Chapter 2: The Drug

The morning street was crowded with motorized vehicles, screeching their tires and honking their horns while bringing their owners to work and school. People who cared less to own a car walked to and fro across the street, passing each other without a word of hello or goodbye, or a simple smile on their faces. Everyone wanted to end this day fast, and wished for that good dinner and warm bed at night.

Janine arrived at the firehouse, bringing a bag full of vegetables, beef and some raw spaghetti to cook for lunch. She also didn't forget two boxes o' dozen doughnuts for the annoying but loveable green ghost. It was just another day for her in the Ghostbusters headquarters.

'Guys! Rise and shine…' she yelled out as she walked up the stairs carrying the big paper bag in her arms. 'Oh, good morning, Janine…' came a familiar voice from the lounge. The tired voice didn't scare her. She placed the bag on the dining table and glanced at the couch. There Ray was sitting slump on the soft cushions of the three-seated sofa, still in his pajamas. Dark semi circles formed below his weary, sleepless eyes.

'Gosh, Ray…you looked like you were chasing ghosts all night. Did the bed bugs bite you or something?' She emptied the contents of the bag onto the old but well-polished table. Ray sighed and rubbed his left eye with his fist, 'Boy, I wished, Janine. I can barely close my eyes. If I sleep, I'll get these weird nightmares…and they all seemed so real…' Ray got up to his feet and followed Janine to the small kitchen, right next to the lounge. 'And it seemed my body reacted with the dream, made me scream and frail my limbs in bed violently…'

Janine bent over and put in the vegetables into the refrigerator to make sure they stay fresh up till lunchtime. 'That sounded like a very serious mental problem, Ray.' She took out a bubblegum from her purse, opened the wrapper and placed the pink marble into her mouth. 'No offense, really…but you really need an expert help. I mean a doctor professional in sleeping disorders, of course.' Janine walked towards the stairs, folding the paper bag on the way.

'But I'm not sick, Janine! It's just the dreams; they're…they're haunting me,' Ray said as he caught up with her at the top of the stairs. Janine giggled and said, 'Owh, Ray…you can bust bad ghosts and eerie houses, I think you can do the same to a … haunting dream.' She blew a huge bubble until it popped, as a sign that their conversation had ended. She walked down the stairs towards her desk, leaving Ray standing in silence.

Can I really…stop this nightmare?

'There must be a fairly good explanation on why you asked me this, Ray,' exclaimed Egon without taking his eyes off from the machine he just worked on last month, yet to be tested for something none of the other Ghostbusters knew. Ray walked left to right, right to left nervously behind his tall friend, trying to put in a few good, convincing sentences about his problem. 'Because…I think that with an artificial gateway through the dream dimension, there's a chance I can suppress the frantic nightmares I'm having now.' He paused for a reply, but didn't get any. 'We can try to build a machine to achieve this, can't we? Egon?'

Egon stopped and placed his crosshead turnscrew on his working desk nearby. He took off his glasses, and rubbed out the small speckle at the corner of the right lense with his handkerchief. 'Ray, dreams are formed through the connection between the conscious and the subconscious mind. You are technically walking through your memory palace in your brain, like watching old family home-made videos.' He wore his round, red-rimmed glasses back. 'Besides, the unconscious reflexes of your body when you sleep were caused by some defects in the delta waves your brain produced during the four stages of the REM sleep, failing to relax your muscle tone fully. In other words, there is no such thing as a 'dream dimension'. Those hectic nightmares you had are just normal and they are not dangerous'

'Oh, I see…well, I'll leave you to your work then.' Ray strolled out of the machine room, sighing heavily. Man, how am I going to solve this problem?

Ray walked towards the kitchen, took out the mug he just washed, a jar of coffee beans and sugar. He also took the thermos with the hot water in it. He brought all the stuff to the dining table and blended himself a nice, strong coffee. Winston was sitting right across him, reading the newspaper. When he smelled the coffee, Winston folded the newspaper and looked at Ray, surprised. 'Whoa, Ray, my man! This must be the third mug you gulped down this morning.' Ray sipped the hot black beverage. 'I can't help it, Winston…I don't want to fall asleep in the middle of the job…' He took a hard, hot gulp of the coffee. 'Don't want to face the nightmares again…'

Winston chuckled. 'Geez, Ray. If you really want to stop dreaming, you won't get to anywhere.' Ray smirked. 'I tell you what, Ray; I saw this ad in the papers.' Winston unfolded the newspaper and opened the advertisement section. He shoved the bundle of papers to Ray, and pointed at a medical commercial. 'This sounds ridiculous, and I don't really believe in pills. But it might work for you…' The advertisement was about new medically-approved pills called Hypnocil, just arrived from a research hospital in Ohio. Ray read the short description, 'Assuring a good night's sleep…the pills tone down muscle reflexes during slumber…and…suppressing dreams?' Ray looked at Winston, full of curiosity and questions in his eyes.

'Hey, that's why I say, I don't believe in pills,' Winston said as he stood up and walked down the stairs, to tune up Ecto-1.

Ray went down to the garage. Winston was already under Ecto-1 – the ambulance-hearse that had helped them in every mission of ghost-busting – probably fixing a current leakage in the oil pipes. Janine was at her desk, reading a recent edition of Celebrity magazine while chewing her bubblegum. Peter was reading comics at his main office, as usual. Slimer was nowhere to be found. No calls came in today. Good. Ray grabbed his windbreaker and wore them as a protection to the cold, strong wind that indicated the coming of autumn. He walked towards the drugstore, in hopes of finding this Hypnocil.

The drugstore was just four blocks away from the firehouse. Ray decided to just walk instead of borrowing Ecto or Janine's pink buggy. On the way he thought about his quick action on this matter. What if the drug won't work? What if the drug provides me with a dangerous side-effect, which can probably infect the others? If it does work, how long would it take effect on my nightmares?

What if I die before it can even help me?

BUMP! Ray's body slightly changed its course to the left. 'Sorry…' Ray said with a smile to the gentleman he collided with, who unfortunately returned the smile with mumbles under his breathe, which somehow sounded like curses. Drowned in his deep thoughts, Ray didn't realize he was already in front of the huge but old pharmacy. He went in and was greeted by the whoosh of hot air from the heater. He took off his windbreaker and dangled it on his left arm. He walked through the aisles, searching for the sleeping pills section. Where is it?

'Can I help you, sir?' Ray jumped. The young pharmacist looked confused and his eyes told Ray he was sorry to frighten him all of the sudden. 'Oh, yes, yes…I…I am searching for a medical drug called…Hypnocil?' The word hummed like a joyful song in the pharmacist eardrums, and he grinned. 'Yes, sir. The drug just arrived in stock yesterday.' He walked down an aisle signed 'Depressants and Painkillers'. Ray followed him.

The pharmacist took down a glass jar full of pink pills from the second top shelf and handed Ray the jar. The label on the container clearly said 'Hypnocil'. 'Would that be all, sir? If so, do follow me up to the counter.' As Ray pursued the man, he asked, 'Is this drug safe?' The pharmacist, not answering Ray's question directly, opened up a slightly different conversation. 'Having nightmares, I presumed. Well, the drug do work on nightmares, keeps you away from bad things, bad memories...even bad men. You know, like…' He turned a bit towards Ray from his left. He formed a claw-like pose on his right hand and scraped the air. He made a clawing sound and then chuckled at his own stupid joke.

But Ray didn't take it as a joke. He didn't take it at all.

There was no fire alarm going off for the rest of the day. Another quiet one, no business done. It was a pretty usual day for not having any clients. Sometimes they didn't receive any spooky cases for a month. Hope this day wasn't the beginning of such boring weeks…

Egon was already in his bed, snoring. His spectacles were placed next to his pillow, glimmering in the bedroom light. 'Egon must be really tired, working on that machine for hours. He even skipped dinner,' said Winston to Peter, in a clear voice with an addition to a few swish-swash as he brushed his teeth. Peter wiped out the cold water from his face with a dry towel, 'Yeah, wonder what kind of destructor device he's working on…hey! Let go off the towel, Slimer!!' Slimer, the green friendly ghost just grabbed the other end of Peter's towel, wiped his face with it and left a slimy print of his own face on it. Slimer quickly flew out of the bathroom when Peter began to explode in rage.

Slimer went to the dining hall, and saw Ray swallowed a pill. 'What's that, Ray?' asked Slimer, although the question sounded like 'whas dat ayy?' in his usual tone of heavy and pitched noise mixed up. Ray drank the glass of water, finished it and smiled at the ghost. 'Just a sleeping pill, spud. Help me to sleep well.' Slimer exclaimed joyfully in gibberish words and flew into the bedroom to join the slumber party.

The others were already asleep on their beds in the dark room. Peter's analog clock was ticking on the counter through the silent night. A distant roaring of car engines sounded through the open window. But most of the ticking seconds, the sound drowned in another world; different from the ones you and I knew. So silent, so calm, so peaceful.

Ray glanced at the ceiling while listening to the sound of silence surrounding his vision and hearing distance. The drowsiness began to engulf him into another planet. The dark room became blacker. The small sounds became further away. One, two, three… Ray counted for the seconds according to the clock's fainting ticks. He closed his eyes fully, and relaxed his body onto the soft sheets of his bed. He breathed deeply while hugging a Stay Puft Marshmallow soft toy in his arms. Here it comes.

…nine, ten.