Jarvis Street Chapter 10
James worked the overnight shift that night. This was the second time in a row he’d slept at headquarters and he was on again the next night. By this point, James was pretty sure Graham and Chris were going to think he was dead soon. Graham’s comments about hauntings at his side job still had James a little curious, but he didn’t want to get into the paranormal with his roommates. It was one thing to believe that ghosts might exist. It was a whole other to chase cryptids back into Leominster State Forest on a regular basis. If Graham decided James was insane, James might very quickly find himself without roommates.
Of course, in that case, he might as well move into Headquarters. Claim a room and hang up his posters. The Foundation would love that, wouldn’t they?
As James lay on the couch, taking a quick break, he had to admit that the idea held a little appeal. He wouldn’t have to pay rent and his commute would be fantastic. Though the Foundation would probably want to take rent out of his paycheck, wouldn’t they? Cheap bastards.
No, he’d go insane living here. Even if he spent an average of two nights a week at home right now, at least he had somewhere to go that wasn’t his workplace.
“Hey, James.”
Madelyn’s whispered voice and her hand gently shaking him jolted James awake. He sat up on the couch, blinking. “Shit, I fell asleep,” he said, still fuzzy.
“Yeah, I could hear you snoring from the kitchen.”
James laughed as he stood up and stretched. “What’s up?”
“I was going to get some takeout. Want anything?”
“Where are you going?”
“Just McDonald’s.”
“Yeah, get me a cheeseburger and fries.”
James took his wallet out of his back pocket and handed her a twenty. When Madelyn went to give it back, he shook his head. “Nah, my treat.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course.”
She left a moment later, leaving James alone in the house. It was silent aside from the soft ticking of the clock in the kitchen and the hum of the refrigerator. James went over to the comms and checked for any missed messages. Nothing.
He got why they needed two people on every night. They couldn’t leave one person here to deal with anything that might come through. But nothing ever actually came through. He honestly couldn’t remember the last time they’d gotten a call any later than eight at night. And now he had to forever figure out a schedule that involved five people covering this place all day, every day.
Shit, maybe they all should just live here. Make the Foundation cover their housing.
No. No, they’d kill each other in a week. James knew that.
With a few minutes alone, he had time to check the cameras. There were always cameras at headquarters, it wasn’t like he was doing anything weird checking them. They weren’t in the bedrooms or bathroom, but a few security cameras hung throughout the work area and outside. They hardly ever actually checked them, but they didn’t normally have a potential vengeful spirit in the house.
He’s not real, James reminded himself. I’m just losing it.
Somehow, that was the more comforting option as he sat at the computer and started going through the slow, flickering video program. He’d set it up to send him any anomalies and so far nothing had shown up. With that done, he picked up an EMF meter off of the messy dining room table and slowly walked through the house. Again, nothing. Just like there’d been nothing after Robin showed up behind him in the bathroom mirror.
James felt more and more foolish as he took slow, careful steps through each room. As he went down to the basement, he cringed at the idea of going into the medical office. But he had to know, so he opened the door and felt around on the wall inside for a switch. Once he found one, he flipped it up, half-expecting it not to work. But a dim bulb flickered to life, tossing shadows over the dusty room that made it even creepier than it had been in the dark. James gave a quick swipe of the EMF detector, which still showed nothing out of the ordinary. Then he took a deep breath and stepped into the room.
There were two utility cabinets in here, both of them sealed shut and covered in tarps. And that shower curtain dangling in the corner. What was that all about? Privacy? For what, when people died in here?
He was letting his imagination run away with him and a quick glance at the still-ordinary EMF meter helped calm him a little. But he was still grateful to duck out of there and go into the much more familiar gym.
The front door opened as he was walking back upstairs. Madelyn stepped in with a bag of takeout in each hand. She stopped as she saw James coming up the stairs with the EMF reader.
“Everything okay?” she asked calmly.
“Fine,” James replied.
She assessed him and he expected some pushback. He must look weird since he could still feel the chill of the adrenaline going through him. But instead of saying anything, Madelyn just nodded and handed him his food. Then she kicked off her shoes and carefully walked up the stairs towards the living room, gripping the banister as she went. James tucked the EMF detector in his pocket and followed after her. There was nothing here, they were fine. And he could just keep checking as much as he needed to in order to convince himself of that.
***
The next evening, James arrived in time for his next night shift. He and Bradley were on tonight, which meant hopefully he could get that report taken off his record. But it also meant they might end the night putting each other in the hospital. He never quite knew how it would go.
When he got there, Bradley was sitting on the back steps, reading a book. He slammed it shut and glared up at James as he walked out the back door.
“What?”
“Hi to you too.”
Yeah, just another night apparently. “Hey, when you have a sec, I need your help with something,” James said.
He expected some comment about learning to tie his own shoes, but Bradley set his book down, dropping a notebook on top of it in an unfortunately obvious move to block the title. “With what?”
James glanced back into the house, but none of the others were around. “Listen,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck in discomfort. “Robin put his disciplinary action against me in my permanent record and I don’t know how to take it out.”
“You obviously can’t,” Bradley said, raising an eyebrow.
“Shit,” James muttered, lifting his eyes toward the cloudless sky above them.
“It’s false though, so you can try filing an appeal with the Disciplinary Board,” Bradley continued. “There’s a form in the filing cabinet, make a copy and send it in.”
Okay, that was better than nothing, at least. It was yet another thing on his plate, but it meant there was a chance that anyone looking into his permanent record wouldn’t think he was completely incompetent.
“Do you think they’ll take it off?”
“Do you plan to fuck around in the field and get anyone hurt?”
“No, of course not.”
Bradley shrugged. “Then it’s a false report, and it’s going to have to come off your record.”
He sounded so pissily confident that James couldn’t help thinking he had to be right. “Thanks,” he said.
“Yeah.”
Bradley stood up. “If you need any more help doing your job, you can give me a raise and then find me in the gym.”
There it was. James rolled his eyes as Bradley picked up his book and notebook, then walked into the house. He knew he should follow after, there were plenty of things that he needed to do before starting anything on the night shift. But it was cool for the first time all day, and he wanted to stay out here and enjoy the breeze for a few minutes.
James sat down in the space Bradley had vacated and tilted his head into the breeze, closing his eyes for a moment. After sleeping through the heat of the day under his terrible little air conditioner, he was feeling pretty good going into the night shift. Who knew how long that would last with Bradley’s moods, but those weren’t anything he couldn’t handle.
Tonight he needed to run over to the campus to do a quick sweep for the bear creature, then listen through those EVPs from the school. It wasn’t his first time juggling multiple cases. There were usually at least a couple things of varying degrees of importance going on in the region. And then there were the one-off cases that popped up when nobody expected them to. But being in charge of keeping all those balls in the air was very different from being a regular team member and he couldn’t decide if it was exciting or terrifying.
He got back up and walked inside. Bradley was already gone, but he could do this trip solo. There’d been no sign of the creature on campus lately, but the Foundation wanted them walking through at least a couple of times a week, just in case. They hadn’t given a time frame for how long they wanted this to go on if the creature didn’t show up, and James had a sinking feeling they wouldn’t be getting one at any point. They’d be on this case until the new captain arrived and hell froze over.
Not bothering to take off his shoes just to walk through the kitchen, he made his way toward the stairs and headed downstairs. Muffled music was playing from behind the gym door, something heavier than the usual selection the others usually had going on the old speaker.
He opened the door and stepped inside. Bradley was already running full-tilt on the treadmill. He looked up as James walked in.
“Yeah?” he called over the music.
“I’m going to campus.”
“What?”
James went to the stereo and turned it down, but his ears were ringing. “I said I’m going over to the Fitchburg State campus to patrol for the bear thing.”
Bradley looked confused for a moment. “Bear thing?”
“The original target of Amelia’s shooting rampage?”
Bradley’s face flushed even more as he slowed down to a stop and got off of the treadmill. “Right,” he said. “I don’t remember what it looked like.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“Do you need me to go or what? Is this why you’re down here?”
“No, I’ll go,” James said. “My roommate is teaching tonight and I owe him twenty dollars anyway, so I might as well do both at once.”
“Your roommate teaches at Fitchburg?”
“Yeah, why?”
“No reason,” Bradley said quickly, getting back on the still treadmill.
“I’ll be back in a little while. There’s no reports, they just want us going in person a couple days a week. So I’ll do a walk-through, drop off Graham’s money, and head back. Keep your phone on you.”
“Obviously.”
James just looked at him. Was Bradley acting weird or was James just overthinking things? Whatever, he had work to do.
“When I get back, let’s go over the EVPs from the Jarvis Street School. I need a second set of ears.”
“Yeah, whatever, sounds good. Turn the music back on before you go.”
Bradley started the treadmill back up and began running again, not looking at James. James flipped the music back up to its previous ear-splitting volume, then left.
***
“You really came to my work to give me twenty dollars when we live together?”
Graham looked up from his messy desk as James stood awkwardly in front of it, holding the twenty-dollar bill out to him.
“I mean, I was here anyway for work,” James said.
“What the hell are you doing here for work?”
“Um, research.”
He hoped it sounded convincing. And while he felt bad for lying, it wasn’t completely far from the truth. He was researching. Researching the possibility of a squirrel-eating cryptid lurking on campus.
Graham laughed and shrugged, reaching out to take the twenty from James’s hand. “I guess that makes as much sense as anything else. Thanks.”
“Yeah, no problem.”
“Are you working overnight again? They’re really pushing you there, aren’t they?”
James laughed, running a hand through his hair. It needed a cut, and he had had no time to go get one. “They sure are,” he said. “I’m off tomorrow night so I’ll be home at some point.”
“Yeah, cool. Chris is around too, so I’ll probably see you.”
He should get going. Leaving Bradley alone at headquarters was okay for a little while, but he was pushing his luck. At this rate, he was going to come back to three new calls and the house on fire. “Alright, I’m out,” he said. “See you tomorrow.”
“Good luck tonight.”
He waved to Graham as he walked out of his office, letting the door close behind him. Graham shared the office with two other non-tenured professors and James knew he hated it there.
James couldn’t even imagine being a college professor. Even now, he felt like he’d just graduated. But at the same time, he felt ancient beside the students he passed as he walked out of the natural sciences building and started for his car.
It was a beautiful night and he was tempted to stay here, to sit on that bench over there and just enjoy some quiet for a few minutes. But responsibility called. So instead, he gave the bench one last look, then got in the car and drove back to work.
