Alice

"Okay," said Jeremy. "What do we need to talk about?"

Jeremy, Graham, Eddie, and I were all sitting my living room. Eddie was cross-legged on the floor while Jeremy and Graham occupied the couch. I got up from my armchair and slowly paced back and forth.

Jeremy scrutinized me. "You've got something on your mind, don't you?"

"Well...yes," I admitted.

"Well, go ahead," Eddie encouraged.

I cleared my throat. "Well, I've been thinking. Why did our parents meet up yesterday?"

"You said you think something's up," said Jeremy.

I nodded. "That's right, I do. It's my personal belief that something's happened, some kind of psychokinetic emergency."

Eddie gasped. "No way."

"You know what she said?" asked Graham.

"Of course I do. If there's been an occurrence of psychic turbulence in the area, then we need to do something fast," said Eddie.

"Yes. You get my point," I replied.

"Well, I sure don't," Jeremy cut in.

"Me either," added Graham. "What do you mean, do something?"

I took a breath. "I think we need to...to be Ghostbusters."

Jeremy and Graham stared at me for a second, then at each other. Eddie, on the hand, spoke up. "I agree. There's obviously something going on. Otherwise, why would our parents get back together?"

"Look, you mean you want us to catch ghosts?" asked Jeremy.

"Well, no, not exactly," I said quickly. "I think we ought to investigate what's going on."

"I have a theory," said Eddie. "My dad was on the phone a couple of nights ago. He kept saying that the levels were over 1300. I think he was talking about PKE levels."

"What the hell is PKE?" asked Jeremy.

"Psychokinetic energy," I replied.

"Sorry I asked," he muttered, resting his head on his chin.

"PKE levels that big usually point to some big primal entity on the horizon," Eddie continued. "So, long story short, I think there's some kind of major demon coming."

"I think you may be accurate," I confirmed. "So, we need to do a little paranormal investigating and hopefully stop whatever's coming in its tracks."

"Well, I'm all for that," Jeremy said. "Too bad I don't believe in ghosts."

"Me too," stated Graham. "And I'm not gonna believe in them until I see one."

"Neither am I," declared Jeremy.

My heart sank. "You mean...you don't want to help?"

My face must've shown my disappointment because Jeremy leaped up off the couch. He touched my arm. "Hey, I didn't say that," said Jeremy. "I really do want to help. I just don't believe in ghosts."

"Okay." I smiled a little. Then I turned to Graham. "Do you want to help? You don't have to if you don't want," I added quickly.

Graham thought about it for a moment. I could tell he was a thinker. "Alright."

I grinned. "Good. Now, we need equipment. As far as I know, the Ghostbusters must've used some sort of weapons."

"Proton packs and ghost traps," Eddie said. "But if it's primal spirits we're worried about, we're gonna need something stronger, more powerful."

"What the hell is a proton pack?" I asked, bewildered. Mom hadn't told me about that one.

"It's more formally known as a positron glider or nuclear accelerator," explained Eddie. "It runs off of nuclear-fissional energy. It emits particle streams ionically parallel to the apparitional level for the purpose of having physical contact with ethereal beings."

"I get it," I said, nodding my head. "Very logical."

"Hubba-what?" said Jeremy, his mouth hanging open.

"Basically, it's a big box with a stick on it that shoots out a beam that grabs ghosts," Eddie added for his and Graham's benefit.

"Oh..." said Jeremy and Graham at the same time.

"So what do you mean by stronger?" I asked, pushing my glasses up my nose, deep in thought. "What more powerful than nuclear energy?"

"Nothing is," replied Eddie. "But the technology that our parents used to use wasn't advanced as it could be nowadays. Their packs were no match for Gozer."

"Alright, now who the hell is Gozer?" asked Graham.

"He's a Sumerian god who the Ghostbusters battled back in the day," replied Eddie.

"But they defeated him, didn't they?" I asked.

"Well yeah, but only because they were able to shut the gateway that he had come through into our world, and because Gozer was a shape-shifter who turned into something they could physically destroy," Eddie explained.

"And just what was that?" Jeremy inquired.

"A giant marshmallow man," said Eddie. Then he continued as if what he'd just said hadn't been strange or anything. "But still, the packs alone couldn't take him. It was really out of pure dumb luck and some quick thinking on Egon Spengler's part that they won. But anyway, I've studying some of my dad's and Dr. Spengler's old blueprints, and I think I could build a device that molecularly transport entities out of our dimension and back into their own."

"No way!" I exclaimed excitedly. "Tell us more!"

"I'm getting a headache," groaned Jeremy.

"I have some preliminary sketches-" Eddie started to reach into his bag, but suddenly, we heard the door open and close. "Alice?" called a voice.

"Oh, shit," I whispered. "My mom's home!"

Mom walked into the living room. I could tell she had been crying for some reason. I watched her eyes darted from boy to boy. I could practically hear her mind click as she made the connection as to who they were.

I was in trouble.

I never got to explain this in Chapter 6, but Eddie is a mechanical genius, just like his father. He's even more well informed than Alice. But he's kind of has an advantage, since Eddie's known about Ghostbusters ever since he was basically a little kid. But Alice is super smart in physics, so once she hears what the proton packs are, she completely understands. And of course, Jeremy and Graham don't have a clue. Don't misjudge them though, it's not their fault they're the "dumb" ones...and they're really not, they just don't get physics. They haven't learned about it in school yet. Oh, and if you thought that last chapter was good, wait until Chapter 9. Things really start heating up. Stay tuned!