Prologue

Maiden:

Oh! leave me! Prithee, leave me! thou grisly man of bone!

For life is sweet, is pleasant.

Go! leave me now alone!

Go! leave me now alone!

Death:

Give me thy hand, oh! maiden fair to see,

For I'm a friend, hath ne'er distress'd thee.

Take courage now, and very soon

Within mine arms shalt softly rest thee!

~"Death and the Maiden", by Matthias Claudius

xxxx

Sophie could hear voices floating into the darkness surrounding her. They sounded familiar, but she couldn't be sure. And she seemed to be the subject of conversation.

"We did it!" one of them shouted excitedly. "We got rid of the Sorcerer! He's outta here!"

"Finally," somebody else said, sounding relieved.

Sophie's jumbled thoughts tried to piece themselves back together. She hurt all over and felt like she'd been run over a couple times by a large truck.

The last thing she remembered was a cemetery and a thunderstorm, and a deep, dark place full of terrible pain. A faceless, black-robed figure with blazing green eyes loomed up through these thoughts—

Sophie gasped sharply in horror, eyes snapping open. She was lying flat on her back on the ground of the same cemetery, looking straight up at the sky. The storm was now gone and it was lighter, but growing pink with another autumn sunset framed by the New York Skyline.

Then it all came rushing back. Everything that had happened over the last few days played through her memory like a frightening movie. But out of all the confusion, one thing was certain: she was still here and the Sorcerer was not. The Ghostbusters had saved her. She could go back to a normal life, back to Reggie.

"Don't get too excited yet." That was Dr. Spengler. "We still have one problem. A big one."

What on earth did he mean by that?

"Now what?" asked Dr. Venkman.

"Wherever the Sorcerer went…whatever was left of Sophie must've gone there with him."

Sophie sat bolt upright, stomach sinking. She had no idea what he was talking about, but it didn't sound promising.

"Oh, crap!" Dr. Venkman replied.

She couldn't have put it better herself. She took a sweeping glance at her surroundings. The cemetery was destroyed. There were scorch marks from the battle and everything that had previously been standing—the trees, the headstones, the mausoleum—were blown to bits.

The Ghostbusters and Janine looked a little worse for wear, hair standing on end, their jumpsuits ripped and they seemed to have gotten knocked off their feet. But they were only five feet away from her and speaking as if she no longer existed.

"Hey!" Sophie called, waving her arms. "I'm right here! What's going on?"

No answer. In fact, they didn't even look her way.

"So what do we do now?" Mr. Zeddemore asked as they got to their feet.

"Well, first we go wake up that other kid," Dr. Venkman started.

"And then we get back to the Firehouse to figure out what went wrong," Dr. Stantz finished.

That definitely didn't sound good. Sophie stood up and followed Dr. Venkman about twenty feet past the others. There, lying in a heap was Reggie. Apparently, he'd taken one to the head and was just beginning to come round.

"Reggie!" Sophie screamed, rushing over to him and dropping down. She reached out to touch the large welt just above his left ear, but her hand went right through him. Shocked and horrified, she froze.

Dr. Venkman bent down to one knee and tapped Reggie's forehead as the others approached.

"Ok, kid, party's over. You can wake up now."

Reggie moaned. "Oww… Wha...huh?"

"Venkman whacked you upside the head with a tree branch," Janine informed him flatly as she and the others arrived by his side.

"Hey," Dr. Venkman said, "it was necessary, ok?"

Reggie didn't seem to register any of this and his eyes remained closed.

"Careful," Dr. Stantz said as he and Dr. Spengler hauled him to his feet, slinging his arms around their shoulders. He was still only half-conscious so they had no choice but to drag him along as they hurried away.

Sophie staggered back, arm still extended and a dizzying realization coursing through every inch of her being…

She was dead.