Gabby wasn't one to go out on Friday nights. She tried that with the other girls at college and wasn't much of a fan of it. Hedonism was great as long as she didn't have to worry about getting a decent grade and making sure that her scholarship was worth it. But this Friday night was different. She was practicing witchcraft with a paranormal scientist. And she didn't have a GPA to worry about. And really, it was still the Friday afternoon. But with the dark nature of their work, it mind as well have been night.
She stood in the laboratory of the firehouse with a white lab coat over her street clothes. Right next to her was the bag that she carried her alter items in, which was bedecked with sparkles that she had gotten from the craft store. The alter items added a bit of decoration to the laboratory. Nothing spices up a room full of beakers and machines like a few candles. Egon sat on one of his stools with his notebook at the ready. Ray was there as well and they both had their proton packs on.
Ray held open the spell book that Gabby brought, the one that she used to summon that pink bird demon thing. He and Egon had to do some coaxing to get Gabby to let them use it. She was so ashamed of that book and yet she never got around to destroying it like she wanted to. That book may have caused trouble for her coworkers but this time around, it was her coworkers using it. If any trouble was about to be caused, it would be shared. But outside of that, it was just a book. It had no power unless someone gave it power.
Gabby stood in the middle of the floor surrounded by the lit candles while the electric lights were switched off. Since she knew that it would make Ray happy, she let him participate in the spell: He would say the spell while Gabby would do the casting. A spell involving two people would be more powerful. When trying to open a portal to The Demon Realm, they needed all the power they could get.
"Okay, let's try this again," said Ray. He looked disheveled, since the last few times that this spell was tried, it failed spectacularly.
"Are you sure you're pronouncing the words correctly?" asked Egon.
"I've been reciting them in the bedroom for the past half an hour." Ray cleared his throat and started chanting in Ancient Sumerian again.
Gabby closed her eyes and pictured a red glow in her mind – a demonic glow, a bloody glow, a glow that was… ketchupy. She tried instilling terror within herself like when Gertrude connected her to The Demon Realm. This wasn't terribly easy to do on one's own but she tried her best by reliving that moment in her mind.
Finally, she aimed the wand at the center of the room. When she cast the spell, a gnarly, red, glowing orb appeared, growing and contracting like a pumping heart. It did this several times until it stopped, glowed brightly and hummed. It hummed and glowed until…
BOOM!
Meanwhile, on the first floor, Janine was at her desk giving Casey his bottle. From where they were, the boom was muffled. The entire room shook, including the desk and the Ecto-1. A piece of plaster fell from the ceiling and onto Janine's desk.
"Don't you mind them, Case," said Janine, "Your daddy and Uncle Ray and Aunt Gabby are just finding a way to the Demon Realm."
Casey kept suckling his bottle, heeding his mother's advice and not minding the booms.
The three scientists performed this spell two more times. Each time, the explosions became bigger and a couple more beakers were broken (Egon was careful not to do this in front of anything unstable or living in a petri dish). Even more soot coated the three scientists. To anybody else, there would be shock and horror. To these guys, this was all in good fun. It was an important experiment that was needed to help protect New York City… but it was still fun. Gabby combed through her messy hair with her fingernails and wondered why the spell was having this outcome.
"I don't get it," said Ray, "Why does it keep doing that?"
Egon thought for a moment before speaking up.
"Wait a minute…" he said, "The words you spoke don't sound like the Sumerian words for anything relating to a demon realm. Give me that book…"
Egon made a "gimme" gesture with his hands and Ray gave him the spell book. It didn't take him long to see what the issue was. "This isn't the Demon Realm Portal spell we wanted. This is an exploding fireball spell!"
Oh. Well, that explained everything.
"Did you recognize it from the Ancient Sumerian that I was chanting?" asked Ray.
"No. It clearly says 'Exploding Fireball Spell' at the top of the page in English." Egon pointed to those exact words on the page.
All three of them looked at each other for a brief second before erupting into laughter. By now, Ray and Egon had a pretty good idea of how difficult it was to work with this book.
Egon put his serious look back on when the laughter died down.
"You realize that we've caused hundreds of dollars' worth of damage," said Egon.
"We sure did!" said Ray. As a paranormal scientist, this was all par for the course.
Egon flipped through the pages while Gabby looked at the charred floor in front of her. It made her think about how powerful words really were. Visualizing was certainly helpful when it came to spellcasting but it was the ability to command the universe that really got the job done. The universe would not bend to the will of a quiet mouse. A trumpeting elephant? Now that's another story.
The three of them tried the spell again. Gabby's visualization didn't change. It didn't need to. But she hoped that it worked this time since she didn't want to think that hard about demons anymore. Granted, she HAD to think about demons at a time like this, but not that hard.
And then it happened.
As soon as the final word was spoken by Ray, little, jerky rumbles were felt. Gabby was on high alert. She didn't know who or what was beneath her or whether she was in the path of something dangerous and unexpected. Deep down, she knew it was the correct spell this time. Deep down, she knew she would survive this.
The center of the floor cracked like an egg, bringing out a blinding red light. The floor itself wasn't damaged. That wasn't what portals did. It only looked that way. The cracks divided further to reveal a vortex that presented a perpetual swirling of red and orange hues with some black mixed in. It reminded Gabby of bodily secretions, not just one kind but many mixed together. It made her sick to her stomach. If what Gertrude said was correct, then she was "pure of heart," (and she still wasn't sure of what that meant) so this was the correct response to looking at the entrance to The Demon Realm.
And to think that she helped bring such a disgusting thing here.
"All right, Peter!" shouted Ray, "We're ready to bring our spy in!"
Peter started walking into the room until he had to stop and pull at something.
"C'mon, you little bottomless pit," he said in a reassuring voice.
"No!" said Slimer's voice.
Peter sighed and rubbed his forehead.
"A wedding cake!" he said, "If you do this, I will get you an entire wedding cake! You can even eat the little bride and groom on the top!"
There was silence as Slimer through for a moment.
"Oooookay," he said. Bribing him with food usually worked.
He floated into the room with black fabric covering his body and cardboard horns adoring his head. On his back were wings that were thrown together from pipe cleaners and black lace. He wore a cardboard mask complete with a protruding reptilian mouth with sharp teeth.
Winston followed behind.
"Are you sure that's gonna fool them?" he asked.
"I've been told that these demons aren't very smart," said Gabby, "He'll do fine."
Egon lifted up the black cloak to make sure everything was there. On Slimer's chest was the recording device that Egon had updated. In Slimer's hand was a device that measured coordinates in The Demon Realm using digital numbers.
"Yes…" said Egon, "Everything looks to be in order." He pressed the record button on the tape recorder and gave Slimer the exact coordinates where he should go in The Demon Realm.
Slimer didn't say a word. He gave a near-teary look that said, "I don't want to be here right now." But at the same time, he looked kind of adorable in his thrown-together costume.
"Slimer, you're doing a great thing," said Gabby. She felt comfortable enough to rub Slimer's tiny shoulder since the costume would prevent her hand from being covered in slime.
Gabby could see a little bit of a smile under the fake demon jaws. Slimer floated toward the crack in the air.
"It begins," said Egon.
The ghostbusters stood by quietly, staring at the veiny portal as if it were about to do something other than showing various hues of red and black. Gabby could feel her heart beating in her throat. How could someone as good-natured as Slimer stand to be in there for more than ten seconds? Was there an evil side to him that allowed him to tolerate such a place? She wasn't sure of how Slimer came to be. She narrowed it down to either a) Slimer was the ghost of something or someone that was once living or b) Slimer was a demon. But no matter how he came to be, he eventually became a mischievous, hungry slime ghost who would not fit in with proper society. He could probably tolerate a lot more than Gabby initially thought.
The minutes passed at a glacial pace. Certain sounds could be heard from throughout the firehouse. The pipes made their mysterious tapping noises. Janine's heels were tapping the hard ground as she walked from one place to another. Casey was making his baby vocalizations. And yet none of that mattered in this moment.
"I hope he's not lost in there," said Ray.
"Maybe he should have left a trail of breadcrumbs," remarked Peter.
Some more minutes went by until and familiar voice could be heard from the crack in the air.
"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
The yelling was very faint and yet everyone could pick up on it… and everyone was on high alert.
"He's coming back, you guys!" said Ray.
Gabby prepared for the negation spell to banish the portal but she would have to act quickly. Really quickly. She whipped out her wand and visualized the portal disappearing as Slimer's yelling became increasingly louder. It was accompanied by vicious snarling. This must have been what he was running from.
Finally, Slimer rocketed out of the portal and clung to Winston. His costume was missing.
"Whoa, whoa WHOA!" said Winston as he tripped backwards a bit.
Gabby aimed the wand at the portal while shouting the Sumerian words that would seal it. And just in time, too: Three angry alps with glowing red eyes tried to get through but the portal closed on them, squeezing them together as they growled and bit the air.
"Brace yourselves, everybody!" said Egon.
The guys had their hands on their proton guns as they carefully watched what was about to happen.
Before the demons could make their way into the regular world, they collectively decided that it wasn't worth it and pulled their way back to the demon realm. This resulted in the portal disappearing in an anticlimactic pop.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
"HYYYYYUUUUURR!" cried Slimer as he clung to Winston and rubbed his face into Winston's jumpsuit, "YEZZURAGORODAHHHIDURDURR!"
"All right, Slimer," said Winston. He patted the ghost's head, "I'm happy to see you, too."
"Hey, Spud," said Peter, "You lost your disguise."
"I have a feeling that this was the reason why they were chasing him," said Egon.
"All in favor of promoting Egon to Captain Obvious?"
Everyone raised their hand.
"Very funny, Peter," said Egon, "Now, let's hear what Slimer recorded."
The ghostbusters gathered in the conference room and stared at the recording device in the center of the table. Nobody knew what to expect. They didn't know whether Slimer succeeded in his mission. Everyone agreed that Slimer needed some downtime to emotionally recover from what he went through. Egon pressed the rewind button, causing the device to make a raspy hiss as the tape wound back to the beginning.
Once it stopped, Egon looked at everybody to gauge how ready they were to hear this recording. Gabby felt spent from casting two powerful spells in one day but no matter how shaky her legs were, she was not ready to give up on the day quite yet.
Egon reached to the center of the table and pressed play.
