Chapter 4

Egon found himself in the Firehouse kitchen. Janine was just starting the coffee and had a pot of water in her hand. Slimer was finishing off a new box of cereal. She and Slimer both stopped, staring at Egon.

“Egon… Where did you come from?” Janine asked.

Egon looked around at Slimer. He reached out, grabbed Slimer by the arms, and yanked him down.

“I discovered a letter in my room today. It was unsigned. It said Eduardo was a witch and it had ectoplasm stains on it. Where did it come from Slimer?”

Slimer smiled sweetly and shrugged.

Egon let Slimer go, retrieving a folded piece of parchment paper out of his pocket. He unfolded the paper and held it up in front of Slimer. Slimer’s eyes widened, his eyes watching Egon’s finger point to a stain in the corner. “Where did it come from Slimer?”

Slimer didn’t answer.

“Slimer?” Janine asked, setting the pot down. “I read that letter too. I want to know where it came from.”

Slimer looked from her to Egon and back. He sighed and began yammering.

Egon waited for a pause before asking, “This came from one of Eduardo’s coven members? Tha—”

Slimer said nodded, saying something.

“Eduardo was given permission to tell us last month?” Janine put her hands on her hips.

Slimer nodded again, continuing.

Janine interrupted with a gasp. “Eduardo’s been hiding this from us for two years?”

Slimer nodded as he finished.

Janine looked at Egon. “Weren’t you four going to find him?”

“We found him. He’s going up against the witch.”

“Egon!” Janine gasped, grabbing his arm.

“Janine, we will need help.”

“I’ll go find my suit,” Janine dashed out of the kitchen.

Egon looked at Slimer. “When were you going to tell me Slimer?”

Slimer looked down.

Egon frowned, patting his head. “It’s okay, Slimer. You two have gotten to be such good friends, I can understand why you would keep this secret from me. I’m glad you did.”

Slimer smiled at Egon, which Egon returned. “Wish us luck, Slimer. And wish Eduardo luck. He’s going to need it.

Slimer shook his head, talking again. Egon’s face lost all expression to surprise. Janine ran back into the kitchen, stopping beside Egon. She stared at his face a moment.

“Egon?” Janine asked.

“Yes?” Egon looked away from Slimer at her.

“What is it?”

Egon glanced at Slimer. “Then wish us luck, Slimer. We’ll need it.”

Slimer watched Janine and Egon race down stairs.

#

Roland hit the brakes, the Mustang sliding to a stop outside the warehouse. Kylie threw open the door, racing towards the steel refinery. Roland grabbed Garrett’s wheelchair from the trunk. He drug Garrett from the car and tossed him into his chair. The two ran inside, finding a strange scene.

A large area on the floor of the warehouse had been cleared and a pentagram nearly twenty feet across had been made with white ash. At three of the points Janine, Kylie, and Egon stood with proton guns aimed at a black haired woman. She stood inside the pentagram with Eduardo, the two facing one another. In the center of the pentagram was a crystal ball. Roland and Garrett took their places at the open points.

“Keep her in,” Janine told Roland.

“Where’s Kevin?” Garrett asked.

“Don’t know.”

“Pay attention!” Egon ordered.

“Give me the orb!” the woman demanded quietly. She smiled, “And I’ll give you your nephew.”

“When you decide not to lie, let me know,” Eduardo spat.

“You’re no match.”

Eduardo shrugged. “Whatever.”

Fire sparked from her hands as she raised them towards Eduardo. His hand shot up and the flames from her hand hit an invisible wall. Her face twisted into a determined look and the flames grew into roaring streams of fire. Eduardo moved a leg back for support, but didn’t show any other signs of weakness. She fell back a step, dropping her hands.

There was screaming and from the darkness. The five outside the pentagram spun, shooting at the shadows. The dark forms engulfed the five and attacked Eduardo, burying him under a pile.

The girl grinned and walked to the center of the pentagram. She picked up the orb, holding it up to look at it. Rays of morning light came through high windows, refracting inside and casting short rainbows around the warehouse. She turned, walking towards the door. Suddenly she stopped and looked around. She put her hand up as though against a wall and pushed with all her might. She muttered incantations but couldn’t go past where she stood. She spun, waving her hand toward the shadows piled on Eduardo and they scattered.

Eduardo got to his feet, watching her. “Problem?” he taunted.

The shadows suddenly leapt back to where they came and the five turned, watching the two.

“Release me,” she demanded.

Eduardo crossed his arms across his chest.

“NOW!” she yelled.

Eduardo didn’t budge.

“Who are you?” she hissed.

“Me?” Eduardo laid a hand on his chest. “I’m a scientist.”

“LIAR!” she hissed.

Eduardo smirked.

Her eyes narrowed. “You aren’t the Keeper.”

Eduardo’s smirk grew. “Really?”

“The bartender lied to me!” she said.

“Naw,” Eduardo shook his head, a gratified grin crossing his lips. “He didn’t lie to you. He thought I was the Keeper. That’s what they told ‘im.”

“And you’ve hidden this from me. How? How could you—” she stopped, her eyes widening.

“Oh. Please. Continue,” Eduardo said.

“You’re...You’re...”

Eduardo lost his smile. “I’m what?”

She retreated a step, backing into the invisible wall. She clutched the orb to her stomach, but her fear was too obvious.

“I...I...”

Eduardo raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to finish.

“I’m not giving it back!” Her eyes narrowed and she added angrily, “And your nephew won’t live when I get free.”

Eduardo’s hidden fury released without warning. When he spoke, his voice boomed with tone and volume he had never used before. “You have been sentenced, Katrina Valin, for betrayal to your coven, treason to the High Council, using your powers against your own, against mortals, endangering mortals and attempting to use the Orb of Mindova for your own gain. For these crimes you have been sentenced to die as a transient and never rise again!”

The girl, Katrina, sank to her knees, clutching the orb to her chest now.

“No,” She whispered. In a louder voice she said, “No! I...I beg mercy.”

“You have begged mercy and you have betrayed us!” Eduardo boomed, but it didn’t sound like just his voice. It sounded like hundreds, maybe thousands, of voices speaking at once. The voices rattled the windows and shook the ground.

Katrina began crying. “I swear. I won’t—”

“You’re sentence has been decided,” Eduardo grated in a quiet voice.

The orb began to glow with a white light. Katrina looked down at it. She threw it to the ground and watched it roll to a stop at Eduardo’s feet. He picked it up and held at chest level. Light swirled inside the orb, growing brighter until it burst from the orb and grabbed Katrina by the wrists. She pulled back in a struggle to get free. Ribbons of light wrapped around her, covering her from head to toe. In an instant, the light vanished and the girl crumpled to ground. Eduardo swept his hand over the orb and along with the pentagram it disappeared. He walked over to her, kneeling on one knee and laid his hand on her forehead.

“Edua—” Kylie started

“Not now,” Eduardo said.

“But Ed—”

“Not. Now,” Eduardo repeated.

Eduardo took his hand away and gently shook Katrina. She stirred, looking up at Eduardo.

“Where am I?” she asked, sitting up.

“You don’t remember?” Eduardo asked.

“No.”

“Well, yo—” Garrett started. Janine slapped her hand over Garrett’s mouth.

Eduardo looked away from Garrett to Katrina. “You were victim to a transdimensional mutation. Or that’s what Egon says.”

“A what?” She asked.

“Transdimensional mutation,” Egon repeated. “In laymen’s terms, you were a bug.”

“Oh,” She looked around. “I don’t remember how I got here.”

“Classic symptom,” Egon said.

“Yeah. Don’t worry. You’ll remember everything later. What’s your name?” Eduardo asked.

She hesitated, looking around, then at Eduardo. “I don’t remember.”

“Oh. Well...I’m sure you will. We should probably get you to a doctor. A friend of mine’s a doctor. Unless you wanna go to the hospital.”

“No!” Katrina cried, looking wide-eyed at Eduardo. “I mean...I don’t think I could explain it. I’ll see your friend.”

“All right. I’ll take you.”

“We ca—” Kylie started, but Egon’s hand on her shoulder stilled her.

“All right. If you don’t think she’ll mind,” Katrina said

“Not at all,” Eduardo stood up, holding his hand out to her. She took it and he helped her to her feet. “She’s a good friend. Did this for me before. She’s kinda into ghosts and stuff.”

“Oh. Okay,” Katrina let Eduardo turn her towards the door.

Eduardo glanced back at the group before they disappeared out the door into the morning light.

“What was that about?” Kylie demanded, turning to face Egon.

“I think we should return to the Firehouse to discuss this further,” Egon said, walking towards the door alone.

Kylie thought about arguing it. She opened her mouth to argue about it. She looked around at hand on her shoulder; and Janine was shaking her head. Kylie looked at Egon’s back with a sigh.

#

All eyes turned to the door when it opened and watched Eduardo slink in. He stopped in front of the car with his hands shoved deep in his pockets.

“How is she?” Egon asked.

“She’s fine.”

“Why couldn’t she remember anything?” Kylie asked.

Eduardo looked nervously down. “I...had to...make her...forget.”

Kylie’s eyes narrowed. “Egon’s right? You’re a witch?”

Eduardo didn’t answer, but his increasing nervousness was answer enough. Kylie sank into a chair, staring at him.

“So, you can like conjure up stuff and things?” Garrett asked.

Eduardo nodded.

“Why didn’t you just come out and tell us, Eduardo? Why the letter?” Janine asked.

Eduardo shrugged a little.

“And what would have happened if I had come to you about it first?” Egon asked.

That made Eduardo look up. “What?”

“I have been suspicious of it for quite some time, Eduardo. Things that haven’t quite fit ever since Lita attacked you.”

“You’ve known?”

Egon leaned back on Janine’s desk, crossing his arms across his chest. “While Lita was in you, I had called a friend who knew of her to help. He insisted that Lita only chose witches and warlocks so she could use their powers to enhance her own power. I didn’t believe him at the time, but I began to wonder when you recited the incantation but had never been told it. After some research I found that it was an incantation that most witches learn after they’ve been accepted into a coven.”

“That didn’t entirely convince me. Then we all had the same dreams...except you. Kylie and I went to Jamaica Bay and took readings that day; we found traces of ectoplasmic activity in the area, but it was scattered over a large area. They were readings we usually get after a very large entity has been trapped. I passed it off as an unusual anomaly; I’ve seen this before. I didn’t want to believe it, Eduardo. You’ve never come across as a person that believes in witchcraft.”

“But a month later, when I was running a routine check on the Containment Unit I found an uncharted PKE pattern, which of course I tried to match. The PKE pattern correlates almost exactly with the reading from Jamaica Bay, which lead me to conclude that the dreams I and the others experienced were not dreams at all.”

“That they were, in fact, actual events, and that you had engineered selective amnesia in all of us, for some unknown reasons. That’s when I began to check you background more thoroughly then I had already done, and found out who you really are. And then I received the letter yesterday afternoon.”

Eduardo wilted, sitting against Ecto-1. “You...You’ve been asking...”

“They were sources I trust, Eduardo. I would never do anything to endanger you.”

Eduardo shook his head, looking down. “They’ll find out.”

“No they won’t,” Egon argued. “You will have to trust me. What I would like to know is why you chose to make us forget about the time spent in the demon’s maze.”

“I didn’t want anyone to find out.”

“You mean...those whacked dreams were real?” Garrett demanded.

“Yes,” Egon answered.

“So” Roland paused. “You’re really a witch?”

Eduardo nodded.

“Are you any good?”

“Got rid of wicked witch of the east, didn’t I?”

“With help,” Kylie said.

“No. I didn’t get help.”

“What was the orb?”

“That wasn’t ever the Orb of Mindova,” Eduardo said.

“It wasn’t?” the five asked.

“No. It was just a crystal ball. I used it as bait. The real Orb’s safely kept somewhere even I don’t know about.”

“You mean...the light show..,” Garrett started.

“That was all my work,” Eduardo said, smiling proudly. “Pretty impressive, huh?”

“No. She couldn’t remember anything,” Kylie argued.

“She wasn’t supposed to. She wasn’t a witch no more.”

“You made her not a witch.”

“She wasn’t a natural witch.”

“A natural witch and taught witch, there’s no difference,” Kylie argued.

“Yeah there is. A natural witch is born with the power. Like me. And a taught witch has to learn to harness power. Like her. And she wasn’t so strong. Sh—”

“You could have fooled us. She was appearing and disappearing and send shadows after us.”

Eduardo waved a hand, frowning. “All simple stuff. Any beginner can learn it.”

The phone rang and Janine walked around the desk to answer it.

“Really?” Kylie let her interest show with the question.

“Yeah,” Eduardo said.

“Any beginner?” Garrett asked.

Eduardo paused. “I can teach you. I’m allowed to teach it.”

“Then you should make all of you appear on 56th. Got a live one,” Janine said, standing up. She held out a piece of paper.

Kylie grabbed it, walking to the car. She stopped by Eduardo, looking up at him.

“What else are you allowed to teach?”

Eduardo shrugged. “Depends.”

“Tell me on the way,” Kylie got in.

Eduardo smiled, getting in. Kylie turned in the seat, letting Eduardo lean over the seat next to her. He began talking in a voice unusually quiet for all the excitement that kept the words flowing. Roland and Garrett got in, letting Eduardo talk. If anything, it was good not to have him in such a cranky mood for a change. Roland left, leaving Janine and Egon alone.

“I thought you were going to talk to him,” Janine said.

“About?” Egon asked.

“How mad you are.”

“It can wait.”

“Egon.”

“There will be a time for it. Right now is inconvenient.”

Janine leaned on the desk, looking at Egon. “You’re not as mad as you said, are you?”

“I’m very angry. But it can wait.”

“I’m sure he had his reasons, Egon.”

“To erase our memories? For what reason?” Egon looked at her.

Janine couldn’t answer and for once, she decided not to voice her opinion. She sat down, starting on the bookkeeping. Egon looked out the front door, returning to his private thoughts.