The music was playing loudly from Gabriella’s laptop as she buttered her toast with one hand and took a sip of her coffee with the other. It was a chill indie mix she’d found online recently and had decided was now an essential part of her morning routine. The wellness and self-improvement site she’d been reading lately emphasized the importance of a relaxed, but steady morning routine. So now acoustic guitars and gravelly vocals filled the tiny studio apartment as she got ready for work.

She was about a week in now and was finally starting to feel like things were sliding into place. The modules were fine once she got over the frustration of the glitchy computer. It felt more like being back in school than anything. And she found that the workout routines Bradley had set her up with actually felt really good once she was doing them. The trick was apparently to get into work and just do them and get it over with, rather than try to motivate herself to go downstairs to the gym after a full day of training.

The toast now ready, she pulled over her kitchen stool and sat down to eat. She had about fifteen minutes until it was time to head over. Then she’d work out for a little while, then sit down at the computer and try to bang out a few more of the learning modules before Robin came in with some new on-the-job training task for her.

She was in that in-between point, Gabriella realized. She was feeling like she was almost ready to be done with the modules, but not quite ready to go on a case with the team. But despite that hesitation, she could recognize the progress she’d already made in the past week.

The team seemed really good. Obviously, she and James had known each other her whole life, and she was quickly realizing that he had no work versus family life shields going on. He was exactly the same person at work that he was at family parties. She liked Robin too. He was a little dorky and maybe a bit of a hardass, but he was kind to her and seemed to really care about her progress. And Amelia and Madelyn seemed cool too, though she hadn’t spent much time with them yet beyond saying hello. But Amelia was so friendly and she’d offered to tell Gabriella some stories she had from the Westminster vampire den at some point. And Madelyn was still pretty quiet. But there was something about her that drew Gabriella in, despite the fact that they hadn’t really spoken more than a few words to each other.

And Bradley was just an asshole, apparently. But whatever, there was always going to be one, and she could just ignore him if she had to. And he was apparently an asshole to everybody, so it wasn’t just her.

Her phone timer went off, signaling she had ten minutes to get out the door. Gabriella hopped up and walked over to the living room area of her apartment, leaving the coffee cup and plate on the counter. She’d get to them later. But now she needed to find her backpack and lunch and head off to work.

She opened the fridge and realized she’d forgotten to make her lunch last night. Oh well, she could just go to Panera again. She had a steady paycheck now, and it wasn’t a major expense. So she could feel grateful for it today and be more careful tomorrow.

Gabriella found her jacket slung over the back of her desk chair and threw it on. A quick glance out the window showed her it was raining today, so she was going to need it. She slung it over her shoulders, grabbed her car keys out of the bowl on the desk, picked up her backpack, and headed out the door.

Her apartment was one of six units in a converted house right outside of downtown. It was a nice, quiet apartment building and she’d been living there for about six months now. She saw her neighbors enough to nod to them and say hello, but nobody was looking to be friends and that was exactly how she liked it right now. Sometimes she’d see the old man downstairs, but this morning, nobody was on the staircase heading outside or in the parking lot as she left. So she climbed into her dented Toyota, tossed her bag on the passenger seat, and turned the car on.

So this was what it was like to have a full-time job that was actually fulfilling, she thought as she pulled out of her parking space. While she wouldn’t have said no to an extra hour of sleep, Gabriella was actually looking forward to being at work today. Everything she was learning was so interesting and this was a solid way in which she might actually be able to make a difference. Even if it was in a weird, paranormal kind of way. But someone needed to fight those vampires, right?

She pulled out of the small parking lot and started making her way down the quiet streets. It was raining and the patter of raindrops against the windshield blended with the morning news podcast she was listening to as she drove. It was nothing too eventful, but the mundanity of the moment felt like a nice break before she headed into the weirdness of the day.

***

Gabriella slipped into the headquarters, sliding the lock shut behind her. She couldn’t see anyone upstairs, but she was pretty sure that James and Amelia had worked the overnight shift last night. “Good morning!” she called up.

Silence greeted her, so she just made her way downstairs instead.

She got to the bottom of the stairs and passed the silent closed door, which she’d just recently learned used to be a med bay. There was no medic on the team so the med bay hadn’t actually been used in a while. They tended to just go to the emergency room or patch themselves up, depending on the severity of the situation. When Gabriella had asked James what had happened to the previous medic, he’d furrowed his brow and thought about it for a moment until he’d had to admit that he had no idea.

Rather than convert the room, the Foundation had left the med bay in place, abandoned except for the occasional trip to dig into the cabinets for gauze and rubbing alcohol. The door was always closed and Gabriella honestly found it a little creepy. So instead, she turned deliberately to the right and went into the gym.

She opened the gym door and was immediately greeted by the sound of loud pop punk. “Good morning!” she called over to Amelia and Madelyn, who were walking on the two treadmills.

“Morning!” Amelia called over.

Madelyn smiled and waved, then grimaced a little and slowed her pace. Gabriella went to set her bag down in the corner, then headed to the corner of the room and unrolled a yoga mat to begin stretching.

As she went through the somewhat mindless routine of warming up, she tried to mentally review what she’d learned in her modules yesterday. Everything she’d done had been focused on shadow people. They looked like ghosts, but weren’t. Frequently elicited feelings of fear and unrest in the people around them. Potentially drained energy or fed off of negative energy.

Or was that a different entity? Did shadow people feed off of fear or did they just create it? She’d have to review that quickly before the mini quiz at the end of the section. Either way, the rest of it she felt pretty secure with.

So today it was local geography and more incorporeal entities. And combinations of the two that would absolutely keep her from sleeping tonight. Since the system was still convinced she was doing her modules from New Bedford, James had had to improvise a more localized curriculum for her. This involved maps of the area, basic local history, and some illustrated guides to different monsters. All of which were drawn with large muscles and sharp teeth.

The music blared from a speaker set up by the weight racks, the power chords and nasally lyrics waking Gabriella up a little more as she finished stretching. She stood up, feeling a little looser, and headed for the exercise bike. Madelyn and Amelia were still on the treadmills as she made her way over.

“We’re almost done,” Amelia called over as Gabriella sat down on the bike and plugged in her program.

“Take your time,” she said. “I’m doing a couple miles on this today, then weights. So I don’t need the treadmill.”

Madelyn flashed her a smile and started to say something. But whatever she was about to say was cut off as she cried out in pain. Gabriella watched in horror as Madelyn gasped and stumbled, nearly falling off the treadmill.

Amelia yanked the safety cord on Madelyn’s machine, then her own, as she hopped off and caught Madelyn. “I got you,” she said softly as she eased Madelyn off the treadmill and into a folding chair that was sitting nearby.

“Sorry,” Madelyn muttered.

“Don’t be sorry,” Amelia said.

Gabriella was frozen on the bike, unsure what to do. They clearly didn’t need her help and she didn’t want to interfere, but she also didn’t want to just ignore her new teammates.

“Do you need anything?” she asked finally, standing up.

Madelyn waved her off, panting slightly. “No, I’m good,” she said between breaths. “Thanks though. James told you?”

Gabriella nodded. “Yeah,” she said. “Some of it.”

“I’m okay,” Madelyn said. “Don’t worry. And don’t stop for me.”

That seemed to be directed at both Gabriella and Amelia. Gabriella looked at Amelia, but Amelia was getting back on her treadmill. Madelyn noticed Gabriella’s hesitation.

“It’s fine, I swear,” she said quietly. “I’m recovering, there’s going to be setbacks.”

Before Gabriella could say anything else, Madelyn eased herself carefully out of the chair and started walking slowly toward the exit, balancing herself against the wall as she went. The door closed behind her and Gabriella heard Amelia’s treadmill starting up again.

“Don’t worry,” Amelia said. “For real, she’s okay. Go finish your workout.”

Gabriella turned back to the screen on the exercise bike and began to reset her workout, but the energy and enthusiasm she’d felt just a few minutes ago had dissipated somewhat. Instead, she now felt like an intruder on something well-established and personal. Trying to shove the feeling aside, she closed her eyes and threw herself into the workout.

Shadow people also showed up with hats on, she remembered as her blood started pumping. Usually fedoras.

***

“Hey.”

Gabriella was coming back into the living room after her shower when Amelia stepped out of the kitchen. “Oh, hi,” Gabriella said.

“Listen,” Amelia started. “Madelyn’s fine, so don’t worry. What did James tell you about what happened?”

“Not much,” Gabriella said. “It’s not really my business, so I don’t want to intrude.”

“No, it’s fine. Madelyn actually asked me to tell you. Last year we were on a case and there was this entity. We thought it was a shadow person, but it was material. And we chased it up to the roof. It threw Madelyn off and by some miracle she survived.”

“Oh my god,” Gabriella breathed.

“She’s recovering and they’ve told her she’ll basically always have some position in the Foundation, but it’s a long road to recovery. So sometimes there’ll be situations like today.”

Gabriella wasn’t quite sure how to respond, so she nodded. “Thanks for telling me,” she said.

Amelia shrugged. “It was Madelyn’s idea,” she said. “Anyway, I’m making coffee and I know you’re about to tackle some more of those modules. So what do you want in your coffee?”

---

CONTINUE TO CHAPTER 7