There was a thump upstairs and Penny screamed in the den. James stared up at the stairs, the phone still in his hand, then motioned for Penny to grab baby Jenny, who was still asleep in her pack and play. Krissy was awake and crying, looking confused as James hurried toward her, the phone cord stringing along behind him. But he only took three steps before he realized what was wrong with this conversation.

“I never called the police,” he said into the phone.

“The calls are coming from inside the house,” the man repeated. 

“How could you possibly know that?” James asked as he took the baby from Penny. Without him having to say a word, Penny helped Krissy get her shoes on, her hands shaking as she tied the laces. “This isn’t the police, and this isn’t fucking funny.”

“Sweetheart, I know you’re trying to take care of your sisters, but there is a killer upstairs and you need to get out of that house.”

No shit they needed to get out of the house. James herded the girls out to the front hallway as he texted Gabriella to come get them NOW. She replied with a thumbs up emoji and he prayed that she was nearly in Leominster. Not that she’d be that casual if she wasn’t. But he needed the girls out and then he needed to figure out exactly what was happening here. The girls were priority, but he needed to end this once they were out of here and safe.

“You’re just a little girl,” the police officer continued, his voice dripping with condescending threat. “It would be a shame if something were to happen to your baby sisters, wouldn’t it? And it would be all your fault.”

This was all supposed to be for Penny, wasn’t it? The sounds were pounding through the house again, rattling the windows as the girls screamed. James hung up the phone, and it rang again. He ignored it this time, ushering the girls out the door and straight to his car as he realized he should have asked Gabriella to meet them at Headquarters. 

“What did he mean the calls were coming from the house?” Penny demanded as she slammed his passenger door shut. “How could that happen?”

“It can’t,” James said. “It’s bullshit. It’s an old urban legend meant to scare teenagers back before cell phones.” 

Celia was never going to leave these kids with him again, was she? Or anyone else for that matter. But there were lights in the road now and James recognized Gabriella’s outline in the driver’s seat as her car came into view. And as she pulled up in front of the yard, he realized quickly that she wasn’t alone. 

She and Elliot got out of the car and James was yelling “Stay off the property!” before he had even thought of it. The two of them froze and James hurried the girls out of his car and over to the sidewalk.

If this was magic based on the property, they couldn’t risk Gabriella getting tainted by it. He was already involved, but Gabs could avoid it and keep the girls safe that way. “Take them to Gran’s,” James said to Gabriella, barely sparing a glance for Elliot. “Hang on, I’ll get the car seats.”

“Is it an emergency?” Gabriella asked as Krissy threw her arms around her waist.

“No,” James said. “It’s a fucking prank. But it’s either paranormal or there’s some asshole upstairs, which turns it into an emergency real fucking fast. And there was nobody up there all night, so I’m going with the paranormal. I’m going to go upstairs and see what’s happening.”

“I’ll come with you,” Gabriella said. 

“No, the kids need someone familiar, they’re already terrified.”

“Then I’ll go with you,” Elliot said.

For a second, he was worried he’d have to accept, even if it meant both putting another person in danger and dealing with Elliot on a professional, one-on-one basis. James had to have someone with him, either on the line or in person. But then Gabriella reached into her pocket and pulled out a comms unit. “I had it on the way to Boston,” she said. “I was going to return it tonight, but Bradley said not to bother.” 

He knew it was a little insulting to show exactly how relieved he was to have this instead of having to go in with Elliot, but it probably showed on his face. Technically, he still could have done this alone, maybe awkwardly strapping his phone to his shirt like he’d done plenty of times. But this was far more reassuring. He took the comms unit gratefully and hooked it to his chest. 

“I’ll call Celia,” James said. “Take them to Gran’s.”

Gabriella nodded, then she and Elliot went to the car with the car seats. James watched as Elliot smoothly clipped the two seats into place and tried not to feel any kind of way about how gentle he was being with the kids as he helped them into the car. 

Once Gabriella had driven away, he made the call he was dreading. After waiting on hold with the nurses’ station for a moment, Celia was on the line.

“Cel,” he said. “Everything’s alright, but it happened again. Gabriella has the girls, they’re on their way to Gran’s. They’re safe. But there’s someone magically fucking with your family, I’m sure of it. I’m going to stay here and figure out who it is and how they’re doing it.”

“I’m leaving now,” Celia said.

He knew that nothing was going to stop her and as long as it didn’t cost her her job, he wasn’t about to fight her on it. So instead, he just confirmed that he would be safe when she asked, then disconnected.

James turned on the audio on the comms unit. Feeling like a bit of a tool, but understanding the necessity of it, he cleared his throat and said, “This is Captain James McManus of North Worcester County, is anyone reading this? Over.”

There was a beat of silence as he waited for the call to get directed. Normally it would go straight to North County. But depending on anything from the satellites to the wind to the clouds, his call could get potentially get rerouted to North Middlesex or South Worcester or even Hillsborough County. And he’d learned this the hard way once when, in a moment of frustration, he’d said “Anyone fucking there?” over an unanchored line. He’d reached a very confused and amused comms operator in South Middlesex who never let him forget it. 

“McManus, what the fuck?”

“Brad, great. Hey, I’m at my cousin’s house and the phenomenon is back. Gabriella is headed to our aunt’s with the girls, and their mom is on her way to get them. But what I thought was a prank by a bunch of shitty preteens is almost definitely more paranormal than that.”

Bradley sighed. “Start at the beginning.”

James laid out the whole story, pacing in the front yard and looking up at the stars as he talked. “‘The calls are coming from inside the house,’” Bradley repeated dully when he got to that part.

“I know, right?” James said. “It took a second to sink in, but I didn’t call the police. And it didn’t change its story until I said so, almost like it was going off of cues. So when I said that, it started threatening me like I’m a scared twelve-year-old.”

He waited for the insult, but it didn’t come. “So you think it was pre-programmed.”

“Exactly,” James said. “Someone expected Penny to be babysitting her younger sisters. But she’s only eleven and Jenny’s so little and Celia’s shift is so long. So she wanted an adult here with them.”

“But how did whoever it is know that Celia would be gone tonight?”

“I have no idea,” James said. “But I’m going to go upstairs and check it out. I looked through the entire house last week and there were no other sigils. And I scrubbed that motherfucker off of Krissy’s closet wall and made sure it was still gone as soon as I got here tonight. There’s nothing in the house. And Celia locks this place up even when they’re home. So the chances of someone sneaking in like what’s-her-name did last time are not impossible, but they’re unlikely.”

“Hang on,” Bradley said. “There’s your connection. This mother claims she has homework to drop off, when it is clearly available online. Then someone calls to roleplay the oldest fucking urban legend in existence.”

“And assumed the babysitter would be the young girl,” James said. “Which it might have been, twenty years ago. It all fits, but there’s no way to pin this to her.”

“Stay on the line,” Bradley said, as though James was going to tear off the comms and go running into the house. “Can you get visuals? Where did you get a comms unit from anyway?”

“Gabs,” James said, as he turned on the camera. “She had it with her in Boston when she was getting the last of LeRoux’s files. And fucking Elliot was with her when she got here. Did he go to headquarters with her?”

“What, the ghost king of Hillsborough County?” Bradley said. “No, she didn’t come here at all. Her shift ended before she got back, so I told her to just go home when she called.”

“Thanks, because it meant she got here in minutes after I called, and I got a comms to hear your lovely voice with.”

“Shut up. Okay, I see… not much. Are you outside?”

“Yeah, I’m over on Sterling Hill Road so there’s not really any streetlights in this part of town. Hang on.”

James turned back to the house, where the porch light illuminated the front door. He looked up at the windows, stopping at the one he’d seen the figure in last time. Sure enough, there it was again. 

“Do you see that?” he asked.

“See what?”

“Two windows from the left, there’s a shadow.”

“I don’t see anything. Do you have protection?”

“Always.”

He was wearing a medallion necklace already and had some holy water and his knife in his car, which was parked a few feet away. By the time he got the knife out of his car, the figure was gone.

“I don’t like this,” Bradley said. “Don’t go inside.”

James was going to have to eventually and was already getting a little impatient to just get this over with. But then the shadow was there again, standing in the window seeming to stare at him. “I have your location,” Bradley said, and James could hear him moving on the other end. “Give me ten minutes, don’t go in alone.”

“No, don’t come here.”

“Whatever is in there is not showing up on camera and we don’t know what it is. I’m not letting you go in there by yourself.”

James briefly considered mentioning how it wasn’t Bradley’s job to “let” him do anything. In fact, it was very much the opposite. But he was right, wasn’t he? Goddammit. But James still couldn’t let him come.

“If it’s magic, then I don’t want anyone else getting marked by it,” James said.

“Are you already marked?”

“If there’s any marking to be done, yeah.”

“Then wait ten minutes.”

“Bradley, no.”

“You’re not going in that goddamn house alone.”

“Don’t come here. I am ordering you not to come here.”

“Yeah, well, fire me.”

James swore. The worst part of this was that if it had been anyone else out here in James’s place, he’d also be grabbing his car keys. 

“Graham is on til eight tomorrow and Madelyn is here too,” Bradley said as James’s silence clearly betrayed that thought. “She’s going to stay late.”

“No, she shouldn’t stay late, she-”

“Is heartbroken about staying here with Graham,” Bradley finished. 

Shit, he didn’t have a retort for that. “Isn’t your shift over?” he asked instead.

“Oh, says the man who’s not even on.”

“James?” Madelyn said over the comms. “Hey, I’m going to stay on comms with you.”

“Mads, are you sure you want to stay?”

“I’m fine,” she said, and he had to admit she sounded like it. “Don’t worry about me.”

“I’ll be there in ten minutes,” Bradley said. “Don’t go inside.”

He hung up before James could answer. So then he was stuck sitting in his car in front of Celia’s house like an asshole, waiting for Bradley to get there. His phone rang just about ten minutes later and it was Celia. 

“I’m so sorry it happened again,” James said as he picked up. “I’m waiting on a coworker, we’re going to take a look inside and see what’s going on.”

“No, thank you for getting the girls out,” she said. “I’m on my way to Gran’s now. We’re going to stay there with my mom. I’m sorry you had to do that again.”

“I’ll figure it out this time,” he said. “Just stay out of the house.”

That wasn’t going to be a problem. Penny, at least, would never want to set foot in there again. He stayed on with her for a second as she caught him up on the kids (all scared, all fine, all curled up in her mother’s bed) then finished talking just as Bradley’s car lights pulled in.

“I have to go,” he said. “Bradley’s here, we’re going to go inside.”

“Be careful.”

“Cel, I’m always careful.”

She laughed, which was a relief, then they hung up.

“Bradley’s here,” he said over the comms to Madelyn after unmuting.

“Got it,” she said. “I’m here if you guys need me.”

---

CONTINUE TO CHAPTER 22