James was trying to hide the nerves bubbling in his stomach as they pulled into the parking lot outside of Delinsky’s, but he knew he was doing a piss-poor job of it. As he looked over at Gabriella getting her supplies set up in the passenger seat, he could tell she was nervous too. “You good?” he asked.

She looked up, holding an amulet in a slightly shaky hand. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“As soon as I know what we’re dealing with, we act, but not before. I need you to stand back, okay?”

“James-”

“I’m not saying to leave,” he continued. “I’m saying let me see if this thing is human. Polly Grace might physically be here, but probably not. But if Janis and Jeremy are here and they’re fucking around with her power, we might be able to stop them and end this now. I’m going to need you to have my back.”

“Got it.”

“Are you protected?”

It comforted him to see the size of the blade she was strapping around her waist as he asked. “Yeah,” she said. “All blessed, all purified. I’ve got holy water, a blade, amulets. Tinctures. I could go for some armor, but I guess I’ll have to ask for that for Christmas.”

“You and me both.”

James had the tranquilizer gun holstered on one hip and a taser on the other. He felt a little ridiculous with his cryptid kit on, but it seemed like the best option when he wasn’t sure what he was going into right now. That, plus salt, an iron blade, and the same herbal tincture, should cover most of the situations they might find in there.

And if it didn’t, then they were just in their usual supremely under-prepared state.

He hooked the camera onto his chest and turned it on. “Amelia, you there?”

“Got you,” Amelia’s voice came over the comms.

“Do you have visuals?”

“Yeah, I can see Gabriella. Nice knife.”

Gabriella laughed, her hand moving to the knife on her hip. “It’s my new favorite.”

“It’s a good look. Alright, I’ll stay quiet unless you talk to me first.”

“Confirmed,” James said.

He turned to Gabriella. “Ready?”

“Yeah, ready.”

They were parked at the far end of the parking lot, which was still chaotic with holiday shoppers despite whatever was going on inside Delinsky’s. James got out of the car and Gabriella followed. The weight of his kit was comforting, though he was also feeling a little exposed going in through the front door like this.

They walked silently through the parking lot, ignoring the stares of people walking by. James expected the doors to Delinsky’s to be locked, but they opened with a single tug and he walked straight in.

The Christmas music was still pumping through the speakers, this time “Silent Night” playing at a volume that hurt his ears. But the lights were out, only the dim emergency lamps glinting off the golden decor to provide any light as they walked into the shop. The shadowy clothing racks loomed over them and every hair on James’s body stood on end as he walked, knife in hand, as his eyes darted all over the room.

A figure raced out of the shadows ahead of him and he had his knife raised before he realized it was Janis. She was sobbing hysterically as she ran toward him. In the darkness behind her, he could see massive, misshapen racks of clothing, but no other people. At least not yet.

“She’s here, she’s here,” Janis cried as she hurried over.

Was this a trap? Not that it mattered, because she was already right in front of him. But before she could get close enough to touch him, James had his knife at her throat. “Tell me what’s going on,” he demanded. “What did you fucking do?”

She was crying almost too hard to speak, but then the words tumbled out in a nearly incoherent mess. “We needed to get back at them,” Janis sobbed. “They were – they hurt us. And Phyllis was so sad. They used her so much and then just fired her right before the holidays. She killed herself, and it was their fault. And they needed to pay for what they did. It was worth the cost, and they needed to FUCKING PAY!”

She screamed the last two words, and James jumped, but didn’t drop the knife. He had a feeling they were being watched from the darkness, eyes blazing into the back of his neck. As far as he could tell, Amelia was still muted on the line, also watching everything. Her presence gave him a little comfort.

“Where’s Jeremy?” he asked as, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Gabriella shift to watch his back.

“Dead,” Janis sobbed.

That’s when James realized why the shelf behind the dress rack looked so misshapen. It had been too dark to see clearly, but his eyes were now adjusted to the dim light of the store.

James’s stomach fell as he saw Jeremy’s body hanging above her. His feet were latched onto the rack, while his arms were strapped to the wall display behind him with two overpriced belts. Blood poured from his open mouth as his eyes stared blankly ahead.

“Jesus Christ…” James muttered, taking a step back.

“We told her we’d pay her, we had the money, it was just going to take a little while,” Janis continued as though he hadn’t just noticed the grisly scene behind her. “We asked for just a little more time, but she told us it had to be now. And when he tried to fight her-”

She cut off with a small hiccup. “Gary left.”

“The only smart person here,” James said. “What were you thinking?”

“We needed to make them pay for what they did!” Janis said. “They needed to know that they messed up when they hurt Phyllis, and they needed to hurt for it too. I’ve worked here for four years and I’ve never gotten a raise. Jeremy was here for ten. Phyllis gave them twenty fucking years, and they killed her for it. They need to hurt and they need to die.”

“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” Gabriella demanded from behind James as the music cut out so abruptly that his ears rang in its absence. “Where did she go?”

“I don’t know!” Janis exclaimed. “I don’t know if she was really here! She killed Jeremy, and she disappeared, but I don’t think she’s gone. And I can’t pay her. You need to help me!”

An astral projecting murderer. Fantastic. “We’ll do our best,” James said. “But you need to tell me everything. You hired someone to kill the Delinskys for you. Polly Grace?”

Janis nodded rapidly, and James tried to focus on her instead of the corpse behind her. “I wanted to do something else, but Jeremy convinced me and he was right. She killed the owners, and they all panicked. The ones who made the choices died and the ones who benefited from it got to feel what it’s like to be scared, to not be in control.”

Something clattered to the ground in a far corner of the store. James felt Gabriella jump behind him and tried to stay focused. Janis’s face went even paler in the dim light.

“We were behind on the payment, just by a couple of days. She told us the consequences would be- would be severe, but I didn’t think it would be this bad. I can’t afford to pay her right now.”

“James!”

James whirled around in time to see Gabriella lifted off her feet and tossed backward down the aisle. She got up immediately, blade in hand.

“Who are you?” she demanded, spinning around as a formless shape moved behind her in the darkness, fluttering at the edges like smoke. Just like Rita Delinsky had described.

James had his holy water in hand, feeling useless as he pulled one of his amulets off his neck and tossed it toward Janis. “Put it on!” he barked.

She put it over her head with a shaking hand. “What do I do?”

“Stay right the fuck there. Don’t move.”

Something collided with him, knocking the wind out of him. It felt almost human, but the power behind it was too fast to be normal. “Get out of here!” he snapped toward it.

Another icy tendril of wind. No, it wasn’t human, no matter how much force it had. This was magical. It was just energy, and he knew how to deal with energy. Maybe they could end this here.

James took a deep breath, trying to unlock the Latin that usually flowed naturally when he was doing a cleansing. That was all this was. This wasn’t Polly Grace, this was her just her power, and he needed to clean it out.

He turned back to Janis, who was wide-eyed and angry under her terror. Then he started chanting, trying not to think too hard about the words as he tossed the holy water into the shadows. Jeremy’s body still dangled in view and James’s stomach turned as water splashed off the man’s shoe. Gabriella was behind him, guarding his back as he performed the ritual he could do in his sleep. There were no candles, but the emergency lights gleamed off the gold fixtures in a way that looked like fire. Maybe if he mentally convinced himself they were flames, the ritual would work just as well. He needed to sanctify the space, just enough that a salt circle wouldn’t seal Polly Grace’s magic inside with them.

Still talking, the Latin words flowing meaninglessly past his own ears, he reached for the salt on his supply belt. If he could get Janis within the circle, maybe that and the amulet would keep her safe long enough to cleanse Polly Grace’s influence from this shop.

It was fine, this was fine. He’d finish, they’d seal the doors, and then they’d get Janis safe and go after Polly Grace in person.

He was still thinking this when something yanked Janis up to the ceiling, screaming and thrashing against the force that was holding her there. James made eye contact with her for a split second from twenty feet below. And then she was falling. He ran to catch her, but she hit the stone floor of the shop with a sickening crunch and lay still.

Gabriella was directly behind him as he ran. Ritual forgotten, he reached Janis’s crumpled body. It was okay, people survived heights like that. Madelyn had fallen from higher and she was over at Headquarters right now. It was fine, it was fine, it was-

Janis was dead. Empty eyes stared up at him from her broken face, which was tilted at an impossible angle on a snapped neck. But before he could even begin to react, there was a voice in his ear. Impossibly sweet, like syrup trickling into his brain.

“The debt is paid,” the voice whispered.

And then the lights came back on.

---

CONTINUE TO CHAPTER 24