“ Who’s on the graveyard shift tonight, better not be me.” Maybe reading “The Shining” hadn’t been such a good idea, especially tonight.Her imagination was already going into overdrive turning every shadow into some weird new monster. Somewhere a clock chimed midnight, the witching hour. A shudder ripped down her spine before she snapped back to reality. Looking over at the couch Kylie saw that Eduardo was still asleep. Typical. Deciding to finish the chapter she turned her emerald eyes back to the page. As they skimmed the text they widened slightly, her speed increasing as the plot became more suspense filled. At that precise moment the lights went off with a resounding bang. “ What was that?!” There was a multi-coloured blast from the centre of the spinning vortex that now faced them. A blinding flash of light followed as the fabric of the space/time continuum
Back at the firehouse the wall resumed it’s normal solid state. The lights came back on. Everything ran as normal. Except for two things. The clock on the wall ground to a halt, the hands swirled back to midnight and then slowly began to move in forward motion once more.
” Face it goatee man, your just a sore loser.”
“ Your the loser roller boy.”
“ Yeah right.” Slimer’s babbling talk adds to the racket, in the basement Roland starts drilling, Egon types incessantly on computer keys, the phone rings, Kylie and Janine look at each other in despair.“ So much for peace and quiet.” Ky’s only reply is to roll her eyes and turn back to the tarot cards in front of her.
Picking up the wheel of fortune she wonders if anything will ever change around here, like Eduardo noticed her for once. He was SO annoying, yet so appealing. It was driving her insane.
“Sorry Edwina, it’s you and Vampira on your own with the monsters in the basement tonight”
“ Great. Well, Spook Queen can take the first shift, I’m catching some shuteye.”
With that he lay on the couch and was snoring in seconds.
“ Have a goodnight Kylie.”
“Thanks Roland. Don’t suppose you wanna swap shifts do you?”
“ No way.”
With a resigned sigh she sat down in the armchair and waited out the long four hours.
“Power cut.”
Eduardo noticed that her voice was shaking slightly, as though she were trying to pick up the pieces of her shattered composure. A torch flicked on and the light beam was shone in his face.“ Oh well, at least your awake now sleeping beauty.”
“ Yeah, yeah. Okay, so I over slept.”
“ You think it’s the fuse?” They both looked over towards the steps that led down to the basement. For some strange reason they seemed eerie, and the darkness of the shadows was overwhelmingly threatening, enough to make anyone think that going down there alone was like stepping into a fatal dark dimension, where nothing survived.
“ Nah, probably just the company messed something up,” A fizzing zap sounded from behind them caused the two ghostbusters to spin around and confront the blank wall.
“ Slimer was that you?” Kylie began to scan the area with her torch. In the circle of light she thought she saw it ripple. Staring at it she watched the pattern of bricks and noticed that the whole structure appeared to be flexing. “ Did you see that?”
“ Uh huh.” They stood there frozen to the spot, watching in amazement as the whole wall began to shift and swirl.
was torn to shreds. Eduardo closed his eyes against the glare. His body began to feel as though it were dissolving, as if every particle in his frame was going in a separate direction from the rest. All senses had shut down. There was nothing but nothingness itself.
Oh yes, and the second thing.
There was no graveyard shift.
All there was where Kylie and Eduardo had stood, was empty air.