Two hours later, they were pulling up to Celia’s house. There were a few cars parked in the driveway and along the lawn, so James pulled in behind one of those and parked. As they got out of the car, the hot, humid air was making him irritable and he needed to set that aside. He wasn’t here to lecture or to be an angry uncle. He was here as a professional. He knew how to talk to witnesses. He knew how to talk to kids in these situations. And even if he was angry and tired, and even if the heat was making every inch of his body feel like he was under lukewarm water, with sweat dripping everywhere he didn’t want sweat to drip, he was here for work.

Though, most of the time he went somewhere for work, a six-year-old didn’t latch onto his leg the second he walked in the door. “Uncle James!” Krissy exclaimed as she sat on his foot, her arms wrapped around his leg as she beamed up at him. 

“Hey, sweetie,” James said, attempting to dislodge her with a hug.

Krissy giggled, but remained where she was. So rather than fight her, James started walking toward the kitchen, his leg dragging as she continued to giggle and slide along with him.

“Jimmy!” 

Of course Uncle Tommy was here. James’s uncle – who was the largest man James had ever met – rounded the corner from the kitchen, moving quickly toward James and Bradley, who had followed him inside. Krissy got up and ran away, still laughing, and Uncle Tommy hugged James, his grip tight in a way that showed he’d missed nothing of what happened this year. James accepted it, feeling like he was Krissy’s age again, just for a second, before reluctantly letting go.

“I won’t get in your way,” Uncle Tommy said. “And I can’t stay long. But I wanted to offer support. And to lend a hand if you need one.”

“Thanks,” James said, stepping to the side and motioning toward Bradley. “This is my coworker, Bradley Donahue. Bradley, this is my uncle, Tommy McManus.”

Having been the recipient of Bradley’s oddly strong handshake more than once, the slight wince on his face when he shook Uncle Tommy’s hand was a little satisfying. “He’s the one who told us about Polly Grace in the first place,” James said.

“Thank you,” Bradley said politely. “That was extremely helpful.”

“I wish I’d been able to help more,” Uncle Tommy said. “You haven’t heard anything from her lately?”

“Apparently nobody has,” James said. “We had to look into her for a case back in June and all we could find was people saying they thought she was dead. And the house out in Ashburnham was condemned.”

Uncle Tommy opened his mouth, probably to tell James off for going to Polly Grace’s house. Then he seemed to remember James wasn’t just his nephew, he was the captain of a team who had to do things like that. When he didn’t say anything, James decided he was not going to bring up the fact that Gabriella had gone there too.

“Do you think she’s dead?” Uncle Tommy asked instead.

James glanced at Bradley. “I have no idea,” he admitted. “But I know she isn’t here and I’m staying the hell out of her orbit.”

“I don’t blame you. If I hear anything, I’ll pass it on. Hey, I’ll be out back with the little ones if you need me.”

With a slap on the shoulder that made James’s knees buckle, Uncle Tommy walked away. “Come on, Jimmy,” Bradley said once he was gone. “The kids are waiting.”

“Shut the fuck up.”

“No, Jimmy, I don’t think I will.”

James knew he deserved this, but he still scowled as he followed Bradley into the living room. Like last night, Penny, Lacey, and Cody were there. Penny and Lacey were on the couch while Cody sat awkwardly in the chair beside it. Celia was there too and she smiled grimly at James as he came in. A woman and a man he’d never met before sat on a cushioned bench beside the door. Neither looked happy to be there. 

“Hi,” James said as they came into the silent room. 

Penny glanced over miserably, saw him and Bradley, and went wide-eyed. He remembered now, far too late, how Madelyn had mentioned Penny had a crush on Bradley. Great, apparently he was torturing his niece as punishment for her sins. 

The man and the woman at the door stood up. “Greg Renfro,” the man said, holding out a hand to shake. “And my wife Cindy. We’re Lacey’s parents.”

“James McManus,” he said. “Lead investigator and also Penny’s uncle.”

“So you, what? Hunt ghosts?” Cindy asked skeptically. 

“Among other things,” Bradley said before quickly introducing himself and shaking hands too. 

“And we don’t think this is a little ridiculous?” 

“Considering the amount of work I still have to do today on top of this, yes, I do,” Bradley said. “But I assume that’s not what you mean.”

James shot him a warning look that Bradley seemed to ignore. “I just mean that our daughter, your niece, and their friend broke into the school to play ouija boards or something,” Cindy said. “And we’re taking the word of three twelve-year-olds seriously.”

“She’s not my-” Bradley started, but James interrupted.

“Ma’am,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if you think it’s a ghost, a fairy, or some Scooby-Doo villain at this point. What matters is that something happened in that school and we need to figure out what it was.”

“It was three kids with active imaginations,” she said. “Yes, they deserve to be listened to. And punished. But this is going too far.”

“Something threw a trombone case at me and knocked me off the stage,” James said, not daring to look at Bradley as he said this. “And caused damage in that auditorium beyond what a few twelve-year-olds are capable of. Something happened, we’re investigating, and we’ll see from there.”

“And how much is this going to cost us?” 

“Hang on,” Bradley said.

He stepped out of the room, taking out his phone. And now James was alone here facing Lacey’s increasingly unimpressed mother. 

“I think it’s worth investigating,” Greg said. 

“I just don’t want to end up paying for someone to go in, speak to the ghosts, and say it’s all fine,” Cindy said. “I’m not saying those things aren’t real. But we’re putting a lot of stock into what these kids said. And considering the ideas that Penny has been putting out there recently…”

“What do you mean?” James asked as Celia started making her way over.

“I just mean, Lacey wasn’t nearly this interested in gross or scary stories before she and Penny became such close friends.”

Weren’t they dating? Maybe James had missed a recent development. Or maybe Lacey’s mom was just being a little homophobic. Or overprotective. Maybe the issue wasn’t a girlfriend, maybe it was dating at that age in general.

“What did you just say about my daughter?” Celia asked, that same deadly calm back from last night.

“Mom, it is real and it’s not Penny’s fault,” Lacey snapped. “And she’s my girlfriend.”

“No, you two are way too young to even think about that yet,” Cindy snapped back, jabbing a finger at her daughter. “And you’re also in a world of trouble, so unless you think talking to me like that is really your best option here-”

“She’s my girlfriend!” Lacey shouted. “You didn’t have a problem with it when Max was my age and he dated Valerie!”

“That was different.”

“Of course it was.”

“Lacey, we can discuss this later,” Greg started, with a slight desperation in his voice. 

“No, Mom keeps saying she’s just my friend. Just my ‘little friend’ like we’re kids.”

“You are kids,” Cindy said. “We will talk about this later.”

Lacey glared at them, then at James, then slumped back against the couch with her arms crossed. Penny nudged her with her knee and gave her the tiniest smile. Lacey smiled back, just as small.

“Let’s go back to what you just said,” Celia said from where she was now standing beside James.

James was going to have to hold her back from killing this woman, wasn’t she? “It’s nothing personal,” Cindy said. “I just think that-”

“It’s free,” Bradley said as he walked back into the room, interrupting her before anyone died. “I confirmed it with McGovern, there’s no charge for this one.”

“None?” Cindy asked.

“No?”

“Fine,” she said, though her voice still dripped with skepticism.

“Great, thanks for checking,” James said quickly before the conversation could derail again. He clapped his hands together awkwardly, then looked around the room. “Okay, um, thank you all of you for coming. We want to just talk about what happened last night so that we have a better idea of what we’re walking into later and how we can clean it up.”

He sat down on the bar stool beside the last remaining kitchen chair, forcing Bradley to take the more stable option. James folded his hands and tried to look as non-threatening as possible as he looked at the three kids.

“Penny already knows this part,” he said, giving what he hoped was a comforting smile to Penny, who now gave him that tiny, nervous smile in return. “My name is James, this is Bradley. We’re from the Foundation for Paranormal Studies and we’re here to help with whatever happened last night. But in order for us to do that, we need to know what happened. Can you guys tell us, please? Starting from the beginning.”

The kids were silent, glancing at each other as the adults watched. Finally, Bradley turned and addressed them. 

“Could we talk to them alone for a moment?” he asked in a surprisingly polite tone.

“I don’t think that’s appropriate,” Cindy said.

Bradley looked at her, waiting for her to elaborate. She didn’t, but she also didn’t look comfortable.

“What he means is that it might be easier for them to tell us what really happened if they’re not worried about their parents hearing and getting them in even more trouble,” James explained.

Where were Cody’s parents? “That’s fine with me,” Celia said.

Lacey’s parents looked at each other. Finally, Cindy sighed. “Fine,” she said. “Just for a few minutes.”

“Of course,” James said.

Once the other adults were out of the room, James looked from one kid to the other, then the other. “We need to know,” he said. “Not to get you in further trouble or anything like that. But me and Bradley need to know what we’re walking into when we leave here.”

He was still wearing the bright green elastic bandage on his hand and all the kids looked at it. James resisted the urge to cover it again. “I’m not going to yell at you,” he said. “Bradley’s not going to yell at you. So please be honest with us.”

“It’s my fault,” Penny said. “We heard there was a ghost in the school and we tried to get EVPs and talk to it, but there was nothing. So we-”

“No, there wasn’t nothing,” Cody said. “There was something. But it was weird, we couldn’t figure it out.”

Bradley was taking notes, but he looked up. “Do you still have them?” he asked.

“They’re on my phone,” Penny said.

“Do you have it on you?”

“My mom took it away.”

“I’ll talk to Celia,” James said quietly to Bradley, who nodded and marked it down.

“So then what?” he asked the kids.

“We wanted to talk to the ghost,” Penny continued. “So I looked for a ritual because I didn’t want to bring in something else, like a ouija board.”

Bradley opened his mouth to say something and James shot him a look. “It was on a website,” Penny said. “And I knew it had to be real because it was from Salem.”

“Where in Salem?” Bradley asked, his voice flat.

James didn’t recognize the name of the store, but Bradley must’ve because he scoffed and wrote it down. “Keep going,” he said.

“I got the ritual off of their blog, it was to bring a ghost to appearance,” Penny said. “And we did it. And I thought it would just make it easier for the ghost to talk to us and, like, answer our questions. But then it got violent.”

James turned to the other two. “Do you have anything to add?” he asked. “You were there too.”

“We did the ritual and then it got really windy,” Cody said. “And something started throwing stuff at us. It touched us. I mean, it pulled my hair.”

He had long, curly hair that was currently pulled back in a messy ponytail. “Are there any scratches?” James asked.

Cody shrugged. “Do you mind if I look?”

Cody shrugged again, more hesitant this time. “I don’t have to,” James said quickly, gently, and Cody looked relieved. “Would you be more comfortable taking a picture? Or maybe having Celia do it?”

“Okay.”

James turned to Lacey. “What about you?”

“I um, I did the ritual too. We lit a couple candles on the stage and then called on it.”

“What language?” Bradley asked.

“Latin.”

“Do you have the ritual?”

“It’s on my phone,” Penny said. 

“Alright,” James said. “We can take a look at Penny’s phone and-”

Penny looked at him in horror. “Or I can have her send me all of the information when we’re done in here,” James corrected himself.

“Fine,” Bradley said. “So the ritual was candles and Latin chanting. Anything else? Blood? Herbs?”

All three of them shook their heads. “No blood?” James confirmed. “Not even a drop? You’re positive?”

To his relief, they all nodded. Likely not a demon then. Though they’d need that confirmation that Cody wasn’t scratched before they could knock it entirely off the list.

“So you do the ritual and then what?” James asked.

“It was windy, like he said,” Lacey said. “And it got Cody for a second. And it was just laughing.”

“What did the voice sound like?” James asked her.

She looked at him nervously. “It’s okay,” he said. “Can you describe it for me?”

Lacey thought, hesitating. “Just anything,” he said. “There’s no wrong answer.”

“I think it was a man.”

“Loud? Soft?”

“Very loud. Like when we were leaving.”

“And everyone heard it?”

“Yeah.”

“Did it say anything?”

“No,” Cody said, and James was a little startled to see that the kid looked close to tears. “It just laughed. And then it was throwing things and we ran once it let me go.”

“Where’d you go?”

“The supply closet backstage.”

“That’s when I called you,” Penny said quietly.

“You did the right thing there,” James said. “Not the rest of it. You guys messed up huge here. But calling for help was exactly what you should have done.”

Penny looked at the floor and he felt weirdly bad in a way he couldn’t quite describe. “And then it kept throwing things at the door until you got there,” she said.

“Did you have the door locked?”

“It doesn’t lock, but there was a big shelf in there that we pushed in front of the door,” Lacey said. “It tried to push it down, but we held up the shelf and that was enough to keep it closed.”

James suppressed a shudder. “Do any of you have anything else to add?” he asked.

All three shook their heads. “Alright,” he said. “Here’s how it’s going to go from here. Pen, you’re going to get me the information on your phone. We’re going to talk to a-” He glanced at Bradley’s notebook. “Mr. Lopez. Your drama club advisor?”

“Yeah,” Penny said.

“Have any of you talked to him yet?”

“Just my mom.”

“I’ll talk to her too. And your parents, Lacey. Cody-”

“They’re not coming,” Cody said.

He braced himself, like he was waiting for James to yell at him. “Okay,” James said. “That’s okay, bud.”

“Do you think we’re kicked out of drama club?” Penny asked.

“I have no idea,” James admitted. “But if I’m being honest, there’s a lot of damage.”

“But that was the ghost,” Lacey protested.

“And who summoned it?” Bradley snapped.

Lacey pulled back a little as James looked at Bradley. “I don’t know,” he said before anything else happened. “But guys, I need you to recognize the severity of what you did. Someone, either you or someone else, could have been badly hurt or killed. And as it stands now, there’s a lot of equipment that needs to be repaired or replaced. So that’ll all be between you and the program.”

They were all staring at the floor now and he felt bad. This might permanently impact his relationship with Penny. He wasn’t sure, but it felt very possible. “It’s not the end of the world,” he said. “You’ll get through it and move on and never do it again. Alright?”

Lacey quickly swiped a hand over her eyes as she nodded, then the other two nodded as well. “Bradley, do you have anything to add?”

Anything that wouldn’t traumatize these kids, he wanted to add, but they had to be on the same team here. Bradley raised an eyebrow as he studied the group.

“Stop pulling stupid shit,” he said.

Then he snapped his notebook closed. “I’ll call Madelyn to set up comms,” he told James, then left the room.

The parents came back in a second later. Celia and Penny sent the ritual information to James and then Celia took Cody aside to check his scalp, which thankfully had not been cut. So definitely not a demon. “I’m going to talk to Mr. Lopez now,” James said to Celia. “Then we’ll be at the school.”

“I’m so sorry about this.”

“Beats a conjurer putting shadow people in your house.”

Celia shuddered. “God, I still have nightmares.”

James didn’t have those particular nightmares, but he had plenty of them. “Oh,” he said, holding up his bandaged hand. “Let me give this back to you.”

“Did you get it checked yet?”

“Tonight, I promise.”

She looked at him skeptically. Which was fair, he didn’t want anyone touching his hand except maybe Celia. “I’ll check it now,” she said. 

“Cel, I’m good.”

“Get in the kitchen.”

She led him into the kitchen, which was empty now. “That woman hates my guts,” she muttered, clearly not caring if it carried into the living room. “She’s been looking down on me since we met at the fucking PTO, before the girls were together.”

“You’re in the PTO?” James asked.

“Yeah,” Celia said with a shrug. “It’s fun. Why?”

“Nothing,” he said. “It just never occurred to me.”

“It’s nice, it keeps me involved with the school. Though apparently I’m going to be involved for a while now. But this isn’t new.”

She led him over to the old wooden table. “Hey,” James said, his voice lowered as she unwrapped his wrist. “What’s Cody’s deal?”

“What do you mean?”

“Where are his parents?”

“They would never show,” she said. “They’re…”

Celia hesitated. “They’ve never hit him, at least as far as I know. But they don’t really give a shit either? Protective services have been in in the past and it helped, but not enough. I try to be a safe place for him.”

“That’s good of you.”

She shrugged, then held his wrist carefully as she inspected it. James tried not to think about how exposed that hand was. This was just his cousin, he was safe. “How about you?” she asked. “How are you doing?”

“Pretty good.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Better.”

“Good. Do this for me.”

She made a fist and he copied her. After a few more tests, she was satisfied. “How about the other one,” she said. “Can I check it?”

James looked at it. That one was securely gloved and felt fine. “Did you hurt it at all?” Celia asked.

“No.” 

He hated the slight shake in his voice as he answered. “It’s alright,” she said, her voice a little gentler. “That’s fine, I don’t have to. Just keep an eye on this one. And tell someone if it gets worse.”

“Yes, boss.”

“Oh, shut up.”

Bradley came around the corner as they were both laughing. “Madelyn’s ready whenever and Lopez is meeting us at the school.”

“Great,” James said.

He got up and hugged Celia. “We’ll sort this out,” he said. 

“How bad do you think the damage was at the school?” she asked.

He grimaced and she groaned, burying her face in her hands. “Remember when I broke the window and Gran had me work the cost off at her house?” 

“Yeah.”

“Imagine like four months of that.”

“God dammit.”

James carefully hid his bare hand in his pocket as he left the kitchen a moment later. He’d been tolerating the lack of glove for the past twelve hours as well as he could. But if he was out of the house, he needed another glove as soon as possible.

Lacey’s parents had already taken her home by this point and Cody was sitting in the living room. He met James’s eye as he passed by the doorway. As he was walking out with Bradley, James spotted Penny sitting on the porch steps, looking miserable. She looked up, then away as they came out.

“Hey, I’ll meet you at the car,” James said.

Bradley glanced at his watch, but didn’t complain. He just nodded and kept walking as James sat down.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hi.”

She didn’t look at him. “Listen, this was too dangerous to keep secret,” he said. 

“I know.”

He couldn’t apologize, not about this. Even if he felt bad, he’d made the right choice. “I meant what I said in there,” he said, wondering if he was going to get the lashing out next. “It’s not the end of the world.”

“I’m sorry,” she said.

James hesitated, then put his gloved hand on her shoulder. “It’ll be okay, honey.”

She didn’t shake him off and he risked giving her a little side hug, relieved when she let him. “I’ll talk to you soon, okay?”

“Okay.”

When he got up, she still looked miserable and it was hard to walk away. But finally, he was sliding into the driver’s seat. His other glove must be in here, but as he started looking around, he couldn’t find it.

“Can you get up for a sec?” he asked Bradley, who was typing something on his phone.

“Why?”

“I can’t find my other glove. You might be sitting on it.”

“No, I’m not,” he said, but he shifted anyway so James could see the glove wasn’t there.

“Dammit,” he muttered. 

“Did you drop it when that trombone hit you?”

“Maybe,” James said, vaguely remembering the way he’d pulled the glove off to check the damage at the school. Where had it gone from there?

Then he remembered they’d been in the van, not his car. Dammit. “Do we have time to stop by my apartment?” he asked. “I know it’s stupid, but-”

“Here,” Bradley said impatiently, unzipping his backpack and pulling out a pair of vinyl gloves. 

He handed them to James, who put them on with relief. Did he just happen to have those in there or had he packed them for James? But before James could say anything beyond thank you, Bradley was glaring back at his phone.