Chapter 19: The Last Thread

The final crews had finally left the warehouse for the day. Madame Holly walked the floors of the concrete storage facility she owned with her purse on her shoulder as she looked at the damage the building sustained. She looked to the floor and found some of the blood that was under a fallen girder. The blood had blackened on the lime that laid the floor. She walked the floors of the masonry with no protective gear on; the machinery used for the various processes to make the companies products available to the public had been shut down. She looked at the blood, knelt down, and then looked to the girder.

Someone had to be taken to the hospital. She was having this odd sense of conflict within her about the days events. She did cause the earthquake after all, but she was feeling… odd about it. The worker that was hurt had a clean record for both work safety and professional conduct. She started to feel a terrible sense come on. Her heart started to pump ever so much quicker as the feeling started to creep up her spine.

She felt flushed. She put her hand to her temple and closed her eyes. She quickly stood as she moaned.

"He had a family. You did, too."

"Shut up!" the woman yelled out.

"Things don't have to be this way."

"They're never gonna be the same as they were!" she yelled to the darkness. Her voice became more soft, "Especially after what I did."

"True," the voice spoke, "but you know this isn't how..." Holly had taken out a flask from her purse, and took a swig of whatever was inside. Once again, the voice had gone silent. The creeping feeling she had crawling up her spine had subsided as well. Taking her free hand she put her hand onto her forehead, breathing slowly as she could. She took a deep breath as she spoke, "I can't go back," a tear escaped her eyes. She quickly cleared them from her eyes as looked to the greater spaces of the warehouse, "I can't go back. No one will forget it."

"Forget what, my Gydje?" Holly turned around to find Matthew standing behind her, quickly placing her flask into her purse. Matthew - silver hair still slicked back as the night before - stood before his priest with a look of confusion on his face. She quickly looked away from him as she made an attempt to regain her composure, "I played the First Stanza, as you most likely know. From here, we have to continue forward," she looked to her second as she started speaking again, "Have you found the Second Stanza?"

"Yes, Madame Holly," the man spoke with a level of even temperament, "but there is a great deal of guard being placed on the Museum awaiting the reveil, so it'll be some time before we can get the Final Stanza. It won't be like the New York Community College where that incompetent Draugr destroying the gymnasium alerted a great deal of people to the situation. Not mentioning the rampage he caused going for the third relic."

"I asked about the Second Stanza, Matthew," the woman growled, "what about that Stanza?"

"As I said," a small amount of worry in his tenor, "we found it. There is a complication."

"Complication?" the brunette's gray eyes began to burn holes into the man. He didn't like the look or the tone of voice. Nevertheless, the man stood firm before her, "Yes. Come to find the previous owner of the scroll that contains the spell… had transported the scroll into a separate dimension several centuries ago." Holly's eyes had narrowed. She took the flask from her purse again as he continued, "The only way to obtain the scroll is by an old tome which contains the incantation in which to get it back."

Holly opened the top of the device and took a drink. The annoyance was starting to etch into her face hard as she looked at him, "And who has the tome?"

Gracie Square Hospital

5:46 PM

Dan, Lita, and Eduardo stayed in the guest waiting area as they waited for Cindy and Scotty to pay their visit. The hospital was in chaos from all the injuries that the earthquake caused that day, so the three Ghostbusters stayed out of the way of the hospital staff the only way they could. Lita was especially unnerved about the building. She sat fidgeting in her seat as though she didn't want to be there. Eduardo had a cup of coffee in his hand as he looked out the window of the room, "Man, I hate these places," he took a sip of the bitter hot drink, face twisting into a look of disgust. Soon after he dropped the paper cup into the trash can, "Mostly because they make crap coffee."

"What ya want?" Dan responded, "Shit's liquid concentrate. It's just a slurry made of instant coffee crystals with very small amounts of water."

Eduardo turned toward his fellow Ghostbuster, eyebrow raised, "Okay, why is it you know these things?"

"I used to fix different kinds of coffee makers before I worked here the first time," the man stood from his seat, "That crap was a nightmare to clean up after it dried in the tubes." Dan looked to Lita who was actively biting her nails. Using his link with her, he felt something was deeply wrong. He had always suspected Lita could turn on and off their empathic link when she wanted to be alone, but he always theorized if she was in extreme distress it would establish a link without her input. He was sensing her being stressed out, "Lita, you alright?"

Lita looked to the man before her. She quickly averted her eyes and pulled her fingers away from her mouth. The sudden action caused her to blush again, "I hate hospitals."

Eduardo responded crassly, "You and me both, chica." Dan looked to his partner, "Eduardo?"

"Yeah, Dan?"

"Shut up."At that moment Cindy had walked into the waiting room and looked to Dan, "Mr. Shannon?" He looked toward her as the others came to his side, "Yeah?" "DyTyllio's ready to talk. Come with me." She turned to leave. Dan looked to the others then started forward following. They walked the halls a short distance until they reached the room. Cindy stopped short of grabbing the door handle, then turned to the Ghostbusters, "Understand, his condition is rather advanced. Please try not to upset him."

"Mrs. Whittington," Dan started, "I can't guarantee I won't. From what Egon told us…" he couldn't finish the sentence. He didn't have to. Cindy sighed, "I know." She cracked the door open. Inside, Scotty was sitting in a chair beside a lone hospital bed. In the bed was a short disfigured man with white hair. The two of them were playing on two linked Game Boys; sounds of Pokemon echoing around the room. Cindy called out, "Scotty, Honey?"

"Hold on, mom," the boy called out. He had not once glanced away from his Game Boy's screen, "We gotta duel goin' on here!" Dan looked over the woman's shoulder, then looked back to Eduardo, "Geez, it's like you and Garrett when the call alarm's going off." "What's that supposed to mean, man?" Eduardo crossed his arms in indignance. "You start that damn PlayStation, you two tune everything else out."

"Scotty!" The woman became firm. The boy looked away from the game to his mother. He saw the look on her face and knew, "Sorry, Uncle DyTyllio."

"Oh, that's okay, Scotty," the older man said in a mildly British accent, "Go on; we'll continue again another day." The boy looked to him and nodded his head. He took the cable along with his Game Boy and placed them in his backpack before heading toward the door. Before leaving the old man's side, he turned back and hugged him, "I love you, Uncle DyTyllio."

Lita saw that and placed her hand over her mouth. The scene was severely distressing her. Dan's empathic sense went off again as he immediately looked at her, "Lita, what's wrong?" She backed up and looked as though she was about to cry, hand still over her mouth. She shook her head and ran back toward the waiting room. Dan called out after her softly, "Lita?!" "What's wrong with her?" Eduardo was just as confused watching the woman run from the hospital room. Dan sighed, "We'll have to find out later. In the meantime..." Scotty had finally exited the room and stood beside his mother. Cindy spoke, "We'll leave you to your discussion. We'll be waiting in the guest waiting area." Dan nodded, then turned his attention to the room, Eduardo following after.

The disfigured elderly man placed his Game Boy into the drawer of his nightstand as the two men walked into the semi-darkened room. He looked up and saw them just off the side of the bed, the blonde man speaking first, "DyTyllio, I presume?"

"Yes, Mr. Shannon," DyTyllio closed the drawer and sat upright in his bed, "Cindy had told me some of Dr. Spengler's associates wished to speak to me. I, of course, know of you through Scotty. You as well, Mr. Rivera." As DyTyllio spoke, an inflection of humble character projected in his somewhat meak voice. It was a kindly voice… a fearful voice. He looked toward his feet covered by the bedsheets, "Knowing what has happened today, you wish to know what Master Jeremy knew."

"From what Mrs. Whittington told us, you were with Jeremy as he researched the recorder," Dan was actively trying not to use certain words. Not only was he trying not to upset DyTyllio as Cindy had requested, but it made him rather unnerved himself using such language, "We just need an idea on where you went to find information."

"If you want to know how to obtain the recorder," the old man looked to the two of them with his good eye, "I'm afraid there isn't much I know. Master Jeremy made strides in not letting anyone know what he learned."

"But you were with him!" Dan was rather perturbed, "You have to know something!"

"I'm afraid not, Mr. Shannon. After we destroyed the last direct copy of the whole incantation," he again looked back to his feet, "we never spoke of what happened again. Even when I tried to bring it up, Master Jeremy would shut down. He felt an incredible guilt for trying to destroy the world. It was a power no man was ever meant to have, and he believed even talking about it would doom the world again."

"Look, cuaderno, you stay quiet and there won't be a world!" Eduardo suddenly had not only DyTyllio's eyes on him, but Dan's. Dan wanted to give the man a scowl, but something compelled him not to. Likewise, Eduardo was intent on continuing, "Someone is obviously playing the Yanni songs of death out there, so either someone found another copy of the sheet music, or there's another way this is happening."

DyTyllio looked away and grabbed the sides of his head and closed his eyes, "I don't know! It's too horrible to think about!"

"Would you tell me?" Everyone in the room turned to the door and found Lita standing in the doorway. She very slowly walked in and approached the bed. Dan approached her and spoke softly to her, "Are you okay now?" The young woman looked to him and nodded. She then proceeded to continue her way to DyTyllio's bed. She knelt beside him, that mother-like air returning to her as she spoke softly, "Please, DyTyllio? We need to know if there was another way so we can stop it."

The deformed bed-ridden old man looked to the young woman beside his bed and saw how she had fear and innocence in her eyes. He averted his eyes and sighed. He sat in silence for a moment or two, "Master Jeremy once said there were two ways to obtain the recorder. The method he was rather fond of was imbuement of the power the dark entity possessed. That way he didn't need to sacrifice anyone."

Dan's eyes suddenly went wide, "Sacrifice?"

"Yes," the man continued, "It warped his persona instead - the law of exchange needed to use the power."

"Wait a minute, man," Eduardo had a quiver of worry in his voice, "does the other method use…" the Latino man looked to the man beside him, Dan exchanging a look back, then looking back to DyTyllio, "Human sacrifice?"

"Yes, it does. Jeremy, although distrought, didn't want to murder people to gain the power. An exchange had to be agreed upon with the other side before use of the power could be granted. The recorder has the power to destroy, but also has the capability to grant life."

Eduardo whistled in amazement, "That's a helluva flute!"

"The sacrifice method allowed the person in control of the recorder to have clear autonomy to proceed as they wished. Destroy or live. Master Jeremy was not the first to have the recorder, but was the first to ask the dark entity to imbue the power unto him. Because part of his soul had to be exchanged to gain its power, the dark entity influenced Master Jeremy to destroy the world. He didn't look at it as control because it was what he wanted as well. I had hoped there was at least a bit of humanity left in him, all the way to the end," a tear formed in the corner of the man's eye, "It took me giving up to finally give Master Jeremy the humanity to stop the madness."

Lita reached into the bed and took the old man's hand, "We know what happened; Egon told us." DyTyllio looked to the woman's hand on his, then looked to her with surprise. The look of innocence and fear had yet to subside, "You may have very well saved us again, DyTyllio."

"Not yet, Lita." Lita turned to Dan as he spoke, "We still have a problem: we don't know where the parts of the Symphony of Destruction are. You had to have had an idea on where the parts of the music are, right?"

"That was the other reason Master Jeremy went with imbuement. The entity gave him all the Stanzas of the Symphony as well as the other musical incantations for the recorder telepathically. Imbuement was the easy way out."

"Shit," Dan put his head into his hand as he crossed his other arm across his chest, "that drops us back at square one."

"Not necessarily," Dan removed his head from his hand and looked to Eduardo whom had an inquisitive look on his face.

Walking out of the hospital room, Eduardo had his hand on his chin stroking his goatee. It was an odd look on his face; he was actively thinking something through. "What ya thinkin', Eddie?" "Someone obviously found one of these things already. They also managed to play it which means they have that flute thing. If the one way to get it is gone, that means someone was sacrificed."

"Oh, hell," Dan spoke with a heavy voice, "You're right," he looked to Eduardo more attentively, "Do you think we should look for missing persons?" Eduardo took his hand from his goatee and crossed his arms, head still tilted down thinking intently. Dan had never seen Eduardo look so serious before, "I donno, man. I don't like it. I might have to talk to Manny about it."

"Who's Manny?"

"My brother's partner. He might be more willing than Carlos to help, considering."

Dan rubbed the back of his neck, "We still have to find the parts of the song. Didn't get much to figure out where to start."

"You think Egon could find these Stanzas with a meter?" Everyone looked to Lita as she made the suggestion, "I mean, they're mythical, right?"

"Maybe," Dan said with a half nod, "with what just happened, we might be able to…" that was when his radio crackled, "HQ to Shannon." The team heard Egon's voice ring over the device's speaker. Dan pulled the radio from his belt and responded, "Shannon here. Go ahead." "What's your status?"

"We got a decent cache of info, but we have some disturbing things we're gonna need to go over." After a moment, the radio crackled again, "Very well. Report back to the firehouse and we'll begin pooling information."

"Copy, HQ. Shannon out," He placed the radio back on his belt, "Alright, kids, field trips over. Back to the schoolhouse. We'll drop off the Whittingtons on the way." Dan and Eduardo began walking back toward the waiting area. "Guys, wait!" The two of them stopped and turned to their female compatriot, "Can I have a few minutes? Please?" There it was again; Dan was feeling his empathic sense picking up Lita's emotional state. Almost without missing a beat, "Take all the time you need." He turned and headed toward the waiting area once again. Eduardo was a little surprised like he missed something. He looked at Lita, then turned to Dan to notice he was already a ways down the hallway. Eduardo took a double take and started after Dan at a hastened pace.

Lita watched as they walked away. She then turned to the hospital door. She brought her clenched hand to her chest and then proceeded to walk back into the room. She saw that DyTyllio had swung his feet to the window side of the bed and faced said window, looking outside to the dimming light of the late day summer sky. She walked up to the foot of the bed looking outside the same as him for a moment. She looked to the old man and kept her gaze on him for some time. He felt her eyes on him, "What seems to trouble you, child?"

She averted her eyes in shame realizing what she was doing. She started to stutter, "I-I'm sorry, I didn't…" "It's okay, dear girl," DyTyllio looked over to her with a weathered smile, "I am quite used to it. Do you wish to join me?" The small man scooted over on his own bed to give Lita a place to sit. Lita looked to the man. She felt no ill will or offense on his body language. Lita slowly approached the side of the bed and sat on the edge of it beside him. They looked to the orange sky just outside of the building as they sat in silence.

"Oh, how beautiful this world is," Lita looked to DyTyllio as he looked wayward to the outside of the building, "I cannot believe how in the darkness, we can still see some light in this world. Sometimes, it takes a very powerful light to see it. Others, you have to be the light. The human spirit is quite resilient." He turned to the young woman beside him again as he spoke to her, "You are new to this team of Ghostbusters, aren't you?"

Without looking at DyTyllio, she nodded her head. She was the one that wanted to be in this position, but she was rather timid about being beside this man. She wanted to say something, but there was this… wall… blocking her train of thought. Being with Jeremy and Cindy as long as he had, DyTyllio had learned many of the subtle nuances that came with watching two people who had lived with love… loss… "Mr. Shannon," he began, turning back toward the window, "he reminds me a lot of Master Jeremy. From some of the things I had read of this new team, he has this terrible darkness he is trying to suppress. He is a man that believes so hard in goodness, it only takes but one event to destroy that belief," he turned to the Japanese woman beside him, her feeling his eyes on her and the two of them turning toward each other, "May I ask your name, young lady?"

"Lita," she squeaked out, "Lita Kino."

"I see he cares for you very much. You're a very kind soul, that much I can see. It's what holds him at a balance," he sighed as he looked back to the window, "The both of you are in pain. Your lives have gone in ways the average person wouldn't understand. There's a terrible secret, or untold pain, that makes you wish to speak to me."

Lita had squeezed her eyes closed again, her facing the window. She tried to calm herself as what was going through her mind came to the forefront, "Yes."

"A family member?" he asked in a soothing, but concerned voice.

"Yes," Lita was holding her breath in short bursts trying to suppress the feeling she was having.

"I remind you of them?"

"My grandfather!" she croaked out, tears were streaming down her cheeks. Ever since it happened, she had done nothing but cry, but these last few days were the worst of it.

"Please, child," DyTyllio asked kindly, "tell me."