Chloe and It

She had never known that a human body could twist into that position.
That was the first hint that it was not human. The other hints included the lack of a scalp, and eyes of pitch dark, and the screeching sound it emanated. Oh, yes and it was crawling across the floor on twisted, broken limbs.
Chloe shrieked and pounded her feet down the hallway in the opposite direction, her screams melding with the howls of it. She fired her pistol blindly over her shoulder, hearing its screams rise in pitch and a meaty thump. She spun around a corner, getting the barest glimpse of it slumped face down on the floor, limbs sticking out at all angles. She ducked into a bathroom on her left, slammed the door, locked it and sank to the floor, gasping to catch her breath.
When her brother had suggested she become a monster hunter, she hadn't quite pictured it like this. More so, standing victoriously over a dead werewolf terrorizing a small town. But this...being chased by it through a cramped New York townhouse. Chloe resolved to reconsider her career path.
But first, she had to take care of it and get out of here. There was a horrid sucking noise coming from the hallway, there was a sickening feeling in her gut that told her the trouble with it was not yet over.
Standing, taking a deep breath to steel herself, she unlocked the door with a soft click. The sucking noise stopped. She allowed the door to swing open and stood in the doorway. Heart pounding, she took a step out. Merciful silence.

Chloe whirled around the corner and nearly opened fire before she realized it was no longer there. She began proceeding cautiously down the hallway, much in the same way she had the first time. An idea was forming. She reached the place she had been the first go round, and, like magic, the screeching started up and it once more hauled itself on twisted arms, sporting two new holes in its face through the far doorway, the room inside pitch black.
More prepared, Chloe waited for one tense moment. It shrieked and chased her anew. Chloe bolted down the hall, around the corner and waited.
It didn't come. Far more sure of herself, Chloe was convinced it was put here for a reason. To protect something in that black room. Her gun didn't do much to kill it, but, Chloe figured it couldn't chase her if it didn't have any limbs.
She took a moment to breathe and center herself and put a fresh clip into the pistol. This was it. Game plan in mind, Chloe stepped into the hall for the third time and traversed more confidently than before. Three steps to get to the trigger spot. Two. One!

In a manner you could set your watch to, it scrabbled from the room like a horrifying, eager puppy, shrieking once again. Aiming carefully, just like in all her and Cam's practice sessions, she fired at its joints. Backing up slowly, two shots to the left elbow and it only just hung on by sinew. It took three shots to the right elbow to sever it in the same manner. Four shots left in the clip and still it shoved itself forward, kicking its back legs like a frog. Bracing herself, Chloe ran forward at it, matching its shriek with one of her own. The steel toes of her boot connected under its chin with a sickening crunch. Its head snapped up to look at her, the shriek faltering and now its head hung at the same unnatural angle of her limbs. Stomping down on its head as it swiped at her with the stubs of its arms, Chloe shuddered in disgust and fired the rest of her rounds in the left knee. Reload. Half a clip into the right knee and the creature had nothing but four nubs for limbs. Harmless, but still it screamed in fury. Chloe was covered in gore, bits of bone and shredded muscle and tissue.

She felt the vomit rising in her throat and she forced it down, stepping over it and into the room beyond. Going through the black, for an instant that's all, there was, like falling into a void that muffled even sound. Then, with a soft click, an overhead light flickered on. The room was empty but for a gore-splattered altar. A pig was pinned to the wall overhead a stone Venus figure, rotting and several weeks old. Browned and decomposing herbs circled the figure's feet and the smell of wine was strong. There didn't appear to be any threats, but the pistol was a comforting weight all the same. Crossing the room to the altar, something nestled in the plants caught Chloe's eye. It was a ring. A simple little thing, silver band, and a small sapphire stone. Chloe wiped her hand on the back of her shirt before picking it up. Warm to the touch, it seemed to glow with some inner power. She slipped it into her pants pocket and turned, flinching when she saw it was a foot away, staring sightlessly with eyes as black as the faux void the room had been.

Chloe edged carefully around it. Although it rolled itself around to track her movements, it no longer screamed, nor made move to attack. Chloe was almost out of the room when it hissed. Chloe turned in time to see gray-black smoke pouring from its every orifice. The body itself seemed to deflate like a doll, and the smoke disappeared up through the ceiling. Finally, it was done and the body seemed to be only a skin sack of bones. Chloe decided she had had more than enough monster hunting for today. The job was done, she had apparently taken whatever made it alive, she could change into the spare clothes Cam had insisted she bring (And thank God for that), update her client in the morning and get paid.
Reaching the front door of the townhouse where she had ditched her pack, Chloe mused that maybe she could find out who put the altar there through her client.