Apocalypse Landlord: My Tenants Are All Beautiful Heroines.-Chapter 28: Heroine’s Sin [Karina’s Backstory]

A year ago...

"Damn it..." a woman cursed, leaning on the alley wall for support. "What the hell is going on here...?"

The policewoman panted, still in disbelief. Her usually crisp uniform was now covered in blood, barely holding on. It wasn’t how she expected her second day in the force to start.

She slumped to the floor, trying to rein in her breath when the radio on her waist cackled to life.

"Unit 12, we have a situation on Park Avenue. Requesting immediate backup. More strange sightings have been reported."

This shit never ends...

The woman closed her eyes. Her mind told her to stay. Fuck everything else and rest her eyes for a moment. Only for her body to move on its own.

"I’m on my way..." she spoke into the radio.

There was a brief silence before the dispatch responded.

"Copy that, Unit 12. Proceed with caution."

She stayed still for a moment before getting up. Before leaving, she checked the alley for the last time.

Much like herself, the alley was covered in blood. But that wasn’t all. Several corpses, human or otherwise, were littered all over the place.

"I can’t believe all this is real..."

It had been a fine morning when suddenly the sun turned blood-red. The next thing they knew, the creatures they had only read about in various media had come alive.

Soon, chaos followed. Emergency responders reacted, unprepared to tackle such scenarios. It went without saying that they were the first ones to fall.

"I would have ended the same if not for this," the woman mumbled, staring at the gauntlet on her arm.

It took an entire mag of her handgun to kill a goblin, while one punch from the gauntlet shattered their skulls. Karina didn’t even want to imagine what would have happened if the first goblin she killed didn’t drop the gauntlet.

She didn’t have to think for long. After all, she’d have died just like the humans who entered the alley before her.

Walking out of the alley, she noticed the roads were jammed. People were screaming and running all over the place. Police officers, firemen, and even medics were trying to calm them, but to no avail. Karina soon realized why.

Who would be calm if a ten-foot-tall monster was on their asses?

Civilians and officers alike kept firing at the two-faced creature, but they didn’t do any harm to the thick-skinned ogre. It made sense.

If a mere goblin could tank an entire 9mm magazine, nothing short of an RPG would kill an ogre. Once again, her eyes fell on the gauntlet and sighed. Perhaps she was chosen for this crap.

"Back it up!" Karina screamed into her radio as she charged towards the ogre.

As she ran, she felt explicitly angry and frustrated. At the same time, she realized her speed had increased. Her body felt lighter than ever before, yet the pavement cracked under her feet.

Even her vision was affected. It turned a red hue, and the only thing she could see was the two-headed ogre.

Karina leaped into the air, hitting and slashing the monster with her hands. She was so far gone in her bloodlust that she didn’t even realize it wasn’t her gauntlet that was ripping the monster apart, but the claws that had grown out of her fingernails.

Her entire body was covered in red fur, while massive canines protruded from her mouth. As the ogre resisted, she sank her teeth into its neck and ripped its throat off.

The other head tried attacking, only for Karina’s claws to rip its lower jaw off before stomping its head into a paste.

Die! Die! Die!

She yelled, but only strange howls came out of her mouth. She kept shouting until a sudden pain erupted in her shoulder.

Who the hell...?

Her amber eyes found the culprit. An officer had shot her. One shot was all it took before everyone else began bombarding her with bullets.

Pain exploded everywhere, but that was it. Not a single bullet had penetrated her thick fur. It was like they were using rubber bullets. However, in her rage, Karina did not care about all that.

She stared at the first officer who had shot her. The smoke was still coming out of the barrel of his shotgun.

I’ll kill them...

She jumped off the ogre’s corpse, charging at the officers. She had wanted to protect them, yet they gave her pain.

How dare they!?

The officer barely had time to widen his eyes before her claws ripped through his throat. His blood covered her face, but she didn’t stop... not until there were no more gunshots.

In time, her rage subsided. A sharp pain shot through her body. Her muscles tightened, then expanded as if reforming her body.

The fur along her arms disappeared, yet the muscles she abruptly gained remained, her claws shrinking back into trembling fingers, leaving behind a gauntlet.

She looked down at her naked body, only to see it was covered in the blood of dozens of humans. She had killed the very people she wanted to protect and had little to no recollection of it.

Karina dropped to her knees as reality came crashing down on her. She began wildly scratching herself, trying to clean the blood. But the more she tried, the messier it got.

"N-No... no! I didn’t... I didn’t mean to..."

Her voice broke as tears streamed down her face.

"I didn’t want to... I didn’t—"

No matter how much she scratched herself, the blood wouldn’t come off.

***

Back in the present. A few moments ago.

Karina closed her eyes as water droplets traced her body. She was clean. She looked clean.

I’ll be clean this time... no more blood...

She thought and opened her eyes. Her reflection stared back at her. For a moment, everything was fine. But only for a moment.

Suddenly, red patches appeared on her reflection. Within seconds, she was drenched in blood once again.

"STUPID FUCKING CURSE!!!" Karina yelled, dumping another liter of water on her head.

Only showering gave her a sense of temporary peace. It made her sane. That’s why she readily left the camp to become Aiden’s tenant. As long as she had water... she would serve the devil if she had to.

She made up her mind to have Aiden remove the mirrors. Just as she was about to step out, she heard Aiden’s voice in her head.

"Open the door, O’ Showering Beast."

"What the—!?"

Karina jumped, hitting the air as if Aiden was standing there. Thanks to that, her foot slipped, and instead of hitting him, she crashed on the floor, kicking the bucket as she did and splashing water everywhere.

"STUPID FLOOR!"