Kylie's headphones could not quite drown out Roland's snoring. She had
the seat between
him and Eduardo. She was uncomfortable to say the least. Her "Nine
Inch Nails" CD was almost
to the end, so she just gave up. The flight was just starting, and
already, Kylie was getting
nervous.
Eduardo could sense the apprehension coming from Kylie. He tapped her
on the shoulder to
ask what was wrong. She removed her earphones and looked at him.
"How did you know something was wrong?" she asked.
"I don't know, I guess I could just tell," Eduardo replied. Kylie frowned
and started
explaining her thoughts.
"You know the thing that bothers me the most is that this...thing...might
not even be a
ghost! We don't even really know. And if it isn't a ghost, then we've
just wasted about
four-hundred dollars," she complained.
"Hey, Ky, don't think of it that way, think of it as a vacation. We
all need one and this
is the perfect opportunity. Of course that's only if this is a false
alarm. But what if this
thing isn't ecto? Does that mean we can ignore the damage it's done?"
Eduardo reasoned.
Kylie fixed Eduardo with an incredulous look,
"Since when have you been able to reason things out that well? That's
exactly what Egon
would've said. I think you're turning into a mini-Egon!" she said playfully.
Eduardo smiled. He liked her when she was this way. She had the most
beautiful smile,
and when she flashed it at him however briefly, he melted inside. The
thought of that smile
going to another guy drew forth a sharp pang of jealousy. He wanted
Kylie for himself, but
was too afraid to tell her. If she fell for someone else, he'd have
no one to blame but
himself. He sighed and shifted positions. Maybe he should try to sleep.
Roland was doing
a good enough job, so why couldn't he?
Kylie saw Eduardo's eyes close. She took out a book and started reading. As soon as she was sure he was asleep, Kylie discarded the book and shifted her own position to lean against his arm. There, she fell asleep.
* * * * *
Garrett rolled his chair off of the plane and sat waiting for Kylie,
Eduardo, and Roland
to emerge. A few minutes passed and Garrett finally saw them coming
down the ramp towards
him. He joined them and rolled along with their steady clip. He wondered
silently why they
were in such a hurry. They probably shouldn't do anything until they
talked to Egon anyway.
They got their rental car free of charge for some reason and drove the
distance to
Jacksonville, the place of the first sighting. The sighting had happened
in the woods just
outside of town and Garrett and Roland complete with proton packs and
traps went to investigate
the crime scene. Kylie went to call Egon, and Eduardo went to interrogate
the witness. One
hour later, they reported back their findings, which weren't good.
"It's most definitely ecto. It's stronger than anything we've ever seen before, and that's just judging by the residual readings," Roland stated matter-of-factly.
"So what class are we dealing with?" came Eduardo's nervous voice through the intercom.
"Its residual readings indicate about a class thirteen, which means
the real thing is much
more powerful than that."
Kylie interrupted, "Guys, Egon had some helpful stuff to say too. He
told me that from
the descriptions of the witnesses, this thing is a demon called Shabranigdo.
But he says that there is no real record of Shabranigdo on Earth. Some
weird people called him and told him. He's not quite sure how she knows,
but he's not going to question it. He also says the strange call was from
these people calling themselves the Slayers.
He sounded amused when he related those details. Apparently, there
are four of them. He says
they're on their way to meet us here. Janine also told me something
else, but I don't think I should
say it over the phone. Let's get together at the inn and we'll figure
it out from there."
The others agreed and within minutes they had gathered at a corner
table in the inn's
restaurant. There, Kylie explained the rest of their mentor's message.
"According to the police and birth records, there are no such people
as Lina Inverse,
Gourry Gabriev, Zelgadis Graywers, and Amelia Seyruun. But they are
real people. Janine
told me that Lina and the others are from another dimension, which
sounds kind of corny,
but she also reminded me that we've seen stranger things than that,"
Kylie summed up Janine's
message, not quite getting to the part about sorcery and the Sword
of Light. She figured they could find that out for themselves.
Suddenly, the room started to literally dissolve. There were waves of
color on the walls.
No one else in the restaurant seemed to notice. Just as suddenly, the
waves stopped. There
before the Ghostbusters stood four bedraggled bounty-hunters.
"Hai! You must be Kylie! I'm Lina Inverse, nice to meet you! This is
my little band of
bandit killers. The big dumb guy is Gourry Gabriev, the stone guy is
Zelgadis Graywers,
and the annoying little girl is Princess Amelia Seyruun. We're the
Slayers and we're at
your service. We came to slay Shabranigdo...again!!" the red-haired
woman said with a sideways glance at her three companions.
Kylie rolled her eyes and thought to herself, "Hoo boy. It's going to
be one of those days!"
to be continued
PARADOX PART THREE