Affinity || A Ghostbusters Afterlife Story || Trevor Spengler

Phoebe Is Pretty Cool

Alice sat in the car with the family, she was gonna help Callie clean up the house a bit because it was quite a mess.
"Hey, Pheebs, at school today, don't be afraid to just start a conversation." Callie told her
"Are you kidding? That's horrible advice. You're literally setting her up for failure." Trevor told his mom, he turned around to the back of the car to face Phoebe  "Hey, how are the jokes coming along?"

"Why should you never trust atoms?" Phoebe paused "Because they make up everything."
Alice held back a laugh
"That's funny." Callie encouraged
"No, it's not." Trevor told them "You can drop me off here."
"Are you embarrassed?" Callie asked
"Yeah. Bye." He said, jumping out the car
Alice saw him run to the diner.
"Love you!"

They dropped Phoebe off at school and headed to the tiny hardware store they had in town.
"Alice, do you wanna grab me some sandpaper"
Callie went around to the paint isle
"Doing some painting?" The store owner asked Callie

"Mm, yeah." Callie said muffled, holding her bag in her mouth
Alice placed the sandpaper on the counter
"Whereabouts you staying?" He asked
"Um, that old apocalyptic ranch off of 99." Callie told him "It was my father's place."

"Dirt Farmer had a family?" The store owner asked "like an actual family, not just some random teenager who was pick up off the side of the road"
"Ouch" Alice mumbled, sarcastically
"You all called him the Dirt Farmer?" Callie asked
Alice nodded
"Meant nothing by it. Man spends every week working a piece of land... but never seeding, never watering, never growing a ding-dang thing. It's curious behavior." The worker told her

Callie payed for her things
"Great customer though. He... He bought some bizarre shit." The worker laughed
"Yeah, that sounds like him." Callie told him
They brought the stuff to the car, throwing it in the boot, when they got in the car Callie turned to look at her.
"What made my father take you in?" She asked
Alice looked at her shoes
"He felt partly responsible for the incident" she mumbled

Callie looked at her sympathetically.
"Do you reckon you could drop me at the diner, I need breakfast" Alice asked "I'll be back home around 12 to help if that's fine with you"
Callie nodded "sure thing"

Alice waved Callie goodbye a d walked into the diner. She saw Trevor through one of the door, stacking food.
"Hey, no-skills. How's inventory?" She heard Lucky ask
"Oh, hey, how's it going? No, it's not good. It's not good at all. Um..." Trevor stumbled  "Does everyone do this?"
"Yeah, it's important." Lucky told him
She looked at him, he was shivering
"You okay?" Lucky asked "Your lips are literally blue."

"Yeah, I'm fine." He told her
"You should borrow my hoodie." Lucky suggested, pulling it off
"No, it's fine. Seriously." He told her
"It's really masculine. It's got a wolf on it. Trust me." She told him, smiling

"Okay." He told her "I'm kind of surprised it fits me."
"Yeah, it's my boyfriend's, actually." She told him, leaving the freezer
"Oh." He choked, pulling off the jacket
Alice clapped slowly, getting his attention
"Smooth"
"Why are you even here" he asked, continuing to stack frozen food
"Because I'm hungry, and if you haven't noticed, your grandfather wasn't exactly stocking food for the apocalypse"
But he was doing things to prevent it, she though to herself
"Can you even afford food" he asked

"No, but the workers here love me and just give me food" she told him "isn't that right Lucky?"
The girl was walking over with a plate of chips
"We know you can't afford it" Lucky told her, putting the plate down "once you gets job here it will be a different story"
"Well, luckily I can't get a job for a year" Alice smiled

~•||•~

Alice made her way back home, she got back and saw Callie shorting through all the shit that was left in the house. She helped for a while, putting things in piles and taking something's for herself. They were up stairs when she heard the death whistle.

"Um, what the hell is that?" Callie asked, wandering down the stairs
"Aztec death whistle. Can I keep it?" A little boy asked
He must've been Phoebes friend
"Yes, please. Just don't do that again." Callie sighed
"Hi." Mr Grooberson said

"Hello again." Callie waved
"Alice, I haven't seen you in what, like 3 years" Mr Grooberson exclaimed
"4" she corrected
"You brought them home." Callie asked
"It's a service I provide." He told her "Well, I'm also an escort."
Alice laughed
"Mmm...?" Callie said
"That came out wrong." He said embarrassed
"Kind of... Yep."

"The truth is, I've always wondered what lurked inside this haunt box." Mr Grooberson told her
"Right. Well, the only thing lurking inside here is my slowly dying soul." Callie sighed
"Is that what that smell is?" He asked
"Well, it's not dinner, so..." Callie smiled
Alice left because this was getting way to awkward way to quickly. She followed the 12 year old because they definitely knew something and she wanted to find out

"I think Grooberson's trying to bone your mom." The boy said
"Oh." Phoebe said quickly
"That doesn't bother you?" He asked
"No, of course it bothers me." Phoebe told him "I just don't exhibit emotions the same way everyone else does. Inside, I'm vomiting."
"Did you two do anything interesting at school?" Alice asked
"We kind of, maybe released a ghos-" They boy started before Phoebe slapped her hand over his mouth

"Where did you find it?" Alice asked, referring to the trap
"Find what" Phoebe planned dumb
"The trap"
The two stays silent and made their way up to Phoebes room.
The boy was flipping through a book and Phoebe told as looking the the chess set.
"Wait." The boy asked "Isn't this what we saw earlier?"

He read out the page
"The Sumerians believed in a land of the dead, a dark and shadowy realm within the bowels of the earth. The souls of the dead are ruled by a mighty god, Gozer, and protected by a powerful Gatekeeper and Keymaster, in order that Gozer might rise up and walk the human plane again. The Gatekeeper and Keymaster must assume the form of beasts."
"For fucks sake" Alice groaned "we're screwed "
The two 12 year olds looked at her
"What did we let out?" Phoebe asked

~•||•~

Phoebe managed to find the weird secret basement and Alice followed
She slide down the fireman pole
"Hello?" Phoebe called
Alice wandered around.
"What are you here Alice?" Phoebe asked her
"Just wanted to, haven't been down here in months" she told the girl "I can go if you want"
"No no, I was just asking" Phoebe told her

Alice saw all the lights turn on behind Phoebe. She smiled slightly, a ghost. A friendly, familiar ghost.
"I think I'll leave" she told her "you two have stuff to do"
She muttered the last bit but she thinks Phoebe may have heard. She made her way out the little basement experiment room and to the garage with the old Ecto-1. She had been trying for years to get the thing going but she seemed to have no luck with it. Cars must've not been her thing. Alice sat down in the drivers seat with a sigh.

She was only just now processing that the only person who cared about her was gone. Well, not really, but it wasn't the same. Ghosts couldn't look after a 15 year old and provide foot or anything.

This was all her fault. If she had just stayed back and helped him he would still be alive and there wouldn't be strangers in her home.

~•||•~

Word Count: 1310
Fun guilt we're getting from Alice. This is probably gonna be quite a short story but yk. I'll probably rewrite it at some point and make it better and longer.