That Which You Are, The Mirror You Become, Part 1/?
Just another day at the Firehouse-2 busts, one paid on a bounced check, another on the Ghostbusters pay-as-you-go account, and no real money to pay the television bill. In other words, a bad day for Eduardo Rivera, as he sits on the couch, munching on some old potato chips he found in the cupboard.
“Hey, mebbe we should just ditch that pay-as-you-go thing and actually ask for the money up front? I’m missing out on my favorite shows, man!” he groaned, yelling in the direction of Janine, who was typing out several bills to customers on the account.
Out of nowhere, Eduardo felt his hand become moist and slimy as Slimer stole his chips and he yelled, “Give ‘em back, Slimeball, or it’s into a trap for you, pendejo!”
Slimer stuck his unnaturally large tongue out in a raspberry and flew into the kitchen. Before he could get up, Kylie leapt over the couch and sat next to him, glaring into his eyes as she said, her accent in full, “Don’t even think about it, Ed-Egon told you before, no trappin’ Slimer unless he says so.”
“But ‘e stole my chips! Plus, you’re not my madre, Kylie…what’re you gonna do if I just do it anyways?”
“I’ll rip your balls off and let Slimer chow down on ‘em,” she growled, her eyeshadow giving her face a hollow, almost demonic look in tandem with her raven-black hair.
Eduardo’s eyes went wide as his hands flew to his member, guarding it, saying quickly, “Point made!”
“Good…you aren’t the only one suffering cuz of the bad business lately, so quit ya bellyaching. Gut it through like the rest of us adults,” she said, sighing and relaxing on the couch, making sure there was 3 feet of space between them.
Reclining as well, he said, “Jeez, you sure you’re a girl, Kylie? Aside from the Elvira look, you act as much a guy as Garret.”
Rolling her eyes, she looked at Eduardo and sighed, “If I didn’t hate female stereotypes so much, I’d say you’re girlier than me, Mister “I shriek at a mouse on the job””
“It was a big rat and we were in the sewer!” he protested.
“Then why did no one else get scared?”
“I’m scared ‘a rats! I nearly got eaten by one when I was a niño!”
“On top of being afraid of heights, the dark, small spaces, long hallways, weird noises and your older brother?” she asked with a definite hint of annoyance.
“So I got a lot ‘o things to be scared about!”
“Wrong biz to work in, genius.”
“Ey, I was in this for an easy A, I just…decided to join cuz it’d pay my loans off, that’s all…” he said with a shifty look.
In reality, it was because of their first encounter, and when Kylie approached him and asked him to kiss her. Since then, he’s wanted to be close to her, but at the same time was frustrated by her abrasive attitude toward him.
“You sure it wasn’t because you didn’t want to be left out of the game? Or did you have nothing better ta do than annoy us?”
“’Ey, Kylie, I stuck with this cuz I’m a man-men don’t back down from stuff. And I’m workin’ on my fears…you need a boyfriend, y’know that?”
Her pupils contracted as she glared daggers at him, enunciating every word as she growled, “And why do you say that?”
Eduardo slunk down, realizing the stupidity of what he just said and he mumbled, “You’re too intense…you need someone to help you relax or something-I worry ‘bout you sometimes.”
His eyes met with hers for a moment and both their hearts beat a little faster as they looked away and Kylie managed a snide, “And who do you expect to fill this position, you? I hardly think so.”
“Just…someone…other than Christian Slater in your dreams,” he said, his ego wounded from her barbs as Roland came in.
“Hi, guys, how’s everything going?”
“BAD,” they both said with frustration in every syllable.
“Oh…well, I guess things might look up-we just got a call about suspected Class 9 on Central Park West.
They both looked up and seemed to brighten up as Eduardo asked, “They gonna actually pay us, or are we gonna go without TV for another day?”
“They’re paying us part in advance and part when we finish-it’s a high-paying customer, too. They’re paying us 5,000 now and 6,000 on completion!”
“11,000??” they both shouted excitedly.
“Then, what’re we waiting for??” Garret asked, rolling in, already suited up and armed.
Eduardo and Kylie got up, their hands meeting for a moment as they pulled away quickly, looking away.
“So, gonna be the manly girl on this one, too?”
“Can it, Ed-this is gonna pay us off a lot.”
“Alright, alright, keep your shirt on,” Eduardo mumbled as he grabbed a Proton Pack and got into the ECTO-1.
They drove to the address Janine gave them, and the tenant, an auctioneer came down and said, “Thank God, you’re here, it’s been terrible.”
Kylie came up and asked, “What happened, ma’am?”
“Well, it’s the mirror in there…people see strange things and they…change…it’s horrible.”
“How do they change?” Roland asked concernedly.
The old woman called out inside and a dog came out.
“It’s just a dog, lady-what’s wrong?”
“It used to be a cat.”
“WHAT?” they all asked in unison.
“Yes…I haven’t looked at the mirror for fear of changing…it’s in the attic. Please, take care of it-it’s a valuable antique I was hoping to auction off for a charity next week.”
Kylie looked at Eduardo and they both shared a smirk as they remembered the Class-13 they once dealt with in a similar circumstance as Eduardo said, “Don’t worry, senora, we’re scientists…we’ve done stuff like this before.”
“For once, he’s right,” Kylie said with a smile.
The auctioneer nodded and smiled gratefully as she led them inside. They came to a large mirror, covered in a tarp.
Kylie waved a PKE meter up and down the mirror and her eyes went wide as she said, “Whoa, this one’s definitely hot-I’m getting readings more along the lines of a Class-10 or 11…this is not good. I’m getting a signature closely resembling the class-13 we dealt with awhile back…that means it really can directly interact with the physical plane.”
“You think we should take this to Egon for analysis?” Roland asked and Eduardo said, touching the tarp with the end of his proton gun, “Mebbe we should try and communicate with it. Y’know, find out what it wants. Mebbe it just wants something it lost…”
“Eddy, I think that’s probably the dumbest idea you’ve had for awhile-and that’s saying something,” Garret cracked, rolling up and grabbing the end of Eduardo’s gun and pointing it down.
“Roland’s right-Egon’d know how to deal with this. He’s dealt with possessed objects before-remember the Vigo incident?”
They all nodded, Garret exclaiming, “I remember seeing the Statue of Liberty passing my parent’s apartment window that night; that was so COOL!”
“Yeah, I remember it, too-I’m just saying he might have more experience than us. By all means, NONE OF US looks at the mirror. We’ll stick it in the back of the ECTO-1. Eduardo, you and I will guard it.”
“Trusting Eddy with something that important, have you lost your mind Kylie?” Garret asked, his eyes wide.
“He and I dealt with a Class-13 single-handedly without looking once at it. If anyone can be trusted with something like this, it’s us,” she said, nodding to Eduardo.
“Yeah, so bug off, wheelchair boy,” Eduardo added, grabbing the side of the mirror, his eyes firmly shut.
Kylie grabbed the other side carefully and said, “You sure you can handle this thing? It’s awful heavy.”
“Oh, look at the comedienne…very funny…I’d be more worried about you, chica,” he shot back, hefting the mirror as the others left.
The mirror was a lot heavier than either of them thought and it took a great deal of strength to pull it off the ground. The two of them slowly made their way through the attic, looking at the ground and not the mirror and Eduardo said between grunts, “So -pant- you think I’m -pant- some kinda girly man?”
“Nah, I’m just saying that you need to stop using all these chauvinistic stereotypes so much. I don’t want you to get a false image of yourself.”
“Yeah, well, you need to stop making me feel like some kinda girl…like that time with the Class-13. You need to stop showing others you act like a guy…”
“Everyone seriously thinks I’m some kinda tomboy? Great…”
“Kylie, you moved past tomboy a long time ago.”
“Lovely…just pay attention to the-AAAGH!”
Kylie slipped on a piece of paper that she didn’t notice and fell, pulling the tarp along the way. The two of them accidentally looked at the bare mirror and saw a man and a woman, looking like them but somehow different, as if there were people impersonating them. They suddenly felt very sick as a voice boomed in their heads, “I will reveal your truest faces…what you are, the mirror you become.”
“Mierda!! We’re screwed now!” Eduardo shrieked, panicking.
“Calm the fuck down, Eduardo!!!” Kylie yelled, throwing the tarp back over without looking any more, “We gotta get to Egon double time!”
“Hey, guys, what’s wrong?” Roland asked over the walkie-talkies.
“We need some help getting this thing down…we might have a bit of a problem,” Kylie said, her stomach still rolling around.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well, that's the first of many chapters...please, comments are like proton canisters!