Abigail Yates, Erin Gilbert, Patricia Tolan, and Jillian Holtzmann ran as fast as they could into the apartment building, their proton packs ready, in hand. When they entered, they headed straight for the elevator. Once they reached it, both Abby and Erin reached for the button, but stopped when they noticed the other one going for it. "Oh, you can-" Erin began.
"No, no. You go." Abby said politely.
"You can-"
"How about someone just pushes the button?" Patty suggested with a sarcastic shrug of the shoulder.
"I'LL do it." Jillian leaned in and pushed it, the petite light bulb inside lit up and when she pulled back she looked to Erin and Abby who tried to pretend like nothing happened. Erin's eyes quickly looked to Holtzmann and she accidentally pictured her in the dream she was having before Abby interrupted. When Gilbert noticed Jillian still looking at her from the button incident, she awkwardly smiled at the blonde and quickly averted her eyes, waiting for the elevator doors to open.
After a few seconds, there was still no sign of the machine cooperating with their hasty situation and Abby rolled her eyes. "Ugh! How is it taking so long? We're the only ones in here!" She whined before feeling Patty grabbing her arm and pulling her to the right.
"Come on! Let's just take the stairs." Tolan ran toward the staircase, the other three women followed with audible sighs.
Feeling the sweat on her forehead, Erin blew a slow breath of air out of her mouth and she stopped for a second to catch her breath. "No. Come on." Holtzmann, coming up from behind her, put a hand on her back. "Let's go." Erin looked at her with, what seemed to be, a hint of an admirable grin. "Come on." Jillian patted the brunette's shoulder and continued up the stairs, passing Erin. Gilbert couldn't help but watch her catch up to Patty and Abby in front of them and she barely shrugged before taking in a deep breath and beginning to run again.
When Patty and Abby reached the fourth floor before the other two, they turned the first corner, surprised to see one of the building's tenants laying face down on the floor. They ran around him and continued to run down the hall, unaware that the other two were a few strides behind them. At the top of the stairs, Jillian waited for Erin to reach the top before letting her go ahead of her and running around the corner themselves. Erin ran with so much momentum, she didn't even notice the face down man as she widely turned to run down the hall towards Kevin's apartment. Holtzmann, however with her awkward run, took a sharp turn around the corner. Not seeing the guy on the ground, she tripped over him but got up as fast as possible and continuing to run. She pretended she did not see all three of the other Ghostbusters turn and see her small body spread across the unconscious man's, but she knew they did and she caught up to them as if nothing happened.
As she approached the group, Gilbert faintly asked, "Are you okay?"
"Oh yeah." She nodded, ignoring the pain in her right knee. "I'm good." The grip she had on her proton gun tightened and she turned to Patty and Abby. "Let's do this!" She shouted, facing Kevin's, now door-less, apartment.
The four of them had their guns in hand as they began to slowly walk through the entrance. They stepped over broken glass and looked around the apartment for any sign of Kevin or Sarah. "Do you hear that?" Erin suddenly whispered to the other three.
"Hm?" Abby's ears perked up.
"What?" Patty looked around as she tried to listen more intently.
It was silent for a moment as they strained to hear anything. Nothing. "I don't hear anything." Jillian shook her head.
"Shh..." Erin put a hand up and looked down to the floor to listen harder. "There! Did you hear it?"
Holtz and Abby looked to each other, shaking their heads and Patty shrugged her shoulders. "I don't hear nothin.'"
"Sh. Sh." Gilbert listened once more with her eyes closed and she turned, running out of Kevin's apartment and to the one beside it. Jill, Pat, and Abby followed with uncertainty and stopped right outside the closed door with Erin. They all put their ears next to the door. "It sounds like..." Abby began.
"Crying." Patty finished.
Erin nodded as if to say 'I told you so' and they all looked around at each other wondering what to do. The tallest of the four shrugged again before putting her dark hand on the doorknob and attempting to open it. It was locked. "Still got that swiss army knife Holtzmann gave you?" Abby nodded to Gilbert who reached into her pocket to pull out the red weapon.
"You mean this one?" She asked in an unintentional flirtatious tone while looking at the short blonde beside her. Holtz felt herself blushing.
Yates grabbed the device from her and opened to one of the blades. She grimaced at the knife, not too proud of what she was about to do and leaned over, picking the lock. "Abby!" Patty exclaimed. "You know how to pick locks?" Tolan was shocked.
"It's not something I'm proud of."
"Really, Abs?" Erin scolded. "That's how you got into my apartment tonight, isn't it?"
Jillian's face lit up and her mouth lay open as she smiled, flicking her tongue to the side of her mouth in amusement. When the door opened, Erin and Patty looked to each other and shook their heads at their friend. Even though she was quite ashamed of herself, Abigail smirked as she watched the door slowly open. When they looked into, what they assumed was Sarah's apartment, they were shocked to see the whole of the apartment so dark and they felt a cold chill when they walked in. "Kevin?" Abby called out, walking slightly ahead of the other three. They continued to hear the cries and upon approaching the small living room, they found Sarah laying in the middle of the floor, knocked out. "Gosh, that's weird." Abby whispered.
"What?" Patty wondered.
"I thought she was the one crying." Yates said.
"Yeah, so?" All three of the others just looked at her in confusion.
"If she's unconscious and we still hear crying...that means it's Kevin."
"Oh." Erin and Patty said in unison while Holtzmann awkwardly nodded with a bit of a chuckle.
"Wait, sh." Abby was now the one shushing everyone. She turned her body toward one of the two bedroom doors. "It's coming from over here." She walked over to the door and the others followed. "Mary Anne?" Abby knocked on the door before slowly opening it. She called for the woman who had apparently died the year before.
As the door was finally all the way open, it revealed Kevin pacing around the room. At one point, he stopped and put a hand on the wall as if feeling its texture, then began pacing again all the while he was still sobbing. Abby put a foot in the door to enter the room, but the moment she crossed the threshold, Kevin's crying stopped and he angrily turned to face the four women. "You! This is your fault!"
"Mary Anne, is that you?" Abby said with a soft tone, trying not to disturb the spirit inside of their receptionist.
He...or she started crying again. "And now she's all alone."
"Hey, um...we don't know who you're talking about, but if you'd just get out of our friend and tell us, we could help yo-"
"NO!" Came an eerily loud shriek. "You've done enough!" Patty and Erin, and even Jillian, felt shivers down their spines. "I have to find her. I have to go find her."
"We'll help you find her." Abby suggested. "Who is sh-" Before she could even finish, the ghost inside of Kevin allowed the human body it possessed to supernaturally break the window in the room and fly out of it. All four women watched in amazement before turning to look at each other and wonder what had just happened. Abby and Holtzmann ran over to the look out at the city while Patty and Erin went back to the living room to see if they could help Sarah, who was slowly waking.
The young, red-haired girl, in about her mid-twenties, put a hand on the back of her head as she slowly sat up. "Ugh!" She expressed her pain. "Where did it go?" She asked about the apparition.
"We don't know." Patty replied, helping her up.
"You alright?" Erin wondered.
"I think I have a concussion." She admitted, wobbling a bit when she finally stood.
"There's an ambulance outside. We'll take you down there." Patricia held onto the woman's arm as both she and Erin assisted in the girl's walking.
Abby and Jillian rejoined them in the living room and they all headed for the door. When they turned to head toward the stairs, they saw the man they had passed sitting up and leaning against the wall. "Ugh!" He exclaimed. "I feel like I got body slammed."
"Yeah, that was probably from getting uh...trampled by the panic of people running out of the building." Holtzmann tried to cover up the time she tripped over him and she ignored the looks she received from her coworkers.
Shaking her head at her best friend, Patty asked him, "Can you stand?"
"Yeah. Yeah. I think so." He used the wall as an anchor to get up and when he did, he blinked a few times, hoping to get rid of the head rush he felt after standing and soon he was fine enough to walk down to the paramedics with the others.
