Rosemarie made her landing, and with a sigh, she grabbed a nearby plant and used it to seal the hole Verdell made with a thicker barrier. It gleamed and shimmered, especially when it was hammered by the wraiths inside, but it shoved them off without sustaining even the tiniest crack.

Their surroundings were cleared. The bystanders were carefully controlled and standing behind the barriers, following the fewest of other investigators that spent most of their time waving their hands to warn those who were stepping beyond the line. After seeing Tom scream as he fell, Rosemarie widened his grin and turned to Lt. Higgins.

“What?” Lt. Higgins checked his gun. “it’s thinner than usual, but it’ll have to do.”

“True, but you did well,” Rosemarie pulled out a huge glass jar of cockroaches from her bag. “and that’s the weird episode of my display of gratitude ends.” She walked towards Tom, who remained wide-eyed as though he was still internally screaming. The barrier that she had set up was still doing fine, so she held up her finger to Tom, but at the moment she opened her mouth, she looked back at Lt. Higgins once more. “Do we have clearance to burn this building?”

“I see,” Lt. Higgins scratched the side of his beard nervously and cupped his chin. “a minute outside the building and you already want to commit arson, nice.”

Rosemarie scoffed. “You’re not the one who lost an arm and got stabbed, but you’re the one who knows if we have clearance or not.”

“You’re pulling my leg here,” Lt. Higgins sighed.

The barrier kept taking hits. Rosemarie crossed her arms and waited on his reply.

“We don’t but I could make a phone call, and—”

“Thanks for telling me—” Rosemarie furrowed her brows, froze, and chuckled. “Well, that makes two. I can be really nice twice in a while, huh?” She placed the jar of cockroaches on the ground and pressed her hand over its lid. “Can't help it if we can't burn it — we don't have enough time to wait for a phone call, either. This building became a place where wraiths don’t die; it’s a mana tank, which probably explains why its walls smell like an old soda.”

“Wait, mana smells like old Bepsi?” Lt. Higgins looked away for a second and sniffed; Tom did the same. Verdell, on the other hand, widened her eyes before turning to the ground to shove a handful of pebbles in her pockets.

Rosemarie smiled at them. “See, this type of magic is a bitch to set up but it would just draw mana continuously until it either reaches its limit to summon something stronger. What do you know, it might be a fire elemental this time” she laughed at Tom. “or until it overloads and explodes, which is usually the latter. Breaking the circle or the stream of magic inside the building might cause an overload, so our best way is to cut the supply outside and work our way in. You can thank me later, but I tell you,  It’ll be as easy as taking a pie from a baby store.”

“What?” Tom scratched the back of his head and Verdell shrugged at him.

“So," Lt. Higgins cleared his throat and cocked his pistol. "we’ll have to protect you while disarming that time bomb.” 

“If my heart had a museum, it would have a grand display of me with a little scribble of your name at the edge of my biggest frame. You get me, old man.” Rosemarie tapped Lt. Higgins’ shoulder and shook her head at Tom and Verdell. “Also, if I get touched, this whole area would blow and we’ll all die.”

“I have a magazine and another half in my gun; I have about eleven shots left, counting the one in the barrel.” Lt. Higgins declared. The crack above them grew larger and larger, so he turned to Tom. “What about you?”

Tom examined the grip of his gun and felt its weight before counting from memory. “I have about seven shots left including what’s in the barrel, Sir, I’m sorry.”

“Good enough. Now, let's all be careful.” Lt. Higgins stretched his shoulders with a groan and ended his routine with a wide grin. “I’m glad that I’m ready to go on times like this because you see—”

“Please don’t use this as an opportunity to make do your life insurance spiel.” Tom gave Verdell an apologetic nod and walked beside Lt. Higgins. Shaking off his nervous smile, he let out a long breath to relax his limbs and released the safety pin from his gun.

“You two seem awfully calm, I’m kinda jealous.” Rosemarie then whispered an incantation, letting the surface of her jar crack and crumble slowly as it turned to ash. The swarm of cockroaches didn’t run for their lives immediately. Instead, they kept their swarm intact, turning into a ball before they dispersed one by one, flying and crawling into nearby plants, pots, and some posts. A few even burrowed through the gaps of the windows and doors and entered the building.

“Probably because the instruction is simple enough,” Tom murmured. He watched the barrier before them shatter with Lt. Higgins and Verdell at his side. Four fully armed wraiths jumped from the hole, and Tom moved forward, adding, “We won’t even be able to stop them from coming, so being in an open space helps, too.”

“Ah, shit.” Rosemarie clicked her tongue. “You sounded like me for a second but you ruined—"

“You know what else is something that we can’t stop from coming? 

"Death." Tom groaned.  

"Death, yes... but, it’s something that we could prepare for.” Lt. Higgins raised his gun and pushed a corner of his lips to throw a proud smile their enemy a proud smile. “Pro-Life Wind Golden Insurance just does that, and they do it well. You two should really talk to me because I can guarantee a worry-less retirement for you guys, and maybe give your folks if you die—”

“Sir, please!”

“Fine,” Lt. Higgins sharpened his gaze. “Let’s get this work done, and maybe we could talk about when you guys are free for lunch.”