It was a cool night on Halloween as the Ghostbusters arrived at the cemetery. The moon was big and full with clouds passing in front of it while below patches of fog billowed around in between the tombstones.

They paused before the gate. “It looks so much bigger than I expected it to be,” observed Peter a bit apprehensively. “It'll take a long while to find that special gem stone.”

“You're not afraid of this place, are you?” asked Winston. “After all we are the Ghostbusters and our motto is we ain't afraid of no ghosts.”

“Of course I'm not afraid,” said Peter. “It's just that the thought of being in a cemetery on Halloween night has always given me the chills.”

“Me too,” said Ray excitedly. “Come on, let's go in.”

So they entered into the cemetery and began look in around for a good place to dig for the buried gem stone that wasn't occupied by a buried body. They were walking in silence when suddenly they got the feeling of someone coming up beside them which was closely followed by a very chilly wind. They turned slowly and saw the specter of transparent little girl ghost floating up to them.

“Excuse me,” she said in a small timid voice, “I'm Opal Greenwood. Do you know where my parents are?”

They all looked at each other in bewilderment for a moment and then Egon spoke to her. “No, I'm afraid we don't.”

“I was afraid of that,” said Opal sadly. “I'll just keep looking.” She then went on.

“I'm sure Opal will be reunited with her parents once we find the Stone of Freedom,” said Egon. “I'm also sure she won't be the only ghost we'll see around here tonight.”

“You're right about that, Egon. Because look!” exclaimed Peter pointing ahead of them.

They looked and saw a dozen ghosts of many descriptions floating aimlessly around the cemetery.

“What are they doing out here?” asked Winston nervously.

“Well, it is Halloween night which is the night of freedom for spirits,” explained Egon. “And though these spirits are trapped in this world they are still able to roam anywhere they want to on this night.”

“You think we should try to avoid them?” asked Peter. “I mean, I've heard that ghosts who linger around their graves aren't the kind you'd like to socialize with.”

“I bet you can't say that to me though,” said a soft and hollow feminine voice from beside Peter.

Peter turned and saw a young ghost woman with a statuesquely curved figure and long hair and full lips hovering in front of him. She smiled seductively and put her hand to his face and murmured, “Mmm... You're so tall, dark, and handsome. I'm sure you could never say no to socializing with me, now could you?”

Peter looked at her uncomfortably and chuckled nervously as turned his head away from her touch. “Hehe... Uh... Sorry, babe,” he said stammering uneasily. “But I just prefer more... lively girls.”

The ghostly young woman frowned severely at him and her eyes glowed fiercely as she lifted her right hand and slapped Petter briskly across his face. It was really a peculiar sensation to Peter as he felt no pain from it as her hand went right through him and he felt only a rush of ice cold energy pass through him. He then watched as she turned and floated away sulkily.

“Actually,” said Egon after a moment, “it might be wise to find a spirit around here who can give some information on the Stone of Freedom.”

“Yeah, whatever,” said Peter rubbing the side of his face.

So then they ventured up to the crowd of spirits. They saw that many of them were either conversing with each other or were just floating around. They saw one that was in the form of an older woman grasp her heart and head and then collapse in a heap onto the ground. They stared at her in puzzlement.

“Don't mind Mrs. Greenhorn,” said a voice from behind them. They turned and saw a ghost in the form of an older man wearing a top hat sitting on a bench nearby and reading an old newspaper. “She had a stroke and a heart attack just before she died and she has the habit of experiencing it all over again,” he explained.

“Tell us,” said Egon as they approached the ghost man on the bench, “do you know anything about a special gem called the Stone of Freedom?”

The ghost looked up at them from his newspaper with a look of surprise on his face. “Why, yes, I do,” he said. “I thought I had been the only one left who had heard of it before I died last year.”

'Then do you have any idea of where it might be buried around here?” asked Peter.

“Yes. Actually I know where it is buried. But only someone living can actually find it,” said the ghost man. “It's hidden deep under the ground in the catacombs over there.” He pointed to a small building ahead of them. “You enter them through there and go down the steps and you should find it if you look hard enough.”

“Thank you for the helpful information,” Egon said. “We intend to find the stone and set you all free.”

They then approached the entrance to the catacombs. Egon opened the door with a creaking noise and they looked down at the steps leading down into the darkness.

“Well, I got to say exploring the catacombs underneath a cemetery isn't exactly my idea of how to spend Halloween night,” grumbled Peter.

“I always wanted to do this though,” Ray said gleefully.

Winston shuddered as they began taking their first steps downward.

“Come on now,” said Egon. “Are we men or mice?”

“Aw, man. Do you have to mention mice at a time like this?” complained Winston.

They made their way down into the depths of the catacombs. There were cobwebs and dust everywhere and the air was filled a very musty scent. As they stepped off of the last step and the darkness enclosed around them they took out their flashlights and looked around and wandered where they should search first.

“I think we should go this way,” said Peter pointing to the left.

“No, we should definitely go this way,” said Egon pointing to the right.

An argument began to break out amongst them until Winston exclaimed, “Alright guys, let's just flip a coin to decide on this.”

So then Winston took out a nickel and tossed up into the air as Egon called out heads and Peter called out tails. When the coin landed it was right side up with heads and so they headed right.

They went on in a companionable silence for a short while and then they came upon a large stick that was stuck in the middle of the wall. There was a sign next to it with words scrawled on it that read, “Do not pull stick.”

“Well, what do you think?” asked Winston.

“I think if there is a warning not to do something we should listen to it,” said Egon decisively.

“Aw, come on,” said Peter. “What harm could it possibly do?” He then reached out and pulled the stick in the wall.

“Wait, Peter!” exclaimed Ray. But it was too late.

No sooner had the stick been pulled then a large doorway opened up in the wall. Almost at the same time a swarm of flying bats flew out at the top and darted around their heads and a swarm of large rats scurried out from beneath and ran past their feet.

“Way to go, Peter! Way to go!” said Winston irritably.

“Well, at least we opened up a whole new passageway,” said Egon. “Let's go.”

So they went into the secret passageway and shortly after they found many bits of skeleton bones littered around the floors. Once when Ray saw a skull head sticking out at him from in between two cracks in the wall he let out a loud scream of fright that quite startled the others.

“Quiet, Ray!” hissed Peter. “You want to wake up the dead around here?”

“Don't look now but I think you already did!” exclaimed Egon.

Sure enough, they saw coming from straight ahead of them a band of ghostly bandits all making moaning and howling noises and waving their arms at them frantically. The four Ghostbusters though just stayed right where they were which seemed to cause confusion among the ghosts as they stopped what they were doing and stared back at them in bewilderment.

Finally one of them, who seemed to be their leader, said, “Well, why aren't you running back the way you came now? After all we are ghosts, aren't we?”

“We are the Ghostbusters and we ain't afraid of no ghosts,” said Peter stoutly.

“But you should be afraid of us,” said the ghostly bandit. “Because we guard these catacombs from trespassers and no one has ever gotten past us.”

“Why not?” asked Peter.

“Because they always ran back when we came out,” admitted the ghost bandit.

“Well, we aren't turning back for anything,” said Egon. “Because we seek the Stone of Freedom that lies down here somewhere and we're not leaving until we find it.”

“The Stone of Freedom? What's that?” asked the bandit ghost.

“It's a special gem that when found will set all the spirits around it free from this world,” explained Egon. “Don't you want to be free from this world?”

The ghostly bandits looked at each other a moment and then the leader said, “We aren't sure we do. After all, we have so much fun scaring people away from here.”

“Not as much fun as we have scaring ghosts back,” said Peter as he took out his proton ray and aimed it at them.

“What are you...?” the ghost bandits looked at the four Ghostbusters as they all armed themselves with their proton rays and shivered visibly with fear.

“We can trap you right here and then take you back with us and enclose you in our containment unit,” said Peter fiercely. “The choice is yours now. What will it be?”

The ghostly bandits shivered and then diverted themselves away from the Ghostbusters path.

The Ghostbusters then ventured down a long corridor and at the end of it they entered a very small room that was more like a large hole carved in the wall. There, resting in between two large rocks was a small reddish stone with silvery stripes running along its surface.

“Look! There it is!” exclaimed Ray pointing to it.

“Well, now how are we going to get it?” asked Peter.

“I suggest we all try to pull it out together,” said Egon.

And so they did and they each grabbed onto the stone at the same time with their hands clasping onto each others and they pulled hard on it with all of their strength combined. After a few minutes of pulling on it it finally became dislodged from the rocks holding it captive and Ray clutched it tightly in his hands.

“We've got it! We've really got it!” he exclaimed, looking at it as if it were the most precious thing in the world.

Just then they heard the sound of crumbling rocks and felt a slight quivering around them. Then they noticed bits of rocks and dust beginning to fall from the ceiling.

“What's going on here?” asked Peter nervously.

“I do believe this room is starting to cave in on itself,” said Egon. “Dislocating the stone must have caused it somehow.”

“Well, what are we waiting for?!” shouted Winston in alarm. “Let's get the heck out of here!”

Then they all ran as fast as they could out of the room and back down the corridor. They heard loud crashing and tumbling from behind them every minute. They ran back out of the passageway they had opened up and climbed back up the steps leading out and stepped into the upper cemetery once again.

“Whew!” gasped Peter. “That was a close one. “

“Well, we've got the stone,” said Ray who was still clutching it. “So now what do we do with it?”

“As I remember,” said Egon, “Donny said we were to make a wish on it for all the spirits surrounding to be free from this world, and also that only someone young at heart could do so.”

“Well then I guess that means Ray is the man for it,” said Winston.

So ray held out the stone and said, “I wish for all of the spirits around us to be free from this world.”

Then as soon as he had spoken the stone began glowing a brilliant red and silvery glow that grew and grew in size and vibration. Then it seemed to be opening up as a slight cracking sound was heard and an even brighter beam of white light shot out from within it and it reached up into the sky. Then the sky became edged with pink and began glowing.

The Ghostbusters looked around them as they saw dozens and dozens of ghosts lift off the ground and rise into the air and when they were almost as high as the sky they vanished.

When all the ghosts were gone the sky turned back to its nightly shade again and all the light vanquished. Then the stone itself also vanished.

“What happened to the stone?” asked Ray in confusion.

“I suppose it was so powerful it could only last long enough to grant its wish once,” said Egon.

“You know, suddenly this place doesn't seem to be giving me the chills anymore,” said Peter.

They then returned to the house of Donny Brooks where they found no traces of ghosts there.