leave these thoughts to be and not to dwell on them too much, Mark decided to follow his daily routine.

The shower was quick and a new pair of T-shirt and jeans were quickly selected and changed into. The rest of the routine followed without fail.

Once Mark felt ready enough, he left the house for his clinic just adjacent to his house. Maybe he should have thought of actually crashing in his clinic yesterday?

But then again, it won't really have mattered much in the grand scheme because he was not thinking of having that person over ever.

This chapter in his life was over and done with. Mark was already over it now.

Opening the clinic door, Mark groaned at the inside. Dust greeted his senses, as well as weird smells, reached his nose.

He had not cleaned up in his haste yesterday, counting on his ability to be back before time and doing so. But he had not counted on the weird encounter of the day and hence, this was the result.

So the morning was spent cleaning up the clinic of any residual stain as well as airing out the rooms. The moisture content inside was too high to be comfortable otherwise.

Convenient enough, he did not receive any of his regular morning customers at all. However, the pace did pick up during the afternoon when a person came in with their pet rabbit.

The rabbit was well behaved and was not really suffering from much except poor company which led to a lecture about how rabbits were social creatures and required company which Mark was half sure that the person ignored.

All Mark could do in the end was to make sure that the family knew not to leave their rabbit alone for long periods of time and to get him another rabbit as a playmate.

He did not keep any pets himself in his clinic because of habits but he gave the family a referral of a trusted friend who could provide them with the right resources.

The evening went just as any typical one went in the clinic.

By that Mark meant that he was called in to work long hours away again. Miss Marvin's dog was still not feeling ok even after a week and as soon as Mark pulled up in their front yard on foot, the seemingly sick dog jumped up to greet him.

"I'm sorry but he really was sick in the morning" Miss Marvin always did this. She never cares for her dogs much herself but she did love them a lot so even at a little sign of discomfort, she sent for the local vet.

"It's alright. Since I'm here I'll check the dogs out anyway" the dogs gave a woof of happiness, thinking of him as a playmate. Really, people should stop adopting animals if they could not take enough time out of their schedule to care for them.

Otherwise, it would create just a mess of things with confusion everywhere. These dogs were healthy specimens of their species but even if something was wrong, Miss Marvin would have not known with all the time she spends on her own work rather than dealing with these dogs.

"You're such a great help. Why don't you stay for dinner today?" her tone did not sound good to Mark at all, the infatuation in her voice clear as any other day and Mark felt himself sweat.

"Perhaps some other day. I have a few more patients coming up so I must go now" Mark quickly made his way out of the situation. This was a semi-normal occurrence for him at this point and Miss Marvin was not the only one who tried this on a regular basis either.

It happened when he was walking home, his working bag in his hand that he heard it. The sound of steps following him from behind. The steps were light and were made by more than two feet.

The coordination sounded too off to be human steps and Mark felt his breath caught up in his throat, but he dismissed it as an illusion of his imagination. Liam had made him way too cautious with the current situation that he was even finding walking back home as dangerous.

So, Mark continued walking despite the steps he could hear. There were a few people outside in the road now, people he knew in passing due to being from the same neighbourhood but not people he actually knew personally.

As far as he was aware, none of them had any pets and thus, any reason to pull up in his clinic. So there had never been any common interest in interaction but now Mark wished he had so that he could pull up to them and ask.

The footsteps were still distant and Mark wondered how he was even able to hear them now that they were this faint? It should not be humanly possible to hear these footsteps at all.

But he could and they were gradually coming close.

Then he heard the faint growl in the terrifying voice that had haunted his dreams last night and it sounded even more terrifying than before. It was close too, almost at his nape and Mark felt himself sweat in retaliation.

This was not good at all, and he was not feeling well at all. This was no illusion, was it? Something was stalking him for real here and he could do nothing about it at all.

Mark quickened his pace as he almost ran through the remaining blocks. His heart thumped in his ears with the effort and Mark could near nothing else in his vicinity. That made him wonder if he actually lost whatever was chasing him.

When he stopped to catch his breath, he heard it again. The voice full of huffs and growls was still following him. It was still in his vicinity and it still sounded terrifying. Perhaps even more so now that it had to chase him for such a long time.

It was the time before sunset where the sun was still high enough to see comfortably but the light was red instead of the yellow-white glow of the normal sun. It painted the street an eerie reddish shade.

And in the corner of his eyes, he could make out the huge shadow that must have been following him all this time.

It moved too fast for his eyes to see properly but just knowing that something was there terrified his mind much more than before. He wondered why this was happening to him at all? Because he got to know the lunatic Liam?

Or was it something that was always supposed to happen? Because he was meant to die right here?

There was a growl and then a moment as Mark closed his eyes, terrified of what will happen next.