Gabby prayed that this spell would work. Her mind was certainly into it. At this point, she had no choice but to try her best.

Once the magical purple wave hit the orchestra, the song that they played became hilariously off-key for a brief moment before it stopped. However, there was no silence in the wake of the song stopping. Instead, there was a cacophony of musical instrument parts falling to the floor. Gabby could hear the voices of confused ghosts coming from the stage, voices saying "Huh?" and "What gives?!"

The musical note snakes stopped what they were doing and gave a look of terror that was even bigger than the looks of terror that were on the ghostbusters' faces. With no song playing, they had nothing to support their existences. They faded from scene, reminding everyone of how vulnerable and delicate they actually were.

Peter fell to the ground now that nothing was holding him by the ankle.

"Ow!" he said, "That's smarts!"

As Peter was rubbing his upper back, Ray and Winston looked at the stage to find the colored ghosts looking down in bemusement. The conductor turned around. All of his insectoid eyes squinted. He wanted to know who was responsible for this and how.

"What happened?!" asked Winston.

"All of their instruments are broken!" said Ray.

"Why?"

"Beats me. But something like this is very much welcome right now."

Now that the source of power was gone from the ghost musicians, all they could do now was float around the auditorium while wailing. Right now, acting like stereotypical ghosts was the best they could do.

"Let's get 'em!" said Peter.

Gabby joined the other three in shooting their proton beams at each member of the orchestra and capturing them in the traps. She felt the same rush and thrill that she would get on the occasions when she would exchange some quarters for round of an arcade game. In this case, the monsters weren't programmed pixels on the screen but real threats with minds of their own. But she could feel the points racking up with each trapped ghost, even if she didn't know exactly which number she had.

Soon, all of the ghosts were trapped… all except one.

The conductor of the orchestra started to grow bigger, resulting in his tuxedo tearing to shreds. He also grew insect legs and a gaping mouth with a prehensile tongue. Once he reached the size of a storage unit, the pink monstrosity raised his arms in the air and growled. It was amazing that he kept his "human" form for so long.

"It's showtime!" said Winston.

Everyone aimed their guns and fired. The wild purple beams decorated the air and gave the creature quite the shock. Gabby ducked as the creature tried to swipe her with his claw. She gritted her teeth, making sure that the beam stayed on the creature's large body and that her beam didn't cross with others. The beams incapacitated the creature enough that Ray slid the trap under him.

The trap opened and the four of them watched as the demon was sucked through. He moaned and scratched at the air until the trap finally won the fight. Once it closed, it gave off its usual billow of smoke.

"That's a wrap, guys," said Peter.

"We're lucky that all those instruments happened to fall apart at the same time," said Ray.

"And you don't consider that to be suspicious?" asked Winston.

Gabby clenched her fists and gulped. She couldn't say anything about this, not a word. It was easy to feign ignorance.

"It's not any weirder than a bunch of ghosts hijacking an orchestra," said Ray.

"I guess you're right," said Winston. "Let's grab the trap and get outta here."

Peter grabbed the trap and flipped it in his hand as if he were trying to impress someone. Knowing Peter, he was probably just trying to impress himself. He and the other guys walked toward the door of the concert hall.

Gabby wanted just as much to be greeted by throngs of cheering onlookers but then she looked at the mess of broken instruments that were scattered by the chairs. There was no way she was leaving before she used magic to correct this. She took out her wand and pointed at the stage, concentrating her magical power into her wand once more.

"Broken pieces that I control, I demand that you be whole," she whispered. The wand powered up. She visualized the instruments as complete and functional so that they can be played by their rightful musicians. "Broken pieces that I control, I demand that you be whole…" At this point, her feet were firmly planted on the floor and she felt grounded enough that the earth's power surged through her like a caffeine rush. She couldn't help but shout the chant. "Broken pieces that I control, I demand that you be whole!"

She pointed her wand at the stage and brought forth another surge of purple light.

WOOSH

Once the light touched the instruments, the pieces flew into the air and fit themselves back together to form instruments once more. It was an implosion done in reverse. Once the instruments were back together, they floated in the air for a bit before being carefully lowered back onto their respective chairs. Those instruments must have had ectoplasmic residue all over them, but with enough cleaning, they should be fine.

Gabby then remembered that her attempts at subtly casting this spell were a remarkable failure and that the other guys very much heard her. She looked to her side while still pointing her wand to see Peter, Winston and Ray staring at her with their mouths agape. Ghosts doing weird things was par for the course… but a fellow ghostbuster?

There was no way she could talk her way out of this one. She didn't want them to find out this way. This ghostbuster was busted.

"Uh… Gabby?" said Winston.

"Yes?" asked Gabby. In her fear, she found it almost impossible to lower her arm out of the spell-casting position. There was no use in doing that now.

"Is there something you'd like to tell us?"

"Yes, there is." She sighed. "I am a witch."

The three men looked at each other with crooked brows of uncertainty. They didn't say anything. They probably didn't know what to say about something like this.

Oh, great. Gabby knew they'd react like this.

"Huddle!" called Winston.

The men turned around and faced each other in a tight circle. They were far enough away that Gabby couldn't make out any of their whispers. Gabby finally put down her arm and watched them carefully. The whispers went on for about a minute. At one point, she heard Peter whisper the word "witch" real forcefully, as though he wanted to yell it, but he was then shushed by the other two. Gabby could feel her clenched hands shake and her breath shorten.

Soon, the men turned around and faced Gabby.

"So… Gabby…" started Ray, "Now that we know this important piece of information, what we're going to do is greet the crowd outside, get interviewed by the news media and not let them know about your witch status. We agreed that it would be better if they didn't find out."

Gabby sighed with relief.

"Thank goodness," said Gabby, "I'm happy you guys respect my privacy."

"After we do all that and ensure that the instruments are safe for their musicians to play, we will have to deal with your news back at the firehouse."

Deal with her news? What did that mean? Why were they being so vague? Gabby had known these men for a few months now and were mostly respectful towards her (mostly). Chances are, they would handle the news of her being a witch in a mature, logical and professional manner.

The next thing Gabby knew, she found herself tied up and locked in a storage closet back at the firehouse. There was no use in wiggling and struggling on the cold, hard floor. There was no way she could get out of this bind.

"Get me out of here!" she shouted.

Peter and Ray were right on the other side of the door, so they could hear her clearly.

"Sorry, Gabs," said Peter, "This is for your own good."

Gabby could hear the conversation they were having.

"A witch…" said Ray, "I never thought I'd see the day."

"It's always the small, quiet ones you have to be weary of," said Peter. "Now, we just have to figure out what to do."

Gabby could hear Winston's steps coming toward the door. Hopefully, he could inject some rationality into this.

"Hey, guys," he said, "Have either of you seen Gabby?"

"As a matter of fact, she's tied up behind that door right now!" Peter sounded so proud when he said this. Like he was the only person on earth who had the ability to tie someone up.

Gabby heard Winston slap Peter in the back of his head, much like he did when she was first introduced to Peter.

"Venkman, you cracker-ass!" said Winston, "You don't just tie a witch up and lock her in a supply closet!"

"All right, then what do you do with a witch?" asked Peter.

"I… don't know."

"I know what you should do!" shouted Gabby, "Untie me and let me out so I can explain myself!"

"Nobody listen to her!" said Peter, "As the de facto leader of The Ghostbusters, I say that we should keep her constrained until we know what to do."

"You know, I don't recall Egon making you de facto leader in his absence," said Winston.

"He implied it with his body language."

"Wow!" said Ray, "You've figured out that man's body language? You have so much to teach us!"

"That's not the point, Ray! The point is that we have a dangerous person on our hands! Do you have any idea what witches do? They turn people into animals, have carnal relations with demons and sacrifice babies to Satan! It's all here in this handy manual."

There was a slight pause to indicate that Winston was reading the front of a book.

"Malleus Maleficarum?" said Winston. "No offense, but do we have any resources that were written within the past five-hundred years?"

"Nope! This is the most contemporary thing we've got."

"If she sacrifices babies to Satan, then we should keep her away from Egon's kid," said Ray.

"Right. Looking back, that's why she called him beautiful that one time Janine took him to the firehouse. Satan only wants the best cuts of meat!"

"Uh… hello?" said Gabby through the door, "I can hear every word you're saying."

"We should probably do something to keep her from talking," said Ray, "She may not be able to use her wand right now, but she could still hex us."

Gabby waited as the conversation outside the door took a pause. She was beginning to regret "coming out of the broom closet" to her coworkers. She made the ghostbusting process easier for everyone and this was how they thanked her? Unlike other gripes that people could have with their coworkers, she wasn't able to kvetch about this to her loved ones.

A minute later, she heard the key jiggle its way into the other side of the lock. The door opened up to reveal Peter and Ray. Peter had a roll of clear tape. He peeled away the appropriate amount, ripped it off and kneeled down.

"Don't think you're going to get away with this, Peter," said Gabby as forcefully as she could, "Once Egon hears about this, hmhmhmhmhmhmmm…"

Peter firmly pressed the piece of tape over her mouth without saying a word. He then got up, left the closet, shut the door and locked it again.

"C'mon, guys," said Peter, "We should continue this conversation in a place where the witch can't hear us."

The sound of footsteps started and then became faint. There was nothing Gabby could do now. Nobody could hear her cries for help. She was unable to access her wand because Peter confiscated it, doing Gods-know-what to it. Other people cared about her enough that somebody had to come searching for her at some point. When that point would come, she didn't know.

All seemed hopeless… but then came along a guardian angel, one that was fat, translucent and left a puddle of slime in any surface that he phased through.