North County Paranormal Unit Chapter 10
Gabriella followed Bradley out into the cool night air and over to the van, which was parked haphazardly on the sidewalk outside of her building. Bradley hopped into the driver’s seat and started the car as Gabriella fumbled with the passenger door for a moment. Even her good hand was shaking so much that it took a couple tries to pull it open. But finally, she managed it, then slid into the seat.
“I’ll have to drop you off,” Bradley said as he backed out of the parking space and headed for the road. “And you’ll need to give me your key so we can lock up afterward. You’re going to spend the night at headquarters after this, at least for tonight. We need to do a thorough investigation of your apartment. Maybe the whole building.”
His cool professionalism was obnoxious on one level and comforting on another. “It was the thing from tonight,” she whispered.
“No, it wasn’t.”
He didn’t even look away from the road or change his stance at all. “Are you sure?” she asked. “You didn’t see it.”
“No, but it’s not the same thing. The entity you investigated tonight is gone.”
She was too tired to argue, so instead, she just nodded and sat back in her seat, watching the traffic passing by them. It seemed so late, but apparently the rest of the world was just going about their lives like a shadow creature hadn’t just tried to kill her in her own bed.
As they drove silently down a long, tree-lined street, she wished that James had been the one to drive her to the hospital instead of Bradley. The other man wasn’t being aggressive or dickish this time, but she could use some affection instead of cool detachment. And she’d only known him for a couple weeks, but she wasn’t about to ask Bradley for any of that.
So instead she waited quietly as he finally pulled into the hospital parking lot and turned off the van. “I’ll walk you in,” he said.
“That’s not-”
“No, I need to talk to the registration desk.”
Bradley reached over, and for a wild moment, she thought he was about to hug her. Then reached behind her seat and pulled out a small bath towel.
“For the waiting room,” he said, handing it to her.
“Right,” she said. “Um, thanks.”
He got out of the car, then came over and opened her door before turning and walking toward the emergency room entrance. Gabriella scrambled out of the passenger seat, her arm throbbing as fresh blood soaked into the towel he’d given her. By the time she was out and moving, he was halfway to the entrance, so she hurried to catch up.
The emergency room waiting room wasn’t packed, but it was busy for so late at night on a weekday. Gabriella and Bradley got in line behind an elderly woman who was leaning on a young man’s shoulder for support. As the pair ahead of them were walking up to the next available receptionist, an older woman poked her head out from behind the desk. “Bradley,” she called, gesturing them over.
Gabriella looked up at Bradley, but he didn’t seem surprised. Instead, he led her over to the woman’s station. “Did it occur on the job?” the woman asked.
“Yeah.”
“Anything I should know?”
“I’m not a hundred percent sure on the entity,” Bradley said. “The injury came from claws, right?”
The question was directed at Gabriella. She jerked out of her daze. “Wha-um, yeah. Yeah, it clawed me.”
The woman nodded, typing something into her computer. “And insurance information?”
“I haven’t gotten my card yet,” Gabriella said.
“No problem, hon,” the woman said with a warm smile. “I’ll talk to the Foundation’s insurance department.”
Gabriella shouldn’t have been surprised that the Foundation had something as mundane as an insurance department. Who else would handle insurance claims? Santa Claus?
The woman took her information, got her a plastic wristband, and sent her to sit down and wait. As they walked away from the registration desk, Bradley fished out the van keys. “One of us will come pick you up when you’re done,” he said. “Sorry to leave, but I have to go and rejoin the others.”
Wow, an apology. Maybe this was his version of comfort.
“It’s fine.”
Her voice sounded small and scared and she hated herself for it for a second.
“I don’t have my key,” she murmured, as she shakily sat down in the nearest plastic chair.
“Do you know where it is?” Bradley asked.
“Backpack by my bed.”
He nodded. “I’ll get it from there,” he said. “What’s going to happen from here is that we’ll start a cleansing tonight if they haven’t already. Then the Foundation will decide what has to happen next. You’ll stay at headquarters tonight while they take care of it. Do you need anything from the apartment?”
She shook her head. “I’ve got spare clothes at Headquarters.”
There were plenty of things she could use from her apartment, like a toothbrush or a phone charger. But she couldn’t get her thoughts together enough to make a list. And if there was still a monster in her apartment, she didn’t need the rest of the team taking the time to go through her stuff for her and risk getting hurt.
“Good,” Bradley said. “Good luck. Call us when you’re done.”
With that, he headed for the door. Gabriella watched as he walked past the window and disappeared into the dark parking lot. Then she turned and made her way to the nearest seat for what she knew was going to be a long wait.
***
Five hours later, Gabriella was leaving the emergency room with her arm freshly bandaged. It had thankfully been a clean cut. She’d needed a few stitches, but not the amount she’d been dreading. The doctor let her go with a prescription for antibiotics and instructions to take it easy for a few days. So now here she was, drained on painkillers and lack of sleep, waiting for someone to pick her up and bring her to the headquarters for the night.
James had answered the phone immediately when she called him. He said that it seemed to have worked, whatever they did in the apartment to get rid of the entity. But in the morning he wanted to get Father McEnerney in there to give the place a blessing before Gabriella went back inside. She’d had a wild image of a withered, white-haired priest chanting in Latin over her Lululemon yoga pants and had needed to force the hysterical laughter back down before it escaped.
It was three in the morning, and the parking lot was quiet as she sat on a bench outside and waited. It wasn’t completely silent, thankfully. There were a few cars pulling softly through the floodlights, their lights cutting through the darkness as they rounded the corner and left the parking lot. Meanwhile, two other patients had walked out of the emergency room in the time she’d been here waiting. The signs of life were comforting as she waited with a water bottle in hand.
She sipped from the water bottle, then took a deep breath of night air and sighed. Maybe it was the drugs or the exhaustion, but there was a dreamy edge to the world right now. Had she really just spent the evening in the hospital because there was a monster in her house? How had her life reached this point? Two years ago she’d been studying communications in college, thinking vaguely of working in public relations someday. And now she was fighting monsters? What the hell?
Finally, the Foundation van pulled up to the curb in front of her. The front passenger window was open and she could see James was alone in the car. He leaned over and opened the door for her. “Hey, Gabs,” he said, eyes tired.
“Hi.”
She climbed carefully into the passenger seat, noting that the bloodstains from earlier appeared to be gone. Had someone seriously scrubbed the car already? And after everything that had happened tonight?
“Are you okay?” James asked.
She nodded and saw his eyes flicker over the tightly wrapped gauze on her arm as she buckled her seatbelt. “I’m sorry,” he said.
She shrugged, then winced. “Not your fault.”
He didn’t say anything to that, but she was too tired to think too much about it. So she leaned back in the seat, closed her eyes, and dozed as he pulled out and began driving again.
“Me and Madelyn are on the overnight shift,” James said after a few minutes of silence. “She’s been trying to get in touch with Robin, but so far we haven’t been able to reach him. So hopefully he’ll be back tomorrow and we can talk to him about extra protection for your apartment. I don’t imagine you’ll want to stay at the Headquarters permanently.”
As much as the idea of going home terrified Gabriella, the idea of living at work was almost equally unappealing. Tonight she was grateful for the extra protection and the space from her apartment. But she lived alone for a reason. She wanted to have her own space and her privacy.
“Would you maybe want to go stay with your mom?” James asked.
“She’s moving,” Gabriella said, eyes still closed.
“Oh, I didn’t know that.”
“Yeah.”
“Where to?”
“New Hampshire.”
“Oh, nice.”
They lapsed into silence as James pulled onto a main road and began to speed up the van. Gabriella opened her eyes and gazed out the window at the dark businesses passing by. What else was hiding in them? If her little studio apartment could contain a murderous shadow entity, so could that hardware store. Or that Mexican restaurant. Or that house where three college-age boys were drinking on the porch. What if those boys went inside tonight and were torn to shreds by a demon?
This really was an endless job, wasn’t it? All they could do was try to keep everything under control and hope that things worked out. As she dozed off to the sound of the car’s creaking motor, Gabriella wondered briefly how Robin hadn’t gone insane yet trying to contain all of these problems.
