#webbytheghost

“So why would her and Collins have something like that?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” Ghost sighed, shutting the pack’s insides and setting his tools aside. “But that’s not even the worst part.”

“What’s worse than summoning any demon imaginable?” Tumb shoved his gloves off.

“It can open tears and rifts between the spirit world and our world if used too much or just put in the wrong hands,” Ghost answered, his crystal eyes turning serious.

“Alright,” Tumb nodded, “that sounds pretty bad, I’ll give you that.”

“I need to find out what she was doing with that,” Ghost mumbled. Tumb grabbed a washcloth and scrubbed at his face.

“Y'think that could be linked to all the ghost encounters we’ve had lately? They keep getting more frequent and worse,” Tumb said. “We’ve had to readjust the packs and traps several times just this month to deal with the frequency of the ghosts. The power of the streams are now making them harder to hold onto. One slip up and we could end up crossing the streams.”

“And then experience the worst death imaginable,” Ghost tugged his gloves off, “Anyway, I wouldn’t rule that out, but I don’t think it’s her doing it. Couldn’t be. Why would she want to create more ghosts showing up here?”

“Prove something to Collins?” Tumb took a gulp from his water bottle, wiping the last of the dirt and sweat from his forehead. “Prove something to us?”

“She’s got nothing to prove,” Ghost shook his head. Tumb shrugged, spinning on the swivel stool.

“Dunno, G-man,” he drank again, “Might be more to her than we thought.”

“I thought you advocated for me to like her.”

“I do.”

“So why—”

“You’re the dude who doesn’t want to rule anything out. It’s an option,” Tumb stood up from the stool and headed upstairs to shower and go to bed. Ghost watched him leave and looked back to the proton pack laying down on the table. The scientist picked it back up and carried it back to Beth’s locker, staring at it as it hung beside her uniform.

His thoughts went back to the night he visited her at home.

———

“Blam-o!” Beth cheered as their recent catch banged and crashed around in the ghost trap until it settled.

“They’re shaking the traps again,” Webby sighed, picking up the smoking device.

“We just recalibrated them the other day!” Tumb ran a hand through his hair.

“This one was just a stronger one,” Ghost fiddled with his P.K.E. meter. “Not all of them have hit this level yet.”

“But they will!” Tumb jutted his thumb at the trap as the team went back to the car, leaving the diner they got their recent catch from. “You said it yourself, they’re getting worse. That gateway between living and dead is falling apart.”

“There’s always been cracks in it,” Webby murmured, strapping out of her pack and placing it in the back of the car, “but not like this. There’s got to be something we can do.”

“I’m looking into it,” Ghost slammed the trunk a little too forcefully. “But it’s taking time. We can only study so much. If we take too many ghosts out of the containment unit to study, they’ll go wild and we’ll have to just catch them again. The thing is getting close to overcapacity, too. I say first thing is to enlarge that, then—”

A black car honked loudly at the group, driving up next to the Ecto-1. Beth tensed at seeing it. Two men in suits came out from the car.

“Are you four the Ghostbusters?” a slender man with an almost corpse like face asked. Ghost stood in front of his friends, a frown on his face.

“Who’s asking?”

“The mayor and assistant mayor,” the second man ,with a hefty build but strong arms, answered.

“We’re here to escort you to city hall for a little meeting with them,” the first man said.

“And if we refuse?” Webby joined Ghost’s side. The scientist would have been flattered if he wasn’t trying to put an angry face against the two men before him.

“You will face arrest,” the second man responded. The four Ghostbusters exchanged glances to each other.

“Come on,” Ghost mumbled. The second man opened the door for the team and slammed it shut when they were all seated inside. The car began to drive down to city hall, the two men sitting in the driver and passenger’s seat.

Ghost sat by one window, Beth beside him. He glanced down at her. Her brown eyes were empty, wide, staring out in front of her. Her hands tightly clenched her seat.

“Beth—”

“No talking back there,” the first glanced back at the team. Beth’s shoulders tensed. Ghost stares at her for a moment longer.

She was hiding something. He just didn’t know what.

—

“Mrs. Mayor, the, uh, Ghostbusters are here to see you,” the receptionist’s voice crackled from the Mayor’s phone.

“Send them in,” the Mayor pressed a button beside the phone. She leaned back in her chair and looked back to Merhib. “Are you sure about this?”

“Positive,” Merhib nodded. “I’ve had inside information on these Ghostbusters.”

“And why haven’t you said anything previously then?”

“I was waiting for all the proper information,” Merhib said. “It’s one thing to discuss what the media might know about everything, it’s another to have an inside source.” Before the Mayor could ask more, the four Ghostbusters were lead inside the office by the two men. The Mayor stood up, Merhib standing beside her with his hands folded behind his back.

“Good afternoon,” the Mayor nodded at the four, “welcome. Please, take a seat, all of you. There’s a bit we need to discuss with all of you.” The team hesitantly sat down, the men standing by the door.

“What’s this all about?” Webby slowly asked.

“Let’s start at the beginning,” the Mayor began, sitting back in her chair. “Now, Mr. Collins and I have been keeping a very close eye on your activity, and—”

“We’re not a hoax or liars!” Tumb blurted. He sunk back in his seat at everyone’s eyes on him. The Mayor smiled.

“No, we know you’re not fakes,” she raised her arms in a calming motion. “And we’re aware there is a bit of a… paranormal problem, not just attacking the city but all over. So first, I’d like to ask what you four know about the activity.”

“The gateway between the spirit world and ours is fragile,” Webby began, “Always has been. But lately, the cracks have gotten worse and are allowing more ghosts to show up in our plane. Not only that, but they’re getting stronger.”

“We’ve been trapping and containing as many as we can,” Ghost added, “But our containment unit is on the verge of overflowing. We’re trying to expand it, but it’s going to take some time.”

“We appreciate your work,” the Mayor nodded.

“Good,” Tumb smiled nervously, “Thought we were in trouble or something.”

“Actually…” Merhib smiled in a way that made Ghost’s frown deepen.

“I’ll take it from here, Mr. Collins,” the Mayor glanced at her tall assistant. Merhib kept a little smirk on his face as the Mayor turned away from him to face the team. “While we appreciate your studies, we need you to stop.”

“What?” Webby’s brown eyes widened. She looked to Ghost and Tumb, but her eyes didn’t meet Beth’s. The teen’s head refused to face them, staring straight at the wall behind the Mayor.

“Wait, you can’t be serious,” Tumb began.

“Hold on, let me explain,” the Mayor shook her head. “Before we start a ruckus, I want to reiterate that we appreciate all your work. But we ask you to stop because we feel that you Ghostbusters are… how should I put this? Attracting a lot of attention. And that might be a bit of trouble, with the general public not being so sure about the existence of ghosts.”

“We don’t want mass hysteria,” Ghost tried to hide the tension and anger in his voice, “but that’s part of why we’re needed. We take care of the ghosts when all these people are being pestered, even attacked, and don’t know what to do.”

“But you people are causing a panic,” Merhib explained. “You Ghostbusters. I’ve looked closely at what goes on in your lab.”

“And how could you have?” Ghost stood from his seat. Merhib slipped his hand into his pockets over confidently and pointed the other at Beth.

“Word travels fast,” he shrugged. Ghost stared down at Beth in shock, the teen now staring down at her lap. “We’ve already reported all the radiation, all the hazardous materials your lab and equipment emits. We have evidence and have people there right now recording all the accurate numbers now.”

“With the harm to the public, the town’s reputation, the environment and costs of damages,” the Mayor sighed, “it is in the town’s best interest you no longer operate your business. And any refusal to comply will result in arrest.”

“You can’t do this!” Webby stood, “There’s an actual danger happening in this town! We’re the only people with the equipment and knowledge to stop it!”

“We’ve already discussed the matter with the rest of the city council,” the Mayor folded her hands on the desk, fingers rubbing over one another. “We reached the consensus that the town is better off without the Ghostbusters. Now, you can continue to study whatever you’ve caught, contain them, but whatever work you continue must be done privately and monitored by us to be in check of your emissions.”

“This isn’t fair!” Tumb looked at the adults around him. Merhib shrugged.

“Would you all prefer going to jail instead?” he raised a brow. Ghost, Webby, Tumb, and Beth didn’t respond. “Thought not. Now, I believe we’re done here, right?”

“Yes, we are,” the Mayor nodded. The two men grabbed Webby and Ghost, pulling them out of their seats.

“Hey, stop!” Webby tugged her arm away from the larger man. Ghost shook the corpse like one away from his shoulder. Tumb raised his arms and slowly stood up. Beth sat still for a moment longer.

“See you at home,” Merhib patted her curls. Beth slowly stood, looking ashamedly down, her brown eyes sad. She followed the others out back to the car.

They were escorted back to their headquarters, Moirin standing outside anxiously waiting for them. There was another van pulled up beside the lab.

“That doesn’t look good,” Tumb murmured. Ghost rushed up to Moirin.

“They threw me out,” she explained before a question left his lips, “no matter what I did, they wouldn’t go. They started searching this place from head to toe! Only decent thing they did was bring back the Ecto-1 and tell me where you guys were. But they refused to let me back in.” Ghost’s face burned red. His hands tightened into fists, his jaw clenched as he stormed to the front door of the lab right as the investigators began stepping out. One of them stepped out from the group as they began loading their equipment back in the van. She handed a card to Ghost.

“Assistant Mayor Collins told us to give this to you,” she said coolly. “When you continue to use anything aside from the containment unit, you are now legally obligated to contact us to monitor your emissions unless you do so yourself and report back to us. We’ll be keeping an eye on your containment unit.” Ghost glanced at the card. Before he could speak against them, she was already back in the car with the rest of her team.

Ghost restrained himself from tearing the card up.

He glared over his shoulder at Beth.

“You. This is all your fault,” he growled.

“Please, listen,” Beth raised her arms, genuine fear on her face, “b-before you yell, please, i-it wasn’t what I wanted to do! I didn’t want to tell him, he made me take pictures! He made me tell him everything that went on, or else I couldn’t come back and work here!”

“You cost me the last chance I had at having a lasting job!” Ghost snapped, “This is all I had left!”

“I-I didn’t mean for this to happen, I didn’t know what he was going to do!” Beth spoke up.

“Ghost, don’t—” Moirin touched Ghost’s arm gently. Ghost shook his arm away.

“No, I’m not having this!” he yelled, “She cost us our jobs! All of us! If we can’t continue this in public, we get no calls,” the scientist pointed at Moirin, “and if we don’t get calls, then we can’t go out!” Ghost looked to Tumb and Webby. “We can’t get paid! We can’t do our work! The way they’re all jumping down our throats, we can’t do anything!” Ghost stares down at Beth. Her own hands were clenching and unclenching at her sides, unsure, rubbing against the legs of her jumpsuit.

“And you,” he continued, “you knew it was suspicious! With the spirit guide, with what he was asking you to do! Why would you come back?!”

“I liked being here!” Beth stood straight for once, “I liked having some place to go! We… we were a team, we were like a family!”

“Well, whatever team or family was here,” Ghost placed his hands on his hips, “it’s over now. There’s nothing we can do. You might as well just go. Whatever we could possibly still do here? I want you nowhere near it.” Everyone stood still at his outburst. “I was right about you all along, Bethany.” Ghost shook his head and turned back to head inside the lab, Beth frozen still at his comment. He stopped before he opened the lab door and glanced over his shoulder back at everyone.

“You all might as well go home. The Ghostbusters are out of business.”