The lights slowly returned to normal as the darkness dissipated in the brightness. "That shouldn't be happening. Who's playing with the lights?" one of the officers mentioned.
"Whatever it is, stay calm. We are going to figure this out," another officer added.
"How can I stay calm when there's an armed intruder in here? We don't even know their motive!" a civilian screamed.
"Well, it's fairly obvious that they are either going to kill us, rob us or do both!" another one shrieked.
"Rob us? They should get going to the bank then! Not some police station," someone else argued.
Soon, everyone started screaming and hurling insults at one another. It was hard to tell who was speaking and what they were saying then. Matthew's head was already beginning to throb even more painfully by then. He finally decided that he needed to address everyone. It would cause a lot of pain to flood into his head to do what he would do, but he still screamed.
"Enough!" Matthew bellowed deafeningly as most of everyone in the room went quiet.
"But I—," someone tried to protest, but he silenced him immediately.
"I said enough!" he screamed again, this time even more loudly. "I am currently recovering from a concussion, but here I am, screaming twice just to get everyone to cooperate. Please, for goodness sake. If we are going to get out of here, everyone has to stay silent for just a moment and listen," he begged for everyone's cooperation.
"Hey," Daniel whispered to him. "What are you doing? You shouldn't be announcing to everyone about escaping this place. You're going to give the captain a bad impression of yourself." he warned Matthew of his actions.
"It doesn't matter. We have to do something about this. If the lights keep getting adjusted and we can't see anything, it will be to the advantage of the perpetrator to strike us!" Matthew cautioned, comparing the consequences of giving the captain a bad impression with the risk of dying in the precinct.
Just then, the lights in the lobby went out. Again. A loud wailing sound followed afterwards, ending with a thumping sound that faded over time.
Complete silence followed. A man sitting on the floor cringed when he felt something on his hand. "Uh, guys. I feel like there's some liquid or slime on the floor. It's quite wet, although there's only a small puddle of it. There's a light smell too."
"Oh goodness, is it kerosene? I don't want to die today! Not in a fire! Please, someone, help!" another lady shrieked in fear. Soon, overlapping sounds of fearful remarks crossed around the room.
"Okay, that's enough! Everybody, calm down. We will soon find out what that small puddle of liquid is when the power comes back on," Daniel yelled to stop any unnecessary panicking, which would only deter their plans. As such, silence returned.
And so did the power.
"It's blood!" a woman screamed, freaking out as she retreated from the pool of blood that was near her. Everyone else began shrieking with her as they moved away from the blood.
"What the hell? I drenched my hand in someone's blood?" the man that touched the blood with his hands panicked before crawling away desperately.
A woman had just been attacked, seemingly unconscious as a result. At that point in time, safety was utterly out of the picture. Of all places, a police station would be the safest. Their case was unique, however. A case in which not even the precinct was anyone safe anymore.
Not a single person was.
Emma shivered as she squatted at one corner. Unlike her detective friends, she hadn't really been "out in the field". She wasn't trained to process such violent happenings, as she had never really made an arrest. After all, she was just a civilian administrator working in the office. "W-what the hell is happening?" she cried.
Daniel moved over to her and crouched down to her level. He couldn't leave her sobbing away, fearful of the events that were occurring in the precinct. As such, he made an attempt to relieve the stress in her mind. "Emma, calm down. We just have to figure this out and flee from this wretched place," Daniel consoled her.
Emma panted erratically. "What are we supposed to do? We're in a lockdown!"
"Take it easy, Emma. We will get through this together," Daniel calmed her down as he patted her back.
Meanwhile, Matthew already had plans in mind. As such, he began gathering his friends away from the main group of people in the lobby. "Guys, get over here," Matthew whispered to his friends. He then stopped to look at the captain. "Captain, you too," he added, glancing over at Captain Harris, who moved towards them hastily.
The five gathered together, all standing at a corner of the lobby. A few civilians and officers glanced over at them, wondering what they were discussing. However, the group ignored the stares coming from the others in the lobby, acknowledging that their discussion was more important than paying attention to the pairs of eyes that were on them.
"Okay, so, for one thing, don't trust any police officer here, except for the captain," Matthew began spouting some unproven thoughts that he had. "Especially not the officer who was sealing the doors. It's almost as if he's trying to lock us all in rather than to make the lockdown go smoothly. I even think he may be the one who flicked the lights off just now and landed that woman dead," he theorised.
Megan shook her head. She assumed that he was going too far with his theories, and so did the others too. Thus, she started speaking up for the group. "Matthew, I think you may be thinking too far. Why would he want to kill an innocent—"
"I don't even think he was an officer," Matthew ignored her, however. "I saw him wearing a shirt inside his unbuttoned uniform. It had a staff tag. 'Yael Technologies Staff', it read. There's something really off about that," he added.
"Uh, Detective Davis?" Captain Harris stopped him.
"Yes?" Matthew replied swiftly.
Captain Harris pursed his lips and placed his hands on his hips. "To be honest, I have to agree with Detective Stewart. I mean, we shouldn't assume things too quickly. For all I know, that 'Yael Technologies Staff' must be the technician we hired. He's probably just wearing our uniform for, well, formalities. I don't think you should be too anxious about these unnecessary details."
Matthew sighed. Unlike the others, he had a more complex way of thinking through the situation. Nonetheless, that couldn't stop him from speaking what was in his mind. "I know it's hard to trust me, but please, have some faith. I truly think that we have to stop the lockdown right now. A poor civilian has already been murdered, and we can't even contact the other stations about our situation. Even if it means letting the perpetrator go, please, let us save these people."
Captain Harris let out a sigh. He couldn't really argue with Matthew, who seemed like a persistent but promising detective after all. "Well, maybe you're right. In that case, we'll have to retrieve the key to the main door. Officer Keystone is currently supervising the room."
Hence, the group briefly proceeded towards the room. It was down the corridor leading to the intersection of hallways, where an unknown figure had glanced over at the lobby earlier. Just recalling what he had seen gave Matthew the creeps.
"Just a turn to the right, and the storage room should be the second door on the right," Captain Harris directed.
The group then arrived in front of the room. The floor around the door was abnormally uneven, and the wall was scratched. The area definitely needed some repair, but the captain didn't seem to mind.
"Yikes, the door seems badly dented," Daniel remarked as he inspected the uneven surface of the metal door. "Looks like someone was banging really hard on it the last time round or something."
The captain then stepped forward as Daniel moved aside. "Officer Keystone?" he called out, knocking on the door gently. There was strangely no response, however.
"He's probably sleeping. Am I right or right? I mean, it looks like someone needed some violent banging on the door the last time around to wake him up," Emma joked. This gag, however, wasn't too well received by Captain Harris.
"No..." the captain muttered quietly instead of laughing along. To the group of detectives, this was a rather unexpected reaction coming from him. Well, rather unexpected to all except Matthew, who was taking their situation seriously.
"What?" Emma asked, confused.
Captain Harris sighed. He started elaborating on why he was puzzled by Officer Keystone's current state of awareness. "Keystone isn't the type to doze off easily," he explained. "He's the most vigilant and hardworking amongst all of the recruits, which is why I chose him for supervision tasks like this one."
Emma nodded, acknowledging the fact that the captain was genuinely worried at that point in time. As such, she stopped laughing, as did the rest of them, as they quickly put on serious faces to suit their current state.
"Officer Keystone? Are you—," Captain Harris called out, only stopping after banging on the door more vigorously this time. Only then did he come to the realisation that the door was, in actual fact, not locked.
"Officer—," Captain Harris called out one last time before pausing again. He froze, shock numbing his brain and fear overwhelming his nervous system. Matthew noticed sweat beginning to fall from Captain Harris's forehead, tapping onto the ground softly as he kept his focus on something that was on the floor.
"Captain? What's... wrong?" Daniel asked fearfully, instantly realising that something was terribly wrong.
"Captain, you have to tell us. We need to know," Megan convinced him.
"H-have a look..." Captain Harris stuttered, pushing the door open slightly more. Other than the sight of certain things that one wouldn't typically find at a murder scene, there was something else about the place that felt awful. The room was clearly invaded by a smell that was familiar to all of them—the smell of blood.
There were claw marks and deep indents on the door. There were chipped paintings and cracked walls. There were crushed boxes and items strewn all over the place. There were broken light fixtures that left broken bits and pieces of glass all over the ground. And worst of all...
There was an officer's body lying on the ground.
The captain stepped further into the room to inspect the officer's body. Meanwhile, Matthew scrutinised the claw marks and blood splatters on the walls. The thick, red blood flowing down the walls hinted that whatever had happened in the room was nothing but violent.
Megan and Daniel rushed into the room to see the crime scene for themselves, leaving a freaked-out Emma shivering outside the room, who did not even have a bit of enthusiasm to see the lifeless officer lying on the ground.
"Who do you think killed him?" Megan turned to Daniel, hoping that he would have a theory.
"I have no idea," he replied, shrugging. "What motive would anyone have to murder Officer Keystone, though?"
The captain looked at Matthew, who looked back. They already seemed to have a superficial understanding of the incident, even without saying anything. And they both knew that it was their turn to say something to the others.
"We are asking the wrong questions," the captain disagreed with the two other detectives' queries. "We should be asking: what kind of crime is this?" he corrected them.
And Matthew knew it was his cue to speak.
"This is not a murder. This is a creature attack."