It was just another typical Wednesday evening in the dorm rooms at Columbia University.
Peter Venkman was reclining on his single bed, his arms tucked behind his head while he dozed, catching some rest after an afternoon date with a young and eager freshman.
Egon Spengler was at his desk, twisting in the final screw on a piece of equipment he'd developed with his new friend, Ray Stantz.
Peter, who thought their similar interest for the paranormal would mean they'd hit it off straight away, had introduced the two just a few months earlier.
It turned out that Peter was right, they had hit it off straight away.
Ray and Egon had spent night after night developing theories based on the paranormal, with ghosts a particular interest between the two.
The long nights of discussion had led them to develop a revolutionary idea: to design and build a device that could measure psychokinetic energy in any environment, potentially leading to the detection of ghostly presence.
Peter had rolled his eyes at their idea, insisting they were wasting their time.
The only thing that device will end up detecting is a bunch of loonies and crackpots who claim to have seen Casper the Friendly Ghost, he had thought to himself.
Still, over the last few weeks Egon had sourced all of the required parts for the device, which he was dubbing the Psychokinetic Energy Meter, or P.K.E. Meter for short.
After some trial and error, here he was about to finish the thing.
Egon was just about to hit the 'on' button when Ray burst through the dorm door, making Peter jump.
"How's it looking, Spengs?!" asked Ray excitedly as he headed straight over to Egon at his desk.
"Looking good, Ray. It's ready for a test run," replied Egon, holding out the device for Ray to admire.
"Hey, you two. Do you mind?" piped up Peter from the bed. "I was trying to get some shut eye over here."
"Oh hi, Peter. I didn't see you there!" said Ray with a smile before turning his attention back to Egon. "This is really great stuff here, Spengler. If we can actually monitor and record psychokinetic energy, this will really help with our theory of…"
"What's with all the excitement? Is the latest issue of Playboy out?" asked Peter with a yawn as he swung his feet off the bed and walked over to Egon's desk before casually sitting on it.
"Peter, do you mind?" said Egon in a stern tone, pulling a stack of papers from under Peter's backside "This is a work area, not a seat."
Peter sighed dramatically and stood up.
"We need to get out there, test it out!" said Ray as he held the device in his hands.
"Yes. I was thinking the Rosewood Cemetery would be a suitable testing area," offered Egon as he jumped out of his chair and to his closet to retrieve his coat.
"Perfect," replied Ray with a nod of his head.
"Hang on, what are you doing?" asked Peter, still half a sleep.
"We have to test the Psychokinetic Energy Meter!" answered Ray.
"So, what? You're going to hang around a cemetery, at night, to wave a little toy around?" asked Peter with a raised eyebrow. "You two really need to find some girlfriends. I could probably hook you up with…"
"It's not a toy Peter, and hurry up, we're leaving now" interrupted Egon as he reached for the door handle.
Peter sighed and grabbed his coat off of his bed.
He couldn't always understand Ray and Egon's thinking, but he figured a visit to the cemetery to watch them scan the air for ghosts could prove amusing.
A fifteen-minute walk later, the three of them were standing at the tall iron gates of the Rosewood Cemetery, the location of the city's oldest buried residents.
"Well, are we just going to stand here or are we going in?" asked Peter as he looked across at Ray and Egon, who had both suddenly frozen apprehensively in front of the gate.
Peter pushed open the gate with a squeak.
At that moment the wind began to blow, causing a rustle of dry leaves from within the cemetery.
"After you" said Peter, motioning with his hand for Egon and Ray to walk through the gate.
Ray and Egon exchanged quick glances before they both walked into the dimly lit cemetery.
Peter followed behind with a smirk on his face.
The three of them stood together, looking around the cemetery.
From where they stood, only the first three or so rows of crooked gravestones were illuminated, poking out of the ground like teeth from a humungous monster.
The rest stood smothered by the darkness.
"Get to it then" prompted Peter.
Egon suddenly snapped himself out of his fear and held the P.K.E. Meter up to his face, trying to make out the buttons in the dark.
He switched it on and it sprung to life with a quiet hum.
"Well, it turns on, so that's a good start," said Egon as he focused on the screen.
He was thankful now that he'd invested in a screen with a backlight.
Egon held out the P.K.E. Meter and began to wave it around, trying to register a reading.
He moved forward, following the concrete path into the graveyard with Ray following behind.
"What's the reading?" asked Ray excitedly.
He was desperately hoping they'd find something, anything, tonight.
"Nothing hot" replied Egon as he furrowed his brows at the screen. "Maybe if we head over to the Roman Catholic section we might pick up something," he offered, just as eager as Ray to finally register some activity.
They crept through the graveyard, scanning through the dark rows of headstones for a sign of an orb or a wisp.
They covered the Roman Catholic, Anglican and the Jewish sections before pausing under a tree to plan where to go next.
Suddenly an owl overhead began to hoot, causing the two of them to jump in fright.
They glanced at each other quickly, both embarrassed at how easily they had startled.
Egon cleared his throat.
"Maybe we should head back?" he suggested.
"Good idea" replied Ray, thankful at Egon's suggestion.
As much as he wanted to find a ghost, in truth he was scared out of his wits.
With quickened steps, Ray and Egon began to follow the path back to where they had started.
"Wait" said Egon quietly, as he held his hand out to stop Ray. "Do you see that?"
Ray squinted his eyes and followed Egon's line of sight out across the gravestones.
Suddenly he caught sight of what Egon was referring to.
Behind a particularly tall, arched headstone was a trail of white mist.
Ray's eyes widened as he looked over at Egon, who's face mirrored his own.
Egon held the P.K.E. Meter out to try and register a reading.
Seeing nothing change, he gave it a slight tap with the palm of his hand.
Still the reading stayed the same: nothing.
"What have we got?" asked Ray.
"I'm not getting a reading," replied Egon. "I think we need to get closer."
With a few cautious steps each, they moved closer to the mist.
They noticed it moving, twisting and twirling, seemingly rising out of the headstone.
"It's appears to be some sort of unformed, ectoplasmic vapour!" said Ray quietly, not wanting to disturb it.
They edged their way closer, but Egon still could not register a reading.
Closer, closer they crept towards the headstone.
Suddenly a dark shape rose from behind the headstone.
A fully formed ghost?!
A zombie?!
What was it?!
Ray and Egon both let out terrified screams and stepped back in horror as the dark shape moved from behind the headstone towards them.
They stumbling over each other in the process, causing Egon to drop the P.K.E. Meter onto the grass with a thud.
"Hey there you are, where'd you both go?"
Ray and Egon squinted their eyes at the shape, as it moved towards them and into the low light from a nearby lamppost.
It was Peter.
Ray and Egon both sighed in relief and disappointment.
"Geez, it looks like the two of you just saw a ghost," said Peter, taking a deep drag from the cigarette he'd been smoking as he had leaned against a headstone waiting for Egon and Ray to come back.