“Aimee, Detective, how are you?” after calling upon the officers and other personnel who were still alive in the limbo to gather in a place and start formulating some defense strategies, Jason found the place where Aimee, Detective Lee and the officers who were still conscious after the initial energy wave pulled all the others that were in the precinct were holding up - it was an empty storage room on the first floor, close to the entrance of the precinct, which had thick doors and a lot of things that could be used to barricade the doors: “Has anything happened yet? Are you still safe?”

“Yes, we’re still safe, for now.” Detective Lee said to the silver shadow of Jason floating in the air: “What should we do next? Should we move the people who are in limbo with us?”

“I’m afraid I still don’t have that answer yet.” Jason sighed and shook his head: “I just dealt with some monsters in the limbo, but defeating and annihilating them did not change a thing in this limbo, which is an indication that they were not the ones whose memories and terrors this place is based on, and they’re not some kind of manifestations of the elements inside of the limbo.”

“So - they’re something from the outside, just like you.” Aimee thought for a while and said: “This limbo did not have your memories and thoughts as its foundation right? You chose to go in.”

“... yes! right. This is exactly what they are. Thank you!” the silver shadow of Jason nodded: “Since this is a crossover limbo - its creation and existence actually allows some other malicious entities from outside to use it to funnel energy from human minds and emotions out to fuel itself.”

“Holy shit, how is that possible?” Detective Lee asked: “Are you literally talking about soul sucking right here?”

“Yes, I’m afraid. I realized I just did basically the same thing, or a similar thing.” Jason said scratching his jaw: “I gave them weapons of my construct they could channel their power of minds and will through, so that they could use these weapons to defend themselves against the monsters in the limbo. It is fair to say, if I am acting on bad faith the power could be redirected to somewhere else.”

“Shit.” Aimee looked around and the officers who just looked lost and confused - though they were not pulled into the limbo, they were no doubt under some heavy influence of the presence of it: “Okay, but they’re supposed to have something on the outside right? Let me go around the precinct and see if I can find that. Any idea on what it is?”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“I am not sure. I will go to the evidence room and see what’s in there from inside this limbo. The limbo was triggered by a small wooden sculpture stored there that looked like a monster. I went into the limbo directly.” Jason nodded and drew in the air with his hand, and three long pieces of identical sigils appeared in the air, which then folded up into small triangles with metallic shine and floated towards both Detective Lee and Aimee: “These are for you, if you need to go out, keep it on you. And put the final one on the door.”

“Okay, I will check out the evidence room as well.” Aimee nodded: “Anything we can do to help you on the other side? For now we have only seen smoke and mist inside of the precinct, nothing else strange yet.”

Just this moment, strange high pitched scratching sounds came from some of the windows from outside the storage room.

“I will get back to you shortly, something is going on here.” the silver shadow of Jason looked around and paused for a few seconds when looking at the direction the loudest scratches came from, and dissipated in the air.

“Can we leave? Please, can we leave?” one of the officers who was sweating through his uniform asked: “I - I don’t feel so good.”

“Why can’t we leave?” another officer asked while wiping her face.

Aimee took a deep breath and conjured a floating ice shard in the air, which cooled the air around and generated gentle breezes in the air.

“Try to keep them here. I will go out and take a quick look.” Aimee took the additional silver triangle given to her by Jason and stuck it on the door of the storage room as she was about to go out: “Restrain them if necessary.”

“Understood, but can you tell me why we can’t leave?” Detective Lee sighed and said.

“All of us already had parts of our mind and consciousness integrated into the limbo already, despite the fact that we are still ‘here’. If we leave, the best outcome would be that those parts that were taken from us would be cut off and lost.” Aimee shook her head: “And the worst outcome would be serious trauma to our minds and consciousness because this is the equivalent of cutting our limbs off.”

When Aimee was about to close the door to the storage room, she noticed a black and furry figure with its tail sticking up towards the ceiling walking through the floor of the precinct.

“Um, Lee? Was there a cat in this precinct earlier?” Aimee reopened the door slightly and asked.

“Fuck! That’s Mr. Night Owl! What the...” Detective Lee was reminded of something and tried to come out of the storage room but was stopped by Aimee.

“Stay in there and guard the door, don’t open unless you can confirm it’s me.” Aimee looked at Detective Lee with a worried and serious expression on her face as she drew two wooden cards from one of her pockets: “Close the door, now!”

As Aimee held the wooden card in her hands, ice grew from the two cards and into the shapes of two swords - that looked slightly like scimitars but with longer, wider but thinner blades.

“Mr. Night Owl” turned its head at Aimee and hissed in a hoarse voice, its mouth was open by an unnatural angle, its teeth had become crooked, longer and sharper, while its eyes were leaking some kind of dark green goo, and its tongue had become long, spiked and forked like it had become the combination of snake and tiger tongues.