Another night, another ritual. Gabby set up her alter – all of her candles, bowls, statues and anything else that was needed - meditated, summoned the elemental spirits and set forth her intention to contact the house ghost.

"Gertrude," she said to the air, "Are you there, Gertrude?"

A few seconds passed before there was an answer.

"I'm always here, dear," said the 19th century ghost.

"I've called you forth for some help."

"What is it? Are you having love trouble?"

"No, I'm not interested in that right now. It's more pressing matters. You know Egon? One of the men in the ghost-hunting group?"

"He's the cold, calculating one with the blond pompadour, right?"

"So, you do remember him."

"Of course. If ghosts can hold grudges, they can easily remember other things."

"Anyway, he's been working tirelessly to figure out what the nighttime demons that keep visiting us are and what they want. The problem is that he's not close to getting an answer. He's trying to figure this out from the Material Realm. I want to help as well and I feel like I have all these tools at my disposal."

"This is true."

"Since you can contact the demon realm, I was wondering if you could foray some information about what you hear in there. I figure that since I can't be a ghostbuster, I can at least help them in some way."

"Hmm… I can see what I can do. Much like how you need to do a ritual to contact me, I have to do a ritual to contact The Demon Realm, specifically the part where I heard this witch. With that said, such an endeavor can take a lot out of me."

"I didn't think you needed to worry about physical health since you don't have a physical body."

"We specters still get exhausted, though. It's mainly mental exhaustion. But I am willing to do whatever I can to help you. If my knowledge is correct, I may have the ability to contact your physical body and allow you to hear what I hear."

"That would be wonderful!"

"Thing is, it would take me a while to prepare the ritual and make contact. And then there's the matter of if I can allow you to hear it."

"There's no hurt in trying, right?"

"There's no hurt for me. I'm not sure what it would do for you."

Gabby had a decision to make. Was she willing to try this ritual that may or may not damage her physical form for the sake of having answers? She was willing to go through four years of college with lots of late-night studying and caffeine consumption for answers. That wasn't entirely healthy, either. This couldn't have been that bad.

"I say we should try it."

"It will take me an hour to prepare, which means that we will catch the witch at just the right time that she interacts with these demons."

"Perfect. I will keep the sacred circle open during this time." She looked around at the columns of little elemental spirits that surrounded her. "Sorry guys, you'll have to work overtime tonight."

"We don't mind," said the tiny, squeaky voice of a water spirit, "Take as much time as you need!"

She oftentimes forgot how friendly the elemental spirits were during her spellcasting circles. Outside of the spellcasting circles, she wasn't so sure.

A half hour later, Gabby could hear Gertrude's voice making weird vocalizations.

"Huh-nuh-nuh-nuh…" she said, "Ezezeze… Klulululu…"

Gabby had no idea what this meant. Was it a demon language? Was it the sounds of somebody concentrating? She didn't want to ask lest she break the ritual.

Another half hour passed before something finally happened.

SHOOM

A tiny flash sparkled and what looked like a whisp of smoke pierced through a little portal in the air above Gabby. This whisp was not lofty and billowing. Rather, it moved like a limb, being guided by wherever its tip went. Gabby was speechless. She was used to communicating with disembodied voices in her room but this physical presence felt a bit more violating.

"I am trying to connect to you," said Gertrude's voice, "Are you willing to physically connect to me?"

This was it. Gabby held up her index finger. This was one of those moments where her sense of judgement broke into pieces and started fighting with itself since she pulled back several times. But then she figured that this witch that could contact The Demon Realm was able to do so on a regular basis without any obvious sign of bodily deterioration… or at least that was what she assumed. It wasn't like she saw this witch in real life. The witch was at least healthy enough to keep contacting the demon realm with her voice. Gabby could afford to do this at least once.

"Yes, I am willing to connect to you," said Gabby.

Her finger moved toward the ghostly limb. Like getting a shot, she didn't want to look as it happened but felt that she had to.

When the whisp came in contact with her finger, she felt a painful prick and a sound of rushing energy. Things suddenly weren't as calm and orderly as they were before. The spirits around her suddenly started swirling around the circle in a multicolored helix. They screamed and frowned as this happened, no longer able to control their movements. Gabby's skin prickled with goosebumps. Her heartbeats reached speeds where it could have been racing a falcon. And then her vision turned Valentine red. She truly was peering into Hell.

But before she could get caught up in her physical state, she started hearing the voices. An elderly woman talking with her familiars. This was it.

And this was what she heard:

"And what have you eaten, Zem?" asked the elderly woman.

"This one person had a nightmare where bees were attacking her!" said the growly demon voice.

"Good, good. Can I see you transform into those bees?"

There was a pause as the sounds of screeching was heard. Then there was the sound of a slap.

"Terrible!" said the woman, "That was terrible! If you want to help take over the city through chaos and fear, I need a better attempt than that!" The sounds of steps were heard. "Clom, I believe you were next."

"Yes, ma'am!" said another demon voice. "I'm going to become that five-eyed talking zombie car that I absorbed from that college student's nightmare! Ready?" Another screeching sound was heard.

"Yes! That's the physical nightmare that we need! All of you can learn from Clom!"

"Durrrrr, Yasmine," said another demon voice, "Are you sure this is going to work? Are humans really slaves to their fears like you say they are?"

"Yes, Drev. Humans are slaves to their fears. They can be manipulated into doing anything if you take advantage of their fears. Entire empires have risen and entire wars have been fought this way. In fact, we have entire nuclear arsenals from powerful nations that could potentially destroy the planet. All through human fear."

"Man, the way you put it, humans sound dumb and predictable!"

"Yes, we very much are. On Halloween Night, they aren't going to know what's coming."

At this point, the physical toll that this contact with The Demon Realm was taking on Gabby's body was too much. If she didn't stop her connection, she would, at best, throw up and, at worst, have a heart attack.

"Stop!" she said, making sure to say it quietly so as to not wake up her parents.

The ghostly whisp eased its way out of her finger and retreated back into the portal. The elemental spirits stopped swirling and floated their way back to their original places in the circle, all the while commenting and complaining in their little voices. Gabby couldn't help but nod her head back and forth in her delirium. Her heart pummeled in her chest. Little by little, the red from her vision faded and the room returned to its original color.

"Are you alright?" asked Gertrude, "Speak to me!"

Gabby caught her breath and put her hand to her head.

"I think so. I could do it for a little while but after that, it was just too much."

"I think you're too pure of heart to make contact with The Demon Realm for too long."

"But you seem to do it easily."

"I'm not entirely pure of heart, dear. Before Elias murdered me, I had thoughts about terrible things I would do to him that I ultimately never did."

"I think in your case, it was understandable."

"So, I assume you heard what I heard?"

Gabby shivered at the idea of talking about her paranormal bugging attempt. "Yes. I heard it all. It's not what I expected to hear from the witch. It's so much worse. Egon has a good reason to be worried."

"How are you going to tell your ghost hunters this information? After all, nobody knows you're a witch."

Gertrude was right. How could Gabby have not realized this? How could she prove that her information was correct? How could she tell the others without spilling too much about her controversial methods? What she heard would answer all of Egon's questions and prepare The Ghostbusters for the impeding turmoil that will take place on Halloween Night – just ten weeks away!

"Oh no…" she said. The nauseous feeling was starting to come back for a different reason. "We need to figure out a way to magically trap a demon and take it to The Firehouse. We could interrogate the demon. I could say that I managed to catch the demon through some other method, a non-magical one."

"Is there a spell you can write? I'm sure there's room in that Book of Shadows of yours."

"Believe me, Gertrude. I don't trust myself to summon and capture a demon with a homemade spell. I need to consult the library for this sort of thing."