Bedside Monster (House Beasts #1)

A+ Monster

"Ah, mister Renold," said the pharmacist the moment she saw him.

Oliver felt himself bleach immediately. She recognized him, which could only mean that she was aware of how much time had passed since he had last walked through those doors. He had sort of hoped to go unnoticed. If all went well he just needed to go in, grab the thing and go back out, but he could already tell that it wasn't going to go well.

"Let me just check the data, sir..." she typed away at the computer while Oliver looked around sheepishly. The place wasn't crowded but it had its fair share of people, most of them close enough to hear the conversation. "Oh, well, it's been quite a while since you last came here, isn't it? I'm surprised your stock held on this long. Have you been buying them somewhere else?"

Oliver could have lied, but then he would have felt bad about that later. "No, actually."

She stared at him, losing a bit of her retail smile. "So where have you been getting your dose?"

"Well, I, well I haven't." There it was. The truth he had not even admitted to his own mother. He wasn't even sure he knew the name of the woman behind the counter - oh, it was written on her tag. Emily Spencer. What a pretty name.

"Sir..." she seemed to hesitate before continuing, yet carried on regardless. "I am in no way your doctor, but I don't think that it's a good idea. You need to be more diligent, you can't play around with those sort of things. This is pretty strong stuff.

Oliver cringed as he thought about how everyone else could hear his mental health being discussed openly. "I know."

"Let me check if we have some." She clicked a few more times on the computer, putting on her glasses to read the small fonts. "Looks like we don't keep them here, but I can order them for Monday."

"That will be perfect."

"All right, so I'll be doing that." She hesitated, before sliding a card with local emergency numbers his way. "Although if you find yourself struggling in the meantime, please do call for some help."

Oliver was sure that he would be fine for three days. Maybe. The worth threat he had encountered so far was Wovyn's abs and, while the threat they posed threatened his sanity, this was nothing compared to what he had come across in the past. Heck, Wovyn was a walk in the pack compared to what he had dealt with during his teens - he didn't want to think too hard about it, for the memories were harsh, but he was quite certain that nothing as bad would occur between then and Monday.

"I'll make sure to do just that," he told her anyway. "Calling, that is. If there is anything that requires a doctor."

She nodded and smiled at him. "Have a good evening!" she said.

"Thanks, same to you," he replied.

_____

Arriving home to an empty house was a relief - until he noticed that his slippers were not in the place where he had left them. Or were they? He squinted at them. He usually placed them three whole inches closer to the shoe rack and made sure that they were always parallel to one another, which they weren't right now.

Well, he had been in a rush to leave this morning, he thought, he could give himself a little leeway for that. It's not like everything else in the house was slightly out of order...

His eyes landed on the five birds on the shelf in the entrance and he noticed that one was more turned than the others. This irked him. It comforted him to know that he was coming home to a house in perfect order and it irked him when he didn't. It reminded him of how it would be when he was younger. Everything in his living space had its spot and it better stay that way.