Chapter 4 — Echoes of the Past

Ethan Calloway

The vet clinic was quiet now, the kind of stillness that settled only late at night, long after visitors had left and the animals had succumbed to their own rhythms. Ethan Calloway welcomed the silence. It wrapped around him like a familiar weight, heavy and expectant. The fluorescent lights hummed softly, casting sharp shadows across the sterile white walls. The sharp scent of antiseptic hung in the air, mingling with the faint, earthy musk of the cheetah resting in the recovery yard just beyond the observation window.