Magic - A Ghostbusters Story

PART I : The Grey Lady

The library was fairly quiet, full of busy students working on schoolwork. There was the occasional rustle of paper or cough, but the quiet atmosphere was never disturbed. That was true until Peter Venkman and Raymond Stanz walked in. They were loudly discussing work with each other, ignoring the peace they were actively disrupting. Ray pointed in the direction of two adults, a man and a woman.

The man was Egon Spengler, a professor at Columbia University, one of Ray and Peter's colleagues. He was sitting on the floor, his legs criss crossed. His dark curls dropped in front of his eyes, covering the left side of his glasses. In his hand was some sort of measurement device, he was holding it to the underside of the table.

Above him sat the woman, Genevieve Stratford, the men's fellow colleague. She had wavy, auburn hair that ended at her mid-back. She too had glasses, they hid her green eyes staring at Egon as he worked. Her attention was then drawn to Peter and Ray's voices as they grew nearer. Genevieve watched as Peter began to tiptoe, obviously trying to sneak up on Egon. He was lightly tapping the table, making Egon's head perk up. Peter grabbed the nearest book, slamming it on the table, making everyone in the library jump.

"Oh, you're here." Egon said, quickly standing up, adjusting his coat before joining Ray and Peter.

The three men began walking together, talking amongst themselves. Genevieve stayed behind, picking up Egon's stray papers, jogging to catch up. She smiled at Egon as she handed him the papers.

Peter smirked in her direction, "Still fetching Egon's papers, Genny?"

"Still sleeping with your students, Venky?" she quipped. "And for your information, I haven't been Egon's assistant for three years now. Your joke is dated."

"Still relevant though." Peter said, motioning to papers Egon was now holding.

A man quickly approached the four, "Hello, I'm Roger Delacorte, are you the professors from the university?"

Peter shook the man's hand, "Yes, I'm Dr. Venkman, that's Dr. Stanz, Dr. Stratford, Egon." he said, introducing them down the line.

"Thank you for coming. I'm hoping we can deal with this quickly and quietly." Roger said in a hushed voice.

"Slow down, we don't even know what you have yet." Peter said, following Roger over to the back of the library.

A very frightened older woman, in her late 40's, was laying on one of the tables. She stared up at the ceiling, muttering to herself. Peter and Genevieve approached the woman together, while Ray and Egon stood back, still measuring something. Peter stood to the woman's right, offering a smile. Genevieve pulled up a chair, sitting on the woman's left.

"Hello, Alice. Could you describe to us what you experienced?" Genevieve asked.

"I was walking downstairs, putting away books. When all of a sudden I got the feeling something or someone was watching me. I kept feeling cool breezes and feeling like books were moving as I walked. I was walking past the library cards when they started to fly out of their compartments. I was running to get out when I saw it. I don't remember any legs but it definitely had arms because it reached out to me." as she retold the story, you could see her re-experience every emotion she felt.

"Arms? I can't wait to get a look at this thing!" Ray said a little too happily.

Peter ignored him, smiling at the woman again before speaking, "Alright Alice, I'm gonna ask you a few standard questions. Have you or anyone in your family been diagnosed with schizophrenic? Mentally incompetent?"

The woman looked at Peter, "My uncle thought he was Saint Jerome?"

"I'll take that as a big yes. Are you habitually using drugs, stimulants, alcohol?"