It's a terrible life

Hanako smiled when she heard Elyss talk about just killing those things and going back home. But the smile didn’t reach her eyes. Her eyes suddenly had a sad look to them. Deep inside her she knew that she wouldn’t be going back to her life. She didn’t really think about the possibility of dying. She couldn’t allow that. A policewoman that sets out on a sortie expecting to die will probably find a way to make it happen.
Still, when she looked into the rearview mirror, watching the town slowly fall behind, she couldn’t help but feel like she was burning bridges behind her.

Less than half an hour later they stopped on a narrow and lonely forest road near the abandoned village. As soon as Hanako got out of the car, inhaling the cold air filled with the scents of a rainy forest, she felt dizzy for a moment. With force, coming from a depth she couldn’t even begin to fathom, something tried to make its way to the surface. For the fraction of a second it threatened to overwhelm Hanako, wash her away to a place far beyond this world she knew. She already began to see the mist, rolling through the trees, and the warm, golden shimmer of a house in the distance. Someone whispered behind her.
Then, like a force from the outside, a gentle wind blew away the mist and the picture of the house vanished.

When it was over Hanako realised that it had been less of a moment and when she looked about her the world was normal again. She didn’t, however, realise that she hasn’t thought of herself as Ameko Sato for quite a while.

She opened the duffel bag and with trained hands put on the bulletproof vest, loaded both shotguns and both pistols and then turned to see that Elyss, too, was properly dressed for the occasion. Finally she distributed the arsenal between the two of them, including the teargas grenades. The big shotgun weighed heavy in her hands and Hanako was brutally conscious of the vest and the pistol on her belt as well, even though she had carried both items regularly.

“See that you press the stock good against your shoulder. It needs to have contact when you fire or else it will probably dislocate your shoulder. Those slugs pack quite a punch. Otherwise stabilise with one hand, aim along the barrel and only put a finger on the trigger when you want to press it. If it goes empty and you’re in a pinch, better drop it and use the pistol, that’s why we have them. If all goes south you can also always use the shotgun as a club, although I’d always prefer my Zanpakuto to that.”

She stopped and looked somewhat confused. What had she said just now? She tried to grab it, but it slipped away like a dream just after waking up. If Elyss looked into her eyes she could see the conflict in Hanako’s mind for the fraction of a second, could see them glazing over for the shortest amount of time, before her gaze became clear again.

“Well, the grenades are only teargas. We’re just police, not military, so we don’t have much that goes boom. And these have a habit of turning around and biting you in the ass. Or face, to be precise. You really don’t want to have this stuff in your eyes, so only use them to cover your retreat, if ever. Throw them and then run.”

Slowly and cautiously she began leading the way through the forest. She chose to go cross-country, fearing that the roads were watched. It wasn’t a long way but even so, Hanako was again drenched when she stopped again, seeking cover against a tall and thick tree. It was still pouring down and the rain caused a loud rushing sound on the leaves of the trees. It was so loud that Hanako couldn’t hear herself breathing, couldn’t even hear the click of her weapon when she cocked it. But she heard them. She heard the grunting, the screeching ...and the laughing. It made heard heart race and feel cold at the same time. She had heard these sounds before. But when? Where? She looked at Elyss with an expression of terror in her eyes. Yes, she was terrified, terrified beyond any reason. But why?

She swallowed. There was no turning back now. She nodded and crouched low, then she crept past the tree and towards the sounds. Her weapon was ready. She came close, ever closer. There they were, she could see them. There was the black dog, as ugly and as terrifying as it had been just hours before. Next to it was a truly nightmarish creature: A torso with no legs. It had grey skin and walked around on its hands in a horrible staggering kind of fashion. From it’s forearms long white bones protruded, like sickles. On its head was a mess of filthy black hair and the face...the face was a mask, a contorted, grotesque grimace, a parody of a human face, frozen in horror. And Hanako could see it all too clearly, because it was looking directly at her.

“Oooooh, you found us. That was fast. How verrry funny.” a voice suddenly said. It wasn’t one of them, it was another voice. And this time Hanako was sure that it had been a real voice.

Suddenly the two nightmare-creatures plunged forward, racing towards the woman.

“Fuck!” Hanako cursed, brought her gun to bear and fired.

Boom, boom, boom. The whole forest echoed from the shots. She couldn’t see if she had hit, too far away, too dark, too much movement. She had aimed for the dog, but he didn’t even flinch.

She couldn’t fire a fourth shot. The dog jumped and she had to duck and roll to escape it’s outstretched claws. Only on her knees she aimed again and fired two more shots.
Then she saw something out of the corner of her eyes, something white, black and grey. Instinctively she rolled to the side. Something very sharp, bladelike, whistled through the air where she had been just a second ago. It cut a thin tree cleanly in two.

“Fuck!” Hanako cursed again, when she saw the tree fall. She turned to avoid it, but couldn’t avoid it completely. It hit her back, threw her to the ground hard.

It took what felt like a year for Hanako to realise that she was lying face down in the dirt. Her weapon was gone. Where was it? Where was Elyss. Again unconsciousness pulled on her mind.

“Fuck…” she muttered for a third time. Then darkness began to creep into her field of view.