None of the three remaining cemeteries in Leominster showed anything odd on the cameras when James brought them back a few days later. They’d been so busy with cases that there hadn’t been a chance for anyone to go see if they could find any signs of the ouija board or the entity it let through.

But finally, about three days later, there were a few extra minutes as they were wrapping up the Muldoon Street case. It was a fairly straightforward case, much like others the Foundation had been sending in lately. The family was hearing water dripping in the house despite multiple plumbers saying nothing was wrong. Then the Foundation had gotten involved when they said they were now seeing running water in their basement that didn’t have an obvious source.

An investigation of the house’s history had shown a handful of suspicious deaths connected with the swamp just beyond the house’s backyard. So Amelia, Bradley, and Graham were over at the house, trying to cleanse the energy and convince the angry spirit from the swamp to move on. Gabriella and Madelyn were on comms with them the whole time while James coordinated the case. Now that it was wrapping up, he had asked Gabriella to come with him to check another cemetery after they were finished.

“That was disgusting,” Gabriella heard Bradley say over the comms.

“Listen, it’s not real,” James said from beside her at the computer bank. “It’s an illusion that the spirit was using. Don’t worry.”

“Smells pretty fucking real, McManus,” Bradley snarled.

Gabriella couldn’t see him or any of the others through Bradley and Graham’s flooded cameras, but she’d seen the wave of rancid water pour over both of them and had a moment of panic for them and the equipment. But once Amelia had cast out the spirit, the floodwaters had left too. The floors were dry and the walls weren’t water-stained. The only sign that there had been anything there at all was the fact that both Bradley and Graham were still drenched in swamp water as they staggered out of the basement.

“Still beats working at the college,” Graham said easily over the comms as they walked down to the van.

“I can taste it,” Bradley grumbled. “Amelia, where are you?”

“I needed to tell the family that we’re done in the basement,” Amelia replied. “I’m coming now.”

“So, James,” Graham said as he climbed into the van. “How many showers does the headquarters have? I’m going to hope against hope that there’s a secret one somewhere.”

“I’ve got bad news,” James said, clearly trying to keep from laughing. “You’re going to have to take turns with the one we’ve got. Still better than the college?”

There was a pause. “Let me get back to you,” he said.

“This is never coming out of the van seats,” Bradley said.

“How?” James demanded. “It was an illusion.”

“One that’s still coating me and Graham,” Bradley snapped. “It came off of everything else. And it’s real. The stain on the seat is pretty real too.”

“Look, I’ll scrub it this weekend, whatever,” James said. “You two fight it out over who gets the shower first, and I’ll get things set for the next trip. We’ve got a gap in the schedule this afternoon, so I’m going to go take a look at one of the cemeteries for the Father.”

Gabriella expected a fight. Or at least, a gentle reminder from Amelia that James had to fill out all the follow-ups for this case they’d just finished. But nobody said anything. Instead, Amelia signed them off the comms and said they’d be back in a few minutes. As soon as she disconnected, Madelyn got up and limped down to one of the bedrooms. She’d looked miserable through the entire case and Gabriella had tried her best to take on most of the responsibility. James, too, had tried to dismiss her, but she’d said she was fine to work until they were done. Now Gabriella was pretty sure she wasn’t going to be seeing Madelyn again before the end of her shift.

“We can head out once Amelia’s back to take command,” James said to Gabriella as he stood up and stretched. “I’ve got paperwork to do tonight, but I’d rather do these visits in the daylight, if at all possible. We still don’t know what this thing is, other than the fact that it came through the ouija board and this kid seems to still be dreaming about it.”

“Wait, what?”

James grimaced, and Gabriella’s stomach fell a little. “Yeah,” he said. “I got a call from Father McEnerney last night about it. It could be nightmares, but the way he described it, I’m not getting a nightmare vibe, you know?”

“What can get into people’s dreams?” Gabriella asked.

She’d done a training module that had mentioned dream walking in passing, but it had been among several other things. Thankfully, James didn’t call her out on that.

“I mean, a lot of things can,” he said. “Dreams are a physical thing, the result of brain chemistry and body function. But they’re also a state that leaves us more open to the paranormal, for better or for worse. So it’s completely possible that a spirit can talk to you when you’re dreaming. It could be someone who’s just stopping in to say hi, or it could be more malicious. The fact that this kid is having recurring nightmares makes me lean toward malicious and there’s no way it’s not connected with the ouija board stunt.”

“Did the kid say what the dreams were about?” Gabriella asked.

“Yeah, I have his report written down somewhere. Hang on.”

James walked into the captain’s office, and Gabriella followed him. Three months ago, walking in this door would have made her break out in a cold sweat. But the room that had been Robin’s office looked nothing like it had before. James had bought a new desk, which he had set up in the far corner of the room, creating almost a cubicle as the desk faced toward the door in front of a bookshelf set against the back wall. The chairs were a new addition as well, a couple of old kitchen chairs sitting against the wall. The Foundation hadn’t given them money to redo the office, so everything had come out of James’s pocket at his insistence. It was still fairly empty, even now, with bare walls anywhere there wasn’t a bookshelf. But it beat being reminded of Robin every time they went inside.

James went over to his desk and started looking through a pile of papers. “Here it is,” he said, pulling out a piece of thin notebook paper.

It had come out of a school notebook and little bits of paper frayed off the side as he handed it to Gabriella. She scanned it, immediately noticing the pencil illustration at the top of the page. “That’s creepy.”

It was a dark cloud, vaguely shaped but still seeming to spread deliberately through the space. Underneath it was messy handwriting.

He laughs at me and his voice is high and scary. I don’t feel like I can move out of my bed and he says thank you over and over. But it’s like he’s making fun of me, he’s mean about it. It’s just this all night and then I wake up and nothing’s there.

That poor kid. Gabriella had had her share of nightmares over the years, and more now that she was constantly exposed to nightmarish things. But to be a young teenager dealing with that? She couldn’t bring herself to imagine it.

“So there’s not much to go on, but it’s enough to paint a picture,” James said. “I’m thinking it’s a pretty straightforward malevolent spirit. Probably not anything that was ever human, but it’s not entirely out of the realm of possibility.”

Gabriella’s gaze drifted over to the shelf of books behind him. They were dusty and probably out of date, but maybe there was something in there that could help them narrow it down. James turned his head to see what she was looking at. “Oh, those,” he said. “They’re pretty old. I think they were mostly here for decoration.”

“Does paranormal information get updated regularly?” Gabriella asked.

She meant it as a joke, but James shrugged. “I mean, yeah?” he said. “It’s like any other field. We find out new stuff all the time. I’ve been meaning to go through those soon and see if they’re useful or if we should find a way to archive them.”

“I can help if you want me to,” Gabriella said.

Even though the Foundation hadn’t given them the go-ahead to make her an official research specialist, she could still hope. And keep doing the work that would get her there, eventually.

“I’d have to find out what we’re looking for,” James said. “But if you want to go through them, I’d appreciate it. Don’t spend a lot of time on it though.”

Gabriella nodded as she walked over and pulled a book off the shelf. A cloud of dust flew up at her and she coughed, waving it away. Then she opened the book, carefully moving the cover as she realized the pages were brittle and yellowed beneath it.

There was an indicator near the front that there was an index somewhere, but when she flipped the end of the volume, there was none to be seen. James motioned to the end of the shelf. “Check the very last volume,” he said. “Some of the Foundation’s research materials are extremely old and those ones have, like, an entire index volume.”

Gabriella nodded her thanks as she scanned the open pages of the book in her hand. It was an encyclopedia of some sort, but there were references and codes that she didn’t get. The ancient pages were typewritten, and the ink had worn off in some places, making the words nearly impossible to read. But there were diagrams depicting vague creatures in the margins, and she immediately wanted to know more.

The sound of the front door opening made them both look toward the living room. “I’m going to go check in with Amelia about the case before I go over to Westwood Cemetery,” James said. “Do you want to come with me or are you busy?”

“I’ll go,” Gabriella said, closing the book and setting it gently on James’s desk.

She followed him out and was immediately hit with the scent of polluted water. Trying not to gag, she held a hand up to her face and looked toward the entrance. Graham was walking up the steps, soaked through with his clothes plastered to his body. He held his hand up in greeting.

“I’m going straight to the shower,” he said. “I won the coin toss. And I’m out at five, James. Do you need anything before I go?”

It was four o’clock now, so the sun wasn’t going to be up much longer. So much for doing these cemetery investigations in the daylight, but maybe they could go quickly. James didn’t seem too concerned about it as he shook his head. “Nah,” he said. “I’ll see you tomorrow. I’m on overnight tonight.”

The smell followed Graham as he gave James a thumbs up and disappeared into the bathroom. Amelia came up the stairs a moment later, dry and scent-free. “I’m here,” she said. “It went fine aside from what you just saw, so I’ll write up the report and send it in. You can head out whenever, I’ll cover until you get back.”

“We won’t be long,” James said. “I just want to knock one more cemetery off the list tonight so that we can make some progress, you know?”

“Are you sure it’s not worth having him talk to the Foundation and get some real resources behind this investigation?” Amelia asked.

“Not yet,” James said. “Right now there’s still no sign that anyone’s been hurt by it and even if he’s willing to talk, Father McEnerney might get some shit for not bringing it to them earlier. So let’s see if we can finish it up discreetly.”

“I won’t argue,” Amelia said. “Just as long as things stay under control.”

James gave her a thumbs up, then went to grab his coat. Gabriella followed him outside.

It was brisk outside, but thankfully not freezing as they walked down the steps. “We’ll take my car,” James said. “I wasn’t lying when I offered to scrub the van this weekend, but I’m not doing it right now.”

Gabriella was about to reply, but then the smell of rotten swamp water hit her again. She turned and saw Bradley standing nearby, glowering in the late afternoon sun. Like Graham, he was soaked through and looked like a cat who’d fallen in the bathtub as he turned and scowled at them.

“Shit,” James said. “I guess it could manifest.”

“You think?” Bradley said.

“Did Amelia kick you out?”

“No,” Bradley replied with as much dignity as he could muster in this situation, soaking wet and shivering outside in October. “I just don’t feel like cleaning it up after, so I’ll wait out here until Graham’s done in the shower.”

“I could hose you off in the backyard,” James offered pleasantly.

Bradley’s eyes widened, and his face turned dark red. Gabriella took a step back, not wanting to get hit with the fallout. But instead of exploding, Bradley stalked off around the corner of the house.

“Let’s head out,” James said, turning back toward his car, which was parked at the end of the driveway. “By the way, do you think we should do costumes for the Halloween party? I could make it an order, right?”

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CONTINUE TO CHAPTER 8