Chapter Six; The Vet

The night before, Ryan forgot to set his alarm for 8:00, so he woke up at 9:45. He had to spring out of bed, get dressed, and eat breakfast. He skimmed the fridge only to find no eggs or bacon! He only had a cup of milk, and had to run out the door as soon as he could. It was 9:55 now, he had to sprint to the vet, which was a mile away.

When he got there, at 10:05 Lucy wasn’t trained yet, but geared up. So Ryan had to get his gear on for the next five minutes. Ryan was still out of breath after the run here, so he was still panting. The vet took them into another room with pens, and cages each one holding an adorable animal.

The vet took ten minutes just telling them the names, and another ten how to care for them. But Ryan and Lucy just stared at the cuties for all twenty minutes. When they had to leave the room to start training, they were a bit disappointed, but excited to start their day. Of course they couldn’t give shots, or assign medicine to the little creatures, they would have to go to years for college for that. So they just had to feed and play with the animals. Which they thought was the best job ever.

At first Ryan was assigned a little white cat with a vision problem, and Lucy was assigned a lizard who only had two legs. Ryan connected with the cat very well because he had to wear glasses to help him see. Lucy didn’t really connect with the lizard but she always laughed when the lizard walked on its two front legs. At feeding time, Ryan had to guide the cat to its feeding dish, and Lucy had to carry the lizard to its feeding dish.

They both watched the animals eat their food closely, with the white cat always ending up with food on its nose. After feeding time, Ryan and Lucy had to help the vet check in for customers. Since Lucy had to greet customers at Cold Toes, it was Ryan’s turn to check in the people. Ryan was a bit scared to check in other customers because of what happened at Cold Toes. But after the first customer, he was fine. The first customer was a nice old lady who was polite and patient.

“Good morning ms. how are you today” Ryan said friendly, “Oh just fine, my hamster snickers is acting a bit strange lately, could you make sure he is alright.” She then handed him a small cage with her tiny hamster inside. Ryan then handed the lady the check in sheet, and asked her to fill it out. She did it slowly but Ryan had to wait until the form was filled out before he could take the animal into the other room.

The lady finally filled out the form and Ryan attached it to the cage, he told the woman to wait in the sitting area. She walked over to the couches and sat down while Ryan took the hamster cage to the other room. He handed the form and the cage to the vet and he examined the hamster and saw he looked very lazy. He was moving but very slowly, the vet turned around and asked Lucy is he could use the observation sheet. When Lucy grabbed the sheet the alarm went off, and the vet ducked. So they ducked too, not knowing what was happening, Lucy and Ryan hid under the bed. Lucy started to cry, Ryan looked at the window on the door and saw a set of eyes that looked extremely familiar. It was the murderer!

Ryan told Lucy to keep quiet, but she was still whimpering and sniffling. The eyes from the window disappeared. The vet, Lucy, and Ryan all went into a closet in the room. It was a very large closet, about the size of Ryan’s room! There was a single bulb that lit up only half the closet but it was enough for all of them. Everything was silent. Until the three of them heard a POW then a thud, and screaming.

Ryan also started crying along with Lucy’s cries of terror. Then… a knock on the door, “It’s the police, you are safe now.” a voice said. Relieved we all got up, and the vet unlocked the door. Ryan stayed back still standing in the closet. Lucy and the vet walked toward the door. The vet opened the door, then I heard a POW! Then a thud…

Lucy was shot.