GhostBusters: Rift In Dimensions

Chapter One

Y/N's P.O.V

June 20th, 2020.

If the world had a breaking point, we were leaning hard against it.

A pandemic. Masks. Empty streets that somehow still felt too crowded. Everyone tense, snappy, waiting for the next thing to go wrong.

And today?

Today delivered.

The tremors started early. Not full earthquakes, just enough to rattle nerves and send everything crashing off shelves every couple of hours. I worked at a gas station, which meant every shake turned into cleanup duty.

Over. And over. And over.

By the time my shift ended, I was one bad customer away from committing a felony.

"Bye, guys!" I called, already halfway out the door.

"Later, Y/N!"

The night air hit me like a warning.

Cold.

Wrong.

It was summer. It shouldn't feel like this. But nothing about this year made sense anymore, so I stopped questioning it.

I slid into my car and cranked the heat like I could bully reality back into place.

The drive started quiet.

Too quiet.

I lived on the outskirts of New York, where the city noise faded into something almost peaceful. Not that it mattered much. Home wasn't exactly better.

My mom and I... didn't get along. That was the polite version. The real version had sharper edges. Everything was my fault. Always had been. My dad leaving? My fault. Her life? My fault.

Seventeen years of that kind of blame sticks to you.

I tightened my grip on the wheel.

Then my car made a sound like it had just given up on life.

"...You've gotta be kidding me."

The engine sputtered. Slowed.

Died.

Smoke curled up from under the hood like a final insult.

I pulled over, already knowing how this was going to go.

Badly.

I popped the hood and stepped out, peeling off my work shirt and tossing it into the passenger seat. The engine looked like a lost cause.

"Cool. Love that for me."

Back in the car. Phone out.

No signal.

Of course.

I leaned my head back against the seat, exhaling sharply—

And froze.

There was a light.

Faint. Flickering. Somewhere deep in the tree line.

I stared at it for a long second.

Then grabbed my backpack.

"Alright. Horror movie logic. Let's go."

The forest swallowed sound.

Each step crunched too loud. The air felt too still. Too cold.

I kept going anyway.

Because standing next to a dead car in the middle of nowhere felt worse.