'Houses are not haunted. We are haunted, and regardless of the architecture with which we surround ourselves, our ghosts stay with us until we ourselves are ghosts.' - Dean Koontz
'This means he's back.' Holtzman said, looking into Abby's eyes, studying the worry on her face. 'This...' she waved the paper around. 'Means he knows where I am.'
'Who are we talking about here?' Erin asked, breaking the eye lock Abby and Holtzman were sharing.
'I think we need to tell them.' Abby suggested.
'Oh, you think!' Patty exclaimed. 'I'll make the coffee, give you a minute to get your heads straight.' She said, walking down to the kitchen. 'Erin!' She called after. 'I could use a hand.' Erin looked to Abby who nodded.
'We'll be down in a second.' She assured her, Erin walking after Patty. Abby turned back to Holtzman. 'Okay?' Abby put her hands on her friends shoulders. 'This is okay.'
'It's not okay Abby, it's the farthest thing from okay, Erin releasing all of our captured ghosts would be more okay than this!' She panicked.
'You just need to breathe and calm down, alright.' Abby rubbed her shoulders. 'You're safe here, with us. We just need to tell them...'
'Everything, yeah, I know.' Holtzman nodded. 'We can do that.'
'No jokes?' Abby wondered smiling.
'No... not yet.' Holtzman let out a breath. 'After they know, I'll make jokes.'
'Good.' Abby squeezed her shoulders. 'Let's get down there.'
-x-
Patty put a tray of four coffee mugs onto the table in front of them before sitting down next to Holtzman. She was fiddling with the hem of her coat and tapping her foot frantically on the floor. Abby put a hand on her knee to stop the motion, giving her an encouraging nod. 'So, did anyone catch the game last night?' She asked, smiling.
'No we did not, and neither did you.' Erin said. 'Tell us about code forty-four.'
'Ah, that. That was a, not so proud moment in my life.'
'Do you want me to start?' Abby offered. Holtzman nodded.
'Alright.' Abby began. 'Back when we were struggling scientists at the university there was a third member of our team.'
'You never told me that?' Erin said.
'He wasn't worth talking about.'
'Until now.' Patty said, Abby nodding.
'His name was Nathan Grant. He was a little older, a little more experienced, and we really needed help back then.' Abby said.
'He was brilliant.' Holtzman said, not looking away from her hands.
'That's true, but he was also... slightly unhinged.' Abby added.
'Unhinged?' Patty looked at them. 'Like, Holtzman unhinged or...'
'Worse. Holtzy is the good kind. This guy was just insane.' Abby said. 'We didn't know it at first, he seemed nice and helpful, but then things started getting weird.'
'Weird how?' Erin asked.
'He became... obsessed, with Holtzy.'
'I have that effect on people.' Holtzman shrugged.
'No, this guy took it to another level.' Abby said. 'They were working on a project together and it began getting too dangerous. They were playing with materials and things were exploding at every turn.'
'What else is new?' Patty winked at Holtzman who smiled back.
'It was too much even for me.' Holtzman admitted. 'I mean, I know I'm crazy, and I blow a lot of stuff up. But the chemicals he was mixing could have potentially caused... well, the end of the world.'
'Damn.' Patty exclaimed. 'Seriously?'
'He was everything I could have been, if Abby hadn't found me.' Jillian admitted.
'So when Holtzy told him that they should stop, he got really mad.' Abby continued. 'He completely trashed our lab and destroyed our other research.'
'He threw a FLIR Thermal Imaging camera at me.' Holtzman said. 'Hit me square in the head and it broke in half.'
'Jesus.' Erin said. 'We're you okay?'
'A few stitches.' Holtzman shrugged. 'But the poor camera was no more. Those things are expensive too.'
'After that, we called the police, I fired him and he went to prison for a little while.' Abby said. 'When he got out he came back.'
'He wanted me to help him finish what he started.' Holtzman said, picking up her coffee. 'And I refused. That was what finally pushed him over the edge.'
'He was basically Holtzmans stalker for the next year until we could convince the police to give her a restraining order.'
'Why wouldn't they do it sooner?' Patty wondered.
'He wasn't doing anything that bad.' Holtzman said.
'Apart from scaring the crap out of you.' Abby reminded her.
'Ah, yes. And I don't scare easy, as you know.'
'Then what happened?' Erin prompted.
'Then, we never heard from him again. We thought it was over.' Abby admitted.
'And now he's back.' Holtzman sipped her coffee.
'You realise you still haven't explained code forty-four?' Patty reminded them.
'Code forty-four was the name of the project we were working on.' Holtzman said.
'The project you refused to continue with.' Erin said.
'That's the one. It would have created a portal into other dimensions. If we could have harnessed enough energy, and focused it through one tiny point we, theoretically, could have ripped a hole through the dimensions. This would have been independent of lay-line power and it would have opened a gate to more worlds than we thought possible.'
'There was one problem with this plan though.' Abby said. 'Holtz, explain.'
'Yes, so the amount of power we would need to generate would have been too much. It would have opened the portal but it would have effectively pulled the world in on itself, resulting in...'
'Catastrophe.' Abby finished. 'The world would have been destroyed.'
'That's some intense shit man.' Patty said. 'I'm glad you opted out of that one Holtzy.'
'As am I.' She agreed. 'Now though, it would seem, Nathan is back.'
'And we need to be on guard.' Abby ordered. 'He obviously knows where Holtzman works and we can probably assume he knows about all of us.'
'I think we should all stay here together for a while, and Kevin too.' Erin suggested.
'That's a good idea.' Abby agreed.
'There's not much else we can do about it right? We don't know where he is or what he's doing.' Patty wondered. 'Do you think he's asking for your help again Holtz?'
'No, we crossed that crumbling, rickety bridge back then. He knows I wont help.'
'So what is the message for?' Erin asked.
'It's a warning.' Holtzman told them. 'He's telling me he's going to try again, without me.' She stood up and started pacing. 'We need to stop him.'
'How? As Patty said, we don't even know where he is.' Abby reminded her.
'I know how we can contact him.' Holtzman said.
'How?' Erin put her coffee down on the tray and sat forwards in her seat.
'He has a strong online presence. On the dark net.' She told them and Abby immediately shut her down.
'No, you are not doing that.' She said strongly.
'Doing what?' Patty asked, confused.
'Before I found Holtzy she was a player on the dark net. She was the queen of physics and any bad guy with a physics related problem would come to her.'
'Bad guys have physics related problems?' Patty said.
'They're more common than you think.' Holtzman told them. 'So I was kind of a bad guy.'
'A bad guy, please.' Abby snorted. 'You were a puppy dog compared to most of the people in that world.'
'True, which is why I was ever so glad of your timely rescue.' Holtzman smiled. 'But the point is, I know Nathan has a handle on the dark net and I can use my old screen name to contact him.'
'You know that only works if he is still on the dark net.' Erin said.
'Yes I am aware.' Holtzman continued pacing.
'No!' Abby stood up. The others turned to her with shocked faces. 'You are not putting yourself back there Holtzy, I won't allow it.'
'But...' She started, only for Abby to hold up her hands.
'For now we just have to lay low. We watch each other's backs, and Kevin's, and we try and see this thing out.'
'He might not let Holtzy pass on this one Abby.' Patty warned.
'Then we deal with it when we have to.' She sighed. 'We are not going to seek him out. I mean that Jillian.'
'Okay, fine.' She conceded. 'But if he really is trying to destroy the world, we have to do something.'
'I know. Just not now.' Abby walked over to Holtzy and hugged her. 'I can't loose you.' Holtzman wrapper her arms around her friend and held on.
'You wont.' She whispered, before feeling the arms of the rest of the ghostbusters. They stood like that for a long time before Abby finally broke them up.
'As much fun as this group hug is...' She began. 'We still have work to do.'
'Just give us a moment.' Patty said, eyes closed in embrace. Holtzman and Abby exchanged a look.
'Is this a bad time to tell you I left my Bunsen burner alight?' Holtzman said, all of them immediately pulling away.
'Why do you have a Bunsen burner?' Erin asked.
'They fascinate me.' Holtzman said before bounding up the stairs back to her lab. The rest of the Ghostbusters looked at each other.
'Should we be worried?' Erin asked.
'Definitely.' Abby confirmed.
'Don't worry Abs, we got your backs.' Patty put a hand on her shoulder. 'Nothing is gonna stop us from protecting each other.' Abby smiled as they heard a crash from upstairs. Then a shout;
'So it turns out the Bunsen burner wasn't the problem.' They heard Holtzman yell.
'That child, I swear.' Patty laughed, traipsing up the stairs to help.