Oh my goodness, ya'll! Tonight my church had their Trunk or Treat, (and if you don't know what that is, just ask) and I dressed as a girl version of Ray Stantz to give out candy at my car. I had goggles and the pack and everything. :D I made my car up as the Ghostbusters car with a little Ecto Containment Unit in the back of it...I put A LOT of work into it. The best part of the night was when this little kid ran straight past all of the other cars and attack hugged my legs squealing. His parents were SO shocked and they said "Wow! He doesn't even know you, but he sure knows Ghostbusters!" Goodness, I almost cried! Okay, excitement over. Enjoy the chapter! :D
Keira opened her eyes to see a swirling mass of dark colors swimming in front of her. She cringed as she felt an intense pain burning through her entire left arm, not just from the cut on her forearm. She cried out in pain as she instinctively reached for her shoulder, but found that her voice made no legible sound. She looked down and noticed that she couldn't see her body either, just a blank space surrounded by the dizzying mist around her. Though she couldn't tangibly see herself, she felt her heart start pounding in her chest as her fear peaked.
What is happening to me?
Her voice was more of a tiny thought in the back of her mind amid the chaotic spinning around her. If she had been able to, Keira imagined she would have collapsed onto the ground in a heap, clutching her knees to her chest in terror.
"Lucille…"
A man's voice broke through the stifling silence she was trapped in. Keira looked up and she grew hopeful when the dark colors swept aside briefly to reveal the streets of New York. The bright florescent lights on the streets seemed dim in her foggy mind as she watched the streets go by through Lucille's eyes.
"It's so hard to believe you're back." The man's voice said again. As Lucille turned, Keira could see that the voice belonged to John Bennett, the ghost's former fiancé.
"I know…I'm still wondering about it myself." Lucille said, leaning her head onto his shoulder as they walked.
Well, stop wondering about it and let me go! You can't do this to me, Lucille!
Keira's nearly incoherent voice barely reached past the dark swirling barrier around her. She cried out in frustration as Lucille ignored her and continued her walk with John.
"Did you really miss me, John?" Lucille asked, looping her arm in his as they walked.
"More than anything." He said simply. Lucille pursed her lips and stared down the sidewalk where several people passed the couple without so much as a glance.
"Why do I feel like there's something more that you're not telling me?" Lucille said. She glanced to the side and smiled slightly as she pulled him further down the sidewalk.
"What do you mean?" John asked hesitantly.
"What do you think I mean?" Lucille asked, testing him. John was silent for a few seconds before he gently patted her heavily bandaged arm.
"I still think about the night I lost you…I had nightmares for over a year as I relived it over and over. I felt terrible about what happened to you." John stared unseeingly at the road in front of him, lost in his memory.
"We were heading home after your friend Mary's party…and it was cold - almost snowing, actually. And I decided to make a stop on the way. I had no idea where we were because it was in a part of town I wasn't familiar with. You tried to tell me, but I was my stubborn self and I…I just wanted to make you happy."
Lucille pulled John to the side and turned to him.
"You tried to make me happy?" She asked him confusedly. He glanced down at her and they continued walking away from the crowded street and brightly glowing streetlights.
John's shoulders slumped and he sighed as he seemed to hold her arm slightly tighter.
"I wanted to surprise you, Lucille. That night…I was finally going to get your engagement ring." John said softly. Lucille stopped hurriedly and flicked her bright green gaze up to his emotional face.
"…What?" She breathed, pressing her injured left hand to her chest. John smiled sadly and nodded.
"I had called this guy about getting a ring and I was actually taking you to his shop on the way back from the party. I got us lost, and we ended up in the wrong…" He looked up around him and felt his heart sink. "…alley."
"We were getting a ring." Lucille said thoughtfully, her face drained of emotion. She felt tears welling up in her eyes and after a moment she looked back up at him.
"You kept saying we needed to 'officialize' our engagement." John said, smiling. Lucille leapt forward and hugged him tightly. Surprised, he hesitantly wrapped his arms around her as well.
"And then those men came…" She whispered, her voice quivering as she remembered the fear and adrenaline running through her veins at the sight of the two shadowy men in the alley. As she clung even tighter to John, she looked around them at the familiar shadows, knowing that on this night, they were alone.
"I tried to fight them off, and I thought you had run to safety. But the next thing I knew, I thought I was being jumped from behind and I swung around to fight them off…and you were there." John shook his head, biting back his tears. "Lucille…I'm…I'm so sorry…."
It was an accident…
Keira voiced her thoughts as she listened intently to what John had just revealed to Lucille, her heart breaking alongside the ghost's. Her small voice echoed in the dark void she was surrounded by. Keira suddenly felt a sharp ringing in her ears and she felt herself break down as something like an intense headache hit her. The dark swirling colors around her vision clouded over what she had been able to see through Lucille's eyes and Keira was once more alone.
"Okay…so John's not at his apartment. And after all of the work it took to find this guy's address." Peter said as he slammed a phone book shut and climbed back into the Ecto-1.
"We'll just try somewhere else…" Egon said as he pulled the Ecto-1 back onto the street.
"Where else? We don't know the guy, so how can we know what kind of places he would go?" Winston asked.
"Keira said that Lucille went to a bar last night." Ray offered quietly. Peter glanced back at him from the front seat.
"Right. And exactly how many bars are there here in New York City, Ray?" Peter asked sarcastically. Ray glared at him.
"Venkman's right. I'm not sure that going barhopping all night long would be a very good idea." Egon said. Ray slumped back in his seat and covered his face with his hand in frustration.
"An alley…" Ray blurted out after a few minutes. He glanced out the window at the slowly passing streets, occasionally seeing a dimly lit alley breaking between buildings.
"What?" Winston asked, leaning over to peer out Ray's car window. Ray turned back to him, a thoughtful expression on his face.
"Lucille said something about it. She was murdered in one…" He glanced back out the window scanning the streets.
"Uh…again Ray, how many alleys are there in town?" Peter asked, the sarcasm replaced with his pitying tone.
"More alleys than bars." Winston mumbled.
"Ray…your mind is going everywhere and it's not making any sense to me. Tell me what you're getting at." Peter said, as he turned back to face him.
"Maybe Lucille's ghost was trapped down in the library for some reason. When Keira went down there, she must have awakened Lucille." Ray tried to explain.
"We've been through this already…" Winston said. Ray held up his hand.
"Just stay with me. So…if Lucille was murdered, then it was most likely in the paper. And what did Keira go down to retrieve from the basement?" Ray asked, trying to get the other Ghostbusters on the same page he was.
"…Newspapers. For our meeting with the mayor the other night." Egon piped up.
"Right. If we can narrow it down out of the few papers she brought us, I'm sure we can find Lucille's story in one of them." Ray said, a faint smile on his face.
"Okay…and how does that help us?" Peter asked.
"Lucille said she wanted to see her fiancé again. It's a really slim chance, but I have a feeling they might have gone back to relive some old memories." Ray explained.