𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐀 𝐅𝐄𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆 ✪ 𝙬. 𝙗𝙮𝙚𝙧𝙨

★03

chapter three.
who you gonna call?
.✧*:･ﾟ

𝙀𝙈𝘽𝙀𝙍 𝙒𝘼𝙎 𝘼𝙒𝙊𝙆𝙀𝙉 from her sleep by the sound of Mike and his mother upstairs in the kitchen. She had been dreaming, dreaming about someone, but she could not remember who. All she could remember of the dream was someone grabbing her by the hand, and dancing with her.

She climbed out of the tent, stretching out her limbs, and decided to creep up the stairs to peek at Mike and Mrs Wheeler. Karen Wheeler seemed nice, and Ember loved to watch her interacting with her kids, squeezing their cheeks, or comforting them, or just simply giving them a small sign of affection like a smile. Ember wondered if her own mother had cared for her like that before she was taken.

As she reached the top of the stairs, she gently lifted the latch on the door and stuck her head out. Mrs Wheeler had her back to Ember, and she was taking countless photos of Mike, who was dressed up for Hallowe'en. He had shown Ember his costume the night before, in the basement, and had explained to her about the Ghostbusters, and how he and the others had all planned to dress up as one of them.

Ember giggled softly as Mike groaned and muttered at his mom, who ignored his complaints and kept snapping the camera. She finally let him leave, and he ran out the door as fast as he could, hopping on his bike and pedalling away before his mother could change her mind.

It proved to be a very dull morning after that, because Mrs Wheeler didn't leave the house all day, meaning Ember would be unable to sneak out to visit her friends at lunchtime. She was disappointed, as she had been very excited to see Will again, and to admire him in his costume. But Mike had promised that she could sneak out later at night, to go trick-or-treating with them. She stay occupied all morning by rummaging through the boxes of old clothes long forgotten about in a box by the basement stairs, and rifling through Nancy's old magazines and books to see if she could make a costume out of the odd pieces.

⭒*｡✭.༶

A few hours later, Mike ran down the stairs, accompanied by Lucas and Dustin, who were wearing matching Ghostbusters costumes, like Mike's. The three of them laughed when they saw Embers costume. She had found a dark brown fedora that had once belonged to Mike's dad, and had an idea. She then flicked furiously through one of Nancy's 'pop culture' magazines again, until she saw the picture that had sparked her idea. She delved into the large box of clothes again and again until she had found all the ideal items for her costume. An old, brown leather bomber jacket worn over a beige button up blouse, plus some fawn-coloured flared trousers and black Doc Martins that had both been purchased a few years ago by Nancy at a garage-sale, but then thrown into the basement as they were becoming too small. Paired with the fedora and a small coil of rope she had found in beside the box, Ember made the perfect Indiana Jones.

Lucas and Mike cheered as she tipped her fedora at them all shyly, and Dustin clapped her on the back. "Alright, Will should be outside any minute now" Mike announced. As if by magic, Karen yelled down the stairs to them "Mike sweetie, hurry up! Will and Jonathan are here."

The three boys looked back at Ember, who was wondering how she would slip past Mrs Wheeler, and smiled at each other smugly. "Don't worry Ember" Lucas grinned "We've got it all figured out" They then sprung into action. Mike ran upstairs, yelling to his mother that there was a leak in the downstairs toilet. Dustin then grabbed onto Ember's wrist, dragging her over to her tent. "Quick, hide in here" She ducked inside the tent, and Lucas flipped the sheet over to cover her just as Karen came down the stairs, being led by Mike. Ember could hear her talking to him as they walked briskly over to the bathroom She sounded flustered and confused. As the bathroom door swung shut behind her, Dustin lifted the tent cover up and grabbed Ember once again, pulling her up the stairs and out the front door. Lucas, who had stayed at the top of the basement stairs, made a loud hooting noise, and almost immediately Mike came running up the stairs and followed Lucas out the door to regroup with Dustin and Ember.