Jim and Toby crept down the stairs of Jim's basement. The space was cramped, with a single tiny window just touching the ceiling, and it was filled to the brim with scientific equipment. Work tables filled with blueprints, plans pinned to every available surface, beakers everywhere. Computer parts were strewn across tables, and large machines that the kids could only guess what they were for stood in the larger corners. Everything seemed to make noise, but quietly - a beeping here, a puff of pressure exchange there, the bubbling of a beaker somewhere. On the far side of the room, a gaping hole lined with blinking electronics was carved into the wall.

"We shouldn't even be here," murmured Toby as they reached the floor of the basement. "Your mom always said to stay out of here…"

"But she also wants me to get engaged with her research," said Jim. "Listen, I'm just gonna look at what's inside that thing."

"The Ghost Portal, right? What does it do, again? Teleports ghosts?"

"No," Jim said with a huff. He pointed at the hole on the far wall. It was almost built like a tunnel, but it was too shallow to lead anywhere. "This Ghost Portal is supposed to open a hole into another dimension, when it's activated. A dimension where there's ghosts, and stuff. Mom's been trying to build this thing forever, ever since my dad disappeared… And now it's finally here, Toby. What if it really works?"

"Well…" Toby rested his hand on his best friend's shoulder. "I think we'll just have to find ourselves some ghosts, Jimbo."

"Okay… You ready, Tobes?"

Toby jumped. "You mean you want me to actually… go in there? Right now? Are you serious?"

"You don't have to go if you don't want to. I'm just gonna put on a hazmat jumpsuit thing and look at what's going on inside anyway. I'm not gonna, you know, fire up the thing and jump into a dimension I don't even know is real - or safe to breathe in. Okay, Toby?" Jim bent under a table and fumbled around. "Aha!" he shouted, dragging a giant box out from underneath. It had a bunch of radioactive warnings plastered to the outside. "I knew the backups would be under here." He fiddled with the latch, which was old and a little broken.

"Backup what?" asked Toby, nervously.

"Jumpsuits!" Jim cracked the container open triumphantly and pulled out one of the floppy outfits. It was teal, just like the ones his mom wore. Probably just a backup for her… Jim wondered if one of them would fit.

"Oh." Toby glanced back at the stairs. "How long did you say your mom would be out, again?"

"Relax, she's gone for at least an hour or two. She takes forever on these trips… It's not like we live super close to other towns that supply industrial-grade-whatever-the-heck. Come on, at least help me get into this suit, if you're not coming with."

A few minutes later, after lots of grunting and tugging, the suit was on. "Okay," said Jim. "I have no idea how radioactive the portal actually is, which is why the jumpsuit, obviously."

"You mean you could get radiation poisoning?" Toby grabbed at Jim's elbow. "Why are you doing this, again?"

"Because…" Jim thought for a minute. "Because I want it to work. Mom's been after this for ages, ever since dad, and… she's so close. I'm worried that she's been looking too close and just missed something easy to fix, just outside her focus. Instead of her using the wrong type of weird glowing fluid… maybe a wire's loose? Plus," Jim paused for half a beat, "I want to see if it works. I want to know… if we can really get there, to the ghost dimension. Is it even possible? There's only one way to find out."

"But you're not going to turn it on, right?"

"No, I just want to take a look inside. Promise." Jim looked his short friend in the eyes and nodded. "Well. Here goes…"

Jim stepped inside the portal. He looked around, at everything blinking, at the switches turned on and off, at the wiring that was haphazardly stuck in place. Nothing seemed obviously broken, though… "Hm," said Jim. "It doesn't look like there's anything that obvious to help out with. No wires exposed - at least not more exposed than any others, I guess - and there's not a simple 'on' switch…" He touched the wall, trying to think of something that could help his mom.

"Dude, if there's nothing super broken or whatever, just get out of there. Why are you still standing in that radiation filled tube of death? Literally, it's a tube of death. Oh my god, Jim, what are you doing?"

Jim had pried open a panel that seemed a bit looser than the others and was looking at its contents. "I'm… staring at wires," he answered. "Just… more wires. Huh." He shrugged. Guess there wasn't anything here that was such an easy fix after all. "Alright, I'm coming out, now, Tobes, so you can chill."

"Great! Then we can never think about going into an experimental portal to the land of the undead unsupervised ever again! We can even never come into this basement ever again! This place creeps me out."

"Aw, it isn't so bad down here," said Jim, picking up the panel he loosened. He held it up, and lined up the sides to click it back in place. "It might be kind of cramped, but –" he was cut off the instant he slid the panel into place. Abruptly a gigantic, low, rumbling came from the far end of the portal. It was a sound so deep Jim might have thought it was inside his head, except he felt it in his bones, too, and suddenly a glowing green light started flowing from everywhere, from nowhere, and from somewhere inside him all at once. "UHHHHH TOBES?" he yelled, unsure of if his friend could even hear him. The rumbling sound was getting louder.

"JIM? WHAT'S HAPPENING?" screamed Toby, but his voice fell into the rumbling, unheard. Terrified, he stood there as a blinding green light filled the room, and the only thing he could think to do was to cover his eyes.

Jim saw so much, even though he knew he wasn't really seeing anything. So many shades of vibrant green filled his vision, even with his eyes closed. Light pierced not only his eyelids, but his whole body, and he could feel it reach his bones, his heart, his lungs. The portal finished powering up, and began to actually open to the ghost dimension, and suddenly there was an ear-piercing scream. It shattered everything Jim could feel, and as the doorway opened, it felt like his skin was melting off. An intense, painful tingling that he could only guess was electricity traveled up his hand, still resting on the panel somehow, and it set his whole body on fire. And then, in an instant, he didn't feel anything anymore.

"OH MY GOD JIM THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I WAS AFRAID OF HAPPENING YOU IDIOT!" screamed Toby, eyes full of tears. He was scared. The air rang with both an impossibly deep roar and a piercing wail that Toby worried would shatter his eardrums forever. What if Jim died in there? Frantically, he looked around for a power switch, a plug, anything. Eventually, he locked onto an overloaded power outlet: there was a sign attached that labeled it as where the portal was plugged in. How could all this be powered by a single power outlet? Choosing not to dwell on it, Toby pulled the whole power strip out from the wall. The wailing calmed to a scream, then a yell, then faded away, and the light started to grow more bearable. The low rumbling dwindled into a hum, and the sound of everything powering down gave way to silence.

Then there was the sound of Jim hitting the floor.