Stantz was the first one in the office, with me close behind. Before the door closed, Stantz was already talking to Venkman about the situation.
"This is it! This is definitely it." Stantz said while immediately looking for the equipment. Venkman seemed to be annoyed. Venkman was with a rather attractive girl. He has probably made her think she has physical powers as a way to get in her pants.
"Tanya, those UV lenses come in for the video camera? And get the blank tapes. We need it. The one we erased yesterday." Stantz told me.
As I set out to get the equipment, I could hear Venkman sigh and then turn to the paper-destroying bias or the female test subject and ask her if he could be excused. Venkman then got up and smacked Stantz upside the head while jumping. Venkman missed, as I knew he would. Even at his angriest, I knew he wouldn't hurt another living soul. Seeing Stantz surprised, Venkman glanced to see how the test subject reacted before talking to Stantz.
"I need a little bit more time with this subject. Could you come back in an hour and a half?"
"Peter, at 1:40 Pm at the main branch of the new york public library on 5th avenue, ten people witnessed a free-floating full, torso vaporous apparition. It blew books off shelves from 20 feet away and scared the socks off some poor librarian."
"I'm very excited. I'm very pleased. I want you to get right down there, you to kid, and check it out and get back to me," Venkman said in the most monotone voice possible.
"No, no," Stantz tried to interject, but Venkman talked right over him, "get right back to me."
"No, Peter, you're coming with us on this one. Spengler and I went down there. He took PKE valances and went right off the top of the scale, and buried the needle. We're close on this one; I can feel it!"
Stantz then went over and dumped the things he had picked up on me and went to get the camera. Venkman just muttered to himself, knowing he couldn't win this argument. He then went to apologize to his test subject.
"I have to go now, Jennifer, but I would like to work with you some more. Perhaps you could come back this evening, say at …."
"8:00," she said excitedly, while Venkman was happy that he made sure to be as open as possible so that this line always worked.
"I was just going to say 8:00. You are a legitimate phenomenon. Talk to Tanya, so it's on my schedule. I need to speak a bit more with my partner a bit more.
After Venkman said that, he stood up and went to talk to Stantz to try to talk him out of him coming along. While Jennifer walked over to me to make the appointment, I just wrote the office number for her in case she needed to reschedule on some extra paper. Though I decided to have a little fun screwing with her by adding my phone number and a heart. I was comfortable with my sexuality, but this would, at the very least, make her upset.
After Jennifer left with the paper and a confused look, we returned to the library with Venkman this time. I could hear him muttering, saying odd things like "he's always got a feeling we're close" and "Why couldn't they have arrived an hour later.". However, the weirdest was, "why should we trust that stupid meter? It goes off anytime the kids near it unless there's something in her. It just shows the damn things are broken."
As we were in the subway car to the library, Venkman tried to grill me since it was my fault that he had to come along.
"I'm not paying you that bit extra as the secretary for me to go on these trips."
"You're barely paying me for the number of excuses I'd come up with in the past, especially since Egon and Ray have known you longer. Do you know how difficult it was to convince them that it was pivotal for you to attend your great aunt Felicita's funeral? Instead of exploring the Haunted sewer system! In reality, it was an abandoned teen hangout with a skipping boombox. One of them left in a hurry when you don't even have a great aunt. So excuse me for this one time. You must check out a library for an hour for what is likely a tired old librarian confused with some homeless people or pranksters."
"Fair point. How about I add an extra 5 points for creativity or something."
"Ha, 20 points on the next three essays."
"Gold star next two projects and a heads up on a pop quiz"
"8 points on two essays and five on three quizzes"
"Deal, But you find me two pretty test subjects."
"I can do that, Peter."
We finally made it back to the library, ready to finish this examination so we could go back to the university to review any "evidence" we saw. As we walked up the steps, Venkman did the dumbest thing he does most days; he started speaking his mind.
"As a friend, I have to tell you you've finally gone around the bend on this ghost business. You guys have been running your ass off meeting and greeting every schitzo in the five boroughs who says he has a paranormal experience. What have you seen?"
Stantz thought of every encounter he had ever seen, even before I was their student. He only had an answer once we had reached the reading floor. While I did want to answer this, I couldn't because every errand we ran led to jack shit, but Stantz seemed pretty confident in his answer.
"Of course, you forget, Peter, I was present at an undersea, unexplained mass sponge migration."
Venkman groaned at this, and I didn't blame him. Though this happened before me, he would just go on about this.
"Oh, Ray, the sponges migrated about a foot and a half."
With that, we spotted Spengler under a table with a stethoscope on the table, listening to it. Venkman gave me a look that told me he would mess with him. At first, I thought about stopping him, but I recalled how occasional pranks were good for everyone.
For the time, the Salamanders decided to prank me by learning some Russy and putting some Russy pins on mine and their uniforms. They then woke me up with the Internationale and talked about fighting for the communist dream and replaced all my books with the communist manifesto and Das Kapital. They also kept calling me Comrade colonel. They also hid Visha, so I couldn't get a good cup of coffee to realize what was happening. It wasn't until I was halfway through a speech about the greatness of communism that I realized what they did.
So when Venkman gave me a look, I decided to go along. While Venkman started rapping his knuckles on the table while I blew some cold air on the nape of his neck, causing a chill to go down his spine along with the rapping, it was sure to make him think it was a ghost. Venkman then started saying Egon in a dramatic spooky way while he picked up a blue book.
"Eeegonnnnnnn!"
Then he slammed the book down on the table, causing Spengler to jump and look around along with the rest of the people in the library. Once he realized it was us, he got up and took the stethoscope out of his ears.
"Oh, you're here."
"Yeah, what have you got?" Venkman muttered.
"This is big, Peter, this is very big. There is definitely something here."
Venkman then pointed to Spengler. "Egon, this reminds me of the time you tried to drill a hole through your head. You remember that?" being Venkman's go-to whenever he disagreed with Spengler.
This leads to Spengler's defense, "That would have worked if you hadn't stopped me."
A young skinny man walked up behind us and introduced himself. "I'm Roger Delacorte. Are you from the university?"
Peter being the closest, replied, "Yes. I'm Dr. Venkman. Dr. Stantz. Egon and our student Degurechaff, you spoke with her on the phone" Mr. Delacorte then shook hands with Venkman and Stantz. He gave Spengler and me a simple nod to not overcomplicate the introductions.
Mr. Delacorte then turned back to Venkman. "Thank you for coming. I hope we can clear this up quickly and quietly." Venkman rarely did, either. He decided to spook the man a bit. "Let's not rush things. We don't even know what you have yet."
Mr. Delacorte led us to the area where the librarian was being looked at, an open desk at the end of the room to avoid disturbing her.
The librarian in question was an older lady who was as pale as … well as if she saw a ghost.
Since Venkman was the best at talking to others which were debatable at times, he sat near her, though at an awkward placement near her head, meaning she would have to look up to see him Stantz was a bit further back with a recorder. To review the audio and footage later, Mr. Delacorte was to Venkman's left, seeming worried, especially how he was taking deep breaths to calm her. I was near the librarian's left to try to comfort her since a younger female face would be better to see instead of a male scientist's.
" I don't remember seeing any legs, but it definitely had arms because it reached out for me." The Librarian said as she reached her arms out.
"Arms? I can't wait to get a look at this thing." Stantz said, obviously to how traumatized the Librarian was. I gave him a look that hopefully told him he needed to tone it down.
"Alice, I'm going to ask you a couple of standard questions, okay? Have you or any of your family... ever been diagnosed schizophrenic, mentally incompetent?" Peter said, completely ignoring Stantz,
"My uncle thought he was St. Jerome."
Venkman looked around with an expression of surprise " I'd call that a big yes. Uh, are you habitually using drugs, stimulants, alcohol?
"No," Alice said Instantly, sounding almost offended.
"No, no. Just asking. Finally, are you …."
I coughed to let Venkman know I would ask the last question since it was a bit more personal than the other.
"Alice, are you menstruating right now?" I said, followed by a bit of blush. You'd think that being a woman for around 110 years, give or take, would help ask these questions. However, since I still consider myself the salaryman, there's still a bit of that embarrassment.
Seemingly embarrassed, Mr. Delacorte immediately asked, "What has that got to do with it?"
Venkman replied with a smile, "Back off, man. We're scientists."
Before Alice could answer, Spengler came back, "Ray, it's moving. Come on."
With that, we got up and began following Spengler through the Library.
After going down the stairs, Spengler quickly turned down one aisle. After going down and then turning into another, Stantz was close behind. After looking back at me, Venkman turned and spooky fingers towards Stantz. We all followed Spengler, where we saw the strange sighting of books stacked horizontally.
"Look," said Ray moving around it to better record it.
"This is hot, Ray," Spengler said as he waved the PKE meter near the books.
"Symmetrical book-stacking. Just like the Philadelphia mass turbulence of 1947."
"You're right. No human being would stack books like this." Venkman replied, knowing damn well the state of his section of the office.
I just stood in awe at how tall it was. I could never stack books this tall without them falling on me. Then I recalled one of the books that I had to read for this class.
"Wait," I asked Dr. Stantz. "Wasn't that a farmhouse where multiple torso apparitions appeared to be stacking everything while the walls were leaking ectoplasmic fluids"
"Why yes, rookie, but you're forgetti-" Stantz stopped. "Listen," Stantz said, turning his head.
"Do you smell something?" Stantz asked, which caused Venkman and me to begin sniffing the air to smell anything.
The air definitely smelled of something vaguely familiar, but it had been years since I sensed it. It was horrible but just small enough to not be noticed. As we followed where Spengler had decided to go, the smell intensified. The smell was bothering me with its familiarity. The smell was old, though. Maybe it was familiar because it was from either of my previous lives, but when I couldn't place it precisely.
We turned another corner and saw an absolute mess in the card catalog. Drawers were open, the cards were everywhere, and worse yet, they were covered in some sort of goo.
"Talk about telekinetic activity. Look at this mess." Because, of course, Stantz would be excited about literal goo.
"Raymond, look at this," Spengler said while putting away the PKE meter and taking out a petri dish.
"Ectoplasmic residue," Stantz said, almost like he was in love. He probably was in actual love.
"Venkman, get a sample of this," Spengler said while holding out the petri dish for Venkman to get it.
"It's the real thing," Stantz said in utter bewilderment as he went around Spengler to allow Venkman to get the petri dish.
"Somebody blows their nose, and you want to keep it?" Venkman sarcastically said and started getting some Ectoplasmic goo when he stopped and handed me the petri dish.
"I'd like to analyze it," Spengler said without looking away from the PKE meter.
"No reason for me to do this when we have you. It's a good experience. True scientists get their hands dirty," Venkman told me while retreating his hand from the petri dish. Some ecto goo seemed to stay on his hand. He then wiped some on my jacket then began walking, only to continue to wipe it off every surface near him.
Not wanting to be too far behind, I grabbed one of the index cards covered in goo and stuck it in since I figured Spengler would also like one of the cards and its effects on it.
I then closed the petri dish and went after Venkman. As I walked over, it seemed like Venkman, I, too, had gotten some Ecto goo on my hand and skin. The goo appeared to have a numbing effect since my skin felt odd and funky.
The goo also felt a bit familiar feeling like magic from my past life but wrong, like a heating spell being activated but with no effect and cast backward.
"Hey, Egon," I said as I handed Spengler his petri dish.
"There's your Mucus," Venkman said, then his eyes got real big as he looked at me or better put behind me.
I could hear an eerie creek, so without waiting, I did a tuck and rolled forward just as the bookshelf crashed to the floor, causing my mentors to jump back.
While standing up, I could hear Venkman say, "This happened to you before?" Stantz shook his head no. "Oh, first time?" Stantz nodded his head yes.
"And you kid?" Venkman asked with an eyebrow raised.
"Uh, first time with a bookshelf. It almost happened once when I tried climbing one for a book I couldn't reach." I said, hoping they would believe that obvious lie.
"Okay then, we better catch up with Egon before he runs into stacked books," Venkman said, sounding like he didn't quite believe me, which was fair since saying I learned to dodge artillery didn't make any sense.
Sure enough, Spengler almost immediately began picking up where he had left off after the bookcase fell. Still, he was pretty close, so we were pretty close behind.
As we followed Spengler through the aisles of bookcases, I asked myself if this class was what I needed. I do this about twice a day at this point since it wasn't like my previous lives where my plans were so clear.
My first life was simply to be part of a good company, climb the ranks and retire. Second, life was much the same, join the military, rise through the ranks, and retire. This one was going to be similar to the first life.
Still, the possibility of ending it all was too tempting to refuse, and not just temporarily, because as long as Being X is around, the possibility of these lives going on forever is possible. While immortality was great, it could be better when you don't have to relearn everything every time you die.
Even though I could try committing suicide, that would just mean that Being X would win since I didn't die naturally, and letting that bastard win was the last thing I would let happen.
Still, I was also tired, and while I did want my soul to continue, I did not want to remember three lives, most likely. Being around 200 years old mentally is just too much for any human. Also, I'm getting annoyed with having to go through puberty.
This leads to the question of these classes how do I know if it can help me theoretically fight Being X or if he obeys this world's rules since though he may not be god, he is still a powerful being that can reincarnate me?
Then there's the issue that, so far, my mentors have yet to be able to prove any of their theories. Admittedly, only two would raise fundamental theories, and Venkman just put enough words together to sound like a theory.
While Spengler's PKE meter proves that there might be something, there is also the possibility of many other things causing it to signal. Evidence in a field like this is hard, but like other fields, it's in its infancy, meaning that we may know as much as we might is impressive. Magic in my previous life, while learning about it, was able to truly show promise once the computation orbs were invented. Even that took a few years to get it as good as it was when I had it.
This is all to say that I might not have these classes next year since the lack of evidence is starting to annoy me. If it continues, it will seem more like faith than actual science, which I refuse to have.
At this point, our following Spengler seemed to end since Spengler had stopped everyone since the PKE meter started chirping louder than normal. Spengler then creeped forward out of the aisle we were currently in then scanned to the left, where the wings dropped a little he then turned to the right and, possibly for the first time since the interview with the little old Librarian Spengler, looked up from the PKE meter.
Spengler's face became surprised, "it's here," was all he said. Stantz went past Venkman to see what could make Spengler so surprised. At the same time, Venkman simply walked casually to the end of the aisle and seemed to be shocked.
I was last and had to go past Venkman and Stantz and turned to be next to Spengler, and once I turned, that's when I saw it.
There before me was what looked to be an early 20th-century lady, most likely in her 70s. She was also completely purple and was bobbing in the air, as in she was at least 2 feet in the air but had no feet. She was see-through. The only thing that was not see-through was the book she was holding. She seemed to be reading it but occasionally glanced to check on some nearby books.
"A full torso apparition, and it's real," Stantz whispered to Spengler with a smile.
I, like everyone else, was amazed this field of science was valid, meaning that I wasn't wasting my time. Still, as glad as I was, I stopped to consider how we know this isn't some glorified misunderstanding, maybe a faulty light to explain the look. These are the older book section meaning this could be some sort of hallucination from spores on the books, or some may be a gas leak.
My mind began buzzing, trying to explain the events before me. If it were a light issue, it would only explain the colour, but why wasn't anything near the Librarian also purple, and why could I see through her? And if it were either a gas leak or some sort of fungi, there would be other issues. I had nothing to explain the Librarian every explanation I could think up. I was able to think of a reason that disproved it.
"So what do we do?" Venkman asked, leading Stantz to turn to look as Spengler turned with the two looking at each other, seeming to give a look that they had no clue.
"Could you come over here and talk to me for a second, please?" Venkman asked as he raised his hand to pull Stantz's ear into the aisle we were just in, at which point I hit Spengler in the arm and pointed him back to the aisle, at which point he simply rubbed his arm as he went back.
" Could you just come over here for a second, please? Right over here. Come here, Francine! Come here." Venkman whispered as he let go of Stantz's ear.
"What do we do?" Venkman yelled and whispered to the two leading scientists in this particular field.
" I don't know. What do you think?" Stantz asked Spengler, hoping he could come up with a good answer so Venkman or I wouldn't smack them upside the head. Spengler took a calculator out and entered an equation to avoid the question.
"Stop that!" Venkman again whispered but yelled as he smacked the calculator out of his hands.
Stantz seems to gulp before facing Venkmans wrath "we've got to make contact. One of us should actually try to speak to it."
"Good Idea," Spengler said, at which point they both looked at Venkman.
"No, no, no, get her to do it. It's why she's here." Venkman protested, but it fell on deaf ears since Venkman had not only pulled Stantz's ear but spooked Spengler with the table and smacked a calculator out of his hands.
I agreed with Stantz and Spengler's idea of sending Venkman since I still had some ectoplasmic goo on me, and this would be a great way back at him.
"I wouldn't dream of doing such an important task when someone more qualified could do it. Plus, are you not the great persuader?" As I told him this, Venkman gave me a look of defeat before slowly walking out the aisle.
We all quickly follow him, with me holding the recording camera Stantz taking photos, and Spengler taking readings with the P.K.E. Meter. Venkman stood about where we were a few seconds ago.
"Hello, I'm Peter. Where are you from? Originally." Venkman said in a calm monotone voice.
After a moment, the ghost looked at him only to shush him raising her finger to her mouth as she did so. Venkman immediately turned around and pushed us all back into the book aisle.
"All right, the usual stuff isn't working."
"When has it ever worked," I said in slight annoyance at how clueless the seemingly top scientist in the field was reacting to this.
"Okay, I have a plan. I know exactly what to do. Now stay close, stay close," he began walking carefully toward the ghost. With no other ideas, I went along with it.
"I know. Do exactly as I say. Ready, ready" at this, we were less than 5 feet away from the ghost. I began feeling as terrified as I did when I woke seeing a strange man after I crashed after a fight with that crazy mage. The ghost turned to look at us as Stantz got ready for what seemed to be a pounce.
"GET HER" Stantz screamed.