The Doctor's Demon

Laurence had a lot of experience in dealing with illness. He could see symptoms before the patient even knew anything was wrong, and he'd seen enough that it was very rare for him to encounter a disease he'd never seen.

He didn't, however, have an awful lot of experience in dealing with demons.

It wasn't certain exactly when the creature had taken up residence in the church which he called home, but he'd been able to feel its presence for a while now, and today, it had finally shown its face.

The demon was large, about the size of a big cat, and that alone unnerved him. Its skull-like face had two empty eye sockets instead of eyeballs, each of which emitted an eerie white light which seemed to serve as the demon's pupils. It grinned at him emptily in the low light, its multitude of shining, golden teeth barely fitting onto its head at all. It seemed severely emaciated, and had long, greasy fur which covered its spine, throat, and tail sparsely.

Laurence, however, was more captivated by the number situated above the demon's head. It seemed to float there of its own accord and gave out a warm, golden glow, and as he watched, the number changed from 37 to 36. Fascinating. Magic, perhaps? Like his own? It couldn't be dark magic. Not when the glow it emitted was so warm, so welcoming. It almost looked like a halo if you squinted.

The demon took a few steps towards him, talons clicking on the stone floor. Laurence didn't move. He didn't sense malice in this creature: rather, a strange emptiness which occasionally flickered with intelligence and playfulness. He was intrigued, and allowed the creature to get within three feet of him before taking a step back. The demon stopped, and tilted its head to one side, only it continued tilting until it had twisted its head a full 180 degrees and was regarding him with that same empty grin, now from upside-down. It couldn’t have had more than one joint in the base of its neck, not with a range of movement like that.

The demon's number flickered, and it flashed from 36 to 12, then counted down a lot of numbers, very fast, It reached ten, began ticking down in seconds, and then flickered again and rose up to 64. Laurence frowned. He suspected it wasn't meant to do that, and the demon seemed just as surprised, inverting its head the right way up again and making a noise that sounded like a small child crying, though it didn't reverberate around the room and instead almost sounded as if it were inside Laurence's own head.

The doctor took another step back, swishing his tail and flattening his ears to his skull in caution as the demon continued to stare at him curiously. It didn't seem to mean him any harm, though it seemed to be waiting for something. He wasn't sure what for. Eventually, it didn't matter, because the church door was suddenly flung open and a squirrel ran in, carrying a smaller squirrel in its arms. "Help, please! She's dying!"

The demon gave a spine-chilling wail that filled his head, and leapt into the air, its corporeal form vanishing into nothingness. It appeared the squirrel didn't see. Laurence gave a short sigh and walked over, inspecting the child that the other rodent carried in her arms. She wasn't well, clearly, but she certainly wasn't in the last stages of the plague, and without a word, Laurence pressed one hand to the child's heart, feeling the drag on his energy as the magic began to take effect.

He could still feel the demon watching him, its gaze piercing the back of his skull, and it took him a while to realize he'd been staring. The squirrel gave him a concerned look.

"What's the matter, doctor? You look like you've seen a ghost."