Ecto-1 pulled out of the firehouse with Ray behind the wheel. Winston sat beside Ray in the front seat and stared intently at the darkening streets as the hearse raced to the dilapidated hotel that had long since been forgotten. Peter was sitting in the backseat of the car, he leaned over the front seat and stared through the windshield with absolute focus.

"So Peter, how did you think to look into the history of the hotel?" Winston asked, hoping the conversation wouldn't distract Ray from his driving.

"Are you kidding?" Peter replied dryly. "Creepy hotels with a questionable past is as iconic as New York itself! After all the creeps we've cleaned out of the Sedgewick, a hotel that is still up and running and very popular, I can only imagine what we'll find in the abandoned Baltic Hotel... In fact, I wish I could stop thinking about it."

Ray took a sharp turn that sent the guys flying over against their doors. "Sorry about that..." Ray grumbled. "I'm not exactly sure where the Baltic is."

"It should be down the next block." Winston instructed as he re-positioned himself in his seat. "It'll be on the corner."

"Yeah, look for the rotting building that no sane person would ever dare enter." Peter snarked as he tightened his seat belt. "Who taught you how to drive?"

"There it is!" Winston pointed to the hotel on the right side of the street. "The Baltic."

As the hearse came to a stop along the street the three men looked up at the hotel and felt an icy vice tighten around their hearts. The hotel had been left to rot for decades. All of the windows were dirty, broken and most of them covered up by thick boards. Long fissures ran up the building from the ground as damage to the foundation had destabilized the building itself. There were no lights, no movement. Even the letters for the name 'Baltic' seemed like a hollow identity as they hung loosely from jagged nails and eroded bolts.

"Egon is in there somewhere, I know it!" Ray climbed out of the car and stood in awe in front of the hotel. "We have to save him!"

"And we will." Winston remained calm and composed. "Get your gear, we don't know what we're going to run into in there."

The siren dragged her sharpened talons across Egon's battered chest, a trail of blood seeped through the fabric as her bony claws cut into his flesh through the layers of fabric. Beaten and tortured Egon didn't have the strength to resist her touch, let alone respond to the horrific pain he had been forced to endure.

'His friends...' The ghost hissed from the shadows. 'They are here... I can sense them...'

The siren retracted her grip and floated away from Egon. Joining her lover in the darkness the siren stared at her prisoner with a twisted glee. 'Then we shall greet them, properly.'

Using flashlights to illuminate the interior of the hotel Peter, Ray and Winston all walked into the main lobby of the building eyed the structure warily through the boards over the front door.

"I got this." Winston pulled the boards off the door by prying up the rotten corners that were nailed down over the door frame. One by one Winston pulled the boards away and granted himself and his colleagues access to the hotel.

"Careful." Ray cautioned as he listened to every creak and groan the building made. "We need to watch every step we take."

As Winston cleared the door Peter stepped forward and pointed his flashlight into the center of the lobby. An old desk sat idle, covered in dust, cobwebs, mold and fallen plaster. There was an old phone sitting on the corner of the desk, its wire fringed and exposed from years of neglect. Old paintings had been warped from age and the wallpaper was peeling from the walls, creating a sickly smell of mildew and dust.

"No one in sight." Peter observed as he took a slow step inside the lobby. "If we need to get to the top floor then we need to find the stairs."

"I think only the employees used the stairs in this place," Winston noted. "so we should find an entry point somewhere behind the desk."

Ray was the last to enter. He was petrified, not for his own safety but for that of his friends. Itching at his sore hand he nervously staked out the area and kept his eyes peeled for any stairs to lead them to the top.

"Here." Peter shined his flashlight onto an old sign with the word 'Stairs' long since faded. "One at a time though. I don't want to fall through the steps."

"You're right." Winston stepped into the stairwell and pointed his flashlight straight up. The beam stretched upward for ten stories before coming into contact with the moldy ceiling. "Who's going up first?"

"I'll go." Ray volunteered. "As soon as I clear the second floor I'll call back down."

Peter and Winston stepped aside as Ray dared to set foot on the first step. Testing his weight he slowly began walking up the stairs. Each step sounded eerie as the floorboards creaked, groaned and warped under his boots. Dust outlined his boots and wafted up slowly as the movement easily disturbed the long dormant air of the hotel.

As Ray tentatively cleared the first landing he leaned over the banister, careful not to put all of his weight on the dry rotted railing, and called down his friends below. "Okay, I'm on the second floor."

Winston motioned for Peter to proceed. "I'll take up the rear. If I see the boards shifting or anything I'll let you know."

"Gee, thanks for that thought." Peter muttered as he proceeded to follow Ray up the stairs. He too kept his pace slow and footsteps light as the trio worked their way from the ground floor to the top floor of the old hotel. "Stairs... Why do we always have to meet under such dire circumstances?"

'They are close...' The ghost whispered as he continuously sensed the location of the three Ghostbusters approaching the top floor. 'I almost... admire... their loyalty...'

'Loyalty has doomed us to this Hell.' The siren cursed as she stared with hatred in her eyes at Egon. 'Misery loves company. We should allow his friends to join him before we finish them off.'

"Tenth floor..." Ray mumbled as he stood against the wall beside the stairwell entry. The chipped plaster and peeling wallpaper clung to his jumpsuit. "I made it up."

Shortly thereafter Peter joined him. "I'm here." He turned and looked down the hall toward the East wing. There was a large set of double doors that connected to a massive private room. "Is that it?"

"I think so." Ray used the PKE meter to scan the air. "There's a lot of psychokinetic activity in the area."

"What about Egon?"

Flipping a dial on the side of the meter Ray located and isolated Egon's biorhythms. "I can't detect anything, we may not be close enough to him."

Peter bowed his head as a dark thought entered his mind. "...or maybe there's nothing to detect."

"Don't say that." Ray scolded as he turned off the meter and clipped it back to his belt. "Don't ever say that!" Ray could hear himself telling Peter not to think such horrible thoughts, but he felt like a hypocrite seeing as he was feeling just as bleak about the situation. "We're not leaving without Egon."

Winston made it to the top of the stairs, having heard what Peter said from inside the stairwell. "We'll find him Peter."

"Come on." Ray marched toward the double doors. "The ghost is through here for sure, and I have a hunch that he won't be alone!"

Testing the handles on the door Ray found that the door was locked and even after years of neglect the lock itself was holding firm.

Peter stepped up beside Ray and then pressed his back against the wall. "Winston, if you'd do the honors..."

"It'd be my pleasure." Winston stood in front of the doors and waited for Peter and Ray to both be clear. Using a well aimed and strong kick Winston booted down the door by striking right in the middle. The two doors flew open with a loud bang that echoed through the entire building as it shook. "Open for business."

The three flashlights beam shone through the opened door and into the expansive room that had been neglected for as long as the hotel had been. Finding the room to be seemingly void of furniture and people the three Ghostbusters stepped inside.

"Nothing." Peter stated bluntly. "There's nothing in here and no one around. We can't be wrong again, Egon just has to be here!"

Ray moved in first and stopped in the center of the room, sweeping his flashlight over the room while Peter and Winston followed close behind, he felt his blood run cold as the light illuminated a figure suspended in chains from the ceiling in the center of the room. A dark red pool of spilled blood spreading outward like a ripple in pond from beneath the suspended figure.

"Egon..." Ray whispered as he choked back a painful sob. "Not like this..."

...to be continued...