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Special thanks to my little brother for the wonderful idea for the monster. I could have never done this without him.
Kylie and Roland were working the graveyard shift that evening. At the moment, Kylie was trying to keep her eyes open so she could finish the homework that sat before her. It wasn't due for another week, but she knew good and well that if she waited to do it at the last minute, some major ghost would come out of hiding and she would have a bad grade under her belt that she definitely did not need.
She looked up from her work and over at the sleeping form on the couch. Roland had went to sleep more than an hour ago and his body was beginning to twitch as he dreamt.
"I wonder what he's dreaming about", she thought. Probably some great invention or gizmo.
"Screwdriver please," she heard him mumble as he turned over in his sleep.
"Well, that was easy", she said to herself as she went back to work on her paper.
She was beginning to wish that she had not taken Creative Writing. The assignment would have been a lot easier if she had been given a subject she had experienced before or at least knew something about. She had been given the topic: "The effect of a boyfriend (or girlfriend) on your life and how they make you feel".
She could've written about Eduardo, but this teacher in particular loved to post papers that she thought were good on the bulletin board outside the lecture hall and Eduardo passed the board at least fifty times every day! For once in her life, Kylie Griffin was stumped.
She looked at the clock beside the TV. . . 3:30 AM. By that time she was willing to risk it.
Besides, Eduardo didn't read anything unless he had to. . . did he? And he would never dream of looking at a bulletin board. . . would he?
Kylie was awoken the next morning by the blazing summer heat. She had fallen asleep at the table. What time was it? She looked at the clock. . . 7:00 AM. She'd only gotten 3 and a half hours of sleep. With a groan, she got up and went to see if there was anything to eat.
In the kitchen, she was surprised to find that Eduardo was already there.
"Good morning!", he said in an almost too perky tone of voice.
Kylie eyed him suspiciously.
"What?!"
She was too groggy to give him a piercing come-back. One thing she had forgotten to put in her report was on some days (like this one) she absolutely couldn't stand him, and on others she could barely resist him.
Kylie went to the bathroom and took a relaxing shower to wash away an entire morning's worth of sweat. When she got out, however,she made the shocking discovery that someone had taken all the towels and her change of clothes out of the bathroom while she wasn't looking. But that wasn't the whole beauty of the terrible prank. . . it was Sunday, meaning Janine wouldn't come in for work until 1 o'clock!
"EDUARDO!!!!! I'M GONNA KILL YOU WHEN I GET OUT OF HERE!!!!!"
There was a knock at the door.
"Who is it!?", she yelled, still steamed.
"It's me, Roland. Would you unlock the door?"
Kylie breathed a sigh of relief. She hid behind the door and opened it a crack.
Outside the door stood Roland. He had his eyes closed and was holding out her gym bag.
"Thanks, Roland. At least there's one good man around here."
Kylie emerged from the bathroom with her clothes sticking to her body, but she was at least decent enough to get revenge on "him".
Eduardo was playing RC Pro Am Racing in the living room as if nothing had happened and nothing was going to happen. He was 2000 points ahead of his personal best score.
Kylie stepped in front of the screen and smiled evilly. Eduardo's eyes widened and he attempted to grin innocently.
Kylie kicked the cord out of its socket. She had officially declared war. His mouth dropped open and then he glared at her.
Downstairs, Garrett had just arrived.
"Hello. Anybody home?"
As if to answer him, coming from upstairs he heard banging, then a loud crash, a colorful assortment of swear words, followed by heavy thumping as someone ran across the ceiling.
After that, Eduardo came down the firepole with a terrified look on his face.
On his heels came a very pissed-off Kylie.
"Get back here and fight like a man, you coward!!", she yelled as both disappeared out the door and into the street.
"Well" said Garrett. "That was interesting."
Roland came up from the basement and looked over at Garrett.
"What happened?"
"I was kinda hoping you could tell me", Garrett said as he wheeled over to Janine's desk. "So, what have you been doing all morning?"
"Oh, a little bit of everything. How about you?"
"Homework."
"Sounds like fun."
"Yeah, absolutely thrilling. Have we gotten any calls?"
"None."
"Well, guess I'll go find something to eat."
That evening, in a small graveyard outside of the city, a faint ghostly shadow jumped from tombstone to tombstone, looking for a form to take on.
In the older area of the graveyard it found what it needed.
The thin shadow danced across the face of a statue. The statue's weatherbeaten limestone eyes glowed to life.
On the other side of the yard, near the road, the caretaker's wife sat admiring the beautiful night sky.
Away from the city there was little light pollution and the stars seemed to take on a life of their own as they shimmered.
As she headed back to her house, she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. While she walked it seemed to follow her, but when she turned to look all she saw were the tombstones, crypts and statues of the cemetery.
She began to walk more quickly. A rustle came from behind, and she definitely saw something move toward her. She spun around and faced the stalker.
All she saw was a small statue in the middle of the path she had taken. For 50 years, she and her husband had worked this graveyard, but she had never seen the small, lime-eaten statue there before. She knew something was wrong... very wrong.
She looked up at the house, only a few yards away. When she looked back at the statue, she discovered to her horror that it was now only inches away from her. She screamed and ran to her house in a full sprint with whatever "it" was at her heels the whole way.
In the house, her husband stood waiting for her. He had heard her scream, and had seen the thing walk out of the older cemetery and up to her and had been watching as it ran after her as she ran toward the house. He opened the door for her, and they both waited in eerie silence. Only seconds later, they heard on the back porch the dull, cold, clanking sound of stone hitting stone.
The husband managed to reach the phone without being seen and dialed the number for the Ghostbusters.
Garrett awoke suddenly from his sleep to the sound of the phone ringing. By the time he had gotten off the couch and into his wheelchair, Eduardo had gotten out of bed and had answered it.
"Ghostbusters", he said with a yawn.
Garrett watched as Eduardo scribbled down an address and tried to reassure whoever was on the other end.
"Calm down, man. We'll be there as soon as possible. Just try to lay low until then, O.K.?
When Eduardo hung up the phone, Garrett looked at him expectantly.
"Better make some coffee, Garrett, I'm gonna call Kylie and Roland."
Eduardo dialed Kylie's number as Garrett rolled into the kitchen.
"Hello?", came the groggy reply from the other end.
"Rise and shine, Kylie."
"Eduardo, this had better be important, or you won't be seeing the light of a new tomorrow!"
"Sounds tempting, but I did call for a reason. We just got a call from some old guy who said there's a statue on his back porch that's after his wife. Thought you might be interested."
"Fine, see you in a few minutes."
"Bye."
Eduardo hung up the phone.
"Hey Garrett, how's that coffee coming?"
He looked around the corner and into the kitchen. Garrett had fallen asleep on the table.
Eduardo rode up on the elevator to Kylie's apartment.
"Man, I hope she's not too cranky", he said rubbing yesterday's bruises.
The doors opened and he walked down the hall to her door. Before he had the chance to knock, Kylie came out. She looked like she hadn't slept for a month.
"You O.K.?", he asked.
"I'm fine."
"What time did you get to sleep?"
"About five minutes before you called."
"What were you doing up so late?"
"Homework."
He put his hand on her shoulder and stopped walking. She turned around and looked at him.
"Kylie, Roland said you were up late last night too", he said, "if you want, I'm sure someone would fill in for you so you could sleep."
Kylie started to respond, but realized he was concerned for her.
"Thanks, but I think I'll be alright."
"You sure?", he asked.
She nodded, and they walked on down the hall.
The Ecto-1 drove down the winding country road with Roland at the wheel.
Everybody else was asleep.
Roland looked at his watch. . . 2:30 A.M. He wished he could go back to sleep. Kylie sat beside him in the passenger seat; she had fallen asleep as soon as she had sat down. I hope she'll be all right, he thought.
She'd been up late for the past few days. Last night she had stayed up late to work on her paper, as well as tonight. The night before, she and Egon had been going over some ancient scrolls and they hadn't gotten to bed until 4 A.M.
The car pulled into the driveway of the caretaker's house. From the car, Roland could make out something on the backporch. Whatever it was, it wasn't moving, But it's eyes, he could tell, were glowing faintly.
Behind him Eduardo and Garrett were beginning to wake up. Kylie, however, remained asleep. It took Roland several minutes to wake her, and even longer for her to get her mind straight. She looked at Roland like she had never seen him before, and she didn't know were she was. Eduardo helped her out of the car and talked to her softly out of Roland's hearing range. A little while after that, things began to make sense to her again, but she was still very tired.
"O.K. guys" Roland said, "this is a big place. We'd better split up. Eduardo, you and Kylie go that way. Garrett and I will scope out the rest of the place after we inspect that thing on the porch. Keep your radios on in case we need help.".
When Eduardo and Kylie were out of sight, Roland and Garrett went up to the porch to take a look at what had gotten them up at this ridiculous hour. Garrett was the first one to reach the porch.
"This is why I got out of bed?! A statue?!"
Roland took out his PKE meter and went over it a few times. It glowed to life as it passed over the piece of stone.
"It's more than a statue", he said, adjusting the knobs, "I've never seen readings like this before."
"Well then, let's blast it and go home."
"We can't do it here. Our proton streams would damage the house."
"Well, then, what do you think we should do?"
"I say we take it back to Egon so he can look at it. Besides, it might not be as easy as just blasting it."
Garrett shook his head and picked it up. As he rode back down the hill to the Ecto-1, Roland knocked on the door. The old man answered.
"Is it gone?"
"We're going to take it back with us and do some more readings", he said. "I need to ask you a few questions."
The old man stepped out onto the porch.
"Go ahead."
"Well, do you have any idea what it was doing?"
"No, but it was up to something over there in the oldest part of the cemetery.
When it saw my wife, it came out and followed her back up here."
"Can I speak with your wife?"
He nodded his head and called for her to come outside.
"Ma'am, can you tell me anything about the statue?"
"It just followed me. I don't know why."
"Have either one of you noticed anything out of the ordinary in the part of the graveyard it came from?"
Both shook their heads no.
Eduardo and Kylie stumbled around in the dark looking for anything that seemed out of place.
Eduardo examined a nearby tombstone.
Ellen Rora Shaine
Born: January 4, 1899 Died: April 17, 1963
May She Rest Peacefully.
"Man, these graves are old. Wouldn't you say, Kylie?"
No answer.
"Kylie?"
He turned around to look for her. She wasn't behind him.
"Kylie?!"
He began to worry as he retraced his steps. Finally, he saw her. She had blacked out beside one of the crypts they had been looking at earlier. He gently picked her up and began to walk back to the Ecto-1. Before he reached the path, however, he got the strange feeling he was being followed. He stopped and turned his head slightly. All he could see was a marble angel that was sitting on top of a short tombstone.
"This is not good."
He looked back at the path and took a few steps forward, then stopped again and listened.
He heard the soft crunch of grass behind him. He looked behind him again. The angel was now on the ground looking at him. He screamed and ran as fast as he could back to the house.
"ROLAND!!! GARRETT!!!"
Roland had just finished helping Garrett with the statue when he heard Eduardo screaming.
"Something's wrong with Kylie!", Garrett said.
"I think it's more than that", said Roland, seeing something behind Eduardo and Kylie.
Eduardo dashed up Garrett's ramp.
"Kill it!! Kill it!!"
Garrett powered up his proton gun and blasted the marble figure. It instantly burst into a thousand pieces. A thin, black smoke rose from the pieces and into the night sky.
When they were sure the danger had passed for now, all attention went back to Kylie.
"What happened?", Roland asked.
"I think she tripped", Eduardo said. He suddenly realized something. "No, she passed out. I knew I should have made her stay home."
Roland felt for a pulse.
"She's alright for now, but we need to get back to the firehouse."
Eduardo began to relax a bit. He looked down at Kylie's sleeping face. He scolded himself for letting her come. Now something was wrong with her. He leaned back against the seat and cradled her in his arms.
Garrett looked over at him from where he sat.
"Hey, Eddie, don't feel too bad. I mean, even if you did tell her to stay home she probably wouldn't have listened anyways. You know how she is."
Kylie came back around several hours later at the firehouse.
She was lying on the couch in the living room.
She sat up and found that she had been sleeping with her head in Eduardo's lap. He had fallen asleep with his hand on her side.
Kylie stood up and stretched her aching muscles. She looked back at Eduardo. She knew he had probably been up most of the night worrying about her. Very gently, Kylie bent forward and kissed his forehead.
Roland came into the living room.
"Finally, you're awake", he said. "How are you feeling?"
"A lot better."
"Good, because we're getting calls from all over the city about problems with people’s yard ornaments getting up and walking around."
Kylie looked back at Eduardo.
"How late was he up?"
"He stayed awake until the sun came up. Out of everyone here, I think he was the most concerned for you."
Kylie smiled. "I guess I owe him one."
"Why don't you wake him up while I go get the Ecto-1 warmed up?"
She nodded.
After Roland had left. Kylie shook Eduardo awake.
"Hey, time to wake up."
"Hey, you're awake!"
"Yep. I woke up a couple of minutes ago."
"Man...what time is it?", he asked with a yawn.
"I'd say about noon."
"I feel like I just closed my eyes."
"Come on", she said, helping him up, "Roland said we're getting calls from all over the city."
The Ecto-1 parked in front of a house with a yard that was littered with all sorts of stone figures.
However, the statues were all facing towards the house; some were even walking to the door.
"Come on guys.", Roland said getting out of the car, "We've got a long day ahead of us."
Garrett wheeled down his ramp and headed to the backyard to see how bad it was.
Eduardo and Kylie started in the front yard. As Eduardo blasted a few of the statues, Kylie noticed the black fog that rose from the rubble. She also noticed that after they were free of the stone the fog formed a cloud and drifted away in one direction.
"Eduardo, wait a minute."
He stopped and looked at her.
"What?"
"Look at that fog."
"Yeah, I never really paid much attention to it before. That statue Garrett blasted last night did
the same thing."
"I wonder where it's going?"
"There's only one way to find out", he said, placing his proton gun back in it's holster. He took out his radio and thumbed it on. "Hey, Roland."
"Yeah?"
"How are you two doing?"
"Just fine. I don't know about you, but this is too easy."
"I know. Kylie has a hunch about what's happening; me and her are going to go check it out. Do you think you and Garrett can finish up here?"
"Yeah, we'll be fine. You two be careful."
"We will."
Eduardo put his radio back in its holder and looked over at Kylie. She was blasting statues left and right.
"What are you doing? I thought we were going to follow them."
"We are; we just need to blast some so they'll form a cloud to follow."
She put her gun away and watched as the shadow-like smoke formed a cloud.
"Come on," she said as it began to drift away.
They followed it down through the city and toward the harbor.
"Hey, Kylie, I'm getting a bad feeling about where this thing is going."
"I know.", she said as they approached the docks.
At the water's edge they stopped and watched as it drifted out towards what both of them dreaded- The Statue of Liberty.
"This is bad."
"No kidding.", Kylie said as she turned on her radio. "Hey, Roland."
"Yeah?"
"I think we have a problem."
"This is just great", Garrett said as he rolled to the railing of the ferry. "We've just gone from blasting yard ornaments to the biggest statue on this side of the country."
"Not yet, we haven't", Kylie said, walking up beside him. "I think if we can get to whatever it is before it settles in we might have a chance."
"And if we don't?"
"Let's just hope we do for now."
Eduardo walked up behind her.
"You gonna be O.K.?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine. I got a good night's sleep last night. By the way, thanks."
"Thanks for what?"
"For being there for me."
"No problem."
Eduardo stood beside her and put his hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him, and their eyes met.
"Roland said that you were up all night with me."
"I was, but I didn't mind" he said, moving his hand down to her waist.
She smiled and rested her head on his shoulder.
"Hey, you two", Garrett said. "We're almost there."
At Liberty Island, at least a hundred people crowded onto the ferry screaming and raving about ghosts.
"Guess this is the place", Garrett said as he got off of the boat.
Eduardo came off after him. "What tipped you off?"
Roland took out his PKE meter and flipped it on. "These readings- they're the same as the ones I had with the statues, only stronger and more concentrated."
"Well," Garrett said, "let's stop standing around here and get to work."
"Kylie, Eduardo, you look around in the lower levels. Garrett and I will check out the observation deck."
As Garrett and Roland disappeared up the elevator. Kylie and Eduardo began the seemingly endless search in the bottom of the statue.
"You know" Eduardo said, looking back at Kylie, "it's only common sense that the ghost would be in the top level. I mean, how useful would it be to operate this thing from the feet?"
"I know. I guess Roland thinks we can't be too careful."
Eduardo nodded and went back to his search.
"Hey" he said examining a nearby wall, "look at this."
Kylie walked over and took a closer look.
She saw what he was looking at. Near the floor, there was a vent, and coming from the vent was a steady stream of black smoke. It floated up towards the observation deck in a column.
"It's that fog we saw!"
She grabbed her radio and turned it on. "Garrett, Roland, it's on it’s way up there."
"No it's not, it's already here.", Garrett said, "We need you two up here right now."
"O.K."
She strapped her radio back into its holder and looked at Eduardo.
"Come on. It's already up there."
They got into the other elevator and rode up to help Roland and Garrett.
By the time they got to the observation deck the fog had already taken on its true form.
It was tall and repulsively skinny with glowing eyes and torn bat-like wings. It's skin was stretched across it's bony frame so tightly that you could count every rib and see every joint.
When Kylie and Eduardo got into their positions, it let out a low growl and began to look at it's attackers one by one to find a weak spot in the circle they had formed around it.
The thing turned around several times, then stopped.
Finally, it made its move; It charged Kylie and grabbed her by the foot; she screamed and struggled against its grip. It tore off her proton gun and threw it to one side.
The thing put her between the “danger” and itself and slowly walked towards a nearby window.
Eduardo's mind was racing. He didn't know what to do. He watched as it leaped out the window, spread its wings, and floated away. Where is it taking her?, he thought.
Roland and Garrett watched Eduardo as he ran back to the elevator.
"Come on, Roland, we gotta catch him before he does something stupid", Garrett said hitting the button for the second elevator.
Out at the dock, Eduardo jumped onto the last ferry. Garrett and Roland followed close behind him. It seemed to him that it took an eternity to get back to the shore.
Roland and Garrett finally made it to the car, panting and coughing.
"Come on, you two, get in here and let’s get going!!"
"Um, Eduardo, we don't have any idea where it took her."
"Yes, we do. I was watching it while you two wimps were huffing and puffing your way up here.
It's taking Kylie back to the graveyard it came from."
Roland started up the engine and pulled away from the docks.
"Let me go!!", Kylie screamed, trying to squirm free from the creature's claws.
It hissed at her and continued its flight.
Kylie continued to squirm. She was beginning to feel that it was useless to struggle; then she heard the Ecto-1's siren below her.
"Oh, thank God!"
She then realized that the thing that was carrying her was beginning to get closer and closer to the ground. Not far away, she could see the cemetery.
She looked back down at the Ecto-1. It was far ahead of her and the creature.
Eduardo was out of the car before Roland had even pulled into the driveway. He ran back to the old cemetery and waited in the shadows.
When the thing was within a few yards of the old cemetery, it dropped Kylie and landed on top of one of the crypts. It scratched at the crypt's roof, leaving inch deep furrows in the stone, sharpening its claws for the kill.
Eduardo couldn't wait for Roland and Garrett to get there; he had to do it now. He leaped from his hiding spot and fired at the thing. It let out an ear-piercing scream. Eduardo struggled to contain it with all his strength, but it was too strong for him. It freed itself of the proton stream and flew away.
However, it flew back Kylie's way, only to be caught in her trap.
"Thanks, Kylie", he said, wiping his forehead.
"No problem."
"I guess we're even now."
Kylie looked up at him and smiled.
"Actually, I think I still owe you one."
"You do? How?"
"Well, if it wasn't for you, I'd probably be sitting in that thing's stomach right now," she said walking over to him. "So, I do still owe you."
Eduardo smiled down at Kylie and put his arm around her waist. Kylie looked up at his face and into his soft brown eyes. He put his hand up to her face and gently brushed her hair back. Kylie closed her eyes and kissed him long and deep.
They finally came up for air.
"I guess we're even now."
Kylie smiled and brought him back down for another.
THE END
Sorry if it sounded choppy towards the end, but I was fighting off my annoying brother the whole time I was writing. -Ica