It's a terrible life

A few hours had passed and dusk was creeping over the land. It was a very quiet moment when detective Sato was sauntering down the road towards the beige micro van that was sitting across the road from the gym. The man sitting inside was so obviously a cop that Sato would have recognised him, even if she wasn't working with him on a daily basis. He was in plain clothes, but the whole posture, as he was sitting in the car, reading a newspaper, screamed "uniform". Would be a miracle if no one made him.

"Good evening." She said after she had tapped on his window, flashed her badge and he had rolled the window down.
"Anything interesting?"

"Not really. She went in and hasn't come out yet."

"Hm."

Sato looked at the building. It was a boring building, at least from the outside.

"There's a back entrance around the corner, probably for deliveries. But it's bolted shut. There's also an emergency exit, but that one has an alarm. I know the company, of the alarm, I mean. My wife made me buy one for our house. It went off one night by accident and it is infernally loud. So we either see her coming out the front, or hear her going out the back."

Sato nodded.

"I'll take a walk around the building anyway." She said and waved towards the officer.

The alley behind the building was wide but dark. The buildings on each side were high and in some places leaning into the alley. Some bikes were standing there, a few boxes here, a car a bit further down.

In a sudden flash a wave of confusion and dizziness hit her with force. She stumbled and had to lean against the wall next to her.

What a weird dream this was. What in all worlds was a micro van? What were those clothes she was wearing? What was that taste in her mouth? Had she smoked tobacco? And her weapon was gone. Instead she had this small, black…

It was gone. It had lasted only a few seconds and now it was gone as if it had never been there. As if it had been a dream. And similar to a dream Hanako couldn't remember more than an intense feeling of confusion.
Wait, what? Ameko. Ameko couldn't remember anything else. Weird.

She looked down. Why the hell had she drawn her gun? It weighed heavy in her hand, cold and dark.
When she looked up again she realised that she was standing next to the backdoor of the gym. It was a double door, secured with a heavy lock, rusty, probably untouched for several years. The officer was right, no one would be using this as an exit.

Suddenly there was a scratching sound, a gowl and something massive and dark fell to the ground next to Sato. She whirled around, trying to bring her gun to bear on…

She stumbled over something on the ground. That saved her life. The thing jumped past her, missed her, crashed into the door, sheared the lock clean off and smashed the door halfway open. It turned fast as lightning.
With a quick dive, Sato dodged another pounce and rolled on the hard concrete. When she was on her feet again, back towards the door, the thing had come to a halt and turned as well. She saw large claws, deep dark and filthy fur, white bone and nightmarish fangs. It charged.
More instinctively Sato brought her gun up, trained it on the creature and pulled the trigger.

The shot was loud as a cannon, bouncing back from the near walls, deafening.

She fired again.

She must have hit the thing, because suddenly it tried to turn away and change direction. But it was too close and too fast. It stumbled over it's own massive feet and smashed into Sato, hurling her away like a doll.

Pain exploded in her back when she impacted into the door. It gave way. And with a loud bang, accompanied by a cloud of dust and metal fragments, Sato came flying into the gym. She fell hard onto the floor, only a few feet away from Elyss. Her gun came to a halt right next to her. For a moment, Sato was disoriented, hurt, close to unconsciousness. But miraculously, although she didn't realise it in that moment, she had no injuries worse than a bruise...