The Trap

Entering the museum, the first thing we encountered was darkness. Pitch-black darkness. I could barely even see my hand in front of me.

"Switch on your flashlights," I ordered the girls. I wasn't sure why the building had no power. Was this the thief’s doing? Had they somehow cut off the electricity? I wouldn't be surprised; it made sense if they were trying to make it difficult to find them. However, while reaching for my flashlight on my utility belt, I felt something brush past my leg.

I instantly halted all motion.

"Did you guys feel that?" I asked, spreading my arms wide defensively, trying to shield the girls from whatever was in there with us.

"Feel what, boss?" Miko replied, just as both she and Aki turned their lights on.

They swept the perimeter. Other than the ornate, intricately carved statues and paintings hanging on the walls, there was nothing there. Just us.

"Zid you sense something, captain?" Aki asked, stepping forward to flood more of the interior with her flashlight.

"Y-yeah," I replied, still a little shaken up from the experience. "I swear I felt something rush past my leg," I told them. "You guys didn't feel it?"

I turned to Aki, but she simply shook her head in response. Miko too.

"Maybe it was a rat?" Miko offered up an explanation.

"I doubt it," I replied, reaching for my flashlight hanging on the back pocket of my utility belt. "It was a lot heavier than any normal rat."

"A bigger rat then," Miko said.

"Possibly, but let's just keep searching."

I switched on my flashlight and joined the girls in looking around the area for any clues that could point us to where the thief had gone. The handler had mentioned that whoever was behind the robbery had also taken hostages—those who were unfortunate enough to be in the museum.

And what of Kaori? Was she among the rest of the hostages? Perhaps the thief had threatened her to follow them into the building. But that didn’t address the fundamental question: what does this person even want? As far as I knew, they hadn't made a ransom request, which means whatever they were looking for must be inside the museum. But what?

The Horikita Sky Museum was known for many things, and its excessively large volume of rooms and corridors was definitely at the top. If I didn't know what the thief wanted, finding them and freeing the hostages was going to prove extremely difficult.

The girls and I had split up and were searching three distinct corners of the colossal room. I mostly had paintings on my end, some big, some small, some nearly taking up the entire width and height of the wall they were hanging on. Luckily, none of the few statues over here seemed to be alive.

"All clear!" I announced to the girls, ensuring my voice was loud enough to carry through the large room.

"All clear over here too," Miko answered from over at her corner.

There was a slight delay before Aki eventually responded.

"Captain, I zink I found something."

We hurried over to Aki's position to take a look at what she had found.

"What the crap is that?" Miko commented, eyes fixed on the bizarre, out-of-place statue we were all staring at. Aki had her flashlight trained on it.

This thing was at least three feet tall, possessed razor-sharp claws, and stood on two feet. Its eyes were twin yellow orbs, glowing in the dark. Its entire body was thin but muscular, made of black stone. It had large ears on either side of its head like an elephant's, and although its mouth was mostly closed, I could still make out rows of shark-like teeth.

"What the hell is this thing?" I whispered, still cautiously studying it as I crept closer. I held an arm out for the girls to keep their distance. Call it a captain's hunch, something just didn't feel right, and I'd rather they were ready to provide backup in case it was some kind of trap, instead of getting caught in it with me.

I crouched to my knees and was now face-to-face with it. This was strange, but the more I looked at the inanimate creature, the more it resembled some kind of demon. Or gremlin. Or both.

Why was it out here in the center of the large room, away from the other sculptures in the rows on display? Why were its eyes so bright?

The tiny horns on its head only added to its already unsettling nature. I suddenly remembered the thing that brushed my leg from earlier. Nah, it couldn't be what I was currently looking at. Or could it?

I lowered my flashlight to stare at its legs. They were short, slender, capped off with black feet with four clawed fingers, almost resembling those of a mongoose or a ferret, matching the prints we saw outside in the snow.

My blood instantly ran cold at the realization, my breath catching in my throat. It was one of them. The creatures that had attacked and incapacitated Kaori's team.

It was a trap.

I looked up at the creature. It blinked, slowly opening its mouth to reveal its giant shark-like teeth. Everything happened so fast after that—but as always, adrenaline brought it all to a snail’s crawl.

I reached out, placing my index finger on the creature's chest. It also reached out to grab my hand with its razor-sharp claws, intending to slice off my arm at the wrist. Luckily, I was faster.

"Strike!"

A bolt of lightning traveled up my body and over my spine, routing down my arm and escaping out of my hand in a steady blast. The creature was thrown back into the darkness from the magic hitting it at point-blank range, but it hadn't left without giving me a souvenir of its own.

"Captain!" Aki shouted from behind me as I instantly got back up to my feet.

"Whoa... what the...? You okay, boss?"

I was momentarily rendered speechless as my left hand suddenly exploded with pain. I winced, instinctively cradling the wounded wrist against my chest. I slid back the sleeve of my jacket and was horrified by what I saw.

There were two straight gashes running down my forearm. The flesh around them was already turning a bright red. I was bleeding. Aki... I couldn't let her see this.

"I'm fine, okay?" I lied to the girls as they rushed to my aid. I quickly covered up my hand with my jacket sleeve so they couldn't see. "It was just a little scratch," I told them. "It's one of the things that attacked the guards. Weapons ready, we need to..."

I was suddenly cut off from speaking when Miko spun around and pointed her blaster behind her. Aki instantly did the same with the gun she was holding. I was confused. What were they doing?

Their flashlights weren't powerful enough to entirely pierce through the darkness surrounding us, and yet they were hyper-focused on something in the shadows. And after a brief moment of quiet, I heard it.

It sounded like rodents. Hundreds of them. Scurrying around the pitch-black void, quickly enveloping us in a circle. The gremlins. More had shown up, and they were trying to cut off our retreat before launching an attack. As it was, we wouldn't be able to defend ourselves in the darkness, let alone fight back. We were sitting ducks. Unless...

"Aki! Miko! Quick, come stand behind me now!"

"But captain, let us protect you."

"Yeah, boss, Aki's right. We got this."

"Hrm. You guys aren't listening."

Ignoring my agents, I stepped closer and clapped my hands, summoning a transparent blue dome around us. The action made me wince again, pain flaring in my injured wrist, but at least now we were protected.

Aki and Miko spun around and looked like they were about to scold me for encapsulating them in the barrier, preventing them from their initial attempt at a defensive position. But they soon saw the reasoning behind my action.

Horned, yellow-eyed demons suddenly jumped out of the darkness as they emerged into the light and began throwing themselves against the barrier, trying to force their way in. Their abrupt appearance caused the girls to flinch back in fear. Although I had already anticipated their attack, my heart also lurched at the sight. There were so many of them. The gremlins. Formerly made of stone, now brought to life through dark magic.

Each one screeched as they single-mindedly clawed, scratched, and banged their heads against the near-invisible wall. Luckily, my magic was holding strong. But for how long?

As Aki and Miko continued to sweep their flashlights around in panic, the horror of our situation quickly dawned on me. There was no end to these things. They just kept coming, and coming, and coming.

We were trapped.