Jarvis Street Chapter 15
Within a few minutes, the entire team was sitting in the living room. James pulled Amelia aside the second she got in there to show her what they’d found.
“So whatever this is has been sealed in there alone for about fifty years,” Amelia said, holding the paper Gabriella had brought out.
“Exactly,” James said.
“A lot can happen in fifty years.”
“As in, a perfectly harmless spirit can be driven to extremes in isolation? And the negative energy can build up with nowhere else to go? Influencing them and the space around them?”
“That’s exactly what I’m afraid of.”
They looked at each other. Amelia looked tired and James was sure he looked just as ragged, if not worse. “What do we do?” Amelia asked.
James let out a breath. “We’ve got a couple of options,” he said. “None of them are great, but we’ll only be able to try one safely, so we have to make sure we pick the right one.”
“Let’s talk to the others,” Amelia said.
“Yeah.”
They went back into the living room, where Bradley, Madelyn, and Gabriella were waiting expectantly. Amelia sat down on the couch next to Madelyn and James took a chair in front of the group.
“Alright,” he said. “There are some new developments that we need to discuss. Gabriella did some digging into the history of the Jarvis Street School and the Foundation was already in there back in the seventies, when the school was in operation. According to the case report, the lead investigator said they sealed the property. Meaning whatever was inside at that moment was trapped in there and has been for about fifty years. So the entity you guys encountered yesterday might be a little more complicated than we thought.”
“What do you mean?” Madelyn asked.
“I mean that the ghost might actually be a victim here,” James said. “When a property is sealed, it’s different from a cleansing. A cleansing casts all the negativity out. A seal keeps it in, but contained. So this spirit, whoever it is, might have been trapped in the school. And any negative energy created by its situation would just linger and fester there.”
“Wait,” Madelyn said, holding up a hand. “When did they seal it?”
James glanced at his notes. “1978,” he replied.
“So instead of casting it out, they just trapped the ghost in a working elementary school?”
“Score one for the Foundation,” Amelia said.
“Apparently,” James said. “I don’t know what they were thinking, but they probably had some reasoning for it. Gabriella’s going to look into it further and see if they explain why they did it.”
Madelyn shook her head. “They sealed a fucking ghost in my elementary school.”
James really wasn’t sure what to say to that, so he kept going. “The ghost was likely completely harmless when it was originally trapped there.”
“But it isn’t harmless anymore,” Bradley said. “You saw what it was doing. And it’s hurt multiple people working on the construction site.”
“I know,” James said quickly. “But it means that now we need to figure out how to get it out of there. My original thought was to bring Father McEnerney in for an exorcism. But it’s not a demon, it’s a spirit. And maybe we can bring it back to itself and save it from whatever happens after the exorcism.”
“Can we do that?”
Bradley’s face was set in a way that made James uneasy. “What do you mean?” he asked.
“Do we know that that’s possible?” Bradley continued. “Say the ghost is some innocent person that died and got caught there, like you’re suggesting, and not a shadow person with massive amounts of strength. How do we turn it back into its former self? Is there a way? Because I can’t think of one.”
This was what he’d been afraid of. “I don’t know,” James admitted. “We can talk to the Foundation-”
“The ones who originally sealed a monster in an elementary school,” Bradley retorted.
Something was starting to throb behind James’s eye. “Listen, I don’t know,” he said. “But we only have one shot at this. If we try to convert it back and it doesn’t work, then going in for an exorcism will be dangerous. We potentially put ourselves and the Father at risk. But if we go straight to exorcism, we lose the opportunity to help this entity, if it is a spirit at all.”
“I think we should try,” Gabriella said.
Every head turned toward her and she shrunk into the chair a little under everyone’s gaze. But she kept looking at James. “If there’s a chance that this is an intelligent spirit, then it needs help. We can’t just give up on it.”
James looked at the others. Amelia looked hesitant, but Madelyn seemed to agree with what Gabriella was saying.
“And what if it isn’t?” Bradley demanded. “What if it’s a negative entity that’s never been human? The Foundation sealed the property for a reason, right? They normally know what they’re doing, this may have been the only way to keep this thing in.”
“But we don’t know that!” Gabriella insisted.
“And we don’t know it was ever human! Or ever benign. It pushed someone down the stairs and threw a chunk of wood at your head, remember?”
James thought maybe he should step in. But Gabriella seemed to be holding her own, and she had some points, though Bradley’s point about releasing something dangerous was a good one as well.
“Do you just not care?” Gabriella demanded. “You don’t care about this spirit who might be suffering in there. We can help it!”
“By putting the team in more danger. By putting the Father in more danger,” Bradley snapped. “It’s too risky. It’s not worth it.”
“This was a person once!” Gabriella burst out. “Someone who had people who cared about them! Don’t you have anyone you care about?”
“And don’t you have another authority figure to mindlessly follow?”
The room was so silent that James could hear the blood rushing in his ears. Gabriella looked like she’d been slapped. Glancing at Amelia, he could see she looked as uncomfortable as he felt.
“Brad, get out.”
Bradley looked at him, and James shook his head. “Just get out of here.”
Without another word, Bradley got up and stormed out of the room. James heard the back door open, then fall closed behind him, and James’s headache seemed to intensify.
“Gabs, are you okay?” he asked.
Gabriella nodded shakily, then stood up. “I just-I need to-”
She hurried out of the room, going in the opposite direction toward the bedrooms. Amelia, James, and Madelyn all exchanged looks as one of the bedroom doors slammed shut. “Give them both a minute,” James said. “Um, meeting’s over, I guess.”
He walked toward the front door, opened it, and stepped outside, careful not to let it lock behind him. The heatwave of the past few weeks had broken some and a cool breeze greeted him as he walked out onto the front steps and let his head fall back against the front of the house.
A sickly laugh broke the silence of the afternoon, and James turned to see Robin standing under a nearby tree. He looked as ghoulish as before, matted blood staining his torn clothes and one milky eye looking out from the ruins of his head. His laugh still sounded like him, though, even with the underlying gurgle.
“Just fuck off,” James muttered, shaking his head.
Robin laughed even louder, blood and spittle flying from his flapping jaw. James wanted to go over there and punch him, feel that satisfying crack of bone, even if it was already broken and probably not real.
“James?”
He turned to see Amelia poking her head out the front door. “I’m going to go get coffee,” she said. “Do you want your usual?”
“Um, yeah,” James said, fishing into his pocket for a few dollars.
He went to hand it to her and Amelia made a face like he was offering her a dead rat. “Right,” she said, pushing his hand away. “I’ll be back in a few.”
She walked out the door and hurried toward her car, not giving any indication that she saw their former boss under the elm. As James turned back toward the tree, Robin was gone.
***
“Gabs?”
James knocked on the door of the pink bedroom, Gabriella’s usual choice of bedrooms. She didn’t answer, but he could hear her shuffling inside. “Hey Gabs, can I come in? It’s just me.”
A second later, the door opened, and Gabriella peered out. Her eyes were bloodshot and her nose was red as she stepped aside to let James in.
“You okay?” he asked, knowing it was a stupid question.
She nodded, her hair hanging in her face. Then she wiped her eyes and took a shaky breath.
“I’m going to get you my resignation letter tomorrow,” she said.
James’s stomach went cold. “No, Gabs-” he started.
“It’s not working,” she interrupted. “I thought maybe we could all move past it someday. I didn’t think it would be immediate. But I can’t do it. I can’t just wait for everyone to stop hating me. I’m messing up the work, I’m too nervous in the field, and I’m just waiting to fuck up again. So I’m just going to quit and find something I can actually do.”
She was crying again, wiping her eyes to try and stop the tears. “I’m sorry,” she said again. “I’m sorry I believed Robin. It was so so stupid and I was just so desperate to fit in with this job and do good work. And I was confused and scared and his explanation was so simple.”
James pulled her into a hug, and she clung to him in a way that was heartbreakingly familiar. “It’s okay,” he said again as she cried into his shoulder. “I get it. I really do.”
“I don’t know how you can just forgive me. The others still hate me, but you don’t. How?”
“Because we’re family,” James said. “And they don’t hate you, I promise.”
Gabriella scoffed at him. “No, really,” James insisted. “They’re mad. And Bradley’s being a dick about it. But you’re proving yourself and you’re such an enormous asset to this team already. We never would have found this seal without you.”
Gabriella was quiet, but she held onto him tightly for a few more seconds. Then, with a final squeeze, she let go.
“Listen,” James said. “Can you just sleep on it? If you really want to quit, I’ll hate it, but I’ll understand. But you’re good at this work. I think you’ve got a future in it.”
“That’s what Robin said just before he tried to kill me.”
James couldn’t help the smile that twitched on his lips and, as he looked at Gabriella, he could see the same thing on her face. He snorted, then covered his mouth.
Gabriella shook her head. “You can laugh,” she said with a wry smile. “It’s ridiculous.”
James nodded. “Listen,” he repeated. “Just think about it? Okay?”
Gabriella nodded. “I’m going to clean up,” she said. “Then I can keep going.”
“You worked overnight last night, right?” James asked.
“Yeah.”
“Your shift ended an hour ago. How about you go home and get some rest?”
She looked like she was about to argue, then relented. “Yeah, I’ll do that.”
She picked up her bag and slung it over her shoulder. Then she gave James one last hug. “Love you,” she said.
“Love you too.”
Gabriella walked out of the room. James knew he had to go back out and lead his team, but he just needed to sit here for a second first.
