Chapter 4

Kylie walked into the kitchen, eyeing Egon as she passed. He had been on the phone for two hours talking a little and listening a lot. Kylie poured herself a glass of tea, still eyeing him.

“I understand,” Egon told the person. “And you are certain about this?” Egon was silent again, listening to the person.

“Ego—” Janine started, walking around the corner.

Egon shooed her away, stopping her. Kylie shrugged, leaving the kitchen and walking back to the table and sitting down. Janine came out, sitting down with her.

“How long has he been on the phone?” Janine asked.

“About two hours.”

“Puts you to shame,” Garrett teased from the living room.

Kylie glared at him. Garrett turned back to his video game. Roland glanced up from his laptop, then back down without a comment.

“I understand,” Kylie and Janine heard Egon say. He got to his feet, pushing his free hand in his front pants pocket. “It just doesn’t seem possible, Alek. All right. All right. I’ll get the background…When should I expect it? I understand. Thank you Alek. Good-bye.” Egon hung up, pushing his other hand in his pants’ pocket.

“Egon, I need to—” Janine started, standing up.

“Whatever it is, it’s fine or can wait.” Egon cut her off. He started towards the stairs. “I have to go do some research.”

Kylie and Janine watched him leave, and then looked at each other.

#

Janine looked up, watching Egon come upstairs with a stack of books. He stopped at her desk, dropping them on the desk. Kylie was sitting at the other end with open catalogs scattered around her.

“This came today,” Janine said, handing him an oversized, overnight envelope.

Egon snatched it from her and ripped it open. He pulled out a worn book, opening it to a marked page. Egon read something then looked at Kylie.

“I need you to memorize this. We’re going to need it.” Egon handed her the book.

Kylie took it, skimming the page. She looked up, watching Egon gathering up the books.

“An incantation?” Kylie looked back at the page. “For what?”

“Just memorize it Kylie,” Egon ordered. He sounded as tired as he looked.

“Egon…Carlos called…again,” Janine said. “This makes three days straight. He’s beginning to doubt that Eduardo’s been on so many calls, Egon. He demanded to speak to him. Even threatened to report Eduardo kidnapped.”

“He also called yesterday while you were out,” Egon said, heading for the stairs to the second floor. “Keep telling him Eduardo’s on a call. And there is no proof any of us have kidnapped anyone.”

“Egon—” Kylie started.

“I’m working on it, Kylie. I’m working on it.”

Kylie sighed, watching him disappear. Janine reached out, laying her hand on Kylie’s arm. Kylie looked at her.

“He is working on it, Kylie. Eduardo will be back with us before too long. Minus a possessive ghost.”

Kylie wasn’t satisfied with that. She darted upstairs finding Garrett and Roland had stopped Egon and were interrogating him about what they were going to do.

Egon shifted the weight of the books. “I have details to work out still,” Egon told them.

“Why can’t we just zap him?” Garrett asked. “It worked on Kylie.”

Kylie’s eyes narrowed at Garrett.

“It’s not that simple,” Egon said.

“Then explain it to us, Egon. We’re concerned,” Roland told him.

“And what happened to team?” Garrett asked. “We want to help, Egon.”

“You know, they’re right,” Kylie said. “I mean…maybe we could help figure out those details. Come on Egon.”

“Fine.” Egon looked around, spotted the coffee table and sat the books down. “Due to the fact that Lita is a witch, a real witch, we can’t just shoot Eduardo to get her out.”

“Why?” Garrett asked.

“If we shoot Eduardo, both he and Lita will come out,” Egon explained. “He would have roughly five minutes. If his spirit isn’t returned to his body before then, he will die. And when we shoot him Lita will still have a hold on him. And I believe she intends on keeping a hold on him as long as she can until she destroys him. Not to mention I believe she possessed him when he was sick. This means that he could quite possibly be so weak he won’t be able to rejoin his body on his own. And we certainly can’t help him in his ghost form.”

The three were silent for a moment, realizing the implications.

Roland sat up suddenly. “Don’t we still have the corporeal gloves?” Roland asked.

“Yes.” Egon looked at Roland. “We do. Bu—”

“We could make him corporeal!” Kylie said.

“And this helps how?” Garrett asked.

“We could help him,” Roland said. “Help him rejoin his body.”

“That just leaves us with one big detail,” Janine said. They looked at her. She was standing beside Kylie. “If Egon’s right, Lita will still have her claws in him when we pull them out?”

“We?” Garrett asked.

“I’m helping.” Janine smiled. “He may not be the cream of the crop, but he’s family.”

Kylie looked back at the others. “But she has a point. Lita will have a hold of him when we pull them out.”

“Then how are we going to separate them?” Garrett asked.

That silenced them. They didn’t know. Slimer flew up to Egon, pointing at himself.

“What?” Egon asked him.

Slimer pointed insistently at himself.

“What about you?”

Slimer said something.

“Slimer, what can you do?”

Slimer put up his fist, snarling. He said something.

“No Slimer,” Egon stated.

Slimer frowned, saying something else.

“No Slimer. That is not what I said. I think you’re perfectly capable of helping. It’s just too dangerous to get so close to her.”

A determined look came to Slimer’s face. He laid his hand on Egon’s shoulder saying something and pointing more insistently at himself.

“What does he want to do?” Garrett interrupted.

“He says as soon as we pull the two out he could distract Lita and give Eduardo a chance to get to the corporeal gloves. Then we can hold her until Eduardo’s back in his body.”

“We have a plan!” Garrett cried.

“I can’t let Slimer do it,” Egon argued.

“He’s Slimer’s friend too,” Janine pointed out.

Egon closed his eyes.

“We can’t just leave him like this, Egon!” Roland said. “He wouldn’t leave us like this. You know that. He would do this.”

“Roland’s right, Egon,” Garrett said. “And he saved Slimer’s life. Twice.” Egon looked at Garrett. “Once when the munchie monster was after him and in the Containment Unit. Slimer kinda owes him.” Egon frowned, the other four looked angrily at Garrett. “If…any…one…was…counting…which…I’m…not.”

They looked back at Egon.

“Now all we have to do is find Eduardo and lure him here,” Egon said.

“Garrett and I can probably find him,” Roland suggested. “And Kylie could be the bait.”

“Me? How?” Kylie asked.

“Gee. I wonder.” Garrett looked at her with a grin.

Kylie blushed, looking down. She understood that. “Yeah. Guess Lita would send him after me first.”

“Let’s lure him back here,” Egon said. “On familiar ground. You two decide on that. Kylie, Janine, and I will work on just how we’ll do it and when.”

Roland and Garrett nodded, heading downstairs. Egon turned to the women and they began working on the details of the upcoming confrontation.

#

The Firehouse door creaked a second, then swung quietly open. A figure stepped through the door, and then shut it. Flames were burning where the person’s eyes should have been. The person started towards the stairs, moving quietly. The person stopped, hearing metal clank against metal somewhere above. Minutes passed and there was no sound. The person started walking again, crossing the garage. The person moved quietly up the stairs, passing through the light of a window across the room. Eduardo wore a psychotic smile, the flames burning higher in his eyes. He turned the corner, walking into the living room. It was darker in here. Someone had drawn all the shades. Eduardo’s smile grew. He walked past the couch towards the stairs. A glint and the sound of movement caught his attention. A flashlight turned on. Kylie appeared with a flashlight aimed up on her face in her hands. The flashlight beam was shaking—the only indication Kylie wasn’t as calm as she looked.

“Kylie,” Eduardo said. A sweet smile crossed his lips as he kept walking toward her. “How nice of you to send an invitation. Where are the others?”

Kylie didn’t smile in return. She didn’t even move. Eduardo noticed she was suited up.

“Going on a call?” He purred.

“Yeah,” Kylie answered.

Eduardo’s lips settled into a lazy grin. “Alone?”

“No…Lita.”

“THREE!” Garrett yelled.

The lights came on and Kylie leapt over the railing as the four shot Eduardo. Kylie pulled on the corporeal gloves, smacked her fists together and held them apart. A wind kicked back and light covered her.

Eduardo let out a howl before dropping to the floor. Above his body Lita and Eduardo’s ghost hovered. The six cut their streams and waited. Lita had her arms wrapped around him and tendrils of blackness roped around his neck. Eduardo appeared lifeless. Lita grinned at them.

“You’re too late!” She hissed.

Slimer came up through the floor behind Lita, his eyes narrowing. He backed up and flew straight at Lita. Slimer hit her hard from behind, knocking her away from Eduardo. Lita turned, getting caught in four proton streams. Eduardo fell to the floor and lay for a moment.

“Come on Eduardo,” Kylie said, looking in his general direction.

Eduardo drug himself to his knees, then his feet. He staggered towards her a few feet then fell. Eduardo lay where he fell, gasping for air. He felt something grab him under the arms and looked up to find Slimer straining to pull him back to his feet. Eduardo managed to get back to his knees, then his feet. With Slimer’s help he started walking toward Kylie again. Kylie was watching Slimer with concern Eduardo had never seen on her face before. Eduardo tripped over his foot and slipped from Slimer’s grasp to the floor. Slimer flew down and grabbed Eduardo’s arms again. Eduardo looked at him.

“I can’t,” Eduardo whispered.

Slimer looked angry and said something. Eduardo smiled a little.

“I’m not a quitter,” Eduardo said.

Slimer flew behind him and helped him back up again. Eduardo leaned on him, staggering towards Kylie. Slimer let go and Eduardo fell between the gloves. Kylie caught him before he hit the floor. She rolled Eduardo over to find he had passed out.

“No. Oh no,” Kylie whispered. She tugged the gloves off and began patting his cheek. “Come on Eduardo. Come back. Please.”

“KYLIE!” Garrett yelled.

“He passed out!”

Lita cackled. “You’ll never win!” she screeched.

“You know witchy ghoulie, I am not one to hate,” Garrett informed her, cranking up the power a little. “But I really am starting to hate you.”

Lita screamed, turning to face Garrett.

“Doesn’t feel so great, does it?” Garrett hissed.

“YOU’LL PAY!”

“Not in this life time, lady.”

Kylie looked down at Eduardo. His eyes were opening.

“Eduardo?”

“Where am I?” he whispered.

“The fire house. Eduardo, you have to get back in your body. You’ve got only seconds before you’ll really die.”

Eduardo nodded. He struggled to get his feet under him and with Kylie’s help walked back to his body. She lowered him into his body, leaning over him. She put her fingers to his neck, searching for a pulse.

“Egon!” Kylie cried. “EGON! HE HAS NO PULSE!”

Egon looked at her.

“We have her. Go,” Janine ordered.

Egon ran over sliding to a stop on his knees.

“Give him mouth to mouth,” Egon ordered Kylie. He laced his hands one on top of the other and positioned them over Eduardo’s chest.

Kylie leaned down, watching Egon press down on Eduardo’s chest five times. She pressed her lips to his and blew air into Eduardo’s lungs. Egon pumped again.

“Come on Eduardo. Come on,” Kylie whispered, watching his face.

The seconds it took seemed to stretch on forever.

“Hurry. We’re running low!” Roland yelled.

“Tell Eduardo that,” Kylie whispered. She was in tears now. “Come on Eduardo. Come on!”

Kylie leaned down to breath and felt his lips move and they were kissing. Kylie leaned back, looking in his eyes. She smiled. He didn’t return it. Kylie sat him up, feeling him leaning heavy against her. She realized he had passed out again.

“No. No. Eduardo?” Kylie shook him “Just a little longer, Eduardo.”

He opened his eyes some. Kylie turned his face towards where the three had Lita. Eduardo stared through glassy eyes at her.

“Eduardo, we have an incantation that—” Kylie started.

Eduardo interrupted with a hoarse snarl. “Help me up.”

Egon and Kylie exchanged glances but helped Eduardo to his feet. He pulled away from them, glaring malevolently at Lita. She grinned.

“What are you going to do, boy?” She laughed.

“I call upon time as my weapon—” Eduardo swayed, closing his eyes.

Egon and Kylie grabbed him, steadying him.

Lita’s eyes widened and her grin vanished. “No,” she whispered.

“Time as my ally, time as your enemy—”

“Eduardo, don’t. I can make you powerful! I ca—”

“I command time to bind you—”

“Eduardo—”

“And to vanquish you—”

“Stop. Eduardo, sto—”

“And banish you beyond time NOW.”

Lita vanished. Eduardo fell to his knees. Kylie knelt down, holding him to her with his head on her shoulder.

“Eduardo,” Kylie whispered.

Eduardo looked up at her. “I’m…tired…Kylie,” he whispered.

Kylie smiled, laying her hand on his cheek. “I bet. It’s safe to sleep now. I’ll protect you.”

Eduardo had already fallen asleep in Kylie’s arms. Kylie looked up at the four standing around her. They were staring at Eduardo.

“Who told him the incantation?” Garrett asked.

“No one,” Egon said. “He must have known it. Somehow.”

Roland and Garrett looked at each other.