The movie was nearly over when Graham stood up, straightening the cape on his Superman costume. “I’m going to call in for the Chinese food,” he said. “Anyone need another beer while I’m up?”

Gabriella couldn’t help noticing how he addressed all of them, but was mostly focused on Madelyn as he said it. Madelyn smiled and shook her head, and that’s when Graham turned to acknowledge the rest of the room.

Interesting.

Graham was on his way over to the kitchen when the doorbell rang. Gabriella watched as Amelia and James slid their beers behind a stack of books on one of the small shelves in the room and looked at each other. “Did someone already call it in?” Graham asked.

Amelia shook her head. “Nope,” she said. “And we haven’t missed any work calls.”

“I’ll go check what’s going on,” Graham said, heading for the door.

The others tucked the drinks out of sight as Graham looked out the frosted glass of the front door. Then he laughed and opened it.

A scarecrow stepped inside, holding a thirty rack of beer on his shoulder and a bag of candy in his other hand. He wore jeans, a burlap shirt, and a saggy hat. And when he came up the stairs and Gabriella realized it was Bradley in that costume, she nearly fainted from shock.

“You came!” Amelia exclaimed, picking her beer back up and toasting him.

Bradley shrugged as he set down the case of beer just outside the kitchen doorway. “Yeah, well, I guess I had nothing better going on.”

“Come in here!” James called, and Gabriella realized he was more than a little buzzed by now. Bradley clearly realized it too because he scoffed, but came over anyway and sat down on the couch, leaving space between him and James.

“What the hell is this costume?” James said, immediately sliding closer to Bradley. He touched the burlap shirt, rolling the fabric between his fingers to get the texture. “I love it. How did you even have this?”

“I have a life outside of here,” Bradley said.

James rolled his eyes, but laughed. “It looks good. Thanks for bringing beer. And candy.”

Bradley shrugged, then took the can of beer that Madelyn passed over to him. James lifted the bag of candy out of Bradley’s other hand, opened it, and pulled out a piece, leaving the bag on his lap as unwrapped the piece he chose. On screen, Billy Loomis licked fake blood off his fingers. “This scene scared the shit out of me as a kid,” James muttered, popping the chocolate in his mouth.

“What were you doing watching this as a kid?” Amelia asked.

“What? Like we didn’t all end up as ghost hunters?” James said with a laugh, offering Bradley’s own bag of candy back to him.

No one could argue with that, so they just hung out and watched the end of the movie. Gabriella looked around at the team a little while later as the credits rolled. Amelia and Madelyn were giggling over something in the corner. Graham was already up and heading for the TV to switch the movie off. Bradley was still sitting on the couch, a little farther down now, and stroking Fang, who was confused by why there were so many people here tonight. James was sitting at the other end of the couch, looking out the window with a wistful look on his face.

Gabriella sat down next to him, the movement causing Fang to hop off the couch and take off. James looked at her. “Hey.”

“Hey.”

“This is really nice,” he continued. “Thanks for this.”

“It wasn’t just me,” she said.

“I know. I’ll thank the others too. Hey, did you talk to your guy?”

Gabriella smiled. “Yeah,” she said. “We’re going out this weekend.”

“Great. Did you tell him about your weird job?”

“Not yet. I will though.”

“Good.”

He looked back out the window and she realized he was looking at the Halloween display lit up on one of the houses across the street. The house was draped in lights, with a projector sending spinning jack-o’-lanterns onto the garage door. A tiny graveyard had been put up on the lawn and skeletons were scattered throughout it, leaning on headstones and posing dramatically with each other. The headstones were all smooth, gray, and rounded. In the streetlight, she could barely make out the RIP written on all of them. It was all so delightfully fake that she didn’t even feel a chill at their resemblance to the mischief’s illusions.

“Next year we’ll do that,” she said with a laugh.

James blinked. “What?”

“Nothing.”

They stayed there for a moment, watching the lights blinking away across the street. “Do you think anyone realizes what we do here?” James asked.

Gabriella glanced around at the others, but nobody seemed to be paying any attention to them. “What do you mean?”

“Do you think they realize it’s all real?”

“No,” Gabriella said. “Not at all.”

“They will, won’t they?”

She thought about Elliot. Then about the kid who’d played with a ouija board in the cemetery, leading them into the shitty week they’d just wrapped up. “Maybe,’ she said. “But it’s just a normal day for us while it ends up being the worst moments of their life, you know? So hopefully they won’t ever know. Or at least they won’t find out in a way that destroys them.”

The moment was broken by Amelia coming over, slinging an arm over both of them. “What’s going on?” she asked.

“Just looking at the Halloween lights,” James replied.

“Nice.”

“Gabs wants to do that here next year.”

Amelia looked at Gabriella, who shrugged. She shook her head. “You can tell you two are cousins.”

Gabriella considered arguing that she didn’t actually want to aim a jack-o’-lantern projector at their front wall. But Amelia was smiling and Gabriella was feeling loose and happy tonight. So she let it go.

The theme from The Exorcist coming from the TV pulled them away from the window. James booed loudly, and Graham held his hands up in surrender.

“Fine!” he said. “Fine, whatever. It’s a good movie. Just because we have to treat it like a damn documentary…”

Gabriella looked over at Bradley, who was drinking a beer and sitting quietly with a slight smile on his face. “How are you doing?” she asked.

He looked over, and she was amused to see he was clearly buzzed too. “Fine,” he said with a shrug.

Gabriella didn’t need to be on duty tonight either, so she took him at his word and went over to get herself another beer. Amelia said something she didn’t catch, and she heard James laugh in response. Graham and Madelyn were sitting next to each other, her on the recliner and him on a chair he’d pulled over to see the TV better. She resisted the urge to wink at him as she caught his eye, but just barely. Meanwhile, now Bradley was at the window too as James pointed out the display. Bradley said something about the projector and Amelia told him to fuck off. But the atmosphere was light and festive.

James had been right, they needed a break. Tomorrow they’d have to focus on the real deal again, but tonight could be horror movies and junk food and loosening up, just a little. The real monsters could wait a night to make their presence known.

END

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CONTINUE TO THE COTTAGE AT DELINSKY COVE (NORTH COUNTY PARANORMAL UNIT #4)