Page 11 of King from the Sky

Her patients didn’t seem to notice as the little fur balls wagged their tails and tried to be adorable for her. They were all so sweet that they just wanted to be loved and played with, even when she had to do unpleasant things like take their temperature. Today all of the owners had enough developed insight to realize that dogs and cats don’t like that and it might be a good idea to hold their heads so that she didn’t get bitten, like she had so many times before. It happened at least once or twice a month it seemed. She usually remembered to tell people if they did not look all that sharp, but sometimes she forgot if it was a busy day or she had her mind somewhere else.

After she finished with her last patient she relaxed for a few minutes in her office and checked her emails while the other girls finished tidying up for the day. It was just her and Cheryl in the office towards the end and Emily felt her energy waning. She had not slept much last night and after all of the crap she had dealt with she just wanted to go home and sleep all night. That would put everything right and probably get Alex out of her mind so she was finally able to think clearly on the matter.

After finishing her notes on each patient that she kept meticulously for her records (sometimes she felt like an animal psychiatrist) and saved them in the computer, she decided to check the inventory of the pain meds and make sure that they still had enough for the rest of the month after Alex had destroyed several bottles last night.

There it was again—Alex. She could not get the man off her mind. She wondered how long it would take before she could go a day without thinking of him. Even though she had met him last night the way she felt was starting to feel like infatuation. But she couldn’t let that happen. Not with a guy who was so troubled that he told her he was from another planet.

He had basically wasted four bottles of heavy narcotic pain medications. Most of them had scattered on the floor and she’d swept them up and thrown them out because they were squashed into powder form. That was the great thing about having animals for pets—you didn’t have to worry about an inspector reporting you for feeding them pills that were on the floor. They tended to be a bit laxer when it came to the canine or the feline medication.

She heard the gurgling sound very faintly at first and she almost thought that Cheryl had her little desk fan turned on and was holding it up to her face again and talking into it. The girl was such a kid sometimes. She was probably never going to grow up, which is why she reminded her so much of Amber. Those two could have been sisters they were so much alike, but that was probably why she liked them both so much—they were just so much fun.

Truthfully, if she had to admit it to herself they reminded her of a time in her life when everything seemed so much more magical and she had not turned into such a constant worrier, always living in her own head instead of the real world. Emily felt that during college she had made great strides in that department though and she was far more outgoing and fun loving than she used to be. But if she asked her friends she knew they would say that since she had taken over the animal hospital she had become much more withdrawn and insecure about everything. She would have to agree with that and say they were absolutely right, but she was working things out in her own sweet time and her own sweet way. In fact, she was thinking about working things out later tonight with a bunch of ice cream and junk food. Yep, she was definitely going on a snack run. This stupid diet had been hard and she was sick of it.

As she closed a bottle and placed it in the cabinet she suddenly heard the gurgling sound echoing throughout the building at a much higher volume. Emily cocked her head to the side and held her ear out to listen to the sound to see where in the hell it was coming from. It sounded like it could have been coming from outside or it was something playing faintly on the television in the waiting room.

There was something darker about it. It sounded more urgent somehow and it sounded like it was closer than the television. It was definitely Cheryl. Was she playing a gag or watching some stupid YouTube videos?

Emily had taken several steps across the room and her hands were now opening the door that separated her from the other side. She liked to have that separation between herself and the others when she was with patients. She was not exactly sure why. It might have been that she loved to see people with their pets in as much quiet as possible. Sometimes her patients’ masters were quite upset about the condition of their pets and if she could have as much quiet in the back provided for them as she could than that made it all a bit better to deal with.

Or maybe she secretly hated her staff and could only take so much of their non-stop perkiness. She doubted that, but the perky thing was a bit annoying at times. Life was not that great that you had to be so happy all the time. But she was aware that she acted the same way at times because she loved her job so much and now she could add to it that she discovered Alex and if she talked about him as much as she thought about him she would definitely drive everyone around her bat shit crazy.

A loud thud rang in her ears just then and she froze in place waiting for the sound to be repeated, but scared to death that it might be. There was an ominous feeling that was now coming over her. It was like an intruder into her mind and her daily conscious reality that was not supposed to be there, but she could not quite see it yet and decipher what it was doing there or what it was. But it was there and she could feel it as if it was standing right beside her, knocking on the thin door that separated her from the thing on the other side.

Through the delicate silence that was amplified since Emily had held her breath for the last three seconds she could clearly make out the sounds of a human voice trying to yell in terror and pain, but failing to do so. The image flashing through her mind was one of total terror. She knew that she had to see what was going on but every thought in her head was telling her to run out the back door. She had to run to her car and start driving and then she would call the police. They would handle everything. She did not have to take it upon herself to be a hero. Her curiosity could wait!

But she was already walking closer to the front room. In mere seconds she would be around the corner and her eyes would be full of whatever was happening to her friend and coworker. She did not want to see anything there at all. She just wanted everything to go back to the boring little world that she constantly complained about but would never in a million years want to leave. She just needed to have that peace of mind again. That was all she had ever really wanted. She didn’t need a man. She did not need this enigmatic stranger who had walked into her life and turned her entire world upside down, she could not think straight.

Emily knew that Cheryl was in trouble and there was no way that the cops would get there in time to help her. It might have already been too late, but she had to try. The terror she was experiencing was unlike anything she had ever known before, but somehow she managed to separate her feelings and thoughts apart from each other. She was not going to let her emotions stop her from helping Cheryl if she was able to at all.

Emily took a huge breath and turned the corner.

Cheryl was alone. Her body was lying on the floor as the gurgling sounds sprung fourth out of her motionless body. Emily was having difficulty with discerning how that noise could come from a seemingly unconscious body. Her body sprang into action before her mind could formulate conscious thoughts of what was happening and what she needed to do. She did not even notice that the front door was wide open right in front of Cheryl.

Emily put her ear to Chery’s heart and listened while holding her own breath to zone in on only the sounds coming from Cheryl’s body. She could hear the heart beating, but it was growing faint. Her breaths were coming in slow and unsteady. Each breath sounded like it had been split up into a bunch of choppy micro breaths.

Cheryl was dying. Something was lowering her heart beat and interrupting her pattern of breathing and her brain function seemed to be lessening as well.

Emily grabbed the phone out of her pocket and began to dial 911. She no sooner placed the phone in her hand then a loud boom rocked her world as the wall next to her exploded under the force of the blast.

She quickly saw a flash of movement coming through the doorway. It was the biggest looking gun she had ever seen and there was a stranger wearing all black right behind it. She did not try to catch a good glimpse of who it might be or if she even recognized them. Instead, she jumped back from the blast, landing flat on her back and then reversing down the hallway so she would be out of the direct line of fire. Her head moved from the spot on the floor a split second before that space exploded behind her. She barely contemplated the fact that her entire head had almost become cottage cheese right then and she jumped to her feet into a mad dash run down the hall and into the back room closing the door behind her.

She knew that the pathetic wooden door would do nothing to deter this full scale assault but it might buy her a second or two. At least it gave her some peace of mind, she thought as she hid under the counter.

She had to think; there had to be another way out of here, but she knew that there wasn’t another exit. Still, she had to find a way. She had to invent some way to get out of here.

“AAAAGG!”

The scream came from behind her, muffled through the wall but still loud enough to transmit the fact that something awful had just happened to the man who was shooting at her. His voice quickly disappeared, his scream had been cut right in half and now he was gurgling similar to Cheryl.

Cheryl. She was a goner. Emily had to dial for some help, but she had to preserve her own safety first. That is what they taught anyone who was attempting to help someone else. If you are not safe, then the person you are helping is not going to be. It is just going to be two people that need rescuing instead of one.

The door burst open right then. Emily held her breath as she waited for the end to come. She was going to be instantly discovered under the counter; she knew it. But she was going to fight like hell whoever was trying to take her life if she could.

She took a huge deep breath and held it for a second before slowly releasing it, feeling every single cell in her body relaxing for a second and rebounding ready to fight. Emily was ready.

“Emily?”

The voice sounded familiar. It was not threatening. It was low and guttural, but it sounded like a friendly whisper. Emily was ready to leap out and begin fighting with everything she had. She knew that it was futile and she would probably be killed instantly, but she was not the kind to go out of this world without a fight. Maybe she could get at least one good shot in on this bastard and die a happy woman.