10-1

Her eyelids fluttered open as she felt her buzzing phone almost falling out of the bed in a cartoonish manner. She reached out and grasped the phone firmly in her hand, shutting the alarm off. A gentle cold caressed her body as she threw the heavy blankets off of herself, making contact with the chill floorboard. Anne's body shivered slightly as she stepped toward the bathroom, doing her morning routine. Meanwhile, her mind was scrolling through different topics to focus on in her head as she took her shower, doing her skincare before putting on her uniform.

She took a final look at herself in the mirror. Her blonde hair was tied in a neat bun, there were slightly visible bags under her eyes, and her smile was non-existent. Her name plate read "Brooks", and her badge stood neat above her breast pocket. Approving her current look, and tidying a few bits on her uniform yet again, she stepped into her garage after grabbing her keys. There simply was no time to grab a bite as she preferred having more sleep to having anything proper to eat in the mornings. She always compensated with a small snack and a cup of coffee later on at the beginning of her shift. It was not the healthiest morning routine but it got her through most of the days.

Inside of her garage, she had her 2016 Subaru and next to it, there was an Interceptor. 'The privileges of having a take-home.' She thought to herself as her thoughts finally settled on how much it'd have sucked to not have an assignment. She got inside her hoop, igniting the engine as she drove out to the road, her palm rose to greet her next-door neighbors with the most genuine smile she could've mustered in her exhausted state. They were a family of four, the father worked in a dental clinic, the mother was a teacher at the local elementary school, and they had two teenage boys. Overall, they weren't the worst people to be neighbors with. Anne was not too well with her neighborly socializing skills but she at least tried not to be one of those cliche boomer-like cops who hated everyone and always talked about the job. No, she liked to go out and keep in touch with her humanity as much as she could. Some frowned upon it and some did not, however, she did not care much about what everyone else thought of her social life.

Parking in front of an identical two-story house identical to hers in this hellhole of suburban design, she grabbed her phone and dialed her patrol partner. The guy sure loved to take his time, though he was extremely reliable on scenes and always had Anne's back when she most needed it. Her eyes scanned around the street, people had started to wake up it seemed, and everyone either went to work or school. Her fingertips tapped gently against the steering wheel as she waited more and more for the guy. Her orbs shifted from side to side as a silhouette crept up on her left-hand side, she reached toward her side mirror to get a clearer look at the approaching person. Her ears picked up on the twirling of rusty bicycle gears afterward, making her relax back in her seat. She was going to do a solo patrol after all, though she did not have any notice about any sick days this a-hole had taken if he had any.

As she was about to twist the keys in the ignition again, she felt a subtle pain in her right shoulder as something pulled against it. Her heart skipped a beat as her immediately shifting gaze was met with a pair of teeth staring at her, gnawing in the air as a red liquid covered the bottom of the pair. A hungry groan escaped from the one pulling against her, his eyes were vicious and his lips curled into a smirk.

"Dude! What the fuck?" she voiced as she stared at Matt, who was, in his reasoning, trying to fit into the upcoming Halloween spirit. He had a shit-eating grin as he got inside of the hoop, buckling up.

"Can't a -pahtnah- scare another -pahtnah-?" he asked in a broken Bronx-type accent. Anne snorted out a chuckle in return, shaking her head with a sly grin.

"Yeah? How about you try that on the LT? Bet he'd love it."

The duo then arranged their seats as Matt reached toward the radio, calling at the beginning of their shift to the SCC. Anne turned on the engine and started to drive toward her favorite coffee spot in town, it did not attract much of a crowd but it wasn't a total slum either, making it a perfect spot to pick up some coffee and get out.

Matt flicked his chin at her, "Up to much last night? You look like shit." He grinned.

"Ah, of course! It was -so- fun that I wished the night would never end," she said in a sarcastic tone as she rolled her eyes.

"You know that you need'a move on eventually, right? 'S Hella stupid to hang onto the past." He sighed after stating so. Anne did want to punch him but he had a point. A point that she put into the back of her mind for a long while. However, it was not all her fault that she did not want to commit to something else just yet, and doing things casually was just not for her. Her ex-girlfriend really was a piece of work.

They parked in front of the old shop, which didn't even have a properly readable sign. Anne's nose picked up on the freshly brewed coffee even before she exited her hoop.

"Ugh, you have a point," she finally stated as she walked alongside Matt to the coffee shop. Upon opening the door, she saw an old woman's warmly smiling face from across the counter, waving at her. Anne reflected a warm smile as she waved back at Martha. A typical name for a typically ordinary and sweet old lady.

"Hey, how are youuu?" She cooed before adding on. "Can you give me my usual, please?" Her tone was as sweet as it could get when she spoke to this lady.

Martha got back to her work, preparing Anne and Matt's coffees. Anne took a look outside the window, noticing how 'quiet' everything was. She also hoped that even thinking about the word 'quiet' wouldn't jinx her day.

After receiving their coffees, both of the deputies waved at the old lady before placing their cups on top of the hood of their hoop, sipping away from the warm drink on a chilly day. They did not speak much as they preferred to hear what was going on around them, though nothing much was going on at all. It was unusually silent in the street. Almost in an eerie sense.

"...113...availability?" The radio inside of the hoop croaked into life. The duo grabbed their coffees off the hood and got inside the car, Matt going for the radio.

"Lancaster 113, SCC, go ahead, ma'am." He keyed and spoke into the radio, releasing the key afterward.

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"SCC, Lancaster 113, possible domestic violence call at 3379 Atha Drive, what is your availability?"

"Lancester 113, code to the last call for service," Matt said as he turned on the emergency lights without blaring the sirens.

"We're close, mhm, should be right there," Anne stated as she pressed on the gas, pointing down at the road they were going. "First call and it's DV? Shit." She took her final sip from her coffee as she took a hard right turn, parking in front of the residence's driveway. It looked like every other house in every other street.

"Lancester 113, 10-97." Matt spoke into his piece as the duo stepped out of the hoop. They couldn't hear anything properly as they approached the house, positioning themselves in front of the door.

Anne knocked on the door several times, "Los Angeles County Sheriff's! Is anybody inside?" After not hearing much from inside, she knocked yet again, repeating herself. To her surprise, she heard some heavy steps approaching the door this time around. Her palm instinctively grasped onto her holster as she awaited someone to come out to the door.

The door's lock clicked as a middle-aged woman with tear-stricken cheeks stepped out. She appeared to be in shock as she was holding onto her forearm which appeared to be actively bleeding on a closer look.

"Ma'am, are you okay?" Anne asked as the deputies pulled out their service weapons. "Who did this to you? Are they still inside?"

The woman did not sound coherent one bit, she was continuously sobbing as she held onto her arm. At that moment, another hoop pulled up behind theirs with two deputies disembarking.

"Hey, I need someone to take care of her and call an RA. I also think we need more backup. I don't know if anyone else is inside or who hurt her." The other deputy nodded at that as he keyed his radio to relay the information he just heard. Then the three of the deputies decided to get inside of the house.

It didn't smell like much of anything but a mix of slight mold and metal inside of the house. Anne scrunched up her nose as she stepped further toward the kitchen, "Los Angeles County Sheriff's! Call out!" she yelled as her boots made the floorboard creak. Even though the house looked as if it was just any other family home from the outside, it was evident that the residents here did not like cleaning up. She could see signs of black mold growing on the corners of the walls with the occasional copperware for drug use scattered across here and there. Her finger was kept above the trigger as she took careful steps forward, stopping at the stairs going up from the kitchen area. She did wonder why in the hell this was a design choice in the first place but she waited until the other deputies were done with clearing the other parts of the house to move up. Though a sudden noise upstairs took her attention away, it sounded like a whimper, as if someone was in a silent agony of some sort.

"HEY! Is anyone there?" she yelled as she started to climb up the stairs.

It seemed fairly dark, making her turn on the flashlight attachment on her service weapon as she peered around, trying to find the source of the noise. She heard Matt climb up as well. "Heard something?" he asked as he also turned on his flashlight.

"Yeah, sounded like a whimper."

The smell of the mold and metal only increased as the duo roamed the hallway to check out the rooms one by one. The rooms only had a clutter of files and empty food packages, sometimes there was a mattress or two along with more copperware. Anne tried to turn on the lights to the hallway, to no avail. The duo reached the bathroom door eventually where they heard a silent cry coming from within. It was in an unusual tone, it was as if the person inside was trying to damage their vocal cords as they were crying. She knocked on the door, which felt as if it could be broken down with a simple kick, even.

"Hey, I am going to need you to put your hands up until we figure out what's going on!" she yelled as she grasped the doorknob. "Okay?" she inquired as she tried to unlock the door fully.

A sudden bang on the door almost made her lose her balance. She trained her pistol toward the pistol. "QUIT HITTING THE DOOR!" she demanded as her brows furrowed, her heart had skipped a beat. The person inside continued to bang on the door with all their might. Her glance shifted to Matt, "Hey, you switch the non-lethal, yeah?"

He slotted his service pistol in its holster before getting his holster out, training it also toward the door. A few seconds later, the duo noticed the door opening up. Anne almost wanted to puke out her guts when the smell hit her nostrils, making her feel like she probably lost her sense of smell permanently. Her vision was blurry for a second, but after it was cleared, she also thought that her sense of vision would be permanently gone after this.

There stood a middle-aged man, his bottom wear covered in his own discharge meanwhile he had blood stains around his mouth and lower chin. A yellow, goo-ish substance spilled out of his throat as he coughed up, taking a step toward the duo. His pupils seemed grand as if he had taken the strongest LSD known to mankind.

"You're gonna get tased if you don't stop..." Anne stated a mere second before the hobgoblin-looking guy decided to sprint toward her. "STOP!" Matt had deployed the taser, probes connecting to the man as he continuously pressed the trigger to no avail. Anne felt the air rush out of her as she found herself on her back with the guy trying to claw against her face and... take a bit out of her? It was overall the most strange interaction she had with a homeless man. She tried to punch the guy several times in the ribs, not affecting him one bit. When she thought that her nose was finally gone in the struggle, Matt put the guy in a headlock, allowing Anne to catch her breath for a mere second before she got up on her feet.

She heard Matt scream in pain as she saw the man biting into his forearm. She piled on top of the guy also, trying to apprehend him, though, in some way or the other, the guy managed to escape out of the duo's grasp, grasping onto Matt's holster as his rage-filled gaze was locked onto the deputy's arm again. Anne trained her weapon against the man and squeezed the trigger several times when she saw that Matt was not in her line of sight. The other deputies arrived behind the two, pulling out their service pistols as well. She kept squeezing the trigger until what remained of the guy was a bleeding body on the ground. It took her entire magazine to just get him down. Matt got away from the laid-out corpse as Anne dropped her magazine to load in a new one. She approached the man, locking his arms behind him before placing him in cuffs.

"Fucking hell," Matt stated as he reached inside one of his pouches to place a gauze on the top of the bite wound, which was bleeding in a concerning manner.

Anne grabbed her radio, speaking into it.

"998. 998. Send RA for an injured officer and suspect. The suspect not breathing, not conscious." Her voice cracked a couple of times within that sentence as the adrenaline prevented her from taking a proper breath. "You good?" she said as she glanced at him, her expression was one of concern.

"Fucking hope I didn't get AIDS," he stated under his breath as all of his limbs were visibly shaking.

What followed was a series of questions from the Lieutenant of the shift and a few forms. Anne had to follow up on the victim report, as well as needed to get the bloodwork and the other stuff from the suspect. And so, she found herself waiting inside one of the empty patient rooms, waiting for the victim of the scene to wake up. She did see Matt leaving the hospital to get home, and fortunately, his blood was clean. She was happy that whatever this man had did not get into Matt as well.

Anne, thinking that she had some time to kill, and seeing that no patient was going to use this room anytime soon, decided to shut her eyelids. She had hoped that some napping might cleanse her senses.