The Great Pringles Conspiracy

Summary: Holtzmann and Patty are kidnapped and held hostage by two men demanding the remaining Ghostbusters locate and interrogate the ghost of their dead associate in exchange for Holtzmann's and Patty's safe return. The group learns that ordinary men can be far more frightening than the spirits of the dead and that sometimes ghosts end up being allies rather than villains. Erin and Abby are minor characters - this is mostly Holtzmann's and Patty's story.

Notes: A lot of what Erin and Abby are up to during this story happens off the page. It's implied that they are out working on helping fix this situation, but I haven't written any chapters from either of their points of view. This story is about Holtzmann and Patty going through a very serious, very frightening situation together. My major motivation in writing this was to put my two favorite characters into a situation where they were vulnerable and during which they would need to rely on each other for emotional support and/or protection.

Furthermore - I don't have any specific ship-pairing going on in this - I like to keep characters mostly canon in regard to their relationships, but as always, if you see something there, let your imagination run with it if you want. I don't deny at all that some scenes in this are kinda... shippy. I was aiming for very close friendship, but you know how it is. I'm not opposed to these two characters being in a relationship, and I don't remember seeing anything stating they'd never consider it... so read it however you want. ;)

One last thing - be aware that the title and some moments in this story are light comedic, but the subject is also fairly dark and traumatic. I prefer an unhealthy mix of both, in life and in fiction. Hopefully you do too.

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CHAPTER 1

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Holtzmann bounced as she stepped, in a way that almost resembled dancing. Patty had accidentally stayed up late watching her work, and that meant when the younger woman decided she needed more Pringles - right now - Patty had to venture out with her to find some.

"How are you always so damn energetic?" Patty frowned as she struggled to keep up with her friend. Holtzmann was tiny compared to Patty. Her legs were so short... and yet Patty was the one practically jogging here.

"I, uh..." Holtzmann trailed off and shrugged.

"Well, most places aren't gonna be open at four a.m." Patty informed her.

"Um hm... But that places that are..." Holtzmann looked over her shoulder with wide eyes and nodded as though that was supposed to mean something.

Patty frowned, then winced as Holtzmann nearly collided with a lamp post. "Watch where you're going, Holtzy." She advised.

"Will do." Holtzmann put her hand on the lamp post she'd just about walked into and slid around it gracefully, complete with a little twirl before continuing onward. "This is where I usually go for four a.m. Pringles..." She noted, walking up to a news stand run by a guy who looked like he was a heavy drug-user.

Patty swallowed and watched as Holtzmann engaged the guy in conversation like they knew each other. Maybe they did... If the woman came down here for Pringles regularly at four o' clock in the morning, acting how she acted... she'd be hard for this guy to forget.

"Tube o' Pringles, please." Holtzmann requested, giving the man a sort of bow.

"Only got the sour cream ones left today, Sweetheart." The man responded.

Holtzmann's shoulders slumped and her excited expression melted away. Her mouth hung open and her eyes were wide. She looked positively offended, as though this man had just called her every vulgarity in the book.

"No!" She groaned, stepping closer to the news stand and starting to climb over it.

"Some guy came through an hour ago and bought all of the regular ones I had left." The man explained as Holtzmann hefted herself up onto the flimsy shelves of the news stand.

"You..." Holtzmann shook her head, clearly searching for words she couldn't find. "You lie!"

"Honey, I swear. I don't got 'em." The man frowned, but made no move to prevent her from climbing over his other products.

"Noooo..." Holtzmann sounded like she was going to cry as she stumbled over magazines, knocking some to the ground as she hefted her upper body over the counter and looked behind it.

"Jesus..." Patty muttered to herself, wondering if she should physically pry her friend off of the stand and drag her away. Why wasn't this guy pissed that the woman was making a mess of his business?

"Why would you order so many of these!?" Holtzmann's dramatic voice rang through the street and surrounding alleys. Patty heard the sound of cardboard and chips being rummaged through. "My god! They're all sour cream!"

"Holtzy, baby... We can go someplace else..." Patty stepped forward and reached toward Holtzmann's foot.

Holtzmann sighed and let herself drop behind the counter. Patty winced, but her friend stood up and didn't appear bothered that she'd just fallen head-first over a news stand. She walked back around and started shoving magazines back onto the stand. "Sorry, Ricky..." She mumbled, putting the magazines up all wrong, some backwards, upside-down, or sideways. "Save me one next time..." She requested.

Ricky nodded and made no move to straighten the magazines as Patty smiled politely at him and Holtzmann offered a half-hearted wave.

Patty put her hand on Holtzmann's back as they walked on. The younger woman was no longer bouncy and excited. She seemed defeated. Patty could barely believe something as small as not finding the flavor of chips she wanted at the first place they happened upon was enough to kill her mood so entirely.

"There's lots of places to buy Pringles." Patty spoke, trying to be supportive to her friend's situation, even though it was ridiculous that the woman was this upset over what was basically nothing.

"Not at four a.m. Ricky was my go-to guy..." Holtzmann frowned.

Patty shook her head. "Worse case scenario, we'll have to wait a few hours for other places to open."

Holtzmann groaned dramatically.

"Hey!" A man's voice called out from an alley as they passed.

Holtzmann stopped in her tracks and looked toward the unfamiliar man.

Patty grimaced. She was never going out at four a.m. ever again. There were only weirdos out... But then, the whole reason she came this time was because Holtzmann was determined to get her Pringles. The smaller woman would have gone alone otherwise, and obviously that wasn't a great idea.

"Keep walking." Patty advised in a low voice, putting her hand on Holtzmann's arm and attempting to pull her along.

Holtzmann ignored her hand and took a step toward the alley. "Hey." She said back to the stranger.

The man smiled. Patty could swear it looked almost sinister. "Aren't you ladies those ghost killers?"

"Well... Ya can't kill a ghost... so no..." Holtzmann shook her head and laughed.

"Ghostbusters." Patty corrected.

"Yeah, that's it..." He nodded.

Holtzmann nodded too and stared expectantly with wide eyes and a grin, clearly intrigued by this guy, waiting for him to go on, while Patty really wanted to grab her friend and get away from him. She knew better than to go toward weird guys clearly trying to lure her into a dark alley at four in the morning.

"Well..." Patty finally spoke when it seemed no one else was going to. "It was nice meeting you. We'll see you around." She put her hand on Holtzmann's arm near her elbow and started to pull her back.

"Wait! I've got a job for you guys." The man went on, easily drawing Holtzmann's attention back to him.

"You'll have to make an appointm-" Patty started.

"Yeah?" Holtzmann leaned toward the man with wide eyes as she interrupted Patty. "What is it?"

The man smiled again, stepping toward Holtzmann casually. Patty didn't like how close he was getting. Holtzmann didn't behave like a normal human being and seemed to not expect anyone else to either, so this strange guy stepping so close that the petite woman could probably feel his breath on her hair didn't phase her. But it irked Patty.

"Holtzy, come on." Patty cut in, putting her hand on Holtzmann's arm again. "He's gonna have to call the office in the morning."

"It's morning now." The man looked over Holtzmann and at Patty.

"Let's just see what he wants, Patty." Holtzmann shrugged as she turned away from the man and looked up at her friend. "If it's too big a project, we'll make him an appointment... but he can explain what's-" She was cut off when the man suddenly grabbed her by her arms, pulling her backward against his chest.

Patty felt a growl in her throat as she stepped forward, put halted in her tracks as she saw the man held a small knife in one hand. He had quickly pressed the blade up to Holtzmann's throat as he held onto her with an arm stretched across her chest.

Holtzmann stared back at Patty with wide eyes, but said nothing.

Patty swallowed. Holtzmann looked entirely scared - like actual, legitimate fear. Patty had seen Holtzmann surprised, confused, nervous... but fear like what was in her eyes now was rare. It had even managed to render the ordinarily talkative woman speechless.

"What do you want?" Patty asked, trying to keep her voice from dripping with anger. She was pissed, of course, but being verbally abusive to this guy wasn't going to help. She had to play nice with the man until he no longer had the power to end Holtzmann's life with a single motion.

"I need you to find a specific ghost for me..." The man explained. "He died with information that I need. You've gotta find him and get the information."

"That's not what we do, man... I think what you're looking for is a psychic or something." Patty explained, feeling her own heart rate quicken as she looked from the crazed man's eyes down to Holtzmann's. The smaller woman's eyes were still filled with fear. She seemed to be silently pleading with Patty to fix this, to get her out of this situation unharmed.

"Psychics are bullshit!" The man screamed, shaking his hostage as he spoke.

Holtzmann whimpered and closed her eyes as her captor pressed the blade of the knife uncomfortably close to her skin.

Patty raised her hands in defense. "Listen, man... We don't normally communicate with the dead for information like that... We're more like exterminators... with ghosts instead of bugs... You're asking us to be like... ghost whisperers... But that's not what we do..."

"Well, you better start doing it. If you can't help me, I won't have any regrets here if I slit her little throat." He shook Holtzmann again, squeezing her close against his chest.

Holtzmann opened her eyes and stared up at Patty, who could see her young friend shaking under the strange man's grip. "W-we can give it try. Right, Patty?" She rambled breathlessly.

"Yeah." Patty whispered. "We'll give it a try. Um... If you could just give us the guy's name, where he lived maybe... Someplace we could go look for his spirit... We'll give it a go."

"Good." The man offered a shaky, quick smile. "You can be the one to call your friends and let them know who they're looking for. The guy's name is Leroy Hayes. I got a list of all the places he might be. Hon, reach into my front left pocket on my pants." He whispered into Holtzmann's ear.

Holtzmann grimaced, but did as she was told, reaching a shaking hand toward his thigh behind her and retrieving a folded piece of paper.

"Toss it to your friend." He ordered. Holtzmann did as she was told, throwing the paper a few feet toward Patty, who picked it up and unfolded it. There were about twenty-five locations listed.

Patty swallowed as she looked down at the list. This wasn't going to work. They had never sought out a ghost like this before, never interrogated one... Even if this man's ghost was still around, the chances of him answering questions were slim. What motivation would he have to do so? And again, that was assuming his spirit was even around at all. Not all people who died haunted the world afterward. In fact, most didn't. Otherwise the world would be overrun with ghosts all the time.

"In a couple minutes, I'll let you call your friends. Tell them to go find him and ask him where the money is. He should know what that means. They can tell him your cute friend here's gonna die if he doesn't give you answers. He had a soft spot for pretty girls." The stranger continued. "If I suspect there's police anywhere near me, I'm gonna kill her. So don't fuck with me. Make sure your friends don't either."

Patty's heart sunk. He still wasn't going to let Holtzmann go... She wasn't getting her friend back until/unless Abby and Erin found this ghost and got answers from him... but she didn't think that was even possible.

"Patty..." Holtzmann whimpered as the man began backing down the alley, still holding tightly onto her, still threateningly pressing his knife against her throat.

"Stay calm, Baby..." Patty bit her lower-lip. "We're gonna get you out of this... Please don't hurt her..." She spoke then to the stranger...

"As long as you don't pull any tricks, I won't do anything too mean to little Jillian here." The man smirked. "I'm not kidding though... You fuck with me, if your friends send police, try anything at all... I will kill her... and if I suspect you're fucking with me, and I have time and a chance, I'll even make sure it's slow and painful."

Holtzmann's eyes were wide and her brow furrowed as she swallowed nervously.

"Right this way, girls." The man pulled Holtzmann to the side so that Patty could lead, most certainly so he could keep an eye on her while holding onto the smaller woman.

Patty exhaled and walked down the alley. Hopefully when she called Abby and Erin, they'd be able to either find this ghost, or come up with a plan, because Patty most certainly didn't know what to do.

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