GHOSTBUSTERS UNLIMITED
Setting Up Shop
Chapter 1
1
The rain pounded hard against the house as the lightning flashed across the sky that was immediately followed by loud cracks of thunder. A girl of about seven tossed and turned in her bed. She had not been able to sleep well at all for the past few weeks and the storm didn't seem to be helping. She turned onto her side hoping to get comfortable. Her fatigue was finally starting to take over and allowing her slip into a semi-conscious state.
A creak of her closet door pulled her out of her sleep as light began to emanate from the closet. Her eyes were open, wide with fear as she pulled the covers up to the middle of her face. The door opened all the way, revealing a grotesque figure that stood at least nine feet tall.
In the other room, the girl's older sister sat in the living room reading by candlelight. She had been expecting the power to go out so she had candles lit. She didn't mind the severe summer storms but she knew her younger sister was scared to death of them.
Suddenly, she heard her sister scream. She leapt out of her chair and sprinted into her sister's bedroom. Her sister was being dragged into the closet. She quickly grabbed her sister's arms and tried to pull. All she saw was a hand wrapped around her sister's legs. Another hand shot out and grabbed the older sister and pulled both into the closet. The door closed and the light dimmed into nothingness.
2
A few days later, an Asian woman with colored eyes in her early twenties walked into the bookstore that she and her twin sister owned. The book store specialized in supernatural, mythology and occult based books. Only one customer stood in the store, who was a regular by the name of Zoe. She seemed to come in quite often, often enough that she was on a first name basis with Kagami and Ayumi, the two owners.
Kagami, the oldest of the two, set a newspaper on the counter with a headline that read "More disappearances leave police baffled."
"What happened?" Ayumi asked.
"Two more people disappeared the other night. No forced entry and all doors and windows were locked. Police are naturally clueless."
"Are you thinking that it has something to That?" Ayumi asked.
Kagami nodded. "I do. I think we should investigate."
"What do we tell them?" Ayumi asked. "Hi, we'd like check out the kid's room because it may have something to do with our own past."
"Well we won't have to since the parents are out of town and the police can't seem to get a hold of them. Neighbors reported a scream and a bright light from one of the bedrooms while the power was off.
"Flashlight," Ayumi shot back.
"They said the amount of light didn't seem to be like a flashlight. I say we'll sneak in, look around and see what we can find out."
"I don't know. Kids go missing all the time throughout the world. You know that I want to figure out what happened during our childhood as much as you do but Kagamin, we can't just jump on every disappearance that occurs. Plus I don't want to get arrested again." "Ayu, this has the Boogieman written all over it."
The mere mention of that name sent shivers down Ayumi's spine. Even though it shouldn't affect an adult the same way it would a child, this name had special and horrific meaning to the sisters.
Just like a lightbulb flash, memories sprinted through her mind of that night when they were seven years old. Ayumi let out a sigh and eventually nodded.
"You're right, Sis. We should do a bit more research with what we have here and cross reference with our own experience as well as what has been reported lately and with what we find later tonight."
Kagami nodded. "Sounds good."
"But first, I need to get some food."
The older sister smiled. "Just like our father, always able to eat."
"I'm going to run up to Chipotle. What do you want from there?"
"Just get me my usual, I'll watch things here."
"Okay, and when I get back we can look into more stuff on the Boogieman."
Ayumi stepped out from behind the counter while Kagami headed towards the back of the shop. The bell above the door rang as Ayumi opened it and stepped out. Zoe slowly stepped out from an aisle of books with a perplexed look on her face. She watched Ayumi walk up the street and then peered back to Kagami, who was standing in front of a bookshelf.
"What?" Zoe whispered to herself.
3
That night Kagami and Ayumi, sporting black outfits, walked through the residential area that was not far from their bookstore. The two were cautious of any vehicle that drove down the road, not that there were many at this hour. The city of Athens was virtually shut down at three-thirty in the morning on a Tuesday night.
"What if we encounter the Boogieman here?" Ayumi asked.
"I don't think we will. We know the Boogieman thrives on fear. It feeds off fear to become stronger. There is no one in the house to give off any type of fear. While we're here, don't give off any fear or we will have a confrontation with it and we have no way to fight it off."
They finally approached the dark and eerie two story house. To the naked eye, the house looked like all the other houses around it. The lights were off, no signs of life, nothing. That was the difference between this house and the others. This house had no one in it and that was the difference between this house and the others. As far as other people were concerned, the two girls that disappeared were taken by another human. Kagami and Ayumi knew better than that.
They could sense the dark aura that seeped from the house and that caused a bit of anxiety to run through them.
Ayumi looked at her sister. "So now what?"
Kagami didn't immediately answer as she examined the house. Her eyes darted across the front porch, looking at all the objects on it. She then looked around to the neighboring houses and then both directions of the street, looking for anyone who may be nearby. Satisfied that no one was near them, she cautiously approached the porch.
Ayumi followed in the same manner and watched their backs as Kagami inspected the objects on the porch. Kagami's current interest was the grill. She knelt down and felt around the backside of the grill and then stopped on a small rectangular object.
"Ah, found it," she said in Japanese.
Ayumi looked at her as Kagami stood up and approached the door. She took the key from the container and opened the door.
"How did you know there would be a spare key attached to the grill?"
"There's always a spare key attached to something on the porch," Kagami said slowly closing the door. "Okay, let's go up to the room."
Creeping through the house with the lights off was no challenge at all since Kagami came prepared with night vision goggles. She knew that it would look suspicious if they used any house lights and even more suspicious if they used flashlights. They started up the stairs. As they crept up the stairs, Kagami could hear her sister's breathing. She could tell she was frightened. She turned around to face her.
"Call down, Ayu. I know you're a little frightened. To be honest so am I. We can't let our fear get the better of us. Remember, we are Zofchaks, nothing can beat us."
Ayumi calmed herself after listening to her sister's assurances.
Once upstairs, they finally found the girl's room. The two of them entered and began their investigation.
"Wouldn't it be easier if we got the Ghostbusters involved?" Ayumi asked.
"The closest Ghostbuster office is in Cleveland and that's close to five hours away. They won't come down here just because we think there is some supernatural activity involved in these missing persons cases. Besides, the Cleveland Ghostbusters are assholes." She rummaged through the closet. "Granted, it would be great if we had their equipment." She looked at the inside of the door and her mouth went dry.
Ayumi looked at the bed and noticed the position of the sheets. "Assuming the cops didn't mess up the scene, it would appear the kid was pulled from the bed and attempted to hold on to the sheets as she was being pulled towards the closet."
Kagami turned around and looked at the trail of sheets that led from the bed to the closet. "Yeah, it would suggest that. Plus look at this, Ayu."
Ayumi turned as Kagami opened the closet door all the way to reveal a set of claw marks across the door. "What the hell?"
"They look pretty fresh and whatever made this has giant hands. A human could not have made these marks and unless the kid had a bear in her closet, there is nothing else that could have done this. It's definitely the Boogieman."