She was sitting at the table with Elliot, and the conversation was pleasant. She couldn’t remember what it was about though. All she could see was the movement of his lips and the table in front of them, overly full of dishes that shifted precariously every time Elliot moved his hands. But Gabriella was happy sitting here.

And then she wasn’t sitting there anymore. She was outside, in the dark, watching herself and Elliot at the table within the restaurant. The mulch of the flowerbed felt so real under her bare feet, she could hear it shift and crunch, felt it pressing into her heels. And then there was a face, right beside hers. She couldn’t see it, but if she moved even slightly, she’d be nose-to-nose with whoever it was.

Gabriella’s heart was pounding, but she was rooted to the spot. The crunching mulch was gone now, replaced with stems and vines winding their way around her feet, holding her tightly as a mouth brushed against her ear with its hot breath.

“Guess who?”

The shrill voice jolted her out of the dream, sending her back to her bed. She shot up so quickly that she tumbled off the mattress and landed in a tangle of blankets on the rug. Dazed, Gabriella stood up and gripped the bedpost, looking around frantically.

The room settled into place. She was at home. She was in her apartment and the sun was rising. The mischief spirit had come back for another visit. And – she glanced at her phone – woken her up five minutes before her alarm was set to go off.

That son of a bitch, he must have done it on purpose. Gabriella took a deep breath, letting it out slowly as she looked around the room, grounding herself. This was home. She was fine. God, how was she supposed to explain any of this shit to a normal therapist?

She started her morning routine, trying to keep things as normal as possible. It was a nightmare. She had at least one of those a week, that wasn’t anything new.

Despite all of her efforts, Gabriella ended up going into work early that morning. As she walked in, she saw Amelia and Bradley sitting in the living room. Neither looked particularly happy, but she tried not to take their scowls personally as she walked inside.

“Aren’t you like an hour early?” Amelia asked through a yawn.

“Yeah,” Gabriella admitted, coming upstairs and sitting in the empty spot at the end of the couch. “But the mischief got into my dreams and I wasn’t going back to sleep.”

“Same,” Amelia said. “I tried to take a nap a little while ago and it was just laughing.”

“It screamed in my ear,” Gabriella said.

“I just didn’t sleep,” Bradley said. “I’m only on until three, it’s fine.”

“I’m tempted to just not sleep too,” Amelia admitted. “I know it’s probably not a good idea for all of us to just stop sleeping until the case is done. But if it means not hearing that laughter all the time, it might be worth it.”

Gabriella was tempted too. She wasn’t sure if she could do it, but minimal sleep and caffeine might do the trick. At least for a little while.

The door opened, and all three of them turned in surprise. This time, it was James coming in early. The purple baseball cap he was wearing was pulled down low over his eyes as he kicked off his shoes and walked up the stairs. He carried a massive cup of iced coffee and seemed unsurprising to see them all gathered there.

“You too?” he asked.

He pulled off his baseball cap as he walked into the living room and Gabriella could see that the slap mark on his face was still bright red, the fingers and thumb clearly defined against his own features.

“It’s ridiculous,” Amelia said. “I was asleep for an hour and it got me. I got a nap without it before my shift, but…”

“I don’t know which is worse,” James said, sitting down between Gabriella and Bradley on the couch. “Gambling that maybe it won’t show up this time or knowing that it will.”

“I’m just not going to go to sleep unless I have to,” Bradley said. “It’s not worth it.”

James looked at him. “Are you really going to make me order you to take a nap?” he asked.

Bradley glared at him, but didn’t answer. James looked around at all of them. “Guys, I get it,” he said. “Trust me. But we can’t just not sleep. It’s not going to hurt us. We’re not dealing with some Nightmare on Elm Street shit. Think of it more like a telephone into our dreams. You can piss someone off over the phone, but you can’t kill them. You get what I’m saying?”

Gabriella nodded, though the idea of sleeping at all held zero appeal to her right now either. “Please don’t try to stay up,” James continued. “It’s just going to make things harder and we all need to stay as functional as possible. Try to power through, ignore the fucker, and we’ll get rid of him as soon as possible.”

Bradley looked like he wanted to argue, but knew he didn’t have a chance. Gabriella was almost impressed when he just nodded, then got up and left.

---

Both Graham and Madelyn came in later with reports of the mischief messing with their dreams as well. They were similar to Gabriella’s experience, where the mischief had yelled in their ear, though neither of them quite remembered what it was that he said. When Gabriella offered up his creepy “Guess Who?” chorus, Madelyn’s smile dropped.

“That’s it,” she said. “That’s exactly what he was saying.”

She shivered and Gabriella felt a sympathetic rush down her spine as she remembered the shrill, taunting words.

Amelia had gone as willingly as possible in this situation to go take a nap on James’s suggestion when the others got there. Bradley was less happy to do so, but he eventually left too. Both of them were back within an hour, reporting the mischief’s presence in their dreams.

James disappeared into his office for a little while as Amelia and Graham went to check out a very basic haunting over in Lancaster, the next town over. Madelyn was on comms, talking them through it, and Gabriella recognized that it was primarily a training exercise for Graham. That was good. At least there was no chance of the ghost latching on and coming home to kill him.

She shivered. No, this was too much. She needed to suck it up and talk to James about therapy options. Otherwise, she was going to go straight to worst-case scenarios for the rest of her career.

Before she could lose her nerve or find something else to distract her, Gabriella knocked on the partially open office door.

“Come in!”

James was sitting at his desk, head balanced on his fist as he read something that looked very old. He looked up and smiled, his usual easy grin bunching up the distinct finger lines on his face. “Hey, Gabs.”

“Hi. Do you have a second to talk?”

His smile faded. “Yeah, of course.”

She closed the door and sat down in one of the ugly upholstered kitchen chairs they’d brought in. This was probably from an aunt’s house, Gabriella realized. She had a vague sense memory of eating French toast for breakfast as she sat down on the floral cushion.

“What’s going on?” James asked.

Gabriella took a deep breath, trying to shove down that feeling of being a failure. “Um, I was just wondering,” she started, trying not to stammer. “Does the Foundation offer any, like, therapists or something?”

She expected either concern (“Oh no, are things wrong? Is the job too hard?”) or weak humor (“we’re all nuts here,”) but instead, he just looked thoughtful. “Honestly,” he said. “I’m not sure. They should. It’s not like we can bring this stuff to a typical therapist. Do you want me to look into it?”

“Do you mind?” she asked. “I know you’re busy, but it’s just been a lot lately and-”

“Of course,” he said, saving her from babbling anything more embarrassing. “Gabs, are you okay?”

It was probably the lack of good sleep, but the simple question almost made her burst into tears again, like at her mother’s. “Yeah,” she replied. “Yeah, I guess. It’s just…it’s a lot.”

He was looking at her the same way her mother had. With the honest offer that she could tell them anything. But the idea of rehashing the hell that was Robin’s plan and her own part in it was too much. If she was going to dump all that poison out, it was going to be to a neutral party.

“Okay,” James said, and she was relieved he didn’t push for more. “Let me look into it. They used to have pretty good medical services, but they’ve cut some of them lately. I’ll take a look tonight.”

“You don’t need to-” she started, but he held up a hand to stop her.

“I’ll look into it tonight,” he repeated.

The relief was so crushing that it was unexpected. “Thank you,” she said.

“Absolutely. Was there anything else?”

“No. What are you working on?”

“Nothing interesting,” James said with a laugh. “Just yet another case coming through. It’s not on the schedule until tomorrow, but I wanted to get a head start while Amelia had Graham out on the case. What are you up to?”

“Cleaning roster,” Gabriella said with a laugh. “I’m on kitchen cleanup today. Oh, um, should I go to the grocery store for replacements or should I add them to a shopping list?”

“Send them to me,” James said. “I have to do a whole approval thing and if Bradley finds out I’m working outside of it, he’ll kill me.”

She said nothing, but he could clearly see it in her eyes because he laughed. “He’s got a point, though,” he admitted. “I’ve seen the budget numbers multiple times now. He keeps this place running. Somehow.”

“Robs banks on his days off,” Gabriella suggested. “See if Robin had just gone with that…”

James let out a surprised bark of laughter at the joke and she couldn’t help joining in.

---

CONTINUE TO CHAPTER 18