Eduardo and Jason hadn't even thought to bring their toothbrushes. Just one change of clothes and their equipment. As they made their way from the airport with their heavy cases, Jason was still jumpy.

"Will you relax?" Eduardo said irritably to him. "We got away with it."

"How in the hell did this get through customs?" Jason still didn't believe it. "We've got some seriously dangerous stuff in here. I mean, aren't they doing their jobs here, is that it? We should totally be in jail or something!"

"Yeah, well, just be grateful we're not."

Now well away from the airport, they stopped short and Jason looked expectantly at Eduardo. After a very long silence Jason finally said, "You don't know how to get to Kylie, do you."

"Well... no," Eduardo admitted. "I guess I didn't really think this through."

"It's not a problem," returned Jason, striding confidently onwards. "We can go to my grandmother's place. That's where Electra will be, and she can take us to Kylie."

* * *

Already Egon was finding Jenny insufferable. For the third day in a row she waltzed into his lab, having just come from college, while he was trying to work. He wouldn't mind so much, if only she didn't have to spray the contents of her hamburger all over his various experiments as she talked.

"Ok," Jenny began, the moment she walked through the door, "so in English lit we're doing war poetry, right? And there's poetry - " she made an expansive gesture with her arms - "and then there's a little tiny section of the course called women's poetry. Like that's not supposed to be real poetry or something!"

She wasn't wrong, Egon realised, but the way she put forward her argument really didn't inspire him to make an intelligent response. She clearly expected one, though, and Egon's mind, just for once, was blank. When the phone rang, he was very grateful.

"Hi Egon, it's Garrett."

"Garrett, excellent!" Egon replied. "Listen, I've been doing some research into Illusory Demons and - "

"Before you get too excited," Garrett interrupted, "I should probably tell you that my friend Julie and I killed the demon."

"You did?" Egon was surprised by this - not to mention put out after all of the work he had done. "How?"

"Julie poked her in the eyes with a stick."

"Oh."

"Listen, Egon, there's still a lot I don't understand..."

Garrett's account of what this Marni character had told him was lengthy. Egon decided he must be jamming pocketfuls of change into a payphone, or else he had stolen someone's cell phone again and was doing some serious damage to that person's bill. As Garrett talked Egon listened carefully, digesting the information and considering carefully what it might be.

"So... what do you think?" Garrett finished.

"It sounds to me like she was human," began Egon, "and she somehow managed to create this illusion for you."

"But can you just do that?" Garrett objected. "Die and then take over somebody else's body?"

"Some spirits have that ability," Egon said matter-of-factly, "if they possessed magic in life, or so I've read."

"What about the bit that really worries me? How could she see into the future?"

"Well, some people just can," Egon replied rather weakly. "I wouldn't worry about it too much, Garrett. I'm fairly confident that the future is not predetermined."

"She seemed pretty sure it was," Garrett reminded him.

"Yes, well, she could be wrong," Egon pointed out. "I agree it's worrying. Maybe I'll mention it to the others the next time I talk to them. Janine has gone to Princeton with Gaby to check on Roland. I expect a call from them any time."

"Wait a minute, Roland's missing now?"

"We're really not sure. Oh, and Eduardo went with Jason to Hawaii to check up on Kylie. Jason seems to think she's in some kind of danger from his sister."

"Ok," Garrett said slowly. "So how come no one came rushing out here to help me?"

"Well you seemed to be coping and - "

"Forget it, Egon, I'm not being serious. I'm sorry, I have to go. I guess I'll see ya when I see ya."

"Bye, Garrett."

Minutes later the phone rang again. Jenny answered it this time because she was bored; and also because she was annoying, as far as Egon was concerned.

"Ghostbusters," she said brightly, waving cheerfully and quite unnecessarily at Egon.

"Jenny, is that you?" came Gaby's voice from the receiver.

"Hey Gaby. How's it going?"

"Well, we got here a couple of hours ago and went to a bar, and then we looked for Roland and we can't find him. We need Egon to tell us what to do next..."

* * *

Eduardo hoped that he would end up exactly like Rosa Wild. She had lived in New York for most of her life, married the man of her dreams, had four sons and ten grandchildren, spent several years in a job she loved in an art gallery and finally retired to Hawaii after her husband's death. It was just perfect, apart from the bit where her husband died. As he listened to her story, Eduardo wondered how many people managed to turn their lives into a dream as this woman had.

"So where's Electra?" Jason asked, when his grandmother had finally stopped talking.

"I don't know, dear," Rosa said vaguely. "She's probably off somewhere with her friends. Would you like another cup of tea while you're waiting?"

Jason sighed. He loved his grandmother, but she could be infuriating at times. Still, he supposed they had no choice but to drink her tea until Electra showed up.

"Now then dear," Rosa went on, returning from her kitchen with the fourth round of tea. "How's Cyrius?"

"Cyrius?" Eduardo repeated questioningly.

"Our Alsatian," Jason clarified. "He's well."

At last they heard the sound of the door opening. It had to be Electra, as no one else was living there. Jason leapt to his feet and turned to face the door, ready to confront his sister when she came in.

"What are you doing here?" Electra demanded, looking immensely irritated but not all that surprised.

"We're here to see your friend Kylie," Jason said evenly. He gestured to where Eduardo was sitting and said, "This is a friend of hers from New York. Unfortunately he can't seem to remember where to find her."

Electra looked at Eduardo, who gave her a feeble smile. Then she returned her gaze to Jason, who looked squarely back at her, before finally asking, "How do you know I know her?"

"She happened to mention you on the phone," Jason replied simply, beckoning Eduardo to his feet as he spoke. "Can we please go now?"

* * *

Kylie was sitting on her bed, painting her toenails. Pagan was doing his utmost to hinder her, batting at the small brush every time Kylie started to move it towards her feet. Eventually she lost her patience and turned the cat off the bed. Pagan landed fairly heavily on his feet, with his back to the bed. He turned around and looked piteously up at Kylie.

"I don't care," Kylie told him flatly.

She finished the last nail, screwed the lid onto the small bottle of black varnish and began to fan her toes with her hands. The difficulty with toes was that you couldn't just blow on them like you could with fingernails. As she watched her nails dry, she kept thinking about what young Jason Wild had said to her over the phone. Apparently Electra wanted to summon a gryphon. Having surfed the net and looked in a few books, Kylie had discovered that this was allegedly possible. But even if it was true, which she felt it probably wasn't, the matter did raise several questions. For one, what part were the others playing in all of this? It could be that Electra needed them to complete the spell. One or more of them may even have had some connection with the creature, like she was supposed to. She still felt her name was a very tenuous link.

A buzzing sound coming from the living room indicated that they had visitors. Steve was there, and so was Sarah. One of them could answer the summons. It could have been for her, but equally it could have been for her father, and she wasn't prepared the risk spoiling the pedicure she had just given herself.

Minutes later a knock on Kylie's bedroom door indicated that the call was for her. She called out, "Just a minute!" fanned her toes once more, carefully removed the pieces of cotton wool from between them and finally padded across the room and opened the door.

"Who is it?" she asked Sarah, who waited for her outside her room.

"Electra and a couple of other guys," Sarah replied.

"What other guys?"

Sarah said she didn't recognise them, and Kylie couldn't help but let out a sigh of exasperation. That woman really did get on her nerves. She made her way to the living room, where she assumed her father would have made her visitors comfortable. Pagan trotted along behind her, his head held high and his tail erect. He seemed extraordinarily happy all of a sudden. Kylie supposed he was getting used to his new home.

When Kylie saw Eduardo standing by the sofa, stooping to greet Pagan who was running excitedly towards him, she didn't even register the presence of her father, or of her other two visitors. All she could so was stare at Eduardo and wonder if it was really him.

"Hey Pagan," Eduardo cooed in baby-talk, stroking the cat that was now rubbing its head against his shins. "Do you remember me?"

"It sure looks like it," observed Kylie.

Eduardo was pleased that Pagan remembered him. On the occasions when Eduardo had been with Kylie in her home, he and her cat had formed quite a friendship. Kylie, on the other hand, was apparently still wary of him. Eduardo had hoped for excited squeals and a bear hug. But of course by her own admission, Kylie was not a squealer. Nor was she a hugger, it seemed.

"Hi, Kylie." Eduardo stood up straight and ventured a step towards her. He was somewhat relieved when she finally got over the initial shock of seeing him and delivered the welcoming hug he had hoped for.

"What are you doing here?" Kylie asked, and before Eduardo could answer she added, "It's good to see you."

"I've come to take Pagan home, away from his cruel, treacherous mistress," Eduardo japed, noticing that the cat was looking expectantly up at him. "Or is he just hungry?"

"You changed your hair," observed Kylie. Eduardo's hair had been pretty long the last time she saw it, but the pony-tail was definitely new.

"Well, so did you," countered Eduardo.

Kylie had managed to keep her hair neat and straight since Electra had added the dark red highlights to it. She knew it had grown a little, but she didn't expect Eduardo to notice this.

"I like it," she added to her observation.

"Me too," Eduardo returned. "Um... like yours, I mean."

The phone started ringing. Steve and Sarah, it seemed, had vacated the room between now and when Kylie had gone to embrace Eduardo. Typical, Kylie thought, that she should now be left with the tedious task of answering their telephone.

"Hello?" she said disinterestedly, when she picked up the phone. And then suddenly her expression cleared and she said enthusiastically, "Hi Rik."

"Who's Rik?" Eduardo asked Electra.

"A friend of ours," Electra answered with a shrug.

While Kylie giggled and joked down the phone, Eduardo tried to ignore her and found himself searching Electra and Jason for similarities. They looked like brother and sister. Their hair was the same sandy blond colour, and their eyes the same green. They also regarded each other with the same hostile, even challenging expression. It was like each was silently daring the other to say something out of turn. The atmosphere around them was so tense that Eduardo even wondered if their sibling relationship was worse than his own.

Rik, meanwhile, was asking Kylie if she was free that night. He had taken her out the night before, and now apparently was eager to repeat the experience. As Kylie considered his offer she looked at Eduardo. He was busy with Pagan, and she really couldn't blame him, as Electra and her brother were both looking particularly unsociable.

"I don't think I can make it tonight," Kylie said to Rik. "A friend of mine from New York just showed up out of the blue. I can't very well just leave him."

"Him, huh?" Rik returned dryly. "He could have called to let you know. I don't see why you should rearrange your whole life just because some guy shows up on your doorstep."

"Well he did get here first," countered Kylie, feeling slightly annoyed by Rik's comments. "Come on, Rik, you understand."

"Sure," said Rik shortly. "I'll call you again tomorrow."

"Bye," Kylie said, but Rik had already hung up. She looked at the receiver in her hand and pulled a face. Rik was altogether too keen for her liking, and he wasn't even nice with it. Kylie hadn't bothered much with romance before, and she now realised that she had liked it that way. I never should have read that romance novel, she thought scathingly, if this is what it does to people.

Remembering her manners, Kylie hung up the phone and then turned to her guests. "So," she said to the stranger, "you must be Jason."

"That's right," Jason agreed, dragging his gaze from his sister in order to look at Kylie.

"Electra's brother, right?" Kylie pressed. Jason, it seemed, was not altogether adept to the art of conversation.

"Well, technically," the youngster muttered grudgingly. "Where did your dad's girlfriend go?"

"I don't know," Kylie replied, slightly surprised by this question. She had forgotten that Sarah was on Jason's suspect list. "She's probably around here somewhere."

"Is she real?" Jason suddenly shot at his sister.

"What? Shut up, of course she's real," Electra returned scornfully.

"I know what you're trying to do," countered Jason. "That's why we're here. You'll never get away with it."

As they bickered Kylie watched them fixedly, not quite sure what to do or say. Then her gaze wandered to Eduardo and she caught his eye. He just shrugged, and then made his way out into the hall, and beckoned her to follow him.

"Jason's convinced his sister is trying to use you to summon a gryphon," Eduardo told Kylie, in hushed tones. "So convinced that he insisted on flying out here with our equipment."

"You probably could have stopped him," Kylie pointed out.

"I know, but I felt I ought to come out here. What with Roland's disappearing off the face of the earth and Garrett's demon, it makes me wonder if there's something really major going on."

"You mean like an international demon plot to destroy the Ghostbusters? I don't think so. For one thing we're not Ghostbusters anymore."

"I know. But even so, I was worried about you."

"You needn't have been," Kylie told him firmly. "Nothing's happened, with her or anyone else. Well," she added, "we did try and have a little bit of a séance on a cliff a few nights ago, but that didn't work out. Funny thing, though. There was a whole load of ghosts on that cliff, and nobody seemed to notice except me."

"Who else was with you?" asked Eduardo.

"Electra and four of her friends. They kept insisting it was just the wind, stuff like that."

During their conversation, the two voices in the adjacent room had become gradually louder and louder. Electra and Jason were now yelling at each other, and a glance through the doorway showed that they had both advanced from opposite sides of the room and now there faces were practically touching. Each clearly wanted the other to back away - they were both looking to dominate the argument - but neither sibling would be intimidated.

"For the final time, I am not trying to summon anything!" screamed Electra at the top of her lungs. "What would I want with a stupid gryphon anyway?"

"Will you keep it down?" hissed Kylie. As she re-entered the room, both pairs of glittering green eyes turned threateningly on her, and she felt herself cringe slightly. Honestly, you had to feel sorry for their parents.

Electra turned back to Jason and hissed nastily, "I came out here to get away from you. Why did you have to follow me?"

"Shut up, it's been like three years," Jason retorted.

"Can we please just stop squabbling?" Kylie asked, wondering slightly at her own choice of pronoun. "Jason, I promise you there is absolutely nothing going on. I would have noticed."

"It's true," Eduardo backed her up. "Kylie never misses a trick."

Jason regarded them both for a few seconds, and then looked back to his sister. She was still staring squarely at him, arms folded across her chest in defiance.

"I want to do a PKE test on your dad's girlfriend," he said evenly, still looking at Electra but (presumably) addressing Kylie.

"Ok," Kylie replied cautiously. "We can do that... when she's asleep, maybe."

* * *

Janine and Gaby, meanwhile, were paving a good way to careers in the police force. Roland had, quite literally, disappeared. He hadn't been seen for thirty-six hours, almost exactly. Apparently the last person to have seen him was an elderly history professor. After this kindly gentleman's lecture, Roland had announced that he was going to the library to do some work, and had never shown up.

"Isn't this exciting?" enthused Gaby, as she consulted the notes that she and Janine had made. "It's just like 'Charlie's Angels'. Um... except real, obviously," she added, somewhat sheepishly.

Janine was looking at a map. All she had managed to deduce so far was that Roland had disappeared somewhere between the lecture hall and the library. She and Gaby had walked every possible route, even the most unlikely ones, and found nothing. Now it seemed they were at something of a dead end.

"I don't know why nobody called the police," she muttered, half to herself.

"It's only been a day and a half. That's nothing. Besides, students disappear from campuses all the time," Gaby informed Janine cheerily. "They can't notice every time somebody goes missing. And if anyone has noticed they probably just assume he committed suicide or something."

Janine just looked at her. Well, there really was no answer to that.

"So, we've brought all of this equipment Dr. Spengler gave us," Gaby buzzed on. "You think maybe we should use it?"

"Yes," agreed Janine. "We'll take PKE readings of everywhere Roland could have gone just before he disappeared."

The way she put it, Janine noticed, she made it sound as though Roland had quite literally vanished. She had visions of him walking along, and then just disappearing from sight somewhere on the path to the library. And frankly, from what they had been able to deduce so far, that might just as well be what had happened.

Janine decided they should wait until dark before they started poking around with PKE meters, and Gaby agreed. They ventured out around midnight, when most of the students had either returned home from the bars or moved on to somewhere else, where hopefully they would remain for at least a good couple of hours.

"I wonder if it meant anything," Gaby suddenly piped up, as they scanned the most direct route from the lecture hall to the library with PKE meters. "You know, that he told you and Kylie he was so busy."

"Like what?" Janine asked.

"I don't know," Gaby admitted.

"If we don't find anything, which I very much doubt we will, I think we ought to call the police. In fact we should have done it the moment we found out he really was missing. I mean, he could be lying in a ditch or something."

An hour passed before Janine and Gaby's PKE meters started jumping excitedly. They had continued their search fruitlessly until Gaby had spotted the small public toilets a few yards away and said, "Hey, maybe he went to the bathroom on the way."

Janine rolled her eyes and said, "That's probably it." Now, as the PKE readings were falling just short of the top of the scale, she felt very annoyed that they had wasted so much time and not thought of this before.

"It stinks in here," observed Gaby. "You'd have to be pretty desperate to want to use these toilets. Hey, this psycho-whatever energy seems to be leading somewhere, like a trail or something."

Janine came up behind her and looked again at her PKE meter. "You're right," she agreed. "If it's a trail, I guess we'd better follow it."

The trail led them to a door in the wall that was almost invisible for all the graffiti that allowed it to blend in with the wall - as well as the distinct lack of a handle. Gaby turned up her nose at the spray-painted wall and said, "I thought Princeton was supposed to be a nice, respectable establishment."

"Well, there's always a few," Janine shrugged, trying the door as she spoke. It wouldn't give, so she stepped back and aimed a proton stream at it. The door splintered, and swung back on its rusty hinges.

"I'll go first," Janine said authoritatively. "Stick close behind me, ok?"

Gaby said nothing, but did as she was told. The door masked a flight of very unsteady looking wooden stairs, which led down underground and seemed to be swallowed by the darkness beneath. The readings on Janine's PKE meter were through the roof, and she wasn't too keen on getting swallowed by that darkness herself, but she knew she had to for Roland's sake.

Slowly and carefully Janine descended the steps, followed closely by Gaby. They creaked, as old wooden stairs inevitably do, and each one seemed to sag beneath Janine's careful step. She held her breath as she ascended, grateful for the sound of Gaby's footsteps behind her. Finally, after what seemed like an age, they reached the bottom.

"Now what?" whispered Gaby.

"Why are we whispering?" Janine hissed back.

"There may be something nasty down here. Do you have a flashlight?"

"No."

"Just as well I do then," grinned Gaby, and she pulled a large black torch out of her bag and switched it on. The light revealed a damp, earthy tunnel that seemed to stretch forever onwards. No surprises there then.

"Guess we'd better follow it," Janine murmured. Gaby nodded her agreement, and together they stepped cautiously forward.

It was one of those tunnels that seemed endless, like on a very long car journey, when you enter a tunnel and soon forget life before it. And then suddenly, after what seems like a lifetime, you emerge into blinding sunlight. Or in this cave, what could only be described as a crypt. Neither Janine nor Gaby was surprised. Their PKE meters had warned them to expect something pretty bizarre. This, by paranormal standards at least, was not too bizarre at all really. Wooden carvings of various unsavoury looking characters, candles, patterns scratched into the stone floor...

Even though it was dark, Janine knew that Gaby was about to speak. Apparently she had developed a sixth sense for Gaby's relentless talking habit and she just knew. "Ssh!" hissed Janine, pulling Gaby back out into the tunnel and ducking into the darkness. She could hear footsteps approaching.

Janine didn't know how many people were coming, and she couldn't really tell by their footfall either, but she guessed three. There were, she reasoned, always three of everything. Three wishes, three blind mice, three good witches, three billy-goats gruff, three oppressive step family members... Ok, so this wasn't a fairy tale, but there was always something intrinsically magical about the number three. And, judging from these people's choice of décor, there was something pretty magical going on in here.

It was quite an effort on Janine's part not to shout out "Yes!" when three curvaceous young women sauntered into the crypt, approaching from a large oak doorway on the other side from herself and Gaby. It had been a pretty amazing guess, after all. These girls looked to be of an age to attend university, and Janine wondered if they were actually students here. They wore gothic costume. One was red-haired, one dark and one fair. In the darkness, Janine could practically feel Gaby opening her mouth. She couldn't very signal her companion to be quiet in this light, so Janine reached out and clamped her hand over the offending orifice.

"Is everything in place for the ritual?" rasped the redhead, in a reasonable imitation of the classic vampire voice.

"Indeed, comrade," returned her dark-haired friend. "And is our sacrifice ready?"

"I believe so." It was the dark-haired one who spoke this time. "I shall check on him. Wait for me here, comrades, and prepare the serum."

Gaby was muttering under her breath. Janine nudged her, though she quite understood. She too was tempted to voice her feelings about these witch wannabes, or vampire wannabes, or whatever they were.

"Come, sister," said the blonde to the redhead, as the brunette disappeared through the oak door again. "We must take the air in preparation for your coming of age."

The blond girl led her companion into the tunnel. Janine and Gaby pressed themselves against the earthy walls and held their breath. Thankfully neither girl seemed even to sense their presence.

"Phew." Seconds passed, though it felt more like minutes, before Gaby ventured to breathe out again. "Now what do you suppose that was all about?"

"They seem to be preparing for some kind of initiation ceremony. They're welcoming the redhead into their whatever it is. And it sounds like they've got a human sacrifice."

"It could be a gerbil or something," Gaby suggested hopefully.

"And it could be Roland," Janine answered gravely. "We have to follow that other girl. Might as well leave our equipment here. They're not the real deal, whatever they're trying to be."

"But what about the PKE readings?" asked Gaby.

"Good question. I suppose some of their voodoo bits and pieces could be real," Janine mused, "but I'm really no expert on this stuff. All I know is that they're not the real thing. You just have to listen to the Christopher Lee talk. So we don't really want to be turning our proton guns on them. And," she added, "with any luck we should be able to sneak Roland out without their noticing."

That, Janine decided, was enough talk. She abandoned her proton gun and ventured towards the wooden door, beckoning Gaby to follow her.

Both of them half expected to find Roland stripped to the waist, bound to the wall by his wrists and ankles with voodoo patterns drawn on his chest with his own blood. Instead, watching from the safety of the doorway, they saw him lying on the ground, wearing no kind of shackles, being roused from a sleep by the dark-haired girl. She had acquired a goblet of liquid from somewhere, and now she held it to Roland's lips.

"Are you thirsty, my pet?" she crooned.

Silently Roland drank from her cup. She cupped his chin in his hand and tilted his head for him, as though feeding an invalid or a small child. Janine watched Roland carefully. He seemed not to resist this girl's actions, just passively accept them. Maybe he was under some kind of spell. Otherwise he may have been able to escape.

"Good puppy," said the girl, taking the cup away. Well, thought Gaby, somebody's been watching "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". Cases like these girls' would make an interesting subject for her media studies class. Gaby felt sure that contemporary media texts like "Buffy" were directly responsible for this kind of behaviour.

"I'll come back for you in a little while," the girl went on. She was heading for the doorway, and once again Gaby and Janine had to press their bodies against the wall and hope that they were not spotted. Gaby was surprised when, yet again, they were not seen. All three of these weirdoes seemed entirely oblivious to their presence. If I had a secret underground crypt, Gaby thought, I'd notice if people broke in.

Janine was too relieved to be tired. Dashing into the room and kneeling at Roland's side, she prayed that they hadn't cut out his tongue or anything like that. "Roland," she said, shaking him to get him to look at her. "Are you ok?"

Oh my God, Janine thought, when Roland didn't respond. They have cut out his tongue!

He just looked at her with unresponsive eyes, and then quite suddenly his expression cleared into one of immense relief.

"Janine," he sighed. "What on earth are you doing here?"

"We've come to save you. Are you ok?" Janine asked again.

"Yes. I'm fine, for another hour or so. Then Zara, the redhead, wants to suck my blood." He flinched at the thought. "What do you mean you've come to save me? How did you know I was in trouble?"

"Why didn't you just escape?" asked Gaby.

"They've been guarding me all night. I guess I could make a break for it now, though."

"Drusilla's probably still back there," Gaby pointed out, her mind still on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer".

"So what?" Janine said dryly, helping Roland to his feet. "There's one of her and three of us. We'll just kick her where the sun don't shine and run out."

"That wasn't a very Janine thing to say," observed Roland.

"Wasn't it?" Janine felt slightly hurt by this comment. She was tough enough, wasn't she? Surely she had proved by now that there was more to her than tax returns, invoices, accounts and filing - not including looking after bills, taking phone messages and serving coffee to distressed clients.

"Come on," ventured Gaby. "Let's just go kick her and get it over with."

Slinking quietly into the next room, where Janine and Gaby had been eavesdropping minutes before, Roland's initial sense of shock had subsided and he now noticed just how different Zara looked now she was pretending to be a vampire. By day she was a bright, happy, active and hard-working university student. She was also freckled, which Roland never would have imagined in a vampire. Now he noticed that her canines had been sharpened to points, and wondered how he had missed that before. Maybe she normally wore tooth caps or something. Vaguely he wondered if Gigi and Theo had made themselves vampire fangs as well.

Janine seemed to want to sneak past the would-be vampire unnoticed, but for the first time Zara heard her footfall, turned and held her in an icy stare. The girl had brilliant green eyes, that she probably would have liked to intimidate her intruder, but it struck Janine that this girl's eyes were beautiful, and that she could be pretty if she wanted to. A pet hate of Janine's was potentially pretty girls that made themselves look as disagreeable as they possibly could. Kylie was one such girl, although Janine would never have dreamt of saying anything.

"Stop!" commanded Zara in her raspy, vampiric voice. "Why do you invade our domain?"

"Actually we're here too," volunteered Gaby, not wanting Janine to bare the brunt of this verbal attack alone. "We're rescuing your prisoner. Sorry about that."

Zara stared at Gaby, her green eyes penetrating the darkness. Surely, Gaby thought, those eyes can't be real. She must be wearing fluorescent contact lenses or something.

"Return him immediately." Zara was still managing to sound authoritative, but her voice began to waver. "My comrades will return soon. You will all be killed!"

"Drop the act, Vampyra," scoffed Janine. "We're leaving and we're taking Roland with us, ok? And then we're going to tell a counsellor about you and your friends."

Thankfully Zara looked about to give in, but then her two companions returned. "Sister," said the blonde in commanding tones, as she sauntered through the door. "What are these strange devices blocking the door of our domain?"

As soon as she spoke she spotted the intruders, and her expression darkened. Her dark-haired friend had noticed their visitors straight away, and now looked questioningly from Gaby to Janine.

"Which one's which?" Gaby whispered to Roland.

"Theo's the blond one," Roland replied. "The dark one's Gigi."

"Now look. I'm the adult here, and I say we're leaving," Janine insisted, her tone commanding. "Come on, you two."

Janine made her way boldly to the door, and managed to get past Gigi and Theo. As Roland and Gaby began to make their way towards her, she stooped and picked up a proton gun from where she and Gaby had left them, just in case she needed to conk one of these lunatics on the head.

"Hey!" Gaby shouted, as Theo grabbed her by the arm. "Let me go, you crazy bitch!"

"One of you will be our sister's victim," rasped Theo.

"But I don't want her," Zara whinged, suddenly dropping the act. "I want Roland!"

"I don't understand what you see in him anyway," volunteered Gigi, also talking normally now. "He's not even good looking."

"Enough!" screeched Theo. "I will not tolerate this insolence!"

"Gaby, come here!" Janine suddenly shouted. At once Gaby knee-kicked Theo in the stomach, hard enough to make her double up with a cry of, "Ow! You little...!"

Gaby shook free of Theo's grip on her arm, and she and Roland ran to Janine at the doorway. Hastily they gathered up their equipment, and carried it any-old-how down the tunnel, running as fast as they could. They could hear Theo behind them shouting, "After them, you idiots!"

"What's the point?" Gigi returned. "This is stupid anyway. We don't have to kill people, you know."

Seconds later Janine, Roland and Gaby were safely out in the open air. They made their way in silence as fast as they could to a fairly crowded area of the campus. For a minute or so they stood in silence on the concrete path, and then Roland ventured to speak: "Well, that's the last time I use those toilets."

"Who are they?" asked Gaby. "Do they, like, go here?"

"Yeah, they're law students," Roland confirmed. "They're very into the occult, but I never imagined anything like this." He looked thoughtful, and then added bitterly, "I thought they were my friends."

"Well," Janine sighed, "you know what we have to do now."

"See a counsellor, right?" volunteered Gaby.

"Exactly," Janine nodded. "And then I guess you and I, Gaby, had better get home."

* * *

Testing Sarah for psycho-kinetic energy while she was sleeping had been a tricky task, but somehow Jason and Kylie had managed to pull it off. The test had shown her to be entirely human, but still Jason seemed edgy.

"I know when she's up to something," he insisted, once they were safely out in the hall. "I know I didn't come all the way from New York for nothing."

"Yeah?" Kylie was unconvinced. "Maybe it's the Powers That Be telling you to make up with your sister."

"Yeah right," scoffed Jason. "Like that's ever gonna happen."

Sibling relationships were a mystery to Kylie. If they were as special as people made out they were supposed to be, why did everyone hate their brothers and sisters so much? Roland was the exception, of course, but he didn't count because he liked everybody. Bizarrely he seemed blind to his little brother's faults, whereas other people seemed to go for the other extreme and see terrible things in their siblings that just weren't there. In this case, Jason was convinced that his sister was harbouring some kind of evil scheme when she quite clearly was not.

"Maybe you and Electra should just go back to your grandmother's," Kylie suggested. "I don't see what else we can do tonight."

Although Kylie and Eduardo both envisaged another colossal row, Jason and Electra both agreed to go back to their grandmother's house for the rest of the night. Electra had driven Eduardo and her brother to Kylie's father's apartment, and it did take some persuading to get Jason back into her car. He was perfectly capable of walking, he said, and he absolutely was not prepared to risk it in a car with his psycho sister. Finally he relented when Kylie rolled her eyes and said, "Come on, Jason, don't be such a moron."

Eduardo and Kylie both stood outside and waved Electra's car off. Then, when it was out of sight, Eduardo turned to Kylie and said, "It's nice here. You could get used to it."

"Yeah, well," Kylie shrugged. "I probably won't stay much longer. There's not really anything for me here."

"What about Rik?"

"I don't really care about Rik. At first I thought maybe, but... nah."

She wondered if Eduardo was trying to get any particular answers. Specifically answers about him. About both of them. Kylie was an adamant hater of complicated romantic situations and women who couldn't sort out in their own heads the men they wanted and the men they didn't. One of her most hated phrases was, "I'm confused," at least in the context of romantic attachments. But she found to her fury that her feelings for the man standing next to her were still infinitely baffling.

"And your dad?" Eduardo asked.

"Huh. It's not like I've never spent time away from him."

"So... what have you got to go back for in New York?"

"Well, my friends. And the Ghostbusters. And besides," she shrugged, "Pagan hates it here. And he seemed pleased to see you. He obviously wants to go home."

"Yeah," Eduardo agreed. "He seemed happier to see me than you were. Um... so... you maybe wanna show me these ghosts of yours?"

"I'm not sure if I'm up to climbing that cliff again, but I guess I could give it ago," said Kylie. "Come on, it's this way," and she took his hand and started to walk.

* * *

Egon was not expecting to hear from Garrett again for quite some time. But Garrett apparently was still dwelling on what that damn demon had said to him.

"Garrett, I am telling you," Egon insisted. "Roland is ok. We're expecting Janine and Gaby back tomorrow. Ok?"

"O-kaay," Garrett said slowly. "What about Kylie? Is she still alive? No, wait, of course she is, she and Eduardo aren't together yet. Are they?"

"I don't know, Garrett," Egon returned flatly. "I understand your concern, but I do think you're working yourself into too big a state about it."

"It's just really worrying, ok? Can you do me a favour? Call Kylie and find out if anything's happened."

"All right, I'll do that," said Egon, fairly unconvincingly. "Goodbye, Garrett."

Finally Egon hung up. He had been sitting down for hours and his legs were tired, so he got up and wandered to the sitting room in search of some company. Jenny lay outstretched on her front on the floor, propped up on her elbow with her chin in her hand. She was looking at a magazine in front of her, while Slimer hovered near the ground, puzzling over the chess game that Jenny was pointedly ignoring.

"Slimer, you can get her in check mate," Egon pointed out.

Slimer's expression of concentration deepened; he scratched his head before finally shouting excitedly, "Oh yeah!" Jenny's solitary king was trapped between two rooks, and Slimer moved his queen opposite the doomed piece. On the opposite side of the board Jenny's only other remaining pieces, two pawns and a knight, stood idly by.

"Bummer," Jenny muttered disinterestedly, as Slimer danced excitedly around the room. Then without looking up she said, "Hey Egon, what's the haps?"

"Garrett wants me to call Kylie to make sure she's ok."

"Jeez Egon, do we have to call Kylie every five minutes?"

"You're right," said Egon. "I'm dreading the phone bill. But what that demon told Garrett is worrying. Apparently Kylie's going to die and Eduardo's going to kill himself."

Suddenly his words seemed to spark Jenny's interest, and she looked up. "Why would he want to do that?" she demanded. "He and Kylie aren't going to get back together, are they?"

"Well... nothing's certain," Egon faltered. "Anything could happen."

"Yeah, well," Julie muttered, turning sulkily back to her article on Bowling For Soup. "Just as long as he doesn't cheat on me with her while he's over there."

* * *

Eduardo, it seemed, had the perfect opportunity to cheat on the girl he left behind. Kylie had taken him to a deserted cliff-top during a particularly striking sunrise, and now held onto his arm to prevent herself from getting swept away by the strong wind.

"There are usually more ghosts than that," said Kylie. "I think we were a little late for them."

They had seen two ghosts: a young man and the tragic woman with white hair who insisted on committing suicide every night. It was undoubtedly a ghastly spectacle, but Eduardo had reasoned that these weren't necessarily departed souls. "They could just be, you know - what's the word? - impressions," he had said. "They're not really there. They're just like video clips. We did it in philosophy at college. It's called, uh... stone tape theory, I think."

Kylie looked amused. "Since when do you do philosophy?" she asked.

"Since the beginning of this semester. It's kind of like the stuff we do with Egon. I thought it'd be, you know... easier," he finished weakly.

There was a long silence, which Eduardo finally broke by saying, "Sunrise sure is nice."

"Very nice," agreed Kylie. "Maybe you should have taken the creative writing course. They teach you to use words other than nice."

"Oh yeah? Like what?"

"Oh, you know. Pleasant, beautiful, charming, attractive, amiable..."

Kylie had expected her comment about creative writing courses to lead here, and now she waited for the very obvious line. "If I need to think of words like that all I gotta do is look at you," something like that. But Eduardo didn't say it. He said nothing, but continued to look at the sunrise that he thought was so nice.

"You ok?" Kylie asked.

"Sure," Eduardo shrugged.

There was a strong wind blowing against their faces as they looked out to sea. Kylie hugged her arms to her chest and closed her eyes against the force of the wind, her long black hair billowing out behind her. She wasn't vain, but she thought there and then, anyone must look gorgeous. She was faintly disappointed that Eduardo seemed to have lost interest.

"So here you are."

Kylie jumped, and turned to see that Rik had joined them, having appeared as if from nowhere. His sinister expression was unnerving, but still Kylie smiled and said pleasantly, "Where did you come from?"

Rik ignored the question and demanded roughly, "Is this your friend from New York?"

"Ye-es," Kylie replied cautiously.

Eduardo was also feeling unnerved by this strange man. He tried to smile, though he expected it looked as unconvincing as it felt, and said simply, "Hi."

"Hi," spat Rik. And then suddenly he took two long strides towards Kylie and grabbed her by the wrist, making her gasp slightly with pain as his fingers dug into her flesh.

"Just a friend, is he?" Rik almost hissed, dragging Kylie forcefully to the edge of the cliff.

"Jesus, Rik, what the hell is wrong with you?" cried Kylie, her initial surprise giving way to anger. How dare he treat her like this?

Eduardo was way ahead of her. The scenario was classic, for want of a better word than corny. The innocent young girl killed in a jealous fury whilst liasing with her lover on a cliff-top. Ok, so that wasn't it exactly, but it was close enough as far as Rik was concerned.

"Kylie," Eduardo said, his expression grave as he looked at the PKE meter he had, with great foresight, taken along with him. "He's a ghost."

"What?" squeaked Kylie. "Jesus Christ, how did I let that get past me?"

"I'm not a ghost," drawled Rik. "How can I be? I never die."

"W-what do you mean?" Kylie asked cautiously.

But Rik had already moved on to the insane ranting. "How could you do this to me, Katherine?" he wailed, shaking her forcefully. They were standing dangerously close to the edge of the cliff. They were on it, in fact.

"Katherine?" Kylie raised her eyebrows. "Oh, I get it. Very original. Rik, I'm not Katherine. I'm Kylie."

"Kylie, right," Rik said apologetically. "I'm sorry, but I can't be expected to remember all your names."

"What do you mean?" asked Kylie again. She was keen to talk to Rik and figure out what was going on. First, however, she realised that she would have to get them both away from the edge of the cliff. Gently she eased herself free of his grip, watching his tearful eyes intently, and took him by the hand.

"Let's just come over here a little bit, shall we?" she coaxed, as though talking to a difficult child, and she led Rik away from the ledge. "There, that's better. Now, who's Katherine?"

"She was the first one that did it to me," Rik replied, eyes ablaze. "She left me for another man on this cliff two-hundred years ago."

"Did you kill her?" Kylie asked.

"No!" Rik said hastily. "She fell, I swear it. So did the others."

"Others," Kylie muttered. She had her back to Eduardo, but she could feel his eyes on the back of her neck. "How many?"

"I don't know." Rik shook his head. "I lost count. They keep coming and... and taking other lovers on this cliff. I try to stop them, but they always fall. Always!"

"I see." Kylie nodded her understanding. "You feel so guilty about what happened to Katherine, that you continue to live and punish yourself. You're destined to live your nightmare over and over again."

"How do you know that?" Rik asked, seemingly confused. Kylie supposed she was the first woman to go against the usual course of events.

"It's pretty obvious when you think about it," she said. "It's like that movie, 'The Woman in White'. Or was it the lady? Oh, never mind," Kylie went on. "Rik, what happened to, uh, Katherine wasn't your fault. You have to let her go."

"How?" Rik asked, his voice choked, as he was now in tears. "I don't know how."

"You have to forgive yourself," said Kylie, "and then you have to join her."

"You mean...?"

"Jump off the cliff."

"Right," Rik said uncertainly.

"What happened to Katherine was an accident," said Kylie. "I don't believe she was even cheating on you. I'm not," she added.

"It's true," ventured Eduardo. "She was just showing me your very beautiful island. I've got somebody else back home anyway."

"What happened to Katherine wasn't your fault," Kylie repeated. "Ok?"

Rik was still holding onto her hands. He nodded, tears spilling from his eyes, and then backed slowly away from her, letting go his grip on her hands. Eduardo and Kylie watched, neither of them really knowing what to think, as Rik walked quite calmly off the edge of the cliff.

Instinctively Kylie ventured forwards, got to her hands and knees for safety and looked down to the tide below. She smiled when she saw the white-haired woman whose ghost she had seen before, walking on the waves hand-in-hand with none other than Rik. Both waved at her, smiling their gratitude, before turning and disappearing into the sunrise.

When Kylie got to her feet and looked at Eduardo, she saw that he too was watching their disappearing forms. "Guess you laid one spirit to rest," he said. "Well, two. Too bad you can't do the same for all of them."

"Is that true?" Kylie asked blandly. "Have you got someone else?"

"Yes," Eduardo admitted. "Yes, I have."

"I'd like to meet her."

"Really?"

"Of course. When are you and Jason going home?"

"You wanna come with us?" Eduardo asked surprise.

"Yeah, well. It's kind of a corny line," Kylie smiled, "but my work here is done."

* * *

"...'and Pagan never really liked Hawaii anyway, so there was no point in staying'." Julie was reading aloud an e-mail from Kylie, that she and Garrett had accessed from a public library. " 'If you ask me, Eduardo's new girlfriend is not only very simple, but also extremely annoying. Perfect match, huh?' Winking smiley face. 'I hope you'll come back and meet the new team when you're trip's over. In the meantime, keep having a great time, and say hi to Julie for me'."

"My friend Kylie says hi," Garrett muttered from his position behind her.

"Jeez, Garrett, what's the matter with you?" Julie turned the swivel-chair to face him, taking his right hand in both of hers and giving it a reassuring squeeze. "They're fine. They're perfectly happy. Stop worrying."

"How can I?" returned Garrett. He realised that this must sound ungrateful, so he returned Julie's squeeze to show that he appreciated what she was doing. Then he added quietly, "There's still plenty of time."

THE END