“So, I guess I don’t need to tell you guys that my meeting with McGovern the other night wasn’t great.”

James looked around at the group, who were all sitting around the living room. Even with the painkillers she’d choked down a little while ago, Gabriella’s face was throbbing right now and it felt like it had swollen to twice its usual size. She sat on the other end of the couch from Bradley, who was watching James intently as Fang batted at his shoes. She tried to ignore the pain and focus too.

“So I met with McGovern outside of the Foundation the other night to talk. And the good news is that none of us are losing our jobs. There’s no layoffs planned, and he says that he’s almost certain he’d hear about that before we did. If only because they’d pawn the job off on him. But he also says over the next year there’s going to be massive restructuring within the Foundation. It’s not new ownership exactly, it’s more of a change in direction? I guess? But I owe you guys an apology. The shit they’ve thrown at us over the past couple months, that’s entirely my fault.”

Bradley scoffed but James shook his head. “No, it is. I should have just kept my mouth shut. I didn’t think about how it might impact the team. I pissed them off and they’re taking it out on you instead.”

“Stop,” Amelia said. “That’s not true and we all know it. They tried to screw you guys over during that training.”

“And maybe if-”

“I was there,” Bradley interrupted him. “So don’t even start trying to find a way to blame yourself for this. Jesus Christ.”

He shook his head, then reached down and stroked Fang’s back. “You didn’t do anything wrong, so shut the hell up,” he muttered.

Gabriella tried not to smell forest, forcing herself back into the very important present.

“I don’t know if things are going to calm down,” James continued, still looking somber. “Most likely not, especially after the past few days. And McGovern was clear that this is retaliation and he can only do so much about it on his end. Which, I mean, the fact he’s doing anything at all is…impressive.”

It meant either McGovern was possessed by something more capable of doing his job or something had changed with him too. Gabriella was afraid to ask. “Anyway, if any of you decide to leave the Foundation, I’m not going to take it personally. None of us will. That goes for everyone here, no matter your role and no matter how long you’ve been at the Foundation. I don’t want you feeling obligated to stay here, working at an organization that doesn’t give a shit about you.”

He was being unusually blunt about this, but Gabriella understood. She’d feel guilty leaving, no matter what he said. And she knew everyone else probably would too.

“And I really want you to take that to heart,” James continued, looking each of them in the eye before continuing. “Because right now, they’re going to try to hold on to the staff they have so that they don’t have to hire and train anyone new. They’re not going to give raises and they’re going to load on the work. So if you decide to leave, they are going to try to guilt you out of it. And we’re going to see more guilt tactics being used to keep people from even thinking about quitting. They’ll talk about how this is a calling, how you’re the only thing standing between your community and destruction, how the pay shouldn’t matter in a space like this. But they have money. They have plenty of money. Bradley can back me up on that.”

Bradley nodded, and James smiled grimly. “Anyway, I want you all to keep that in mind. You have no obligation to stay here. Not to them and not to me. Okay?”

Gabriella nodded, her face radiating pain as she did so. “Alright, go wrap up that hotel. Gab, you sure you don’t want me to go instead?”

“I want to,” she said, attempting to smile. “I want to finish this.”

***

When Amelia and Gabriella arrived at the Wildwood Hotel, they were greeted by a somber Lorraine, whose gaze kept moving to the bandage on Gabriella’s face as they spoke.

“You’re sure this is it?” she asked. “You’re sure she’s not coming back?”

“No,” Gabriella replied, surprised at her own bluntness. “That’s why we’re going to monitor the place for the next few months. But the readings here are completely different since I made contact with the spirit, and everything points toward the haunting being over. So we’ll cleanse it tonight and keep the cameras up for a few more nights. But all signs point to this being the end.”

“After that, we’ll stay in contact through the summer,” Amelia added before Lorraine could comment. “If anything stirs back up, then we’ll know.”

Lorraine looked skeptical, but Gabriella had seen the way the spirit’s activity had changed when Sarah Morgan saw her blood. The blood which she noticed was still on the carpet as they moved toward the center of the hotel to cleanse it.

After everything that had happened, cleansing the property was so anticlimactic that Gabriella thought she must have been doing something wrong. It was just lit candles, some stammered Latin on her part, some much more fluid Latin on Amelia’s, and bells. Bells. After a ghost had torn her face open, bells were what cleared the home.

She’d been here a year, and she’d never fully understand it. Hell, she’d grown up steeped in magic living with Gran and she knew she’d never get there. But just like that, the case was done.

“You really nailed this one,” Amelia said a little while later as they got back to headquarters.

“Really?” Gabriella asked. “Because I feel like I blew it and we just got lucky after I cut my face open.”

Amelia laughed. “No, you’re doing really well at all of this. I know things got off to a horrible start here, but you’re really good at this job.”

They were walking across the lawn in the evening air and Gabriella wasn’t quite ready to go inside and begin writing up her own report on the case. “I’ll be in in a few minutes,” she said. “I have to make a quick phone call.”

“Take your time,” Amelia said. “I’m going to run to Dunks in a few, want me to grab you a coffee?”

“Yes, please.”

Amelia headed into the house, and Gabriella stayed where she was in the front yard. It was nearly silent, the neighborhood so quiet that she could hear the faint hum of cars on the nearby highway. In a minute, she’d head in and wrap up the last few hours of this shift. But there was something she had to do first.

She pulled out her phone, dialed, then held it up to the ear on her non-injured side. It rang once before connecting.

“Gabriella?”

“Hi Elliot,” she said, looking at the dandelions growing in the small front yard. “Do you have a moment to talk?”

***

END

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CONTINUE TO STERLING HILL ROAD (NORTH COUNTY PARANORMAL UNIT #8)