The clicking stopped. Krowe and the others froze in place.
Krowe pointed to a pair of red dots up ahead. Vance shone his light toward them.
The beam crept up the wall—and white teeth grinned back at them in the dark.
Someone screamed. The light shook. The teeth vanished.
The clicking began again and echoed all around them. Krowe’s voice shook as he ordered everyone to remain calm. Vance reached behind him.
“I’m here,” Bella whispered.
Red dots flashed behind them.
An officer fired into the darkness.
He missed. There was another click. The officer spun around.
The dots appeared again in front of them and blinked.
“Aaaaahh!” the officer screamed, firing into the darkness. Krowe dropped to the ground as Vance pulled Bella down with him. She heard the boots of the others sliding against the tile as they either fell to the ground or took cover from the gunfire.
“HOLD YOUR FIRE!!!” Krowe shouted over the gunfire. “HOLD YOUR FIRE!”
The officer fired at every noise. Bella crawled backward and Vance caught her movement, raising his light.
She pressed a finger to her lips. He nodded.
She rose, grabbed her handcuffs, and threw them behind the man.
The officer fired at the sound—she leapt. There was another flash of gunfire.
The room went silent.
“Sparks!” Krowe cried out.
Vance scrambled towards Bella. The clicking stopped. He aimed his gun. “Bella,” he whispered. Someone groaned. Krowe rose to his feet, clutching his submachine gun. He eased his way backwards, shining his light ahead of him.
“The next person who fires indiscriminately will be dealt with by me, personally. On your feet.”
“Is everyone alright? Vance?” Krowe called out.
Vance found the scared officer first. His light fell on the man’s badge.
It was Officer Mason, a rookie.
Mason was alive and cowering against a wall.
“Mason, are you injured?” he asked the young man.
He didn’t respond. He pulled his legs tighter.
Vance swept the hallway. Everyone was accounted for—except Bella.
Something wet coated his fingers. Blood.
“Bella… no,” he murmured.
Because of the distraction with Bella, no one noticed the dark figure hanging from the center of the ceiling just above them.
A hard thump. Everyone froze as a flashlight swept the ceiling and caught a dark, humped figure.
The clicking returned—louder, faster—as Swarn began to straighten.
Krowe’s eyes widened with terror. He raised his weapon. The men behind him did as well.
Swarn’s head turned to them. His eyes flashed red. He raised his arms and roared.
Krowe yelled out, “Take it down!”
A single gunshot flashed in the darkness behind Swarn. The bullet exited through Swarn’s forehead. His body fell to the floor.
Everyone aimed their lights past Swarn. The beams landed on a woman’s silhouette.
Bella covered her eyes with a hand, blocking the beams from the flashlights. She steadied her weapon in the other hand, leaning against a corner wall. She gritted her teeth. Blood dripped down from a bullet wound to her right shoulder.
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“Officer Sparks!” Krowe yelled out.
Vance rushed past the officers towards Bella. Her grip on the wall began to slip.
“I—I’m fine, Jaden.”
Vance caught her before she hit the floor.
“Is it dead?” she asked.
They all lined up around Vance and Bella.
Krowe laid his hand on her shoulder. “I thought we had lost you there, Sparks.”
He turned, looking for Swarn, and swept his light over the area.
Swarn was gone and pulsing clicks rattled through the hallway.
“I want to go home,” someone said.
***
Krowe walked over to Mason.
“On your feet, Mason,” he barked, wrapping his fingers around Mason’s shirt collar. He yanked the young man from the floor.
Mason’s feet dangled off the floor. “Y…yes, sir.”
“You could have killed us all,” Krowe growled. “We are not dead yet. Understood?”
The clicking stopped.
Swarn landed between Krowe and the rest of his men.
Swarn swatted Krowe and Mason away. Mason slammed through the wall. Krowe’s unconscious body landed on him.
Swarn turned to the others.
The officers’ flashlight beams crept up Swarn’s body. When the beams hit his face, the hole left by Bella’s bullet had finished sealing itself.
Someone gasped.
Swarn’s eyes opened and found Bella.
Vance followed his gaze. “It wants Sparks,” Vance said. “Don’t let it get to her,” he barked, stepping in front of Bella with his gun aimed at Swarn.
Bella aimed her gun, grunting through the pain. “I won’t go down easy.”
Swarn roared and lunged.
“Fire!” Vance commanded.
The men became a wall of gunfire.
Swarn didn’t slow.
Vance didn’t stop firing.
The quiet succumbed to clinks of bullet shells hitting tile and the darkness yielded to the bright flashes of guns firing.
Swarn stopped.
The men kept firing. They unloaded and reloaded their magazines.
Vance watched Swarn as he reloaded his magazine. Swarn was allowing the bullets to hit him, intentionally. The bullets were absorbed by his flesh and almost expelled just as fast. With every hit his eyes flashed but never left Bella.
Vance shoved Bella behind him.
Swarn closed his eyes and began to click.
“Hold your fire!” Vance shouted. “He’s making us waste our ammo.”
The men stopped firing.
The heavy silence that followed was worse than the loud noise of the gunfire.
The air was thick with smoke. A sharp metallic taste lingered on the back of their tongues.
One by one the men realized they were out of ammo.
Vance checked his. He had half a magazine left.
“What do we do now?” someone’s shaky voice broke the silence. “Bullets won’t stop it.”
A low hissing began.
Hssssss.
They all froze.
Bella leaned in, her heart hammered against her ribs. “It wants me. I can stall it—”
“No,” Vance said, aiming his gun. “We are not leaving you behind.”
Suddenly Swarn’s wings snapped out. His eyes opened.
Bella’s eyes widened. “You may not have a cho—”
HSSSSSSS
The sound grew more aggressive, louder.
Someone took off running towards the back of the precinct.
Swarn’s eyes opened and he launched himself into the air. Vance fired into Swarn’s body as he leapt over them.
Swarn tossed a projectile at the running officer. It bit deep into the man’s leg and he fell to the ground with a loud thump.
Swarn landed behind them and thrashed his wings. They were all thrown forward by a powerful gust of wind. The floor was slick with green goo and they slid into walls.
Bella’s eyes fluttered open. She grabbed her bleeding arm and looked up.
Swarn lunged at her.
Bella reached for her gun.
It wasn’t there.
She’d dropped it in the fall.
Swarn kept coming.
She tried to rise but her boot slipped on goo. She eased backwards until a wall stopped her.
Swarn was inches away from her.
She was out of options.
Bella closed her eyes.
She heard a loud thump.
“How much longer with those lights?” she heard a familiar voice say.
Bella opened her eyes.
Spant was locked in a battle with Swarn.
The lights flickered back on.
She looked around the room. Her fellow officers were coming to. Vance was still unconscious. Dead bodies surrounded them.
“Sp…Spant,” she said.
“Get your people out of here,” Spant said as he dodged a projectile Swarn had thrown at him.
***
Bella pulled herself up, leaning against the wall.
She dragged along it, leaving a streak of blood behind her.
She kicked the boots of the first officer she came across.
He opened his eyes.
She nodded to the others. Her hand clutched her arm as she moved behind the officer.
Swarn looked past Spant.
His eyes locked on Bella.
Spant leapt onto the wall, boots clinging as he drove Swarn’s head toward the floor.
“Eyes on me,” he growled.
Swarn twisted, catching his arm and snapping a strike across his face.
“You again,” Swarn hissed.
His fist slammed into Spant’s face.
“This is the second time you have gotten in my way.”
Swarn grabbed Spant’s leg, spun, and hurled him into the wall.
“Stay out of my way,” he demanded.
Spant hit, rolled, and snapped his wrists. Black filament shot out as he pushed back into motion.
Swarn’s feet locked to the floor.
Spant released another burst of black filament, tightening the bind.
Swarn looked down, then up—growling.
“You will not touch her,” Spant sneered.
Vance pushed himself up, rubbing the back of his head. “Bella?”
“Sparks,” Krowe growled. “You should be getting to safety, not worrying about me."
She looked at him. Sweat poured down her face.
“Sir, where I come from, no man is left behind.”
Bella collapsed into his arms.
Spant leapt onto the ceiling above Swarn.
“Get her out of here!” he said, firing more filament.
“Link. Make sure they get out alive.”
Link’s crawler flew through the lobby, cutting through the remaining swarnlings and meeting the officers.
“This way,” his voice said through the drone.
“Who are you?” Vance asked.
“No time for introductions. Run. I’ll cover you all.”
Swarn’s head whipped to Bella being carried out in Krowe’s arms. His legs vibrated but the filament held them in place. He cast a projectile and raised his arm.
Spant hit Swarn’s arm with black filament.
It became glued to his side.
Swarn’s body trembled—clicking starting again.
“Not this time,” he said.
He ran circles around Swarn, black filament wrapping tighter with each pass.
Swarn stopped struggling.
The clicking died.
Something’s not right, he thought.
The tower of filament collapsed to the floor.
Swarn’s exuvia stood in his place.
Spant narrowed his eyes.
“Next time, you don’t leave.”