The wraith’s upper body shot up. It materialized its war hammer next and launched an attack as it twisted its lips into a burning shade of a smile.

Tom widened his eyes and tried to reach for his gun once more. Lt. Higgins stepped back and immediately raised his pistol, and Rosemarie, keeping her tight face, reached to her side to grab something, anything. That second, in their eyes, dragged once more — save for Verdell who jumped in and punched the wraith back.

Verdell dodged the backhanded swing that it returned and pulled back. She covered her head with her arms and kept her posture low, allowing Tom and Lt. Higgins spit their bullets and riddle the wraith with holes once more.

Verdell sighed in relief and smiled back at Tom, who nodded back with sweat dripping from his chin. He then looked away, cleared his throat, and straightened out his jacket before facing Verdell again, but his words didn’t come out.

“Don’t worry about it.” Verdell furrowed her brows, still keeping her smile. She kept her lips tight and hid her fist behind her as she clenched it.

“Could you...” Rosemarie peeked in the hallway through the broken door. She clicked her tongue, and with another sigh, she looked back at Lt. Higgins and walked back to her bag. “We’re sealing this door right now.”

Lt. Higgins reloaded his gun. “Should I break one of the vases, at least?”

“Could be a bomb, though.” Rosemarie shrugged. She took out a slab of wood from her bag, turned it to ash with a whisper, and made a small greenish film to block the door. “But, it’s dangerous here. I’m pretty great, but this barrier is not me so that explains a lot; we should probably bail and rethink our strategies once we’re—”

Something crashed and bounced off from the barrier that Rosemarie had set on the door. She stopped and held her breath until another violent swing cracked her barrier.

Rosemarie sighed. “How’re the civilians? Do you have any other men investigating this apartment building?”

“N-no, we followed the procedure and evacuated them here once we’ve started the investigations.” Lt. Higgins scratched the side of his beard. “As for the others, we didn’t have that many men since our forces have been scattered, so it’s just us here.”

“Great.” Rosemarie glanced at the barrier she made and looked back at Verdell. “Now, I need your help.” She gave Verdell five pencils. “We’re on the third or fourth floor; I can’t remember, and I’m running out of caffeine so there’s that. Do you think that the walls would be thick enough?”

Verdell turned to the wall behind her and touched it, knocking it a second later to hear its hollow sound. “It’s not,” she smiled. “but it’s something that I could do something about.”

“Alrighty,” Rosemarie snapped her fingers to create another barrier before the first one was shattered. There were two wraiths outside now, and the one Lt. Higgins and Tom put down reminded them that the fight was not yet over.

Taking a deep breath, Verdell sharpened her gaze as she spread her fingers at the surface of the wall. She whispered and the first two pencils disappeared into ash, allowing her to slowly sink her fingers inside like it was jelly as the chunk of the walls cracked from the edges. The hollowness she heard earlier made itself known, so after knitting her brows, the third pencil crumbled as she pulled her fingers to make a fist. It allowed her to gather the materials at the tip of her fingers and turn it into a thinner wall of murky liquid.

With the fourth pencil disappearing, she smiled and pulled her hand out to watch the wall before her balloon into something as soft as a cushion but was as thick as twice her arm’s length. She kicked it down next to watch it fall to the ground. Satisfied, Verdell turned to the rest of the group just in time to see Tom implode the wraith a second time for good measure.

“Nice. Aight, Imma head out.” Rosemarie smiled at Verdell, picked up her duffle bag, and jumped through the hole, shouting, “I fucking hate the nightshift. PEACE!”

Lt. Higgins disengaged second, shoving his pistol back in its holster. He nodded at Verdell and followed Rosemarie’s lead.

A second went by, and no one else followed. Verdell scratched the back of her head to calm herself down and looked at Tom. His teeth chattered as he held the wraiths slamming the barrier at gunpoint.

Tom gave Verdell a wry smile as his trigger finger shook. “Thank you for your help. You go on ahead though. I’ll make sure it’s safe.”

Verdell said nothing, but after seeing that Tom had no plans to move, she marched to his side, grabbed him by the hand, and threw him outside even before he could say anything.