Gabriella and James were on the day shift together on Halloween. He had the overnight shift as well, but as far as he knew, she was going home at five. When five o’clock came close, Madelyn arrived at Headquarters, and they set their plan in motion.

“James, would you mind coming with me to take a few more pictures at the cemetery?” Gabriella asked, standing in his office doorway. “The Foundation put a note on the case that the pictures were too blurry to work as evidence.”

James looked up and she could see the mischief spirit’s handprint was completely gone from his face. “Are you serious?” he demanded, rubbing a hand over his eyes. “I followed every instruction on those things.”

“Yeah,” she lied, feeling slightly guilty about how it was irritating him. “I went in to check the progress on it and there was a note. I’m sure they’re going to email you later about it, but I’ve got a few minutes before I go home if you don’t mind helping me out.”

“Sure, I guess,” James said, standing up from his desk with a sigh. “Let’s do this and get it over with.”

Madelyn was in the living room, getting herself set up for the night shift. She smiled and nodded at them as they walked out. As they walked down the stairs, Gabriella could see Graham’s car up the road and she hoped James wouldn’t notice.

“We can take my car,” she said before he could offer.

They needed to keep him out of headquarters for twenty minutes. That was all Amelia said they’d need to get the snacks and beers in. She was going to order food later on and Graham was planning a few horror movies to have on in the background.

Yes, Gabriella understood the irony of the whole situation, but she couldn’t help enjoying every second of it. They were wrapping up a case about spirits, then heading back to watch fictionalized versions of their own work. It was funny. So even as the sharp wind cut through her sweatshirt and her cousin cursed out their employer beside her, Gabriella’s mood stayed high.

It was freezing at the cemetery as they walked inside. The illusion that the mischief had set was completely gone now and instead of bare trees and perfectly rounded tombstones, Gabriella could see the fiery colors of the leaves both on the ground and resting on the varied shapes of the memorials. It looked like any other cemetery she’d even been in. As they walked farther down the gravel path through the graves, she saw that the RIP stone had been replaced by a peach-colored grave with O’CONNELL engraved across the front of it.

Gabriella could see James getting visibly frustrated as she carefully took pictures of the cemetery. She took shots of everything she remembered James recording yesterday, deliberately taking her time as she moved between graves. Once they started heading back toward the entrance, she pointedly ignored the spot where she’d lured the mischief into their trap. She could still feel the fake body pressed up against her own and even days later, she shivered in revulsion at the memory.

She discreetly glanced at her watch and saw that twenty minutes had passed since they left headquarters. “Alright,” she said. “Done!”

“Do you need any on the outside?” James asked.

She shook her head. “Those came out fine.”

“Fine, let’s head back. Then you can go home.”

He seemed a little bit down still as they got back in her car. “What are your plans for tonight?” he asked.

She shrugged. “Maybe hand out candy to trick or treaters? Or watch scary movies? I’m not sure.”

“You should go out and have some fun,” he said. “Go find a Halloween party with young, sexy people and blow off some steam.”

She wasn’t sure what to say to that, so she made a show of checking her mirrors, then pulled out and headed back to headquarters.

James frowned as they pulled into the driveway. “Why is Amelia’s car here?”

Shit. They hadn’t planned this out so well after all. “No idea,” Gabriella said. “I’m gonna head in anyway to pick up my bag and drop off the camera. Maybe she’s just checking the schedule or something.”

It was a terrible lie, but James didn’t question it as they walked inside and the skeleton yelled its greeting at them again.

“Hopefully it’ll be a quiet night,” he said as he and Gabriella walked in the front door. “Ironically, Halloween is usually one of the quietest… what?”

The last part came out as part of a disbelieving huff of laughter as he reached the top of the stairs and looked around the living room. He’d put up so many Halloween decorations that the others hadn’t done much else on top of it. There were streamers hanging from the kitchen doorway and a bunch of balloons floating by the ceiling. But they’d cleared off the coffee table and laid out bowls of chips and dip, along with smaller bowls of candy. On the old TV in the corner, Gabriella could see the first scenes of Scream playing. Meanwhile, the others’ voices were coming from the kitchen.

“Happy Halloween!” Amelia called, pushing aside streamers and walking out in dog ears and a black and white spotted shirt.

Madelyn peered out from behind her, wearing a full-body skeleton outfit and holding a beer. She grinned at James, who was shaking his head in wonder.

“What…”

“You wanted a Halloween party,” Gabriella said with a smile. “We wanted a Halloween party. Happy Halloween!”

“Go get your costume on,” Graham added from further inside the kitchen.

James paused. “I don’t have one.”

“I brought some,” Graham continued. “Some pieces from my closet and whatever I found in your closet.”

“The hell were you doing in my closet?” James said with a laugh.

“Getting you a costume. Go, they’re in the gray bedroom. Pick one out, then come have a beer.”

Without another word, James hurried down the hall. Gabriella grinned at the others, then went into the pink bedroom to get her own costume on.

---

A little while later, they were all in the living room, half watching the movie. James and Madelyn were both technically on duty, though Amelia had said she’d take James’s shift as she tried to convince James it was okay to have a beer or two. So they had to check in on the comms every so often, but nothing had shown up so far.

Gabriella was dressed as Little Red Riding Hood. She’d considered doing something a little more clever, but she knew anything too complex would just get uncomfortable. And she hadn’t had time to make anything, she’d been sleeping pretty much every moment she wasn’t at work over the past few days. It was like her body had realized the mischief wasn’t coming for her and was making up for the lost time.

“You’re all unbelievable,” James said, taking a sip of beer as he fiddled with the sash of his Han Solo costume. “I can’t believe you did this.”

Amelia tossed some M&Ms in her mouth. “Like you said, we need some time to have fun. And something like this-” she gestured around the room- “is perfect.”

Madelyn wandered back into the room and Gabriella noticed the little plastic skull attached to the top of her folding cane. Madelyn saw her look at it and gave her a grin. “I tried to get one that lit up, but it kept falling off,” she explained, sitting down.

“It’s perfect,” Gabriella said with a laugh.

She took a sip of her beer and looked around the room. Some of the weirdest things in here weren’t even decorations. They were maps and graphs that the team used on a regular basis. If one happened to have a demonic figure drawn on it for reference, then that was completely normal.

“God, have we ever done a team party?” Amelia asked James, nudging him with her foot as she stretched out on the couch beside him.

“Not that I remember,” he said. “Though we used to do, like, weekly bar trips for a while. Whatever happened to those?”

“Robin started joining us,” Madelyn replied from across the living room. “And it became a team-building trivia night.”

“Right,” James said, taking a long sip of his beer.

Gabriella expected the mood of the room to tank at the mention of Robin’s name, but instead, James just laughed. “God, those nights sucked,” he muttered.

“Oh, wait, remember when you and I went to that training out in Bridgewater?” Amelia asked him, barely getting through the question without laughing.

James’s eyes widened, and he jabbed a finger at her. “Yes!” he exclaimed. “God, what was that, five years ago?”

“What happened?” Graham asked.

“We had a training over at Bridgewater State,” Amelia started as James got up to get another beer out of the cooler nearby. “They rented out the dorms for a few nights in the summer, don’t ask me how they managed that. But we went to this party on campus on the first night. And oh my God, for a bunch of nerds there learning how to use the newest ghost detection systems, it was a fucking party.”

“I can’t know about this,” Graham said, clearly on reflex.

“Sure you can, Professor,” James said, coming back into the living room. “We’re all adults here.”

He handed Amelia a can of seltzer and sat down with his beer. “I’ve never felt so connected with the Foundation as I did when I was crammed on a balcony with fourteen other people, all of us hammered.”

“The tech ended up being a bust anyway,” Amelia said to Gabriella, who was watching from the computer chair she’d pulled over. “I think we used it for six months before the Foundation realized it didn’t actually work. And then we used it another six months after that so that they’d feel like they got their money’s worth out of it. But if there were more team-building activities like that, sign me up.”

“I’m too old for that now,” James said with a laugh. “I’ll be asleep by midnight and you’ll still be out there partying.”

“I’ll enjoy it while it lasts,” Amelia said. “Before I hit my thirties and immediately decompose like you and Bradley.”

“And Graham,” James argued, pointing at Graham, who was sitting quietly beside them.

“Oh, hey, happy birthday!” Amelia exclaimed.

Graham laughed. “It was a couple months ago,” he said. “But thanks. I’ve joined their wise ranks.”

“Yeah, because when I think of James and Bradley, I immediately think of wisdom,” Amelia said, taking another handful of M&Ms.

“Where is Bradley, anyway?” James asked, taking a sip of his beer and sitting back on the couch. “Was he not feeling Halloween this year?”

“Yeah,” Amelia said.

James shrugged. “I don’t blame him,” he said. “Bummer he’s not here, but it’s his choice if he’s got other plans.”

Gabriella would have thought it’d be a relief to not be arguing all night during a party, but maybe James wanted the entire team together for this. Especially if he’d originally wanted the party to be a team morale booster.

“You sure you don’t want me to take the next round of check-ins?” James asked Amelia.

“Nah, I’m fine with it,” she said. “Besides, you’re what, three beers deep now?”

“I have a high tolerance. I’m fine. But I’m not going to say no if you’re offering.”

“Yeah, high tolerance. Sure. I believe that”

The two of them started arguing as Amelia got up to go to the back bedroom and check in with the other teams. James followed after her and their laughter trailed down the hallway.

---

CONTINUE TO CHAPTER 25