Chapter 02.3 - 520 Stine Drive

When Max turned the engine off, everything was abnormally quiet in the cookie-cutter suburban area. 520 Stine Drive stood out due to the mess in the front yard covered with scraps of torn clothing and hair that stood out all the more in this pristine neighbourhood. Logan was a Native who was one of the only races of nonhumans that could financially compete with Sammy. Gaudy red bricks in the sea of gold felt so off-putting to Maxwell. What immediately alarmed him was the brown splatter across the grass, "Car G25 reporting at the scene! I am going in. Over and out." There was a start of a reply, but he had already cut off his radio. Max savoured the silence as he went through the brief ritual of reloading every chamber of his gun. Finally, Officer Stone made his way across the trashed yard without stepping on any evidence.

Max only knocked thrice and said just as many times, "This is the M.H.P.D open up!" The door was ajar, and the air grew dank when he stepped inside. He could not place the unbearable scent, but one thing that stuck to his mind was how it made the air heavy. The house was freshly cleaned to the point where even the tile in the kitchen was still wet. This cleanliness made the lone roach skittering across the floor so eye-catching. His immediate thought was to kill it. Max had grown up with such pests and despised them. However, the stench grew heavier the further into the kitchen he went. There was a door left wide open that appeared to lead to the source of the smell. Inside the garage was a car, but Max didn't even see it when he walked in. 

Describing the inside of a Demonkin is difficult if you have never seen the outside of one. They were a vibrant-skinned group with robust facial features and a few traits reminiscent of folklore about Demons (hence the name). However, the corpse he saw lacked the usually attributed horns and beautifully bright eyes they had. A smooth lump of veiny blue flesh and shimmering black bones was all that remained of the head. Other than the severed neck stump, the rest of her body was uninjured, which only went to burn the memory harder in Max's mind. Her earth-toned coloured head wraps lay burnt on the ground, but she wore a matching gown on the same thin material. The golden rings on her faint purple wrist confirmed it; this was Leanne. Demonkin were split into three families; Goblin, Cubi, and Drude. Seeing how she wasn't small nor had the lower half of an animal, that ruled out Goblin and Drude, respectively. The fact that her corpse unnaturally glowed with sexuality even after death meant she was Cubi which would stay in Max's nightmares. Footsteps and muffled talking from above alerted him.

"This is the M.H.P.D! Come out with your hands up before backup arrives, and I'll promise you will be safe!" Max screamed upstairs after rushing through the kitchen and back to the living room. He felt like a mad person calling to the air, but the scream confirmed all he needed to know. After two steps climbing up the stairs, a gunshot rang as a door was blown back and off one of its hinges. It was left hanging while bits of the wall fell out from the gaping hole that Logan left in the wall, "Take a single step in here, and I'll blow this slut brains out like the other one." Max hid behind the loose hanging door, shouting his reply, "Logan! Don't do anything that you might regret!"

Maxie ended his sentence by swinging around and pointing his Dragoon Blundershot back at him. What greeted him was the sight of Logan with Susa in a headlock with the smoking end of a Double Barrel Flint pressed to her head. Susa was nonplussed about the hot metal burning her at her temple and instead had her eyes burned on Maxwell. Max heard about the toughness of Pest, but one look at her told him he was not prepared.

Susa was a 5'7 woman with a grey hue to her skin. The only thing that covered her skin was a sports bra, shimmering black carapace on her shins/forearms, and ink. Her body was a living canvas that depicted bark covering nearly every centimetre of her skin with little intricacies such as twigs and tiny insects. Only the right side of her face, where the smoking gun sizzled her skin, was inkless. He was sure the tattoos went under the one article of clothing she wore. Speaking of which, it did little to leave her full, plump chest to the imagination. Lastly, she was abnormally hairless, with the tattoo continuing on her scalp, where it was somehow more intricate. The only thing on her head was two thick insectile antennas. Susa's all-black, browless eyes narrowed right in Max.

Logan was a Native, the closest thing that nonhumans in Muruya had that resembled humans. Still, as he stood now, there was no trace of humanity in him. His skin was as pale as Max's, except there was no hint of colour anywhere on him. One could, at first glance, mistake him for a Caucasian male if it wasn't for Natives' signature golden eyes. They were vast and wild, locking onto him. Multiple veins and dilated pupils from heavy drug use made for Stone's most intense staring contest. Dishevelled, dirty blonde hair complimented the condition of the clothes he wore. Logan had enough weight on him that momentarily he appreciated that he was in a standoff instead of a fistfight. He was the same height as his wife, Susa, but twice as wide in ageing sloping muscles, "Shut the hell up! You will give me that damn car or both of us will die."

"Come on! Do it then, Logan! You little bitch!" Susa screamed back at him, leaning into the gun barrel, "Both of you, stop moving! I will not warn you again." Max's words angered Logan more than his wife's outburst. Officer Stone took a step forward. Logan immediately pointed the Double Barrel Flint towards Max's face, "Are you thick in the head, Bacon Bits, or do you have a death wish? I said, give me your fucking keys!" Max knew that his following words and actions would decide the life of everyone in the room. Most people have hours to make such an important decision, but his speech was made in seconds.

"Logan, I have zero experience dealing with a hostage situation, but I can tell you this. Drop the gun now and move away from Susa. Cooperate, and I will not shoot you both." He took another step further into the room and wasn't immediately shot, so that was progress in his book. Logan was too busy laughing to notice that he was getting closer, "That is the best you dirtbags can offer me? I knew you human dogs did not care but to be so brazen to let someone like you in the force. You aren't even a real--"

The first shot drowns out Susa's screams and Logan's voice. It was entirely accidental; the two additional gunshots weren't. Smoke didn't even have a chance to clear from his shot before the next two squeezes of the muzzle. Sparks and the recoil left his entire right arm numb. There was so much smoke that he was momentarily confused about why the first thing he saw was sunlight. It dawned on Max he was looking at three massive bullet holes that went through the wall. Looking down, he saw Susa staring glassy-eyed at her husband's corpse. Nothing left of his Double Barrel Flint nor much of the right side of his body.

The expression of open-mouth shock still locked on the half of his face that remained. Once holding the Flint, his right arm was obliterated from wrist to shoulder. Susa must have moved away somewhere along the line as a jagged circle of gore where his chest once was. Logan's corpse was laid in just a way that Max could peer inside the alien meat and bone lasagna that was the contents of his head.

"This is the M.H.P.D! Come down with your hands up!"

"Shit! Susa." The reality of two dead bodies had finally begun to set in, "I will explain everything to them, but first, I need you in these handcuffs."

Susa gave a nonchalant shrug as he was unsure if she was shocked or truly unphased by the experience. When she spoke, it was with a calmness that bothered him and words that messed up his thinking, "Listen, if you can not turn me in, then I'll help you in return."

"Officer G25! Delta-214-A! Coming down." The synchronised footsteps of several of his fellow officers came to a halt. They hovered into the garage to check in on the death scene of Leanna. Max's dull blue eyes stared down at the woman he had in handcuffs, "Out with it, what is your offer?"

She seemed mildly surprised, but Max had difficulty reading the almost alien nonhuman. Eyebrows play an essential part in expressing oneself. However, Susa lacked them, "I know where you can make a huge arrest with someone with an outstanding warrant. 430 Wendig Court, Titus Armstrong." The name immediately brought to mind someone on the most wanted list. He would have helped her even if she did not have this information, but this sweetened the pot to diabetic levels. Max led her down into the car while everyone was taking pictures of the cadaver in the garage. His trip was almost uninterrupted.

Stone was just about to put Susa in the car when a '+' Officer approached him. It was hard to tell much about the support officer due to the helmet, vizier, and riot shield that blocked the sun on their backs. This female was a Demonkin-Drude judging from the purple and green-scaled tail where her legs should be. It was roughly the size of two female legs stuck together but with more meat to help with curves. Her movement was quick enough to leave an impression on Maxwell when she slithered over and forced his door open. She spoke with a strangely human pace, "Officer G-07, here. What is your badge number?" Her hidden eyes and hair scanned Susa and him while digging around in her medical bag. Most of her upper body was hidden under the heavily padded uniform and vest '+' Officers wore. Her medical bag was a grey satchel with a green '+' symbol on the front of it.

"First contact, Officer G-25, here--"

"You both are injured. Stay still." She put some cream on a square gauze before putting it to Susa's temple and wrapping it with some tape. G-07 had no sympathy for the Pest afterwards. Forcibly nudging her into the backseat with her baton and closing the door with a slam. Maxwell was just about to thank the support officer before his back was pushed into the passenger door of his car by the surprisingly solid-bodied Drude Officer. The soft sound of sniffing made him freeze, along with her words, "You smell like Tainted Chocolate, Stone."

"Lyre? You are a plus officer?" At saying her name, she immediately backed away and took his arm. She held his hand with an iron grip before using her free hand to make her vizor roll up. Maxwell was too busy staring at his arm to look at her face. The sleeve of his uniform was burnt to a crisp. His flesh was not much better as it was somewhere between first and second degree with still smouldering black powder on its surface.

Lyre had profoundly tanned skin that looked like a mixture of flesh and scales. It had all the soft appearance of the skin, but closer inspection showed that Lyre's body was scaled every inch of her body. Tufts of her black and brunette-streaked hair peek through her helmet. Her pupils were slitted like a snake with a softly angular face that made her look mighty yet exotic while enhancing her femininity.

Guilt hit him in waves as her eyes were a dull yellow like a particular friend he betrayed in the Blackwood Manor. Her expression was one of disgust that was not linked to having to clean his wounds, as the reason was evident in her words, "Yes, and you are cheating on your wife now?"

"Not that it is any of your business, but the only woman I ever slept with is my wife...." His lie hung there while Lyre sprayed some green mist after cleaning his wounds before bandaging him up. Lyre unnecessarily tightens the bandages as if to emphasise her words.

"First off, Sammy was my friend before she injured herself in the Sand Army, and secondly, you can cheat in more ways than just physically, Maxwell...." Her eyes were downcast for a moment before she slithered uncomfortably close to him. Stone could not pick up on the vibes she was giving due to the erotic subtext of her actions and the deadly seriousness of her words. They all contrasted with each other, "Listen, I know Sammy isn't as motivated as she used to be, but have you thought it might be because of you? I saw you this last year more than she probably has. You understand what that can do to a person, right?"

There was an uncomfortable matter-of-fact tone like this was obvious. Max did not give her the satisfaction of a response. Lyre seems to take this to mean something else while he walks to the driver's side of the car. Her eyes never left him even as he got in his car, her last words hanging in the air, "I'll see you again soon, Stone."

Once inside his car, Max was overcome with a flood of emotions, the greatest of which was grief. He was so distracted by this that he jumped at feeling his phone vibrating. The message Stone saw only added to his emotional distress. He could feel insects crawling underneath his bandages when seeing the contact name on the phone that plainly said 'Reggie'. It read simply:

"So 1st I learned dat u were working 4 da M.H.P.D thn I found out ure married 2?! Pick ^ ur dmn 4n coward. U btr pray James gets to u b4 I do! ur fkn ded upos!"

There was a type of anxiety that was unique to someone whose life was crumbling around them. It was that first immediate sense of worry for one's being before the countless other factors sunk in. What if all of this put his wife in danger? How would this information impact his promotion? Was aiding a key suspect in a murder case helpful in the slightest? Every second pondering this, agony worsened as roaches began to crawl underneath his flesh. Thrashing and writhing in such a way that it made his brain and heart feel like they were no longer functioning. Officer Stone knew exactly what he needed to do amid this chaos: forget and breathe.

Heifer confirmed that he needed some more chocolate than anything else right now. It took frighteningly longer to recenter himself than it did at Lock-Up. The best he could manage left him a shaking, sweaty sack while his eyes gazed out the window as he started the car. In the far distance, tucked away in the sea of golden houses, was the harbinger of his stress with her countless tails and fluttering kimono.