I couldn't wait any longer to post this chapter! I spent almost all afternoon yesterday and today after work writing it and I'm so excited about this! Let me know if it's any good! ;)
Ray stared down at Keira, his heart skipping a beat as her words sank in. She smiled laughingly up at him and then shoved him away from her with superhuman strength. He fell back against his proton pack as she stood in one quick fluid motion, scanning the other men surrounding her with a scowl on her face.
"Lucille, don't make us hurt you!" Peter pleaded one last time. She glared at him and flicked her wrist towards the man, sending him flying back into John who had retreated to safety behind the Ghostbusters. Both of the men were thrown to the ground in a daze.
"Don't make you hurt Keira, you mean." She growled as she smirked knowingly at Ray's pained look in front of her. "Well you don't have to worry about that anymore."
"That's not true – she can't be gone. Keira, can you still hear me?" Ray tried from where he still lay against the alley wall in front of Lucille. She laughed at his attempts and moved slowly towards him.
"You know…I really think she would have returned your feelings, Dr. Stantz…if she'd even been able to recognize them. She was so…what's the word? Ditsy?" She said sarcastically. Ray glared up at her and shifted the proton pack back into place with a grimace at the bruises it had caused from his fall.
"She was stricken with grief because you chased away her fiancé." He said through gritted teeth. Lucille's eyes widened, faking innocence. She pressed her left hand to her chest.
"I did? Well then I guess I had given you the perfect opportunity to make your move. It's not my fault that you didn't take your chance." She smirked.
"Enough, Lucille." Egon's serious voice caused her smile to falter. She slowly turned to face him, blinking in slight surprise as she was greeted by a heavily armed proton thrower. Winston stood behind him as he held the dark matter generator pack which was humming with the high frequency of energy within it. Lucille's eyes narrowed.
"Even if you get rid of me, that doesn't change the fact that she's still dead." She growled. Egon's expression remained stoic as he charged up the thrower.
"Understood." He said as he fired the dark matter generator. The shock blast sent out a flash of purple energy, knocking the girl off of her feet.
"No!" Ray shouted. He scrambled to his feet and moved to where the girl lay on her back facing the sky with her eyes closed.
"Ray – don't!" Peter called from where he was helping John to his feet. As soon as Ray reached her side, Lucille quickly jerked upward and wrapped her arms around his neck in a chokehold.
"If you hit me again, he dies." She threatened, staring warningly at Egon and Winston. The two men angrily lowered their weapons, fearing the safety of their colleague.
"Why would you want to hurt, Ray? He's the one who's been fighting to let you have your way this whole time. We could have gotten rid of you on our own terms days ago." Peter said, brushing himself off as he strolled back towards the group. John watched the whole confrontation with wide, unbelieving eyes.
"You're lying." Lucille's hold around Ray's neck grew tighter the closer Peter got to them.
"No, I'm being genuinely serious right now. He wouldn't let us do much of anything – he thought it would be safer to let you take care of things on your own. But since 'taking care of things' in your book means killing your old fiancé, that's not okay with us. So…Ray's the only one who's on your side. Except for maybe him-" Peter turned and pointed to John whose eyes widened in surprise as all attention was thrown at him. "Are you on your old girlfriend's side?"
"I…um…" John stammered. Lucille's bright green eyes glared at him in irritation. "I don't think she wants me anymore, to be honest…"
"Okay…so…you're about to kill the only one who is trying to help you, then. If that's still what you want, then go right ahead. Just know that once he's out of the way, you're toast." Peter shrugged.
"Venkman!" Ray choked out in protest. Lucille's wild eyes darted down to Ray as she spun him around to face her, loosening her hold on him. She seemed at war with herself as she studied the man in front of her. Ray tried to keep his expression firm but the fear in his eyes was clear to the ghost.
"Egon…what's the plan?" Winston whispered.
Egon slowly shifted his gaze from Ray and Lucille to the dark matter generator in Winston's hands. He hurriedly flicked on a switch that he had added during his rushed modifications. He adjusted a small bottle-like canister on the underside of the device and Winston looked at the small green light that had flickered on with the switch. As he raised his confused gaze to Egon's, the scientist nodded once before turning back to the scene in front of them.
"What is it with you?" Lucille hissed as she studied Ray's face. Ray blinked confusedly.
"What…do you mean?" He asked. Though her chokehold had been broken, she was still extremely close to him, too close for any of the other Ghostbusters to get a clear shot at her.
"You really care about this girl." She said. "Why?"
"I…I mean…I guess I sort of relate to her to some degree. I've been possessed before and it's not...let's just say that I sympathize with Keira. You broke her, Lucille." Ray said. "You took everything from her…"
"I had everything taken from me! You – you can't blame me for wanting to right the wrongs that were done to me." She glared to the side where John hung his head sadly. Ray gently raised his hand to her right shoulder comfortingly. Ray noticed that she cringed at his touch as if it burned her but she didn't pull away. Her reaction gave him an idea.
"You asked me why I care about Keira. I think it's because…when I was possessed by Vigo, I had my friends here to help me." Ray nodded back to where the other Ghostbusters stood in the alley around them. "And…though Keira had probably the closest friend she'd ever had in her fiancé, Matt…he wasn't as faithful to her as he should have been. He left her almost the instant we told him about her possession and that…that left her with no one."
Lucille raised her gaze to him accusingly. She hadn't known that the fiancé had known about her inhabiting Keira. Ray smiled wearily at her reaction like he could read the question in her face.
"We told him at the library about our speculations a few days ago. Before you really got a hold over her and all you could do was cause her to have little fainting spells and whatnot." Ray explained. Lucille narrowed her eyes at him and shoved his hand from her shoulder.
"I don't care about your sob story, and the strength of friendship and whatever nonsense you're trying to feed to me." She mumbled angrily. "Keira had no one, and now she's gone and you all won't accept that. No matter what you do, you can't stop me."
Ray smiled simply and moved to stand up. Realizing that she had nearly lost her upper-hand, she rose to her feet with him, pulling him closer towards her by the collar of his jumpsuit.
"You know…you're wrong. Keira does have someone…and I hope she realizes that it's me. I want her to know that I understand about what's happened to her and that I don't want her to feel like she's alone." Ray said softly.
Lucille blinked and lowered her gaze to the ground, anger and regret clouding her mind. Over her shoulder, Ray nodded as he met Egon's gaze. Egon quickly shook his head. Ray nodded sternly to him once more before turning his attention back to Lucille.
"Keira…if you're still in there…I want you to know that I'm here for you. You're not alone…I love you." Ray repeated as he pulled Lucille closer. His hands pushed the hair from her face and as she raised her confused gaze to his, he lunged forward and their lips met. Her eyes widened and the ground beneath them started to shake as she tried to shove him away.
"Ray, you're too close!" Egon shouted as the bricks from the buildings on both sides of the alley started to loosen and fall from their structures. Winston dodged as a window from one of the buildings above them shattered, raining glass down on them.
"Just do it!" Peter yelled, catching Ray's panicked sidelong glance. Lucille had her hands pressed against his shoulders, forcefully digging her fingernails into his skin through his jumpsuit in an attempt to get him to break the contact. Egon clenched his jaw as he charged up the thrower in his hands and fired at the couple, showering them in a light rain of positively charged mood slime.
"I didn't know it did that! How'd you have enough time to-" Winston exclaimed.
"That's not all." Egon said as he flicked off the green switch and charged up the thrower again. "Now for the finale."
The dark matter generator hummed with the built up energy surging into the thrower. Egon's hands trembled as his thumb inched down for the trigger that would release the shock blast at the couple in front of him.
"Ray, I hope you know what you're getting into!" Peter shouted as Egon finally hit the trigger. A flash of forceful dark matter energy shot towards the two people and the only sound heard over the blast was the agonizing cry of the ghost as it left Keira's body.