That feeling of normalcy ended as soon as Gabriella walked into headquarters and saw Amelia and James talking to each other very seriously on the couch. “Good morning,” she said as she walked into the room. “What’s going on?”

James looked up at her, and he could see dark shadows under his eyes. “Gabs, did you have any weird dreams last night?”

It was like a wave of ice water crashed over her as Gabriella reluctantly nodded. James looked grim. “We did too,” he said. “What was yours?”

As she detailed the dream, she could see on both of their faces that they had had similar experiences last night. And when Graham walked in the room to wrap up his overnight shift, he confirmed that he’d heard the laughter too during the quick catnaps he’d managed to catch throughout the night.

Bradley had been on with him and had apparently gone to take a quick nap before the rest of them arrived for their shifts. He walked out of the bedroom a few minutes after Gabriella got there, looking rattled. She grimaced at him and he groaned.

“This is exactly what happened in Salem,” he said as he joined the others in the living room.

“Is there any way to block it?” James asked.

“How the hell would I know?” Bradley said.

James rolled his eyes. “Because you’ve dealt with it before? I’m just asking, Christ.”

“I mean, there are herbs and amulets to keep nightmares away,” Madelyn said. “I doubt it’ll work, but it can’t hurt. Rosemary under the pillow and things like that.”

Gabriella knew it wouldn’t work. And judging by the skeptical faces around her, she wasn’t alone in that. But she also knew she’d be stopping by the grocery store for some rosemary on her way home tonight.

---

Despite the mischief messing with them all via their dreams, they still needed to work today. Bradley’s schedule had them following up on three different cases within the same neighborhood. As she looked over the list a little while later, something caught Gabriella’s eye.

Why was that neighborhood familiar? She pulled one of the houses up on her maps app and looked at it as she drank a cup of coffee. It was in a dense neighborhood near the center of Fitchburg, tucked up on a hill above downtown. The cases had been fairly standard, just things like voices in the home or shadow people in the basement. It was a perfectly normal handful of missions that happened to be located near each other.

Gabriella frowned. What was it about this neighborhood? Highland Ave stuck out the most. She’d seen that name since she’d been working here. Not this assignment though. And she didn’t think that they’d done a different case on the same street. So what was…

Energy readings.

Robin’s voice seemed so real for a second that she nearly spilled her drink. It was from the energy readings he’d been having her chase. There had been an odd reading on a case done at Highland Ave years earlier and he’d had her chase it down for nothing.

Still, it was worth mentioning to James, wasn’t it?

She stood up from her computer and stretched, not liking how her back was so tight. She was barely twenty-three years old, so why was her body already doing this? She’d have to add some yoga to her workouts.

James was out in the yard, talking on the phone as she walked out the back door and down the steps. “I don’t care,” he was saying. “Listen, if you’re not going to put all of the cases on the schedule, then I’m handing that responsibility off to someone who will.”

There was a pause, then she heard Bradley’s muffled voice on the other end as she walked closer. James rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed. “I don’t get you,” he said. “Of everything we deal with here, it’s Bigfoot that makes you draw the line?”

Another response and James rolled his eyes at Gabriella. “We still need to follow up with them,” James said. “And to go check out the area. I’m going tomorrow. We’ll bump the Cogshall case to Thursday. It’s fine, it’s nothing urgent. But I’m going into those woods and you’re going to deal with it.”

Another pause as Gabriella waited. James laughed. “I’m sure it’ll find me delicious. Alright, bye.”

He hung up and shook his head. “Fucking Bradley,” he muttered. “What’s up, Gabs?”

His mention of going into the woods stuck in her head, along with the crunch of leaves and the sense of being chased. Gabriella was surprised to find that her hands were shaking. “What?” she said quickly. “Um, I noticed something weird about one of our follow-ups. It’s probably nothing, but I wanted to pass it by you.”

“Yeah, what is it?”

She pulled out her own phone and drew up the map again, pointing out where the strange energy readings had been found. James frowned as he took her phone and zoomed in on the area.

“We have had a few cases down that way recently,” he said, half to himself and half to her. “Maybe it’d be a good idea to go back over the data from them and see if anything matches up to the energy readings you were tracking. Thanks, Gabs.”

She was so surprised that it might actually come to something that it took her a second to realize he was handing her phone back. “Um, yeah,” she said. “Yeah. I’ll try to find that in the system.”

“If you’ve got time,” James said. “The system is a mess, shocking I know. If you can’t find it, ask Bradley to help you. He’ll probably know how to get what you need”

That sounded thoroughly unexciting, but she might have to, wouldn’t she? James clearly noticed it on her face and was trying not to laugh.

“I’m going to go squeeze in my workout before I have to head over to the interview,” he said. “Madelyn’s going to have me on comms. These are just simple follow-ups, I’ll be in and out in half an hour for each one. Then we were thinking we might want to put a construction sign up in the cemetery. Maybe it’ll deter people for a little bit while we figure out what the hell to do with this mischief.”

“I can do that,” Gabriella said.

“Not alone, you’re not.”

If it weren’t for the mischief’s voice still ringing in her ears, she might have had to force herself not to roll her eyes. James was protective of all of them, but sometimes she felt like he was a little too overprotective of her in particular. But he was right this time, so she shrugged.

“Fine,” she said. “But I can go with you so that you’re not going alone on your way back from the follow-ups.”

Busted. James’s face fell, and she knew that was exactly what he’d planned to do. Then he laughed. “Touché,” he said. “Fine, I’ll come back here and get you.”

He gave her a long, affectionate look, then shook his head, still laughing, and walked away.

---

He told the truth and a few hours later, Gabriella and James were leaving the hardware store with a large CONSTRUCTION AHEAD sign in the backseat of the van. Gabriella was a little concerned they might get in trouble for it, but James assured her that no one would know who put it up. And if somehow the city did find out, they could explain it was part of a case to the few cops who knew what the Foundation was and were too scared to fight them. After he said that, Gabriella gazed out the window as they made their way past the mall and around the first cemetery they’d strolled through, the one where Gran was buried and no mischiefs were hiding.

How many people in town knew about the Foundation? They had contacts in the hospital, the police force, and who knows where else? Was every town like that? The implications of how far this could go made her head spin, even after six months on the team.

A few minutes later they were back in their part of town, pulling up in front of Fairview Hills cemetery. It was a bright, crisp day, but Gabriella knew as soon as they set foot inside, the clouds would come rolling in to give that perfect Halloween horror movie setting.

Sure enough, the thunder boomed just as they stepped past the gate. James jumped and swore. “What the hell?” he demanded. “There were no clouds a second ago.”

“This is exactly what happened last time,” Gabriella said.

“Great,” James muttered. “Don’t go any further than right here.”

She stopped just inside the gates, stepping onto the grass to let James in too. He had the CONSTRUCTION AHEAD sign and looked around for a good spot to put it.

“What about right on the gates?” Gabriella asked. “I’ve got the straps in my pocket.”

“They might take it down,” James said.

“They’re going to take it down anyway,” she said.

James nodded. “Fair,” he said. “Alright, let’s get it up and get out before it notices us.”

The straps wouldn’t close. Gabriella tried four times to get them to click shut, but each time they slid right back off, causing the sign to fall. After the fourth time, she realized what was going on.

“Dammit,” she said. “It’s influencing the straps.”

She glanced over at James, who was gazing off into the distance, deeper into the cemetery. “James?” she said.

He didn’t answer, just narrowed his eyes and peered further into the rapidly darkening cemetery. “What the hell…” he trailed off, taking a few steps down the path.

Then there was the crack of flesh hitting flesh and James fell backward to the ground as though someone had knocked him out.

“Jesus-” Gabriella started to move toward him, but he held up a hand, trying to stand up.

“Don’t-” he started.

That was all he got out before something invisible pulled him to his feet. Another sound of contact and James doubled over in pain, clutching his arms around his stomach. Ignoring his protests, Gabriella hurried over and grabbed his hand, yanking him toward the exit.

“Come on,” she said. “Hurry up.”

He followed her the few steps toward the exit, where Gabriella suddenly felt her head snap back as someone or something grabbed a fistful of her hair and pulled. Tears of pain came to her eyes as she struggled against the grip to free herself. Finally, she felt a large clump of her hair tear away from her scalp, but she was free, hurtling toward the exit with James’s hand still in hers.

She slammed the cemetery gate shut, then turned to James. “Are you okay?”

He nodded breathlessly, and she could see a perfect handprint across his cheek. “Jesus,” she muttered.

“You okay?” James asked between gulps of air.

“Yeah,” Gabriella muttered, reaching toward the back of her head and feeling scalp that she hadn’t felt previously.

God dammit, there really was a chunk of her hair missing. She pulled her fingers away from the tender spot and cringed as she saw a small spot of blood on her fingers.

“Let’s go back,” she said. “Want me to drive?”

He nodded reluctantly, and they got into the van. Gabriella had never actually driven the van before, but she was relieved to see it really wasn’t any different from her car except that they were higher up. She started it up, then pulled out onto the road.

James had his phone out and was checking his face on the front-facing camera. “How…” he muttered, tilting his head to see it better.

“What did you see in there?” Gabriella asked as he put his phone away and raised a hand to his cheek, covering the handprint.

“What do you mean?”

“Right before it got you. You looked like you saw something.”

“Oh, right.” He scratched the side of his head and winced. “This is stupid, but I saw Uncle Ray.”

Of all the answers he could possibly have given her, that wasn’t anywhere near the top of her list. “What?” she said.

“I told you it was weird. But I legitimately saw Uncle Ray up the path.”

Gabriella couldn’t connect their tiny, nervous uncle with that horror movie cemetery they’d just left. The man refused to believe that ghosts were real and convinced himself that they worked at, what was it, an insurance company?

“That’s why I was so confused,” James continued. “It tricked me.”

His laugh was humorless as she pulled onto their street. They were back at headquarters a few minutes later. By this point, James had caught his breath and the throbbing at the back of Gabriella’s head faded a little. But the livid handprint hadn’t faded at all from James’s face by the time they got there.

“What. The. Fuck?”

Amelia was walking down the stairs, car keys in hand, as they got out of the van and staggered across the yard. She hurried over. “What the hell happened in there?”

“Mischief,” James muttered as Amelia inspected the handprint on his face. “It got me and Gabriella got us out of there.”

“It was the same thing as last time, but maybe stronger,” Gabriella said, reaching up to touch the bruised and torn part of her hair again.

Amelia moved over to her and gently probed the bald spot at the back of her head as Gabriella tried not to flinch. “It’s not bleeding anymore,” she said. “But shit, it got you good.”

She stepped back and looked at both of them. “Get inside,” Amelia said, and Gabriella was relieved that James didn’t protest her taking over the situation. “I can wait to go to the store, let’s go talk to the others.”

---

CONTINUE TO CHAPTER 14