Crimson Malice - Chapter 1

-Yesterday-
The rain beat heavily on the roof of the police car as it swerved through the streets of the City. The City, surprisingly, was not as busy as a stereotypical large city should be even during rush hour, with it being at most putting someone five or so minutes behind. This was mostly due to it not being a true "hub area" of roads and highways, but it was still a cluster of intertwining roads nonetheless.  Susie was in the driver's seat keeping sharp, albeit lazy, eyes on the dreary landscape. Even though she was told time and time again during police academy that police-work was not something like "Brooklyn Five-Five" or "Island Seven-O", it didn't mean she couldn't try to make the job feel like it, constantly telling crass jokes or crappy one-liners all the time would at least light up the mood if those words really were true. But those thoughts were quickly killed off after her first assignment.
It was a standard call, she was told, neighbors were hearing what sounded like someone yelling obscenities or slams and thuds. Susie, with another officer by the name of Carlton, a gruff and desensitized-looking black human veteran officer, were the closest to the call during a routine patrol through some of the less civil parts of the City. Although it was merely coincidence, something deep in Susie felt like it was destined to happen. The call originated from a sickly-looking apartment complex cramped into the veins of the City. Graffiti and trash was unsurprisingly strewn about, with gang tags and other junk commonly strewn about.
"Guess the City gave up on this place, huh?" Susie asked as she exited the car with Carlton.
"You haven't seen the worst," he responded,"Back in 199X you couldn't go out after dark without getting mugged half an hour's walk from your home."
The dragon gave a dark chuckle as they passed through the front door, which made a quiet but audible crack under the long neglected full swing of its hinges. A monster mother that looked like a mix of a pig and an ox, towing some of her children with her that were merely in their shirts and underwear, quickly explained the situation to Carlton.
"Ma'm, we ensure that you and your children will be safe. Just tell us what you know." the man looked more tired than comforting to the monster. Sure, it twanged some strings of anger in Susie's brain, but she couldn't really blame the guy for acting like this. Who knows how many times he's seen the same song and dance? After the monster told what was mostly what they've heard on the report, the two officers made their way up the stairs. Luckily, or more accurately, unluckily, the walls showed their cheap value and age by carrying out the sounds of the struggle from two or three levels above in the complex. First it was the yelling that was heard, the usual screaming of threats or accusations against a sobbing victim of abuse, even being more stereotypical as the assailant was male. Only when they were on the floor of origin were the sounds of struggle heard. Smashing, scraping, and others in the chorus of violence joined int to make one song of chaos and anger. The two kept a brisk pace, seeing a couple of the neighbors eyeing through their doors as they jogged to the source of all their trouble.
"I don't give a shit about what you think you goddamn deer!" a rowdy-sounding bear of a man screeched against the other.
"H-hon' ple-"
Slam!
"Did I fucking say you could open your mouth?"
Susie barely had to even look at Carlton to get the signal to bash the door open. It was a wreck. Broken glass bottles, splinters, chairs ripped in half, the whole apartment looked like someone threw a grenade in there. In the middle of it all was a pudgy human man, wearing only a black shirt with a random band and his underwear, clutching a baseball bat in his right hand. In the far right corner in the remnants of a kitchen area was huddled monster girl of what looked like some breed of a husky and a golden retriever with, curiously, some more monstrous feet and hands. She looked as if she was about to fall apart, with the dust that made her clinging for dear life unto its weak frame. The man quickly turned around to the officers, quickly changing his expression from anger to a mix of anguish and fear. Susie gripped had her gun in a death grip.
"Sir, put the weapon down! You are under arrest!" Carlton shouted, his voice changed from a tiresome tone to one with newfound authority.
"I ain't putting it down for shit! Fuck you pig!" The man protested, and with sudden energy sprinted towards the officer. This, surprisingly, caught Carlton off guard, as he fumbled his weapon for just enough time for the deadbeat to close the distance. Susie had no choice but to pull the trigger.

Susie snapped out of it, trusting herself that it's only part of the job. I mean, people always died all the time, right? But it still couldn't be taken away she had killed someone, another being. Thoughts swirled and churned in her head, wondering if it would get out of hand.
What if she-
"All units, be advised we have reports of aggravated assault at 273 Woodfall street. Units are advised to approach with caution."
Susie quickly grabbed the receiver as Carlton sluggishly got out of his haze.
"Copy that station, this is officers Susie and Carlton on route, estimated to arrive in three and a half minutes, over."
Susie revved the engine of the police car and made a beeline for Woodfall street.
With a fast-paced arrival, Susie practically humped out of the car as she surveyed her surroundings. Woodfall street, at least this far from the City, was a sparse connection of connection of shacks and ranches alike. The subject of the call, however, was in more disrepair than its neighbors. Boarded up windows, discarded trash, peeled paint, the calling cards of trash people. It reminded Susie of her own home, but now was not the time for reflecting. Pistols in hand and caution in their hearts, the duo flanked the entrance door. After a few moments of hearing in for activity, with negative results, Carlton quickly opened the door and swerved inside with Susie behind.
The house was unsurprisingly a mess, but not in the vein of an abandoned house. Signs of struggle were obvious, with sudden clean spots on the ground due to shoes and bodies alike. With the dust was also upturned furniture, a table in the kitchen was strewn on its side, a sofa turned upside down in the living room accompanied by a broken coffee table, and a bent hand railing on the stairs which also had the trail leading up to. The plan was obvious to both in the party: stick together and go up the stairs. With a quick nod from Carlton, they ascended upwards. When they reached the top of the stairs, the quietness finally set in. If there was a call of aggravated assault, why weren't they hearing anything? They probably weren't far away enough for this to turn into a murder case, so why was there only their breathing? Looking around in their new surroundings, besides a lot of boxes of varying disrepair and door to the left with the trail in tow. However, things were starting to get interesting, with the new addition with bits of blood, and what looked more than just regular dust due to the darker hue of it. Susie gripped her gun hard as Carlton quickly opened the door.
The site was, to put simply, grisly. The most of the carnage was condensed into this room, with collapsed stacks of miscellaneous items such as small furniture and decorations, giving the impression of a storage room. The main focus was the fish-like monster crouched over a bloody mess of a human's corpse. The monster looked like they shouldn't even be able to walk, let alone not be a pile of dust. With a missing right arm still dripping with dust and clothes barely clinging to them with nasty gashes and such, it looked like something out of a movie set. The quiet sounds of sinew being torn from the bone and chewing filled the room.
"H-holy shit..." Susie quietly muttered.
With a sickening crunch, the monster quickly swerved their head, dragging a piece of intestines with them with its many animalistic teeth, its race-defining features long gone in the freak-show of a head it had. The monster's face was missing massive chunks, missing a parts of the frontal lobe, a piece of the chin, and a nasty hole where their left eye should be, the monster's face looked like a failed papier-mâché project. With an angry, unearthly growl from the bottom of the beast's chest the beast slumped forward with an unsteady gait at the two partners. The two immediately raised their pistols, but even with their almost synchronized draws of their guns, the moods of each other could not be more different. Carlton, as calm as ever, wore a slight grimace looking at the ungodly sight before, but in the far reaches of his mind knew what he was looking at. Susie, however, had a storm of sweat going down her face, and shakily kept the gun between her eyes.
Carlton was the first to speak, his authoritarian tone coming to light.
"Ma'am, stop or we will shoot!"
The only response to him was a quickened pace of the monster, giving him all the information he needed.
"Susie, open fire!"
With a crack of two thunderous pistol shots and a flash of lights, the monster staggered backwards before beginning to slowly crumple to dust, then to scatter among its brethren motes of time. All that was left was the ringing in Carlton and Susie's ears, a dead human, and a dusty room with the scatters of a being thought only to be of fiction.