Chapter 6
Hogarth walked up to his high school locker, turned the dial to the right combination, and pulled it open. He put a couple of books and folders onto the locker ladder inside before taking others out.
Shutting the locker door, he almost jumped when he saw Sam Molgan standing behind it.
"Jeez!" he said. "You really shouldn't do that to people!"
"I thought something like that wouldn't scare you after you saw a ghost," she replied smiling.
"You know about that?"
"You and friends were the big story on the ten o'clock news last night. Your suit was a mess."
"What can I say? That spook had cat scratch fever."
Hogarth turned and walked down the hall with Sam walking right next to him.
"So, we have a test in Chemistry on Friday," she said. "I was wondering if you want to study together."
Hogarth stopped in his tracks and looked at her.
"I'm sorry, I may have misheard you," he said. "Did you say you want to study with me for that upcoming test?"
"I asked if you wanted to, but yeah, that's another way to put it."
"You're serious?"
"Yes," she said. "How often does a person get to have a study group with a Ghostbuster?"
"Well, I'm working almost every day after school, unless you want to meet me there."
Ripping a page out of his notebook, he wrote down the address for Ghostbusters HQ and handed it to Sam.
"We should be back from the next job by nine. I'll see you then."
Sam smiled and watched as Hogarth headed down the hallway to his next class. He turned and smiled back at her.
As Hogarth stepped into the building, he could hear the phone on Amy's desk ringing off the hook. Walking towards his locker, he could see several on her desk, and they were all ringing and lighting up.
"So what area of the house has it been hanging around lately?" Amy asked. "Wait, it's in the basement? I'm gonna need you to start over again."
Hogarth turned and saw Constance coming down from the second floor. He walked over to her and asked what was going on.
"Ever since we busted that ghost at the middle school," she said, "we've had tons of callers trying to hire our services. We had to get more phones for Amy just so she could handle more."
"It's only been one night!" Hogarth pointed out. "What's going on here?"
"That's what I want to know. Something big is about to hit the city, and I want to know what. Think you can work overtime?"
"I actually have a study date tonight at nine, Constance. Oh, and I should remind you that I'm still in school."
"Well, you better work out a schedule, because we need all the help we can get."
"If we don't have enough people to help out, why not hire somebody?"
"I'm already doing that. I sent a request to the papers to put in a help wanted ad for a new recruit. Now, suit up. We've got another job."
"Where?"
"The San Francisco Museum of Natural History," she answered as she walked away from him.
"What problem could they have at the museum?"
"No idea. We'll find out when we get there."
Hogarth pulled the Ecto-1SF in front of the museum and glanced out the window. Several banners hung in the archways that served as the main entrance to the museum. Each one showed an image of a handsome, blonde king holding a silver sword. At the bottom of the banners read the word, "Camelot."
"What's Camelot?" Hogarth asked.
"It's the legendary castle that was home to King Arthur," Jefferson said.
"I know that," Hogarth said. "I mean why is its name being displayed outside the museum?"
"The museum's displaying an exhibit featuring artifacts believed to have originated from the kingdom of Camelot that the public can view for the next two months," Constance explained. "Jefferson and I have been hoping to analyze the relics ourselves, and this is as good a chance as any."
With that, she got out, and the others followed, grabbing their equipment from the back. The Ghostbusters headed up the steps and into the museum.
A man in a suit who was frantically rubbing his hands looked up when the Ghostbusters came in and rushed over to them.
"Thank goodness you're here!" he said.
"Are you the curator?" Constance asked.
"That's me. Of all the weird things I have seen come out of here, I've never seen anything like this!"
"Tell us what happened."
"Earlier today, something lashed out and terrified visitors in the Hall of Fossils section. I've had to close the museum to avoid any injuries. But if that thing stays around here any longer, it'll ruin us!"
"Just relax, sir," Jefferson said. "We'll take care of the problem in no time and let you know when it's done."
The Ghostbusters left the curator at the door and headed down into a hallway. Jefferson pulled out his PKE Meter and switched it on.
"This is highly unusual," he said.
"What else is new?" Hogarth asked sarcastically.
"No, I meant the readings are off the charts. If the levels rise any higher, it'll fry the Meter's circuitry."
The hallway ended, and the Ghostbusters found themselves inside a large exhibit. The artifacts on display appeared to originate from the Middle Ages.
"The Camelot Exhibit," Constance breathed.
Jefferson walked over to one of the exhibits and held up the PKE Meter. The arms quickly rose up to their full extent.
"You need to see this, Constance," he said.
"What is it?" she asked as she and Hogarth walked over.
"I take it you recognize this relic?"
Looking up, Constance's mouth dropped open. Standing before them was a sarcophagus made of black crystal. Etched onto it was an image of a beautiful woman with her hands raised above her head. Inside her hands were the faces of five people: Four men, one woman, each of them different ages.
"The cursed sarcophagus of Morgana Le Fay," Constance realized.
"Who?" Hogarth asked.
Constance explained to him the story of Morgana Le Fay. His eyes grew wide.
"You believe that ghost story is real?" he said.
"This sarcophagus proves it," Constance insisted. "It's probably why we're getting so many calls, which is funny: San Francisco is supposed to be the most haunted city on Earth."
"Well, not that your words sound interesting, but we should probably do what we were hired for," Hogarth reminded her.
"Fine. You and I will investigate the Hall of Fossils, and Jefferson, you keep investigating this exhibit. We need to learn everything that's in here."
Jefferson nodded. Constance and Hogarth left the exhibit and walked down the hallway. A moment later, they emerged in another exhibit. Dinosaur skeletons were on display everywhere the eye could see. In the center of the exhibit stood a massive Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton.
Hogarth and Constance pulled out their neutrona wands and switched on their packs. Constance gestured to Hogarth to take the right, while she went to the left.
As she went, Constance did her best to scan the area with her eyes. So far, she did not see any sign of paranormal activity. She reached for her PKE Meter and had just switched it on when she noticed that the T-Rex skeleton had disappeared.
Suddenly, her PKE Meter began to light up, and a moment later, she heard a thud. She glanced down into a nearby janitor's bucket and saw the water ripple inside.
Looking up, Constance's eyes widened in horror: The T-Rex skeleton was moving behind Hogarth towards him, poised to attack any second.
"Hogarth, look out!" Constance cried.
Hogarth turned around and saw the T. Rex looming over him.
"T-REX!" he screamed as the dinosaur opened its mouth and let out an ear-piercing roar. He ran as fast as he could with the T-Rex chasing after him.
"Jefferson, get to the Hall of Fossils right now!" Constance shouted into her radio as she ran after Hogarth and the T-Rex. "We've a deadly T-Rex on the loose and it's trying to make a meal out of Hogarth!"
"I'm on my way!" came the reply.
Constance grabbed her wand and fired a proton stream at the T-Rex, hitting its side. It bellowed in pain and anger and whipped around to face her, its tail swinging through a Brachiosaurus skeleton and completely destroying it.
"Come on!" Constance complained. "That was my favorite dinosaur!"
"You're one to talk!" Hogarth bellowed, grabbing his wand. "My favorite dinosaur is about to eat me!"
At that moment, Jefferson hurried into the room. Seeing the T-Rex advancing towards Constance, he quickly grabbed his wand.
"All right, blast him!" Constance ordered.
The Ghostbusters fired their proton streams at the T-Rex, capturing it. As they tried to hold on, the skeleton suddenly shattered, the force of the blast knocking the Ghostbusters back.
Looking up, Hogarth saw a massive T-Rex standing before him. It was covered in flesh, with glowing red eyes and skin similar to that of a tiger. It reared up and let out another loud roar.
Hogarth fired his proton stream at the dinosaur and struck it beneath the eye, leaving a large scar. The T-Rex bellowed and charged past him, creating a massive hole in the museum wall.
"Come on!" Constance cried as she and Jefferson ran past. Hogarth got up and rushed after them.
Constance aimed her wand at the T-Rex and fired. Her proton stream caught around its neck like a lasso, and she yanked, pulling the T-Rex back. It made a noise that sounded like a choking cough.
"Hogarth! Jefferson! Get it at the legs!" Constance ordered.
Hogarth and Jefferson caught the T-Rex's legs in their capture streams and yanked, pulling its feet out from under it and causing it to collapse on the ground.
Constance rushed forward, threw her ghost trap out towards the T-Rex, and stomped on the pedal. The dinosaur roared as it was pulled into the trap, which sealed shut moments later.
Constance reached down and picked up the trap.
"Well, that was fun," she said.
"That wasn't fun!" Hogarth complained. "That was like trying to escape from Jurassic Park! Scarface here tried to eat me!"
"Where this dino's going, you don't need to worry about it happening again," Jefferson told him.
They turned and saw the curator running towards them.
"Please tell me you caught it!" he cried.
"It looks like you had a Class Six monster in there," Constance said, holding up the trap. "It must have arrived with the Tyrannosaurus Rex fossils your museum received."
"What?"
"It was probably the ghost of that dinosaur your team dug up. But we'll take care of it from here."
"Thank you!"
"You can pay us via our website," Jefferson said. "But we should warn you, that Camelot exhibit is dangerous."
"What are you talking about?"
"We got high PKE readings from the exhibit," Constance explained. "It's practically crawling with spiritual energy."
"I'm not taking down that exhibit until our loan expires! It's been bringing in a huge flow of visitors!"
"Don't say we didn't warn you," Jefferson said.
With that, the Ghostbusters left. Hogarth turned and waved goodbye before he departed.
The Ghostbusters had three more jobs to do that evening. By the time they got back, they were covered in ectoplasm, and Amy was still getting several calls.
"Unbelievable," Hogarth said, trying to shake off some of the slime. "I didn't expect this job to be so messy."
"Well, what did you expect?" Constance said.
"Not this!" Hogarth snapped, gesturing to the slime covering him.
"Nobody said work was a piece of cake, Hogarth," Jefferson said, walking past him with several smoking ghost traps before disappearing downstairs.
"Hogarth?"
Hogarth spun around and saw Sam sitting in a chair near Amy's desk with her backpack lying on the floor next to her. She had a look of surprise on her face.
"Sam?" he said in surprise. "I thought I said to meet me here at nine."
"It is nine," Sam, Constance, and Amy all said simultaneously.
"Wow, time really does fly," Hogarth said. "Just…let me take a shower."
With that, he turned and walked away, clearly feeling embarrassed.
"Does he always act like that?" Sam asked Constance as she tried to brush ectoplasm off of her uniform.
"Well, he only busted his first ghost last night, so I don't think so," Constance said, looking at her. "I'm sorry, but I never got your name."
"Sam Molgan. I'm a friend of Hogarth's from school."
"Hogarth never mentioned any friends from school."
"He never really talks about his life here, either."
"Why don't you head upstairs and wait for him? I'm sure he'll be done in a few minutes."
Sam smiled and headed upstairs just as Jefferson came up from the basement carrying a book with him.
"Constance," he said, "I found proof that we were right about the exhibit."
He slapped down the book on a nearby table. Constance saw that he had Tobin's Spirit Guide when she glanced at the cover.
"What did you find?"
"Okay, I'd say that's more than enough studying," Hogarth said as he went down the basement stairs with Sam right behind him. "There's something I'd really like to show you down here."
He got off the bottom step and walked over to the Containment Unit. Sam's mouth dropped open and her eyes widened at the sight of it.
"Is that an Ecto-Containment Grid?" she asked.
"We simply call it the Containment Unit," Hogarth replied. "Wait, you know what it is?"
"My parents are…kinda big Ghostbusters fans."
"But we only started business like yesterday."
"The original Ghostbusters - in New York City. After they became famous, my parents wanted to learn everything about them. It's one of the things they bonded over when they dated."
"I guess they talked about that to you a lot when you were little."
"Actually…." Sam paused for a long moment before she continued, "...I meant my adoptive parents."
"You're an orphan?"
Hogarth looked away when he saw Sam give him a look.
"Sorry. I didn't mean to say that."
Sam nodded. "It's fine. You're actually the first classmate I've ever told that to. I feel like if people knew the truth about me, I wouldn't be as popular."
"They shouldn't like you less just because you're adopted."
"That's just how I feel about it, that's all.
"My parents died when I was too young to remember them. I was placed in the foster system and was adopted by the couple that I now live with. One of the things they often shared with me was their love of the Ghostbusters, but they had no idea what happened to them after 1991. They just disappeared."
"Until last year," Hogarth said, remembering. "Anyway, this Containment Unit is supposed to be an upgrade from previous designs that Constance had a look at. Don't ask me what, because I'm not a typical science guy."
Sam couldn't help but laugh. At that moment, the alarm bell could be heard going off.
"Back to work," Hogarth muttered. "Hey, you wanna maybe do some homework this weekend? I think I'll have some free time coming up."
"If you're not too busy? Let me know and we can talk about it."
Sam leaned over and gave Hogarth a kiss on the cheek. She smiled at him before heading up the stairs. Hogarth stood where he was for a moment, arms folded. He actually impressed the most popular girl in school. It was the most incredible feeling, if you think about it.
His thoughts were interrupted when Constance came rushing down the stairs.
"What are you doing?" she exclaimed. "We've got another call! Get up here already!"
Hogarth sighed and hurried up the steps back to the ground floor.