Bradley got out of his car, carrying a bag of supplies and wearing what appeared to be sweatpants and a t-shirt. “What’s this look?” James asked automatically as he approached, as though that mattered even remotely at this moment.

“I got splashed with duck shit pond water on the Coggshall case,” Bradley said defensively. “Then the creature spit on my shirt and it started to dissolve. This was all I had at Headquarters. Graham lent me the shirt.”

It was one of Graham’s tamer choices, a blue t-shirt with splashy text that said LIFE’S BETTER AT THE BEACH over a sketchy white shark fin. “I like it,” James said. “Brings out your eyes. Alright, I’ve seen a shadow in that window up there three times since you left Headquarters, and we saw it the other night when I found the thing in Krissy’s closet. It didn’t show up on camera, so- oh, there it is! You see it?”

Bradley nodded, scowling up at it. “It’s a steady pattern,” James said. “Also like it was programmed.”

“How do you want to handle it?”

“Unfortunately, the room with the shadow is the room where I found the original sigil. So this shit is likely originating from there.”

His phone rang again, and it was Celia’s number. “Hey, Cel,” he said as it connected. “We’re gonna head in in a sec.”

“Hey, um Penny wanted to talk to you real quick.”

James wasn’t excited to go in the house, but he did want to get it over with. But maybe Penny remembered something important. “Yeah, go ahead,” he said. 

“Uncle James?”

“Pen, hon, what’s going on?”

Bradley had gone back to his car to grab a few more things, handing James his own comms unit to hold to avoid feedback from whatever he kept in there. “Are you searching the whole house?” Penny asked.

“Yeah,” James said. “Don’t worry, we’ll find it, I promise.”

“Please do my room alone.”

James stopped. “What?”

“My bedroom. I know it’s you and Bradley there, Mom told me. Please take my room.”

“Honey, is there something in there you need to tell me about? Something the girls did, or-”

“Please, Uncle James!” Penny nearly screamed. ”If you have to go through my room or my dresser or-or- just please have it just be you.”

“Yeah, Pen, I can do that. But sweetie, if there’s something-”

“It’s nothing!” she said. “I swear it’s nothing.”

“James,” Madelyn said quietly from the comms, where he’d forgotten he was still connected. “Just take her room.”

“Yeah, of course,” he said quickly. “Pen, I promise no one else will go in your room but me, okay?”

“Thank you.”

“Are you okay? Tonight was scary again.”

Penny sniffed. “Yeah,” she said. “I don’t want to go back.”

“We’re going to figure it out,” he said. “I promise. Go get some rest, I’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Love you.”

“Love you too.”

She handed the phone back to Celia. “She’s okay,” Celia said. “They all are.”

“And you?”

She just laughed. “Thank you for doing this.”

He hung up with her a moment later. “Hey, Madelyn?”

“Yeah?”

“Maybe I’m just clueless. If she’s not hiding something, why was she so adamant she didn’t want Bradley in her room?”

“Because she’s a preteen girl with a crush on him?”

He glanced over at the car, where Bradley was still sorting through supplies in his ridiculous t-shirt. “Huh,” he said. “Wait, really?”

“That’s a little mean.”

“No,” James said quickly, grateful that Bradley’s comm was in his hand and not with Bradley, sharing the moment James had jammed his foot in his mouth. “I don’t mean it like that. I just had no idea. How did you know?”

“Because I remember being her age. And I would have rather died than have my older cousins’ hot friends looking in my dresser.”

“That makes sense, I guess.”

“Alright, I have the cryptid kit, holy water, salt, and choose which knife you want.”

Bradley was back now before Madelyn could say anything else, carrying a bag full of supplies. James took what he needed to complement the kit he already had. “What do you have for protection?” he asked Bradley, handing over the comms unit.

Bradley gestured toward the ornate pin tugging on the collar of his shirt. The elegant antique certainly worked, but James had to force himself not to laugh. Especially since he still felt a little guilty, even if he hadn’t meant to be insulting. “Alright,” he said once they were situated. “Mads, we’re heading in. Do you have visuals for both of us?”

“Bradley’s feed is taking a minute to load,” she said. 

“Stick together while we do downstairs then,” James said. “Let’s start there. I’d rather we both have live feeds when we’re in the bedroom.”

There was a noise that sounded like a choked off laugh on the comms. “Can it,” he told Madelyn as Bradley glared at him.

They walked into the silent house and went straight back to the kitchen. “Here’s a theory,” James said as he sifted delicately through a bucket of flour Celia had on her countertop. “The sigil that brought the shadow figure in, the one that’s still chilling upstairs? What if it let in something else too, something that wasn’t visible? And they got in and made different preparations to keep the mischief going.”

“It’s possible,” Bradley admitted from where he was going through the pantry. “But you said you went through the entire house after you scrubbed the original.”

“Maybe I missed it though.”

“Maybe, but unlikely. You said you went through the whole thing.”

He was right. James had methodically gone through every inch the way he’d been trained. There hadn’t been anything that even resembled a cheeky scribble on the wall from a five-year-old, let alone another elaborate sigil.

“Maybe it was waiting in the house before I scrubbed it. I didn’t actually cleanse anything before that, just after.”

“And the sensors didn’t pick it up?”

“I hate that you’re right about all of these ideas. I’m running out.”

“Someone could have broken in,” Bradley said. “It’s a stretch, but there are times when no one is here. Hire someone who can get in without leaving a trail. It’s possible. Or maybe there’s a new broken window that no one noticed or mentioned.”

It was possible, but still didn’t feel right. “Alright, Bradley’s feed is up,” Madelyn said. “I have visuals for both of you.”

“Let’s head upstairs,” James said. “We can finish this after, but if that figure is still here, then it’s more likely to be in those rooms.”

They started up the stairs as the thumping continued above them, moving throughout the upper floor. “Should we split up?” Bradley asked.

“Let’s do Krissy’s room first together,” James said. “Then if we have to, you take the baby’s room, I’ll take Penny’s.”

There was a thump unnerving close by as they got to the top of the stairs, and James hit the light. The hallway glowed with warm yellow light from the overhead lamp just for a second, before it went out. 

“Goddammit,” James muttered, flicking the switch uselessly several times.

“Hang on.”

Bradley switched on his flashlight and ran it down the hall, but there was nothing there. Something pounded on the inside of the linen closet up the hall and they both jumped.

“First stop, I guess,” James said, his heart pounding.

Bradley held the taser from the cryptid kit by his side, and James had his knife. Whatever was in there sounded solid enough as it pounded on the old door again. He wrapped his hand around the cold brass doorknob, twisted it, then pulled it open quickly to reveal nothing but a shelf of neatly folded towels.

“There’s no room for anything to hide in here,” James said, as he pulled out the energy detector and ran it over the shelf. The rapid beeping proved that something had been in there, but it wasn’t anything solid and it wasn’t there anymore.

The taser went back in its holster and James motioned toward Krissy’s room. “This is where the figure was tonight and last time,” he said quietly.

The door was open, and the light turned on as James walked in, before he even touched the switch. The room was cozy and peaceful looking, just like it had been when he tucked Krissy in on that first night. And just as James processed that, the lights were out again.

A menacing giggle drifted over from her pile of stuffed animals, and James shone his flashlight over it, the beam landing on the doll at the top of the heap. “Oh, fuck no,” he muttered.

The doll hopped up and walked stiffly toward them, her limbs moving unevenly. She giggled again as James prepped the holy water, then she fell down like invisible strings had been cut. 

Down the hall, he heard a tinny lullaby playing from what had to be Jenny’s crib mobile. He glanced at Bradley, who was looking at the doll. James stepped up and splashed it with holy water. It didn’t move.

“Is it dead?” Madelyn asked over their comms.

“I think my mom got her that for Christmas,” James whispered.

Bradley looked at him, then shook his head. “Would she be hurt if you burn it?” Madelyn asked.

“She’ll get over it.”

“You said it was in the closet?” Bradley asked.

“Yeah, at the back. I scrubbed it all off though, I swear.”

“No shit. I’m going to check if it’s back.”

The closet door was shut tightly. Bradley had to tug hard on the handle, but finally, it creaked open. Again, it looked just like it had as James moved his flashlight over it. The wooden shoe rack was back in place and he moved toward it just as there was a scream from Penny’s room. It sounded young.

“I have to-” he started, though none of it felt right.

“Go,” Bradley waved him out. “I have this.”

Another young, terrified scream, and James ran out of the room, through the dark hall, and into Penny’s room, slamming the closed door open. He tried the overhead light and of course it was off, but her galaxy light was still on, spinning in dizzying circles on the ceiling, going faster and faster as the smell of burning came from the lamp itself.

And then it sparked and something pushed James hard from behind as he moved forward to unplug it. He landed on a squashy throw rug and tried to sit up, but something pinned him on his back, a dark shadow against the spin of stars on the ceiling.

“Br-” he started, but the sound was choked off as the figure sat on his chest. He tried to hit it, but his hand went through it like smoke. Not that this did anything to change the weight bearing down on him.

Madelyn yelled over the comms for Bradley, and James again tried to call out for them both. It was harder to breathe and he couldn’t talk. James fought, trying to wriggle out from under the weight. 

Once it was off of his throat, it wasn’t as much as he expected it would be, he realized as his brain seemed to come back online. Like the weight was calculated to pin someone significantly smaller than him. Like his eleven-year-old niece. And as he realized that, it was easier to awkwardly and furiously wriggle out from beneath the shadow’s weight. As he got to his feet, the shadow was gone.

The lamp was smoking, but there did not seem to be any danger of fire as he unplugged it. And nobody was in here, it had been a trap carefully set for Penny.

There was a loud thud from Krissy’s room as James scrambled out of the room. He ran through the dark hall and got in to see Bradley now getting off the floor. “What happened?” James asked as he grabbed his arm and helped him up.

“The shoe rack got me.”

The wooden shoe rack was broken on the floor, shoes scattered around it. He looked at Bradley and in the light from his flashlight, saw blood running down the side of his face from a cut on his forehead. “Shit, you’re bleeding.”

Bradley shook his head as he pressed a hand to the cut. “It’s nothing,” he said.

“Bullshit, it’s nothing. Here,” James grabbed a doll dress off the floor and handed it to him, mentally noting he’d have to buy Krissy a new one. “Put pressure on it.”

For once, Bradley did what he told him. “Guys, update me, please,” Madelyn said.

“We’re both fine,” Bradley replied.

“Bradley’s bleeding.”

He glared at James, but it was even less effective than usual from beneath a purple doll’s dress. “It’s no big deal,” he said. “I’ll check it when we leave here.”

James knew this was a losing battle. “Fine,” he said. “You were in the closet?”

“Yeah. I touched the shoe rack, and it flew out and hit me.”

“Stay here.”

James went into the closet doorway and shined his flashlight around it, waiting for something else to jump out at them. He spotted the new sigil almost immediately, slightly different from what he’d scrubbed before and maybe three inches to the left. “It’s back,” James said. “But different and- hang on, what’s this?”

There was a small card there, leaning against the bottom of the wall in a way that had to be deliberate. James moved closer, leaning down to read it.

“It’s a debit card,” he said. “Emma Devens. Madelyn, can you see it on your screen?”

“I can,” she said. “Taking screenshots now.”

Devens…yeah, that was it. That was the girl’s mother, wasn’t it? But how had her credit card gotten into Celia’s house if she hadn’t broken in again? 

No, this one wasn’t her. Someone had to have it when they set these enchantments. These…

These curses. Someone had been paid to curse the house and Penny in particular. And who in the area could and would do something like that? James’s heart sank as he thought of Janis, a shop clerk maybe ten years older than Penny, looking to him for help seconds before Polly Grace killed her.

“Bradley,” he said dully, eyes locked on the debit card, “You remember the Delinskys?”

“Obviously?”

“Come here.”

Bradley stepped into the closet and looked at the card. “It’s her again, isn’t it?” he said.

“Yeah.”

“What do we do?”

“We wait it out,” James said. “Until the Devens family can or can’t pay their debt to her.”

---

CONTINUE TO CHAPTER 23