Happy Friday the 13th, ya'll! Felt like I needed to post because I've been doing a crummy job of it lately. I know it's probably a little longer than some of the more recent stuff I've written, but I hope that won't be a problem! Enjoy! :)
"…What makes you think it'll work this time?" Keira chanced to ask as she once more lay on the Ghostbusters' couch in the lab in a change of blue jeans and a light blue t shirt. She watched as Ray and Egon darted back and forth setting things up for their postponed experiment. Peter then leaned over the arm of the couch, his nose almost touching Keira's as she stared up at the ceiling, surprised.
"What do you say I take you away from all this? Me and you can run away from these madmen…together." He said softly. Keira rolled her eyes and he smirked as he kissed her forehead.
"Hey-!" She exclaimed as she moved to slap him. He leapt out of the way, laughing as she glared at him amusedly.
"Okay Keira, ready?" Ray asked as he once more placed the spots on her temples.
Keira settled back into position with her head resting against the arm of the couch and closed her eyes. She winced in anticipation, then opened her eyes when nothing happened.
Ray was still kneeling next to the couch, watching her carefully. She blinked up at him confusedly.
"Did it work?" She asked. He smirked and then looked back at Egon who was still busily typing things into his computer. Peter's laughter echoed from somewhere across the room.
"We…haven't started yet." Ray said, ignoring Venkman's over-exaggerated laughs.
"Oh." She said as she felt herself exhale in relief. Ray smiled and then his face turned serious again.
"Okay, this is what we want you to do. Instead of what we were intending to do earlier, we're going to try to lure Lucille out again. To do that, we're gonna need you to-"
"Wait, what?!" Keira started as she moved to sit up. She could hear Egon's computer beep shrilly as her heart rate jumped slightly. Egon looked back at her and raised an eyebrow.
"Relax. That's all we need you to do - just relax. You told us that the first few times she took over, she did it while you were asleep. Maybe if you calm down and you know…surrender to her…" Ray said slowly. Keira shook her head quickly.
"No - you can't ask me to do this…I can't…you don't know what she might do!" She argued fearfully. Ray rested his hands on her shoulders and eased her back against the arm of the couch. She cringed as she realized that Lucille was watching from the back part of her mind, her frigid presence giving her away.
"Keira, please trust me. I've told you before that we can handle anything she can throw at us." Ray said gently. Keira opened her blue eyes and looked up at his reassuring gaze. She felt some of her fear dissipate as she stared into his eyes and she managed a small smile.
No they can't.
"No you can't." Keira whispered to Ray as her smile fell. She winced as Lucille's cold laugh caused a shiver to run down her spine. Ray turned back to Egon who signaled that he was finally ready to start the test.
"You'll be fine, Keira. I promise." Ray said as he kept up his reassuring smile.
Men and their false promises.
Keira inhaled deeply as she closed her eyes and tried to loosen up the worry that was like a heavy weight in her chest. Lucille's anticipation mixed with Keira's fearful thoughts as she focused on relaxing her body.
As she stared at the darkness of her closed eyes waiting in silence for Lucille to make her move, she could hear Egon typing occasionally at his computer and Ray talking quietly to him and Peter. The longer she lay there, the more worried she felt. She still felt sorry for Lucille and what had happened to her those years ago, but she was also afraid of what it would take to make the ghost leave.
Oh, I'm not going anywhere.
Keira's body went completely still and she fought to open her eyes to escape the frigid cold that ran through her veins.
Ray-! Peter-! Somebody!
Keira's mouth didn't move either as she tried to alert the Ghostbusters of the sudden change. Lucille's presence clouded Keira's frantic mental cries and she felt herself fall deeper into blackness.
She was no longer in control.
"I think she's asleep." Peter said quietly as he stepped closer to the other two Ghostbusters at the equipment table. Ray turned around from the computer he and Egon had been staring at.
"Keira?" He muttered softly. She didn't move, save for the slow rise and fall of her chest as she breathed. Ray frowned.
"Everything appears to be normal…" Egon said as he flipped through the computer thoughtfully.
"What's going on?" Winston asked quietly as he entered the room with a clipboard, having been busy down in the basement checking out the containment unit. He noticed Keira seemingly asleep on the couch and instantly looked apologetically at the other three Ghostbusters. They all looked back at the unconscious girl, holding their breath but after a moment they realized there had been no change because of Winston's unintentional outburst.
"We're good." Ray said softly as Winston set the clipboard on the desk next to Egon's arm.
"Everything's fine with the containment unit. It's getting a little drafty down there though, don't know it that means anything or not." Winston muttered. Egon shrugged.
"It has to stay cool down there so the unit doesn't overheat. I'll go check it out when we're finished here." He replied.
"So…what are we doing here?" Winston asked, interested.
"We're trying to get Lucille to resurface again so that we can confront her properly. Egon and I thought letting her deal with her problems on her own would have been a little safer for Keira, but since she didn't show up when her old fiancé came in, we're going to try something else." Ray explained as he once more looked down at Keira.
"What 'something else' is that? Should we get a pack ready?" Winston asked, eyeing the proton packs where they lay on a table in the corner of the room. Egon shook his head.
"Lucille seemed to understand what she was up against before and that we had her contained pretty well. We were able to get a little bit of information out of her before Keira once more took control." Egon said.
"That doesn't answer my question. What are you doing to her?" Winston asked, worried about Keira who looked slightly paler than usual.
"We're monitoring her brain activity to see if we can sense when Lucille switches with Keira. So far, there hasn't been anything out of the ordinary." Ray said. Peter scoffed.
"Yeah, nothing out of the ordinary, save for four creepy guys watching her sleep." Peter said as he leaned against Egon's work table. Winston laughed quietly in agreement and crossed his arms to watch the experiment.
"Why do you care about this girl anyway, Ray?" Peter asked after a few minutes. Ray looked absently away from the computer, resting his gaze on Keira.
"I…I feel bad that we kind of ruined her life. It's because of us that she was possessed in the first place. And then she lost her fiancé this morning, and she'll probably lose her job too if this goes on any longer." Ray said slowly. Peter glanced at the ground silently, Ray's words bringing up painful memories of his own.
"You didn't really start liking her 'til after she got possessed, though. How do you know if it's really Keira you've got a crush on and not the ghost?" Peter said jokingly. Ray flashed him an irritated glance but then smiled halfheartedly.
The screen suddenly changed. Instead of the slow, rhythmic monitor that was representing Keira's brain waves, the line went flat. Egon glanced at another screen where her heart rate was shown to have also dropped.
"Ray-" Egon said warningly, but Ray was way ahead of him. He rushed to Keira's side and took her hand in his as he raised his other to her face and gently slapped it.
"Keira, we need you to wake up now." He said. There was no reaction from the unconscious girl. Ray wildly looked back at Egon who had risen from his desk chair and was prepping the dark matter generator from where he had pushed it aside, prepping for Lucille's reappearance. Winston ran across the room for a proton pack, hastily looping the straps onto his shoulders and drawing the thrower.
"Uh…is this what we were waiting for?" Peter asked quickly, his casual stance now rigid with growing alarm.
"Keira!" Ray almost yelled as he shook the girl, trying to wake her. The computer behind him beeped shrilly and his heart leapt into his throat as he stared at her unmoving face.
"We have a problem!" Peter exclaimed as he took Egon's place at the computer, scanning through the screen in front of him. Everything was silent except for the long, high pitched beep signaling that Keira's heart had stopped.
"What's wrong with her?!" Winston asked as he slowly moved closer towards the couch, his thrower still prepped.
"Did we just…kill her?" Peter asked, slowly turning back to the other three Ghostbusters who were crowded around the girl on the couch. Silence hung over the four men as they stared at her in disbelief.
Finally Ray leapt into action, preparing to resuscitate the girl. He leaned forward, turning his ear towards her mouth to hear if she was breathing. As he did so, he felt a strong hand lock onto his throat, shoving his head back a few inches with the force of the blow.
"Ray!" Egon exclaimed as he switched the dark matter generator on with a resonating hum.
Ray couldn't speak as he grabbed for the hand that was gripping his neck even tighter. He glanced down and his eyes widened in shock.
"Hey-Keira!" Winston shouted, trying to get the girl's attention.
Eerily enough, the girl still lay flat on the couch as she had been for the past twenty minutes, her eyes closed and a serene expression on her pale face. Her right hand was latched firmly around Ray's throat, the slight muscles in the girl's arm flexing with the strain that was put on them.
"That's not Keira…" Egon muttered. As he said it, the girl's lips slowly formed into an amused smirk and she tightened her fingers around Ray's throat with one last bout of strength before throwing him into Egon's desk.
"Hey!" Peter protested in surprise as he steadied the intricate technology that Egon had built around the computer.
"Hit her!" Winston shouted as he charged up his thrower.
"I don't think that would be a good idea-"
"Wise decision, Dr. Spengler." Lucille sat up slowly, her eyes opening to reveal an almost luminous green color. She smiled at the three defensive Ghostbusters and then glanced down to where Ray lay dazed against the desk.
"What did you do to Keira? What did you just do?" Peter demanded as the computer behind him rang out signaling that the possessed girl once more had a faint pulse.
"That was just a hint of what will happen to her if you don't let me have my way." Lucille said, her voice even, yet menacing. She ripped off the wires that connected her to Egon's equipment and the machine shrieked as she threw them to the floor. Her eyes darted up towards where Egon still hovered near the dark matter generator. "I will kill her. Don't even think of testing me."
"Don't listen to her Egon, juice that thing up!" Winston said gesturing towards the generator. Egon shifted uncomfortably, suddenly not sure of what to do. Lucille narrowed her eyes as he lifted the thrower towards her.
"Egon…don't-"
Ray's strained voice was silenced as Egon squeezed the trigger and fired at the ghost. Time slowed and Lucille fell to the ground with a pained cry before the force of the generator's power could touch her.
"Stop!" Peter yelled back at the others as the girl on the ground shakily tried to crawl back to her feet. She raised her face to Ray who still lay against Egon's desk and Ray could see that her eyes had returned to their normal blue color.
"Keira?" Ray asked, moving towards her. She opened her mouth to speak as tears streamed down her face but instantly closed it again as Lucille's smile once more resurfaced.
"If you hurt me, you hurt her." Lucille said quietly.
She stood up in one motion and then walked towards the doorway leading down to the stairs. She turned back with a thoughtful expression on her face.
"And to make sure you don't follow me…"
Lucille raised her right hand towards the couch next to where Egon and Peter stood watching her in surprised silence. Before they could react the couch was thrown at them, shoving them both against the wall next to Egon's desk. They landed on the floor, unconscious and she directed her attention to the other armed Ghostbuster. She glanced up at Winston who was charging his proton thrower and she mentally threw one of Egon's lab tables at him. A proton stream shot out of his thrower towards the girl as he fell back against the table holding the other packs and she cried out as it fired into her left shoulder. She glared back at the Ghostbusters, three of which were knocked out cold from her handiwork, and her green eyes landed on Ray where he was staring in horror at two of his downed friends in front of him. She cringed as the pain in her shoulder pulsed with Keira's weak heartbeat and then her dark hair whipped around as she fled down the stairs of the firehouse.