"The Return of Fortunato"
by Ica

Eduardo sat on his couch wrapped in every blanket he could find.


His radiator had busted last night, and he had awoke that morning nearly frozen. He wondered if it would be worth the effort to get up and make coffee.

After playing with the idea in his mind for a few minutes, he decided against it.


Eduardo picked up the remote and turned on the TV. There was nothing on but reruns and soap operas.

He flipped through the channels awhile and came across the weather report. The weather man said something about 10 below 0 and not going outside unless absolutely necessary.

Eduardo was about to get comfortable when there was a knock at his door.


"Come in."


Kylie came in. She looked like she was wearing everything in her closet.


"Man, Kylie, is it cold out?" he asked, smiling.


"No, it's absolutely pleasant. I'm just wearing this for the heck of it!" she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.


"Could've fooled me," he said as he watched her take off her coats and scarfs.


After removing all the outer layers of coats and sweaters, Kylie walked over to the couch.


"So," Eduardo said, watching her, "what brings you to this part of town?"


"The phone lines are down," she said picking up the phone beside the couch and holding it up to his ear. There was no tone.


"Egon came over to my place earlier this morning to tell me that we had gotten a strange letter requesting our help."


"Well, that answers one question," he said, offering her a blanket, "but why didn't he come over here to tell me?"


"You know how his joints are. If he would've walked to yours, Garrett's, or Roland's house, his knees would probably have locked up on him. He only came to my house, because it was the closest."


"Well I guess I'd better get ready."


Eduardo walked into his bedroom and rummaged around in his closet.

"So how is Garrett and Roland supposed to find out about this?"

"Janine decided to risk driving on the roads I guess."

Eduardo came out dressed in a sweater and jeans.

"Well," he said, looking over the couch at her, "are you coming?"

Kylie got back up and proceeded in putting on her "shell" of coats.

Eduardo picked up his coat and looked back at her.

"It can't be that cold out."

"Want to bet? This is New York we're talking about."

He shrugged and opened the door.

A frigid blast of wind hit him in the face like a sledgehammer.

Behind him, Kylie chuckled with satisfaction.

Egon was reading over the mysterious letter again when Kylie and Eduardo walked in.

The envelope that it had arrived in also contained 5 airline tickets for himself and the team, and a rough map.

The letter itself was an urgent message for help. It told of a life-threatening poltergeist that haunted an old mansion.

The strange thing about the letter was that it had come all the way from England.

Hearing the door open, he turned his attention away from the letter for the moment.

"Finally, you're here."

"Yeah," Eduardo said, "Now, would you please explain to me why I'm out this weather?"

Egon picked up the letter and handed it to Eduardo. After reading over it briefly, he handed it to Kylie and looked back at Egon.

"From what I understand," Egon said, "we're going to England."

"What?!" Garrett asked as he rolled through the doorway, followed by Janine and Roland.

Egon held up the five tickets.

"The team is going to go to England to investigate a haunting.

According to the letter, the mansion we are going to has been haunted by a mysterious poltergeist for over a century.

The house itself has sat abandoned for several years until recently, when a young man inherited it from his father.

The house has been passed down from generation to generation, but no one has dared to live in it for fear that the ghost will kill them."

The team sat in awe for a few moments after Egon had finished.

Eduardo was the first to speak up.

"If it's been haunted for so long, then why haven't they called us or the old team until now?"

"According to the letter," Egon said, "The family didn't know about us until a close friend from this area suggested contacting the Ghostbusters."

Kylie took the letter and read the name of its writer - Morris Montresor.

"That name, it sounds so familiar."

"Do you know him?" Egon asked, becoming interested.

"I've never met him before in my life. His name though, I've seen it somewhere."

"We have two days until our flight leaves. Why don't you see if you can find anything on him?"

Kylie nodded and walked to the computer that the team used for research.

"Everyone needs to use the next two days to rest and get packed."

Egon lay the letter down on Janine's desk and walked back to his lab.

Seeing that Egon was finished, Eduardo went over to where Kylie sat.

"Find anything?"

"Nothing of importance. There's no newspaper articles on him, so I know that I've never seen it there."

Eduardo thought for a moment.

"Hey, maybe you saw it in a book."

"Hmm. Maybe," she said opening an ''all literature' search.

After a few seconds of typing, one match came up:

Name: Montresor - Stories: The Cask of Amontillado - Author: Poe, Edgar A.

Kylie nearly jumped out of the chair.

"That's it! That's where I saw it!"

"Edgar A. Poe? Who's that?"

Kylie gave him a look that he'd never saw before.

"Eduardo! Where have you been; orbiting the earth in a shuttle? Everybody knows who Edgar Allan Poe is."

"Well I don't," he said defensively. "Please, tell me so I won't be completely in the dark."

Kylie sighed and looked over at her friend.

"Edgar Allan Poe was only the greatest suspense story writer that ever lived!"

"Well that explains why you were reading it."

Kylie turned back to the computer screen.

"That's weird that Mr. Montresor's name is in one of Poe's stories and he's complaining about ghost problems."

"No kidding,"he said, "Maybe you should tell Egon."

"Yeah, this might be important."

"I'm just curious, but what was that story about?"

"I think it was the one about a guy being buried alive.

Hey that gives me an idea," she said bringing up the death records.

She typed in another name and pressed enter.

The computer thought for a few seconds and brought up it's findings:


Name: Fortunato - Born: Jan. 18, 1835 - Death: unknown

Kylie's mouth dropped open.

After arriving home, Eduardo dug out his old suitcase and started to throw miscellaneous clothes and supplies that he would need for the trip into it.

Hopefully, this trip wouldn't be a total waste of his time.

Maybe he and Kylie would be able to get away from the rest of the team and spend some quality time together.

He turned around to close his suitcase only to find that it was overflowing.

He grumbled something about traveling being too much work, and angrily started to fold his clothes.

After he had finished that task, he turned his attention to the busted heater.

Kylie opened her duffle bag and took out all the old papers that had been in there ever since college had started.

She pulled out all of her comfortable outfits from the closet, folded them neatly, and stuffed them into the bag.

Before she zipped up the bag, she looked around the room for anything she might have forgotten.


"Oh yeah," she said walking over to her nightstand and picking up her journal, "I couldn't forget that."


As she was zipping up the bag, a possibility crossed her mind.

Kylie walked over to her bookshelf, which was packed with all sorts of famous books and spirit guides.

She pulled out one of the older books entitled Edgar Allan Poe Stories.


"This might come in handy," she said, putting it into the bag along with her journal.

The next morning, Kylie awoke to the sound of her alarm.

She slowly got up and put on her old sweater and jeans.

Looking at the clock, she realized that by this time tomorrow the team would on the plane to England.

Amazing, she thought, I'll finally get to go and see the sites of many famous paranormal happenings.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the phone ringing.

"Hello?"

"Kylie, this is Egon, the team needs to come over to the firehouse so we can pack up the equipment

"OK, I'll be right over."

Egon sat at Janine's desk trying to figure out how he was going to get nuclear accelerators onto a plane.

Behind him, Slimer floated about aimlessly.

"Maybe," he said to himself, pushing up his glasses, "we could break them down into pieces that couldn't be detected as dangerous material, but what we do with the nuclear canisters?"


"Egon?" Kylie asked, walking into the firehouse, "What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to figure out how we can take our proton packs with us without getting into trouble," he said reading over his notes again.

"I know we could break the packs down into pieces that security would pass as junk or spare parts."

"What about the canisters?"

"I don't know how we could take them without looking like terrorists."

Seeing Kylie, Slimer floated up behind her and jabbered an incoherent message to her excitedly.

"Hello Slimer," Kylie said, patting his head.

As Egon watched them and studied his notes, an idea came to mind.

"Slimer, you could carry the proton canisters!"

Slimer let out a confused sound and looked at Egon like he didn't know what he was talking about.

"Wouldn't the nuclear material hurt him like it does other ghosts?" Kylie asked.

"Not if we put them in a protective casing," Egon said as he walked to his lab. "After we get on the plane, Slimer could slip into the luggage compartment."

"What about when we get there?"

"Well, he'd have to get out after they opened the doors and when they weren't looking."

"Are you sure he can do that?"

Egon looked back at Kylie.

"Kylie, Slimer always manages to slip past everyone here and into the kitchen at least once a day."

"Good point."

After the whole team had arrived, they began the long difficult task of taking the proton packs apart. Roland, Garrett, and Eduardo all took apart their own packs while Kylie dismantled her gun and a couple of traps.

Egon went up to the attic and pulled out an old wooden box to put the pieces into.

After several hours of hard work, the team finally went home to get some rest.

Eduardo arrived at the firehouse at about 4 AM.

He felt like his feet were made of cement and he had to drag them every step of the way.

Even wrapped in his coat and sweaters his skin could not escape the frigid winter air.

The snow beneath his feet had to be at least a foot deep.

In the firehouse he found that no one else was there and Egon wasn't even awake yet.

Just as he was about to close the door, Roland came in.

"Man it's cold out there", he said walking in and closing the door behind him.

"I'll bet it at least 20 below."

"25," Eduardo said as he rubbed the ice out of his goatee. "I heard it on the radio when I woke up."

Roland walked over to the wall and flipped on the lights.

"No reason to be standing around in the dark."

They heard movement upstairs. After a few moments, Egon and Slimer appeared at the railing overlooking the garage.

"Where are Garrett and Kylie?"

"Probably still in bed," Eduardo grumbled as he sat down at Janine's desk.

Egon looked at his watch.

"Eduardo, why don't you go call them?"

Eduardo picked up the phone and dialed Garrett's number. On the other end a sleepy voice answered.

"Hello?"

"Hey, do you know what time it is?"

"Oh shoot!!"

"You said it. Egon said to get your butt in gear and get over here."

There was no answer.

"That was fun," he said as he dialed Kylie's number.

"Hello?" came a very excited voice.

"I take it you know what time it is."

"Yeah. I'm on my way."

"Well hurry up; I miss you," he said smiling.

"I'm sure you do," she said sarcastically.

He chuckled softly.

"See you soon."

"Bye."

Slimer waited on the other side of the fence for the men who were loading up the plane to go back inside.

When the last of them had went into the airport, Slimer quickly floated over the fence and towards the plane.

Just as the door was beginning to close he slipped into the cargo hold.

He drifted around the tight space until he found Garrett's suitcase.

Just as he had expected, Garrett had nearly packed an entire year's supply of candy bars and other snacks.

As Slimer feasted on the wonderful find, above him, the team was beginning to drift back to sleep in their seats.

After the plane landed, the team got off and retrieved their bags.

Outside, they discovered that Slimer was waiting for them.

When he was sure that everyone was there, Egon pulled out the map and try to figure out how to get to the address shown on it.

Before he could, however, a man tapped him on the shoulder.

"Excuse me, but are you Dr. Egon Spengler?"

"Yes."

"My name is Morris Montresor. I wrote the letter that you received a few days ago."

"Ah yes. I take it you're here to show us the house?"

"Yes, of course."

The team followed him to a large van, and they were driven out of town to the house.

As they drove, Kylie studied Morris.

In her opinion, he was the ugliest person that she had ever seen.

He was shorter than her by about an inch or so and was very fat, plus he had dirty yellow hair.

Also, his teeth looked like they hadn't been brushed for months.

His nose looked like it had been broken, not once, but several times.

She looked away in disgust.

Eduardo, noticed her discomfort and leaned closer to her.

"What's wrong Kylie?"

"That guy," she whispered, "He's absolutely disgusting."

Eduardo looked up at him, and noticed that he was kind of ugly.

He put his arm around her shoulders and smiled.

"Come on Kylie, you'd think after hanging around me for a year or so you would be used to it."

Kylie snickered softly.

After about an hour of driving, they arrived at a huge mansion overlooking a nearby river.

Kylie followed Eduardo out of the van.

As she was getting ready to step down, Morris offered her his hand.

She noticed that he wore a high school class ring.

The date on it was 1995, meaning that he was only about 2 years older than her.

Being polite she accepted his hand.

Once out of the van, he kissed her's and complimented her on how lovely she is.

"I didn't know women worked in such manly fields of work.

It could be dangerous for you."

She bit back her pride and forced herself to smile.

After he released her hand, she walked over to Eduardo and stood beside him where she felt safe.

Eduardo looked down at her, a little surprised.

"What's wrong?"

"I think Morris has a thing for me."

"Hey, don't worry about him. I won't let him get to you. If anyone's going to be messing with you, it's going to be me."

Kylie smiled and rested her head against his shoulder as he wrapped his arm around her waist.

"Thanks, Eduardo."

After watching this, Morris slammed the van door shut and walked to the head of the group.

"Alright," he said, "I take it that you have brought your equipment and are ready to start work today?"

"Actually," Egon said, "we need to put most of our equipment back together."

"Very well. I'll show you to your rooms so that you may get everything in order.

As you know, I refuse to sleep in this house because of the ghost.

After sunset do not expect to find me around here.

When you are all in your rooms, I'll leave for the evening.

However, I shall return tomorrow to show you the rest of the house, along with the cellar and the catacombs.

Morris lead the team into the house and through a maze of long hallways.

After what seemed like hours, he stopped at the head of a hall with doors on either side.

Behind him Kylie and Eduardo whispered quietly.

Morris' hearing was better than they thought, however.

"There doesn't look like there's going to be enough rooms for everyone", Kylie said.

"Maybe we'll have to share one," Eduardo said with a grin.

"You wish."

Eduardo smiled guiltily.

At the last room, Morris politely opened the door for Kylie.

He turned to Eduardo. "Well, looks like you're stuck with the room on the other side of the house."

"What about that room?" Eduardo asked, pointing to a door ahead of them.

"Sorry, I'm afraid that one leads to the cellar."

Morris lead him through several halls and rooms until he came to a narrow door.

"Rest well," Morris said, as he disappeared down the hall.

Eduardo opened the door to a room that was smaller than some bathrooms.

If he hadn't been so tired, he would've ran after Morris and demanded a better room.

Instead, he plopped down on the small bed and drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

Kylie awoke to the sound of heavy thumping and pounding on a door down the hall. It then stopped as suddenly as it had started.

After a few tense moments, she began to drift back to sleep thinking that it was just her imagination.

Once her eyes had closed, it started again, only this time it was twice as loud and on her door. After several minutes, it continued on down the hall.

Kylie opened her door cautiously and looked down the hall.

At Garrett's door she could see a strange glowing figure.

When it finished knocking on all the doors in the hall, it vanished.

On the other end of the mansion, Eduardo awoke to a similar sound on his door.

Being in no mood to put up with this, he picked up a small board that was beside his bed and opened the door.

Seeing the angry form before it, the ghost was a bit bewildered.

It was even more stunned when Eduardo took a swing at it. Unfortunately for Eduardo, his club went right through it, but, not knowing what to do now, the ghost floated on down the hall.

Too tired to chase after it and too tired to care, Eduardo went back to bed.

Morris led the group around the house, showing them the game room, living room, all of the bedrooms, the bathrooms, the kitchen, the dining room, and all of the other rooms in the huge house.

The room that caught Kylie's attention was the den, because above the large fireplace in that room there hung the coat of arms of the Montresor

family: a large golden human foot on a blue background that was crushing a serpent who's fangs were embedded in the heel.

The motto that was engraved above it was in Latin. She had only Latin for a semester, but she could roughly translate it as "Let Him Who Offend Me Beware."

After a quick lunch, they continued their tour by descending a long staircase. Arriving at the bottom, the first thing they noticed was strong smell of liquor.

"That smell," Kylie said, trying to catch her breath.

"It's whiskey," Eduardo said, inhaling the air deeply.

"Yeah, you should know Eddie," Garrett said as Roland lowered him down.

"Man!" Roland said, "It's so strong."

"Yeah, we'll probably all wake up with hangovers tomorrow," Garrett joked.

They followed Morris through the maze of kegs and racks filled with bottles.

After a few moments of walking, they began to see piles of bones and long rows of crypts.

Morris stopped in front of a shallow relief in the wall of the passage.

"If anybody cares, this is what I think is causing the ghost problems.

Over 100 years ago my great great great grandfather buried his rival, Fortunato, alive in this vault," he said.

Kylie could almost feel the bottom of her stomach fall out.

This was beginning to get very weird.

"That would made sense as to why it haunts this house and your bloodline," Egon said.

Morris nodded and looked at his watch.

"Well, it appears to be getting late, and I'm sure that you would like to get some sleep before you begin your job in the morning."

Later that evening, Morris dragged an old bucket of mortar down the stairs that led to the cellar.

Soon, he thought as he continued to drag it through the maze of wine casks, I'll never have to worry about Eduardo again.

He stopped and looked at the tomb of Fortunato.

"It worked for my old grand dad. There's no reason it shouldn't work for me."

As he continued on down the hall, a glowing figure appeared before the tomb and watched him.

Old memories, very bad old memories, began to resurface.

It knew what was about to happen, and as long as it could help it, it wasn't going to happen.

Morris hid the bucket under a pile of bones that was close to an open alcove.

Also under the bones was a pile of granite blocks.

There was no way this could fail, he thought, no one would be able to hear Eduardo for the walls were thick, and the chamber itself was far below the bed of the neighboring river.

Eduardo awoke from a restless sleep to the sound of heavy footsteps.

Being on the other side of the house and so far away from the others, he decided to investigate it himself.

He walked out the door of his tiny room and into the long hallway.

The sound was coming from his left, and it was beginning to grow faint.

He picked up his proton pack and headed in that direction.

After a few minutes of following the mysterious noise he came to the stair well that led to the wine cellar that Morris had shown the team earlier that day.

Kylie awoke to the sound of someone moving around down the hall.

She yawned and got out of bed.

Leaving the light off and opening the door quietly, she peered into the hall.

Down the hall she could see Eduardo at the top of the stairs that led to the cellar.

She was about to call out to him, but he walked on down the stairs.

Figuring he was onto something, she kept quiet, but she followed him out of curiosity.

Eduardo hesitated at the top of the stairs for a moment, but then he followed the footsteps down the long stair well.

When he reached the bottom, Eduardo could smell the strong, familiar odor of wine, whiskey, and other liquors.

He followed the noise through the casks of wine and to the catacombs.

Ahead of him, he could see an eerie glowing light.

With the light's aid, his eyes became adjusted, and he could make out the piles of bones and the alcoves.

The damp cold air and his fear weren't settling too well on his stomach.

The light turned a corner and entered a hall that Morris had failed to show them. At the end of the hall there was a single lit candle beside the last of the open alcoves.

Somewhere in his mind, a voice was screaming at him, telling him to go back.

He turned around to do so, but before he could reach the end of the hall, something thick and heavy hit him in the back of the head painfully.

The world around him went black.

Eduardo awoke to find himself in total darkness.

He tried to move, only to find that his hands had been shackled.

The air around him was stale like it had already been breathed.

He kicked out his foot to see if there was anything he could use to escape.

To his horror, he discovered that there was nothing but solid wall.

He was trapped, buried alive, hundreds of feet below ground!

Kylie cursed at herself for losing Eduardo.

She had stopped to look at the tomb of Fortunato and had turned around to find that Eduardo had vanished.

She walked hopelessly around the catacombs and the cellar.

She was about to go back up stairs to see if he had returned to his room when she heard footsteps behind her.

"Eduardo?"

"Umm no," said Morris's voice.

Kylie cringed at the thought of being stuck down here with that creep.

"Morris? What are you doing down here? I thought you said you didn't stay here after dark."

"Normally I don't, but tonight I had some unfinished business.

While I was working I thought I heard something moving around.

It was just a rat," he said (snickering at the joke he had made.)

He moved closer to her. "What are you doing?"

"I was looking for Eduardo. Have you seen him?"

"Don't worry about him," he said placing his hand on her slender waist, "But no. I haven't."

Kylie felt like she was going to puke with his cold hand on her, especially there.

"You shouldn't be worrying about Eduardo. He's a big boy. I'm sure he can take care of himself."

Eduardo leaned up against the cold stone wall and cried for the first time in years.

He was doomed.

No one could hear him this far below ground.

He thought about Kylie and of how much he loved her.

If anyone was going to miss him it would be her.

He could've done so much more with his life, he thought.

In elementary school, his teachers told his parents that he was remarkably intelligent for his age, but he had chosen not to learn, because he felt that if he did, he would have made a mistake and everyone would have made fun of him.

He wondered if he would starve or suffocate first.

"Well," he whispered as he looked around him, "I'll probably run out of air first."

"Well," said a voice from beside him, "It depends on whether or not you ate dinner before you got stuck here."

"Hey, can you hear me?" Eduardo asked, a ray of hope beginning to break through the gloom.

"No, I talk to myself all the time," the voice said. A ghostly figure appeared beside Eduardo in the alcove."I heard you crying."

"Who, or what, are you?"

"My name is Fortunato."

"You're that poltergeist freak that I saw the other night."

"Hey, I'm willing to help you get out of here and you're calling me names?"

"Listen man, I'll call you anything you want me to, just help me get out of here!"

"Since I hate to see a grown man cry, I guess I can just this once."

Eduardo felt the shackles on his wrists break away.

"Now," Fortunato continued, "before I break down this wall for you I need you to promise me something."

"Anything!"

"My bones. Do you know where they are?"

Eduardo nodded his head.

"Get them out of this place and bury them in hallowed ground."

"What's that?"

"Hallowed ground! A graveyard!
Only after my remains are properly buried, can my spirit finally rest after all these years."

"I swear I will! Just get me out of here!!"

Eduardo saw a bright light. When it subsided, the wall was gone.

"Don't forget your promise."

Before Eduardo could respond, they heard a distant scream.

"Your friend is in danger. Follow me."

Morris led Kylie back through the catacombs and the cellar.

Being in the dark, Kylie didn't know that Morris had led her down a dead end.

At least she didn't until he made some very serious moves on her.

At first Kylie was just disgusted.

Then she realized how serious Morris was.

Morris was a bit startled when she screamed, but it wore off quickly.

"No one can hear you Kylie. Well, Eduardo can, but I don't think he can help much."

"Want to bet?" Eduardo said as he smacked Morris in the back of the head with an old bone, knocking him out cold.

"Is he dead?" Kylie asked.

"I don't think so," Eduardo said, helping her up off of the floor. "We'd better get out of here before he comes around."

They hurried out of the cellar and up the stairs, locking the door behind them. Once they were out of the danger, Eduardo turned to Kylie.

"Are you OK?"

"I've got a few bumps and bruises, but other than that I'm fine."

"We'd better go tell Egon."

After the police had removed Morris from the cellar, the team went back to Fortunato's tomb.

Using the sledgehammer that he had brought, Eduardo broke down the ancient, granite wall, and with the help of his teammates, collected Fortunato's old bones.

"What did he say we had to do with these?" Garrett asked, holding up the skull.

"He said we had to bury them in a cemetery."

"I've already had that arranged," Egon said, walking up behind the team. "Now that that's finished, we can all go home."

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