Chapter Five
It was around eight o'clock that same night. We were sitting around the table eating Chinese food while Egon worked on some new gadget.
"To our first customer." Peter held up his beer can. Egon and I were the only ones without alcohol-he had a Coke and I had water. Ray held up his beer can, Egon held up the Coke can and I held up my water.
"To our first and only customer." Ray said. We all took a drink and then continued with what it was that we were doing before.
"I'll need to draw some petty cash. I should take her out to dinner. We don't want to lose her."
"You mean you don't want to lose her?" I raised my eyebrows and they disappeared under my bangs again and I took a bite out of my eggroll.
"No. We as in all of us. I take her out to dinner we just might have a chance."
"Uh..." Ray waved his chopsticks around the food. "This magnificent feast here represents the last of the petty cash." The phone rang downstairs as Ray went to take another bite.
"Slow down. Chew your food." Peter advised.
"He's not five, Peter." I started to eat my beef and broccoli. Peter shrugged.
"Still."
We stayed quiet while eating our food. Suddenly we heard a scream.
"WE GOT ONE!"
The bells rang like crazy and all of us just looked at each other.
"It's a call!" Ray exclaimed. All four of us hopped up and slid down the pole to our lockers. Ray was the first down. Egon was straightening his tie and Peter was carrying his food. "Come on!" We hopped into Ecto 1 and took off. After we got the information from Janine, of course.
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
We arrived at the Sedgewick Hotel in record time with the sirens wailing. We stopped the car, got out and walked inside.
"Hey, anybody see a ghost?" Peter asked. People stared. We wore khaki jumpsuits, heavy ass proton packs, and any other ghost busting supplies that we needed. PKE meters, that sort of stuff.
"Thank you for coming so quickly." A man walked up. Peter jumped about five feet in the air.
"Jesus!"
"The guests are starting to ask questions and I'm running out of excuses."
"Has it happened before?" Ray asked.
"Well...most of the original staff knows about the 12th floor."
"Uh huh." Peter nodded.
"The disturbances, I mean."
"Yeah."
"But it's been quiet for years...up until two weeks ago. It was never, ever this bad, though."
"Did you ever report it to anyone?" Egon asked.
"No! Heavens, no!"
"No. You kidding." Peter shook his head.
"The owners don't even like us to even talk about it. I hope we can take care of this quietly."
"It's done." Peter nodded once.
"Tonight."
"Yes sir, don't worry." Ray put his goggles on. "We handle this kind of thing all the time."
We walked over to the elevators and a man stood there, giving us some weird looks.
"What're you supposed to be?" he asked. "Some kind of a cosmonaut?"
Peter chuckled. "No, we're exterminators. Someone saw a cockroach up on 12th."
"That's gotta be some cockroach."
"Bite your head off, man."
The doors to the elevator opened and the four of us got in. Ray looked at the man.
"Going up?" he asked.
"I'll take the next one." The man slowly put his cigar back in his mouth, and the doors to the elevator shut. Ray pushed 12 and up we went.
"You know, it just occurred to me we haven't really had a completely successful test of this equipment."
"I blame myself." Egon said.
"So do I." Peter nodded. I just looked at him. He shrugged.
"Well, no sense worrying about it now." Ray seemed a bit nervous.
"Why worry? Each of us is wearing an unlicensed nuclear accelerator on his back." I cleared my throat and glared at him. Peter bowed a little. "Oh, excuse me, my lady. His or her back."
"That's better." I crossed my arms.
"Yep. Well, let's get ready. Switch me on." Ray said. Egon looked, flipped the switch on Ray's pack, making it make a high pitched whistling noise. The three of us looked at each other and we moved away from Ray as far as we could just in case the pack decided to blow up. When nothing happened, we turned each other's on. The elevator dinged and the doors opened. Ray walked out first, with his proton gun at the ready. He motioned for us to get out and Egon and I got ours ready as well. Peter just walked out, looking like he could really give a shit less. A maid cart turned the corner and we heard something. All of us turned but only Egon, Ray and I shot at the cart. Peter held his hands out to get us to stop and we did. The maid, we finally saw, she was an elderly African American woman, peeked a little from behind the cart.
"What the hell are you doing?" she asked.
"Sorry." Egon said.
"I'm sorry." Ray looked down.
"Sorry. Trigger happy." I looked to the side.
"We thought you were someone else." Peter raised a hand in surrender. The woman just looked at us and then shook her head. She picked up a squirt bottle and started to put a little fire out. "Successful test." Peter said.
"I guess so." Ray kept looking down. He looked back up. "I think we better split up."
"Good idea." Egon nodded.
"Yeah, we can do more damage that way."
The four of us split off in three different directions, Ray in one, Egon in another, and Peter and I in the last. We turned a corner and stopped. Peter slowly picked up his walkie talkie while I just stared. It was a green blob and it was just staring us down.
"Come in, Ray." Peter spoke slowly.
"Venkman!" Ray's voice came through. "I saw it, I saw it, I saw it!"
"It's right here, Ray. It's looking at us."
"He's an ugly little spud, isn't he?"
"I think he can hear you, Ray."
"Don't move. It won't hurt you—"
Suddenly the green blob roared and flew straight for us. Peter screamed and started backing up slowly. I ran to the side, wide eyed.
"Venkman! Venkman! Pete!" I heard. Peter fell to the ground with all this goop on him. I looked down at him and started laughing.
"It's not funny!" Peter snapped.
"Yeah it is." I kept laughing. Peter was rolling around trying to get up. It reminded me of a turtle that's been flipped onto his back. Ray came around the corner.
"Venkman, what happened? Are you okay?" he asked hurriedly.
"He slimed me." Peter answered simply.
"That's great! Actual physical contact! Can you move?"
Suddenly Egon's voice came in through Ray's walkie talkie. I had never felt my heart leap at the sound of his voice until just then.
"Ray! Ray! Come in, please!"
"I feel so funky." Peter groaned quietly.
"Spengler! I'm with Venkman and his sister. He got slimed!"
"That's great, Ray. Save some for me." Ray nodded once. "Get down here, right away! It just went into a ballroom!"
"Okay, we'll be right there!"
I went over and helped Peter up.
"Thank you. Now you can be rewarded with a big hug." Peter smirked. I knew that smirk. He's had that ever since I played that hair dye prank on him when I was six.
"Oh, no."
"Oh, yes. C'mere, Nancy. C'mere. Give your brother a hug."
I shook my head and started down the hall. "Nope!"
That's when something hit the back of my head. I turned around and then Peter gave me a back breaking hug, getting slime all over me. I started to get it out of my mouth. Peter pulled away. "Yeah, not too funny now is it?" I glared and started down the hall again. "That's what I thought."
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Downstairs, outside the ballroom, is where the four of us met up. Egon looked at us and then looked at Ray.
"I thought you said Peter was the only one slimed."
"He slimed me afterwards." I explained. Egon rolled his eyes and shook his head. We opened the door and entered.
"Wait! Wait a minute!" the man came up to us. We turned and looked at him
"Okay, sir, if you and your staff could please wait out here we'll take care of everything." Ray said. The man looked doubtful, and then they shut the doors. Ray put on his goggles, poked his head through some curtains and looked around. "There it is! On the ceiling." The rest of us looked.
"That's the one that got me." Peter said, with a bit of distaste in his voice. Egon just stared.
"C'mon, Spengs." I lightly tugged on Egon's sleeve and we walked in. My hand, oh so very lightly, touched his and I looked away blushing.
"Alright, guys." Ray knelt down. "Ready? Throw it!"
The four of us shot at the ghost, ultimately breaking the chandelier and making it fall and crash on the table directly beneath it. We walked over.
"I did that. I did that. That's my fault." Ray sounded like a little kid who just got into trouble.
"It's okay. The table broke the fall." Peter spoke like a parent trying to calm the little kid down.
"There's something very important I forgot to tell you." Egon said. We all looked at him.
"What?" Peter asked.
"Don't cross the streams."
"Why?"
"It would be bad."
"I'm fuzzy on the whole good/bad thing. What do you mean, "bad"?"
"Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light."
Ray's eyes widened. "Total protonic reversal."
"Right, that's bad. Okay, alright, important safety tip. Thanks, Egon." Peter gave Egon a pat on the shoulder and then looked at us. "Alright, Ray, take the left. Egon, take the right. Nancy, take..." he thought for a second "Go up there, take the front." We moved to our places. I was about 20 feet away from the ghost. It took what seemed like a bottle of wine and drank it, all of the liquid just going through its body. "Okay, Ray, just give me one high and outside." The ghost looked and yelped. "Ray!" Ray shot at it. The fountain fell and the ghost flew to the other side. "Nancy!" I shot and it flew closer to Egon's side. "Egon!" Egon shot, destroying the buffet table and a mirror type thing. He shot again by accident. "Hold it! Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!" Peter yelled. Egon finally stopped. "Nice shootin', Tex!"
"The last throw took something out of him, but he's gonna move." Ray said. "I need some room to put the trap down. Give me some room." Peter, Egon, and I began to toss tables out of the way, making them break, along with everything on them as well. Ray held the trap. "We've gotta get this in the clear."
Egon and I went to toss another table but Peter stopped us.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!" he yelled. He grabbed the table cloth. "I've always wanted to do this. And—" he yanked it off. The silverware, napkins, glasses and plates flew to the floor. "The flowers are still standing!"
Ray threw the trap out. "Okay, on my go-signal. Spengler, I want a confinement stream from you, okay? Go!" Egon shot. "Okay, hold him up there. He's gonna move. Hold him up! Go! Go!" Peter and I shot at the ghost.
"It's working, Ray." Egon said.
"Start bringing him down. Start bringing him down. You got him. Don't cross the streams." Ray said.
"Maybe now you'll never slime a guy with a positron collider, huh?" Peter snapped at it.
"Venkman, shorten your stream, I don't want my face burned off."
Peter just looked at his gun.
"Alright, I'm opening the trap now. Don't look directly into the trap." Ray said. He stepped on the pedal and the little black and yellow doors flew open.
"I looked at the trap, Ray." Egon's eyes widened.
"Turn your streams off as soon as I close the trap. Get ready. I'm closing it. Now!" he stepped on the pedal again and the ghost flew into the trap while the four of us turned away and turned our streams off.