Trick-Or-Treating this year had been turning sour for Mike very quickly. Not only did he and his gang receive a mixed level of annoying reactions to their costumes ranging from "How cute!" to "Aren't you boys getting a little old for this?", but then there was that girl Max that just had to show up and ruin everything. Now Lucas and Dustin were falling all over themselves and acting weird, and they were completely ignoring him and Will.
This was supposed to be for their party. If Max was going to split up the group like this, then she wasn't welcome as far as Mike was concerned. She wouldn't understand them; she was just some new girl. Sure, a girl who rode a skateboard and played video games, but even so, she still clearly thought of them as losers, just like any other girls at school. And more importantly, she wasn't there with them last year. And she would never understand them because she wasn't there for anything they went through. She didn't know why Will was called "Zombie Boy". She hadn't been through anything that they had gone through. That they went through together.
And another thing. Another thing that bugged Mike about Max coming with them more than anything else:
How come it's okay for them to act like idiots around this new girl, when they were giving him a hard time last year for - well... okay. He doesn't feel as embarrassed to admit it anymore. Not after a whole year of separation.
How come it's okay for them to act like idiots around some girl now, when they made fun of him for liking El?
If they thought Max would ever be a replacement for El just because she goes to school and plays video games, they were dead wrong. And they better not think Max somehow better than her. Because she clearly is not.
Anyway, the last "Aren't you too old for this" comment was starting to get to Mike. Because, well, after the nightmares that him and his gang had been through, he was starting to feel completely different from how he used to be. Especially with the gaping hole inside him that made him realize that Eleven had taken a part of him that couldn't ever be his alone ever again. Not without her. And he didn't even know if she was still out there. He really wanted to believe she was alive. And he would keep holding on to that, even if she wasn't, just to keep his sanity. It was kind of counter-intuitive, keeping his hopes up even though a part of him was finally realizing that she probably wasn't going to come back. And he was bitter over that loss. He missed the part of him that she took with her. He missed her. He felt like a shell. He found himself wondering what the point of everything was. Life wasn't as interesting. It was dull, pointless. He didn't know what he was even doing anymore. His grades were dropping. He was misbehaving at school, because he didn't care as much. Admittedly, he did still care a little... but what was the point of all those grades anyway?
And why was Trick-Or-Treating simply not as fun anymore? The excitement was faded, and the mystery was gone. They all knew that greater, more mysterious - more sinister - things lay deep in the forest, so everything simply lost its thrill. There was some fun in dressing up as the Ghostbusters, though. A warm glimmer lit up in Mike's cavernous heart as he remembered how the movie made him forget things for a short while inside that theatre. His reality melted away with the humor and excitement of the film, and he found himself wishing he could be in that world for a while, if not forever.
That's why he still wanted this night to be good. He wanted to have fun and forget his feelings, and just pretend to be some other gang for a while. A gang that better things happen to. But then Max showed up and made his lonely reality come crashing back.
Mike watched as Lucas and Dustin chat away to Max, not-so-subtly trying to one-up each other, while Will walked beside him with the video camera. Well, at least he had Will. So he wasn't a complete third wheel. And he wanted Will to have a day to enjoy himself apart from his own stresses as well, so he tried to suck up his irritations.
As they walked along a road to go to another section of the neighborhood though, Will suddenly turned his camera towards the woods that they were traveling right beside. "Hey, what's that?" Will commented, and Mike's gaze followed the direction of the camera. He felt his stomach jolt for a second as he saw something white standing far into the forest. Then he realized it was a Trick-Or-Treater. Probably some kid trying to scare people. They were standing stock-still, the large circles for the eyes looking like dark, ghostly eyes from far away, just staring at the two boys. Dustin, Lucas, and Max had kept walking without them.
"I bet they're just trying to scare us." Mike said, rolling his eyes a little. But he couldn't help but feel fascinated, even though his common sense told him to keep walking. Will had kept his camera on the ghostly figure, but he was peering over it with fear and curiosity.
Mike smirked a little, and grabbed his wand from his proton pack and waved it toward the ghost. "You better watch out! We got a call about you!" He called.
"Mike, don't." Will said quietly, unease dripping in his voice. "Let's just go."
The kid just stood there. Then they took several steps closer. Then they started walking - no, STRIDING toward them. Quickly. Reaching their arms out. Towards Mike.
Will didn't wait to see what would happen if they stayed put. He seemed to already be bracing to be messed with. "Mike. Mike... Come on." He urged, already starting to move again and looking back towards Mike.
"Right." Mike muttered, shooting an anxious glare at the ghost one more time before speeding along after Will, a small amount of fear gripping him at the thought of how the ghost seemed to be coming with pure determination towards him. They strode into a fast walk, realizing that the others were way ahead of them by now, and they needed to catch up. Irritation returned to poke Mike's mind when he silently hoped that the rest of their gang stopped to wait for them, but he wouldn't put it past them if they hadn't noticed his and Will's absence. They broke into a run, hurrying down the street and along the woods until they turned onto a new street of houses. Will paused to scan for Dustin, Lucas, and Max before he found them a couple houses down, walking down a driveway.
As Will and Mike hurried to join them, with Will once again getting his video camera ready for filming, Max looked back at them, and then the two boys on either side of her followed her gaze.
"Where did you guys go?" Lucas asked, a small amount of guilt seeming to creep into his expression.
Mike scoffed. "Why didn't you stop to wait for us?" He demanded, glancing angrily towards Max. That small gesture of his caused an immediate change in Lucas' demeanor. His shoulders tensed and he slipped in front of Max ever so slightly. Dustin gave Lucas the side-eye.
"Sorry," Lucas replied icily, "But we didn't see you two separate from the group! Maybe just tell us if you're stopping next time."
Will sighed and stopped recording as Mike and Lucas broke into a small argument, and he looked around wearily. Dustin sidled up to Max the moment Lucas moved away from her. "They argue a lot." He quipped, pointing at Mike and Lucas. Especially Lucas though. Then he beamed at her with the use of his trusty front teeth. "Sometimes you just can't get them to shut up and use common sense."
Max wasn't impressed. She watched the four boys and started to wonder why she came at all. Her gaze wandered beyond the boys and onto a white figure walking towards them, and then slowing to a stop several feet away from them.
"Hey stalkers, looks like you've got yourselves a ghost to catch." She declared over their voices, pointing toward the ghost kid, and they went quiet and looked to the ghost as well. She just wanted to direct all the attention away from herself, and it seemed to work.
"Oh man. Should we-?" Dustin asked with a wide grin, looking around at all of them and lifting his homemade ghost trap.
Will's face had turned pale. He shook his head. "We saw them in the woods back there. That was why we separated from the group." he said. "They followed us."
Mike felt an odd chill run down his spine. The ghost was closer to them than it had been before, and he saw their gaze flicker to all of them, then settle on him. Again. And maybe it was his imagination, but the air between them felt like there was something like electricity existing between the gap of the Ghostbusters and the Ghost. Like the static you could feel on a TV if you brought your hand or face right to the screen. Warm and powerful. Like you were about to get shocked. But this was just a kid, right...?
Then why did they feel so... otherworldly? If he didn't know any better, and if he couldn't see converse shoes sticking out of the bottom of the sheet, he might begin to second guess and think that this Trick-Or-Treater actually WAS a ghost. He couldn't help it. He was curious - and a little creeped out - at this point.
"Why are you following us?" He called. The figure almost seemed to flinch.
Lucas' nose crinkled. He shrugged it off. "We are the Ghostbusters right now. It's probably a joke."
Mike jerked his head in something like half of a head shake. There was something about this ghost now that didn't feel like a joke, against his previous judgement. His eyes were glued to the face of the ghost, which was equally glued to him. Something deep inside him whispered false hopes, making his heart jump towards his throat. Then, slowly... the ghost lifted a hand. The sheet slipped off enough so that some of their forearm and their hand was visible. And they held their hand out in front of them, like a still wave. The hand was shaking.
A strange wave of mystery, fear, eerie familiarity, and unexpected nostalgia swirled up from an unknown hiding place at an incredible rate, hitting his head with a heavy force and making it feel like his brain almost jumped. He felt lightheaded, and his vision seemed to spazz out for a brief second. Geez, what was wrong with him? But when he saw that hand, the way it was held, the way it shook - another wave of the same horrible yet wonderful feeling rushed through him.
Maybe it was just some lonely kid. Maybe he was going crazy and his mind was making him see this kid the way he wanted to see her. But she felt so familiar, like the familiar feeling he got in his dreams. The dreams that always felt so real. Dreams that were far better than reality. The dreams he woke up feeling emptier than ever from. There was a lump in his throat now. Boy, did he want this dream to be real.
But it was probably just some kid. Some lonely kid. Mike tried to swallow the lump in his throat, and mentally kept telling himself that he was getting too emotional again, and that it was only wishful thinking. Still, he figured... Even if it was just some lonely kid... Well... Who wants to be alone on Halloween? At the very least, he could wave back.
His heart pounded in his chest, not listening to the logic that he was trying to push back into his mind. Slowly, he raised his arm out, just like the ghost was doing, and he held his hand up in the same still wave. His hand was shaking just as much as their's. He took in a sharp breath.
The static felt stronger. And it felt like it only existed between the two of them now.