Ch. 2
The next month sees a spike in citywide paranormal activity, and an increase of fame and fortune for the two new Ghostbusters. In addition to catching some fairly famous Portland spooks, they also get a guest shot on a local morning talk show. Things are going quite well for them.
"…And our crazy ghost busting business is up and running. We've been really busy lately. The clients are too happy to pay us a lot of money. And the best thing is that all our gear works! Especially the car; the car is so cool!"
Scott is talking to his friend Daryn from the university anime club by phone. She is a little surprised at how rapidly he fires off words. It was decidedly unlike Scott to jabber on and on in their conversations. Most of their phone conversations barely lasted five minutes. This one is going on fifteen and the new Ghostbuster just keeps on talking. Daryn has to fight for any conversation she contributes.
"Well… that- THAT'S great that your new business is working out, regardless of what you do. And these ghosts, what do they look like? Are they filmy like in myth or are they slimy like in the movies or what?" asks Daryn.
"A little of both," states Scott. "There have been some that were bulbous and opaque, some filmy and translucent. Our first ghost left behind a little bit of 'slime' on the walls when it fled from us. The ghost itself was very stinky; something akin to old gym socks dipped in cement glue."
"Hmmm," says Daryn.
"If you ever wanted to drop by our firehouse for lunch or something, it's down off Seventh Avenue just a couple blocks east of the large thrift store; not that far a walk from your dorm room. You could finally meet my best buddy Phil," blabs Scott.
"Yes that would be okay. Well, I've got to go. I have to retrieve my clean laundry and then go to bed. My classes start early tomorrow. Oyasumi!" says Daryn.
"Oyasumi and sleep well," says Scott.
Daryn hangs up her phone and walks into the bathroom. She was quite happy to get out of her parents' home, as there was hardly ever any peace between them. What's more, she was sharing her dorm with her good friend Raiza. She still had debt to worry about, but life in general is much better than it had been. She is reflects on her fortune as she grabs her laundry basket, and does not notice the black void that has surfaced on the showerhead. Out of this blob extends pair of slender black, shadowy, zombie-like hands. These grotesque hands seemed to be reaching for her, to pull her into the black void. Daryn grabs her basket and walks out the door, just beyond the serpentine reach of the lunging hands.
Daryn walks casually out into the dorm hallway and heads to the elevator. A few seconds later a black shadow passes over the glass fire hose container. The young woman presses the elevator button and waits. The hallway still smells fresh and new but looks just a little impersonal and metallic. Just then the lights flicker a couple of times and she feels a strong breeze through the hallway. Daryn looks around uneasily and adjusts her sweatshirt. After thinking about the conversation with Scott and feeling the odd breeze in the hallway, she decides she's had enough of waiting and exits through the stairwell door. Just as she proceeds through the door, the elevator doors open and the same black shadowy hands, only now bigger, extend from inside the elevator and again try to grab her. The petite university student doesn't notice any of this and casually strolls down the stairs in thought. 'Daryn, you're just fooling yourself. There are no ghosts after you. If there were, you could smell them coming – old gym socks and cement glue – and then get away.' Halfway down the stairs, she notices a black figure slowly descending the staircase from the very top of the twelve-flight staircase. Each time the entity passes a level, the lights go out.
"OH SHIT!" Daryn screams and begins jogging down the stairs. The entity quickens its pace. She finds the thing gaining on her. She's now doing a flat-out wind sprint down the stairs. She can feel the fingertips of the figure right behind her, and bursts through the doorway out into the dorm lobby. The frightened resident expects the grip of the hands any second, but she looks behind only to find the thing gone and the stairwell still and quiet. There are random university students going about their personal business. She can't help but wonder if she imagined the whole ordeal after talking with Scott about ghosts. Perhaps her tired mind was just playing tricks on her.
She cautiously opens the door to the laundry room, and finds things standard and in order. From the laundry room window she can see the elevator area, and the elevator doors are out of her sight line but she can see the light from the elevator car when the door opens. As she's loading the laundry machine, she notices her roommate Raiza waiting for the elevator. The lobby has emptied and the two girls are the only people on the floor. Daryn goes to exit the laundry room to talk to her friend, and finds that the door will not open. The sense of fear immediately returns and she frantically twists the doorknob, fiddles with the lock, and bangs on the door, trying to get Raiza's attention. Raiza notices her roommate's expression of panic and diverts her attention. The elevator door opens and the same black bony hands, only now three times as large, grab Raiza and pull her, screaming and kicking, into the elevator. Daryn can only watch helplessly as the gigantic phantom hands pull her friend away. Then the door unlocks and all is normal again. Daryn calls Raiza's cell phone on the laundry room phone, and hears a hollow airy sound with a faint voice in the background that sounds like a cross between a siren singing and a cry for help, and then silence. Daryn has never been more terrified in her life than she is right at that moment. She almost cannot think clearly; but she remembers to call campus security and then Scott's cell phone.
The new Ghostbuster is sound asleep at the firehouse, when the familiar meowing of his cell phone snaps him out of sleep. Scott answers groggily, "Hello? Who… who is this… it's late…"
"Scott, Scott! Listen to me, something's happened to Raiza! I watched black phantom hands pull Raiza into the elevator!" rambles Daryn, almost hysterically. "Something chased me down the building's stairwell and had almost caught me before I got out to the lobby. Then the laundry room door unexplainably locked and it snatched her! I tried to call her cell phone but got void and a faint cry for help! My friend is gone and I have no idea what took her!"
By now, the paranormal investigator is sitting on the edge of his bed, wide-awake, trying to memorize the details of the conversation.
"Listen, I'll grab Phil and we'll come down to the dorm and investigate, okay? I'm not sure what the entity was but there's definitely something strange going on here. Stay there, but don't go back to your room. Stay in an open area; someplace where it can't corner you."
Scott rousts his buddy and teammate awake. "Hey Phil, I just got off the phone with Daryn. She said a strange creature chased her down the stairs and then locked her in the laundry room and snatched Raiza. We've got to go investigate! Come on!"
"Whaa… Damn it. I haven't slept well for four days now, and I was just settling into a good sleep," Phil said with a groan.
The two Ghostbusters slide down the building's fire pole into the lobby, open their lockers, and suit up. The firehouse doors fly open, and Ecto-A busts out into the cool night, sirens wailing.
Pulling up in front of the dorm with a screech of tires, the two Ghostbusters get out and grab their gear from the trunk. They wander into the lobby and are greeted by Daryn, who is surprisingly composed, almost catatonic in her stillness.
"So your roommate was snatched by something in the elevator, like you said on the phone. What exactly was it? Daryn… Uh, Daryn…" inquired Scott.
It was almost as if she'd gone brain dead. After several non sequitur minutes, she speaks and emotion wells up.
"My roommate… was taken," she states, trying to keep composure. "It started chasing me down the stairs, and… then it locked me in the laundry room... IT FUCKING TOOK HER RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY EYES!"
Scott and Phil look at each other, unsure how to comfort Scott's upset friend. But the wave of emotion is short and she quickly regains composure.
"Daryn," gently tried Scott. "Whatever it is will not attack you. We've got our weapons here if it shows up again, and these meters to track it. We're going to start checking things. You can wait in our car if you want."
"I'm going to go visit Ange over at her place. I called her right after I called you. I'll be fine there."
Scott and Phil watch Daryn exit out the door before turning around to face the dorm's elevators.
"Scott, I think we're in a little over our heads on this," cautions Phil. "We've been professionals only a few weeks. We did well on that tavern bust, but Dr. Stantz was there with us. And no apparition we've encountered so far has been powerful enough to kidnap someone. What if we find that thing and can't stop it?"
"Valid points, but who else can handle the problem? Now I recommend we do this systematically. Check the laundry room first with the electromagnetic frequency meter, then the thermograph, and then the PKE meter. I'll be a few feet over at the elevators checking things there. Then we'll do a sweep of the stairwell, trace a path up to her dorm room and interview the neighbors to see if they noticed anything unusual. Just like in Dr. Stantz's notes."
So the two spent the next hour and a half searching nooks and corners of the elevators, hallways, and dorm room, and talking to residents, only to come up empty. Not even so much as a cold spot. Exhausted, the two wander back to their car to find Daryn waiting there in the back seat.
"Well, what did you guys find?"
"That you have a nice pair of Harry Potter panties," Scott quips. "But nothing that even comes close to paranormal evidence."
"You dug around in my chest of drawers!"
"You have Harry Potter panties? I was just joking around."
Daryn gives Scott the stink eye and Phil steps between them.
"Grow up you two," says Phil. "Let's head back to the firehouse and consult our demonology books and spirit catalogs. There's probably something that resembles the creature as you've described it."
"I know I'm not going to be able to sleep in my place tonight, and I want to know as much about this thing as do you guys. How about if I stay at your headquarters tonight and we look through the spirit books?" suggests Daryn.
"I have no problem with that," states Phil. "And I know you don't, Scott."
"Ixnay on the uggestionsay," whispers Scott.
That night at the firehouse, Scott brews a strong pot of coffee, and they stay up and read through the different books on demonology. By two-thirty in the morning, Scott and Phil are struggling to stay awake. "I'm going to hit the hay guys. There are a lot of jobs lined up for tomorrow, and I need all the sleep I can get," yawns Scott. Phil stays up a little longer but he too eventually expires, and has to go to bed.
The two Ghostbusters awake the next morning to find Daryn facedown in one of the books. Scott rousts her and wakes her up.
"Good morning sunshine! Coffee's on in the kitchen. Did you find anything of value in Spates Catalog, Tobin's Spirit Guide, Magicians, Martyrs, and Madmen, or any of the others?"
"Wha… n-no nothing," mumbles Daryn, waking up. "There was nothing in any of your books. I've got to get to school and don't have time for breakfast. Thanks for letting me spend the night."
She leaves out the firehouse doors in a hurry, and remarkably does not forget anything. Phil and Scott finish breakfast and load up Ecto-A in preparation for the day's work. While Phil is changing into his uniform, Scott sits down and types e-mail to Dr. Egon Spengler, the brain of the original Ghostbusters. It reads:
The franchise out here in Portland is booming. There have been a whole lot of ghosts lately and we're kicking slime and making money. But there is one case on which we can't seem to get any leads. It concerns a friend of mine who was followed through the hallway of her dorm room, chased down the stairwell, and then locked in the laundry room and forced to watch as her roommate was abducted. My friend described the creature in question as a cloaked phantom, and then a pair of giant zombie-like arms. Any advice or information would be much appreciated. Keep on busting.
Scott,
Portland Ghostbusters
Scott just finishes when Phil summons him, and once again Ecto-A busts out the garage doorway and speeds down the street with sirens roaring full-blast.
"What's the rundown on today's jobs?" asks Phil.
"The first one is at the KWJJ building downtown. The station manager is tired of an unseen phantom following him around and generally picking on him. And job number two: an antiques shop over on Ninety-second Avenue has reported an unseen malevolent inhuman spirit that pushes people, hides antiques, and generally makes a nuisance of itself. This shouldn't be too complicated. Beware of flying antiques."
Says Phil, "Our first month on the job and we're already dealing with multiple malevolent spirits. This job just keeps getting more fun by the day."