"I'll ask you again. What is your name?" The police officer asked in a soft voice.
The child said nothing.
The other officer sighed. "We're not getting anything out of this one. Just give up."
"We can't. This kid is the only witness we have to what actually happened back there."
The other officer put his face in his hands. "What does it matter at this point? They'll never believe anything we say about it. You saw how that kid was when we got in there. And the room...and all those people..."
The officer who was questioning the child took a seat beside his partner. "I know, but we have a duty. We have to investigate it and report what we find, no matter how it makes us look."
"I can't do this. It's...this cant be real. I'm in a dream...a nightmare..." The other officer's shoulder shook as he recalled what happened earlier that day.
They were answering a call about an abandoned child a family found. It should have been a simple matter. All they needed to do was get more information and take the child back. On the way there, an unexpected downpour came on fast and hard. It was so heavy they could barely see anything through the windshield. When they finally arrived, no one answered the door. Due to how heavy the rain was, they presumed the family simply couldn't hear them over all the other noise.
Time passed and still no one came to the door. There was no choice but to break it down. Inside, the rain seemed to be pouring as hard as outside except for one difference. This rain was red. It drenched the floors, walls, and everything in between. Red rain fell from the ceiling nonstop. All around were parts, bits and pieces of this and that. A stray arm here, a foot there, a jaw by the sofa. It was so surreal they wondered if they had been pranked and entered some sort of fake haunted house.
One of the officers picked up a hand to examine it. To the horror of both of them, there was nothing fake about it. He dropped it immediately.
Then they noticed the child. The child stood in the center of the room holding an empty glass. There was no expression on the child's face. One officer stood in the doorway in shock. The other grabbed the child and hurried them all out of the house. Once the three of them got into the car, the house collapsed in and an explosion of red burst out across the yard.
The rain stopped when they left that place. In the hours after that, one officer spent his time trying to get a statement, a word, anything out of the child. The child never spoke once. The other officer stayed mostly in the corner, occasionally getting up to pace back and forth around the room, or mutter some complaint towards the officer asking questions.
It was nearly night now, and they still hadn't made any progress with the child. After sunset, the atmosphere of the room changed.
"Water."
Both officers looked up. The one who'd asked questions earlier spoke. "Did you say something?"
Outside, it started to rain. The child covered in red stared at them with empty eyes. "I want water."