Monster - Part 2

The alarmclock was giving off its irrirtating noise as it was early enough to get up. She extended her arm trying to snooze the evil sounding devil . But the clock was not where it used to be, instead she just hit the floor with her arm. The sensation of pain that went through her arm was just enought to remove her tranquil sleep and move her into the caffeine-less zombie state. Which ironically was enough to make her wake up just enough to realise that the alarm clock was just a tad out of position from its usual place. And another well-aimed strike did indeed hit the snooze button with enough force to apply another five minutes of sleep. And so she closed her eyes.

Even though the clock was set to alert every five minutes in case of a snooze she woke up almost three hours later. Apparently she had managed to snooze her way all through this. Even though not unheard of she was not surprised that she had to sleep this much as the dream last night – about the creature in the room – was probably the worst one so far. But oversleeping by three hours was quite enought she felt totally worn out as she sat up and started to gather her sleeping gear. The apartment was quite quaint and she had got used to it quite quickly even though it was far away from what she had imaged when she first moved there. Then again, beggars cannot be chosers, and she had to sort with was available at the moment.
It was not easy being a poor student , especially when moving so far away from home. Yet this was well enought to manage both in space and when it came to the economical part, and deep inside she weas quite satisfied with what she had accomplished.
She had moved here about a year ago in order to study in a more traditional environment. When she was young her parents had emigrated from japan to Europe as their jobs had reqiured them to. But she had , as of late, felt a strong bond to be aware of her heritage and thus had moved back “home” in order to complete her studies. Which in itself was not a bad thing, rather the contrary it had opened her eyes for many traditions. And so she was also encouraged by her parents to seek out her past. There had been a few things to get used to though, so the transition had been a tad rough. Even though she had spent some of her young years in Japan and the latter ones in Europe it had put its mark in her. The language was not a barrier though as her parents had always kept a tradition to speak Japanese in their home, while still adapting and learning the language where they were currently living. All in all it sort of came down to getting used to the customs really. And now she sort of had overstepped one as she had slept in. Despite it being Saturday it was likely not within good behaviour to sleep until eleven in the afternoons.

She sat up and shut off the alarm hoping that it had not disturbed any neighbour. The apartments was quite small after all, just a large living room which also acted as sleeping quarters and a small space to prepare dinner. And, of course, the toilet including a shower. Washing was done on the bottom floor, all in all, quite a doable solution for a small students apartmeny. And a good one in general to be honest.
She slowly got up, stretched a bit, and then gathered the sleeping gear and neatly folded it and placed it in the wardrobe. Even though it was a Saturday she felt sort of late out of bed and hurried to prepared breakfeast. For being a free day it would still be filled with things that needed to be done; washing clothes and cleaning the apartment was on the top of the list. And once that was done there were studies to be done before there was time to do some shopping. Though the last part would not be hard as there was a store nearby that covered all the needs really. Still , she had a bad headache since waking up, likely due to the lack of sleep she experienced last night. Perhaps that was partially due to the heat outside, she had never coped well with heat when it came to sleeping. She’d prefer a chill room with fresh air. But one cannot have it all.

A look in the fridge showed that a grocery shopping was well needed, still she managed to toss together some sandwiches and tea for breakfast. She opened the glass doors to her balcony where there were still some clothes hanging since the last time she washed. There was a warm breeze coming inside the apartment slowly pushing out the old air while filling the simple room with more oxygen. This was nothing like the breath in her dream, she caught her thinking to herself as she put the tea cup into the sink. Doing the dishes would come later as she notices that she was almost thrity minutes late on her washing schedule.
Luckilly she had everything prepared in a basked so all that she needed to do was to put the sheets etc into the same basket before she went downstairs.

Moments later the washer was filled to the brim with clothes and cleaner before she turned it on. It would take a good two hours – it was an older washer after all – before it was finished and so she decided to get some shopping done before she had to hang the clothes up to dry. She quickly changed clothes to a skirt and a shirt before exiting her apartment heading towards the nearby shop. The list was quite short today; just some bread, milk etc to get her through the weekend. And a bit of candy to keep the focus during the studies.
And of course the animal snackers she usually bought to give to the cats and dogs she met on the way. She knew that they were not strays, rather it was common courtesy to offer some food to them to show respect for all living creatures (the area was somewhat of inspired by the life of the monks whom lived not to far away from the town), and also showing that there was no requirement of ownership in order to supply food to them. Also, this was just about what every one else was doing. And she was not in the position of breaking any traditions, rather the opposite as a major part of her studying there was to learn them.
After the shopping was done she had all that she needed in order to make breakfast and dinner during the weekend and so she started walking back towards the apartment complex, well within time before the washing was finished. She also had her animal snacks ready and handed it out to the dogs and cats she met during her walk back home. Today it was quite warm so there were not many animals around, most likely taking cover in the shadows where the temperatures were somewhat bearable, but there were still the odd cat and dog whom all got a handfull of treats from her.

Yet the most odd thing was still waiting for her, as she approached the main entrance of the building complex where she was living. When she took a turn from the side street and could see the entrance in the wall that lead to the building there was something small lying on the ground in front of the gate. She hurried towards it and gasped as she saw the dog lying there. She kneeled down next to it and doing so gave off a small thud to which the dog reacted to. But not in the best of ways though; it tried to get back on its feet and move away from the sudden danger. But one of its rear legs, the left, failed it and all it was able to do was to give off a short whimper instead. She could see in its eyes that it was frightened indeed, and had not eaten for what must have been days.

She tried to give it a few treats but it did not react to it, but when she opened a bottle of water and gently poured it over its mouth it suddenly came to life and slowly started to lick up as much water as it was able to. She looked around to find something to pour the water into but could not find anything that would be suitable so instead the formed her hand into a cup and filled it as much as she could and then slowly extended it towards the dog. For a moment the dog crawled together and just looked at her, but it soon reached out towards the source of water in front of it and started to lap up as much as it could. And she could sense a hint of happiness as it noticed that once the hand was empty she would pour up another for it to drink. She sat there for a few minutes just watching the little dog drinking as if its life was depending on it, which it probably was as it seemed to be in quite a poor state.
When the bottled water was all out she once more tried to give it some treats with a soothing voice that she meant no harm. This time it seemed as the dog had some trust in her as it once more looked at her a moment before carefully sniffing the treats in front of it. One little bit at first chewing carefullt and then swallowing. Just to toss itself over the rest of the treats she was holding in her hand, almost surprising her enough that she fell backwards.

“Oh, you sure are hungry little one. I am afraid that I am all out but I can see if I can make you some more inside?” She said as she noticed how the dog seemed to gain some energy from the food. “Would you want to come inside?” She said as she slowly got up and opened the gate. It was then she saw the newly made scratch marks on it and she realised that it had probably been there for a little while, scratching the gate door for attention. “You poor little one, did no one hear you before I saw you here?” She asked it, and almost as if it understood her it looked at her and sounded off another whimper.

She startd to walk inside for a few meters before she turned around facing the dog again. It was now standing up on three legs, while the fourth one barely touched the ground. “Come here boy, this is the way in, and more food” She tried to appeal to the dog. It once more was hesitant before it took a step towards here and almost fell over giving off a sound of pain. “Little one, you are badly hurt aren’t you?” She asked it as she quickly moved towards it, gently grabbing it and lifting it up from the pavement. To her surprise – and most likely the dog’s also – it did not react towards this treatment. Before it had always doubted her for a moment before approaching her, and here she was grabbing it and lifting it up as if they had always been doing so. It was not the smallest dog she had seen, nor was it large per say. Perhaps like a bit too large Terrier of some kind or something, she could not really pinpoint what race it was, but that was not important at the moment.
She then walked towards the door and went up the three stairs to the floor where her apartment was. The unlocked the door and walked inside. She looked around the room for a good place to put the dog down but could not find much of a place so she decided to use one of her pillows as a cushion for it for now.

A small whimper came from the dog as she put it down on the cushion as gently as she could and she quickly apologised for her clumpsy treatment. She sat next to it for a few more minutes before she got up and put away the groceries and made a little snack that she hoped that the dog would enjoy. The moment she showed the food to the dog it was gone. “I see that you have regained some more energy, that is good.” She said and smiled. She sat there for a moment looking at the dog to see what it would do next and was quite surprised that it fell asleep after a few minutes.
As a quick breeze moved by outside rattling the clothing rack she was reminded that she had clothes in the washer. And so she got up as silently as she could and then went downstairs to get the wash. Once more she was about half an hour after schedule but to her luck there were no other bookings after hers so she did not have to excuse herself for being late. She quickly gathered her clothes and went back to her apartment. As she re-entered she saw that the dog was still sound alseep on the pillow so she gently snuck by it and went out on the balcony and hung up her clothes to dry. She then went back inside and prepared to get some studies done.

A few hours passed by as she buried herself in the studies often checking on the little dog as it was still snoozing on the pillow. But as the sun started to set behind the mountains she noticed that she was quite tired and that it would perhaps be time to get some rest and call it a day. She did have a guest after all. So she put her things away and got up to check on the dog. As she sat down next to it and gently patted it she noticed that it was very warm, in fact it likely had a fever.
“Little one, you are buning up. You cannot be feeling very well now can you. But what should I do ?” She looked around the room trying to get some ideas of what to do but she could only come to one conclusion which was that the dog was in need of some medication. She put a small bowl of water next to it so that it could get some more liquid and then told it to be as calm as it could and that it should not worry as she would soon return, hopefully with some medicine to help it.
As she gently closed the door and locked it trying to be as quiet as possible she thought about asking the store she had visited earlier today if they perhaps had any ideas, or knew of a veterinarian or so nearby.
She looked at the clock only to find it was about nine pm, and she had forgotten to eat dinner. As she exited the building she used her phone searching for nearby veterinarians and drugstores that were open late that she could ask what to do. If she had stopped for just a second and looked back up towards her apartment she would have noticed the two red and blue eyes staring down at her.