Kylie Griffin greeted the rising sun with a smile and a quick chant. She laid an offering of a few drops of juice and bit of a croissant from her breakfast in the libation bowl on her windowsill. Then she quickly scarfed the rest as she got ready for classes.
Her fellow Ghostbusters didn't know about her little morning ritual, or any of the other rituals she did, to greet the moon, to ask the Goddess for protection, to contact her late Grandmother Rose, among other things. They didn't know she was a Wiccan priestess.
If there were any people in the world that she could tell, it would be the Ghostbusters... well, except maybe for Eduardo, he'd tease her for sure... but she just couldn't admit what she was to anyone, not even herself, really. So many Wiccans, or Witches, or Neo-Pagans, or whatever you wanted to call her ilk, were soooooo flaky, they really didn't have a clue what the paranormal world was really like, much less the real one! She didn't want to be associated with the trendy "crafty" masses. What was said and done in her spellwork was between her and the gods, and needed no label.
Still, sometimes she wondered what it would be like to be in a Circle, a group ritual, with others like her. She was often lonely, even when with her friends. And some rituals were a lot easier when you had help! But then she remembered why she felt so lonely-- she had yet to meet someone who saw the world quite like she did.
Egon came close, but he had such a scientific view of magic! There was no real spirituality in his spiritual studies. The others, while they believed in ghosts (and through them, magic), were not interested in them for any reason other than catching them. Roland wanted to build a bigger and better ghost-trap. Garrett wanted adventure. Eduardo ... wanted to spend his life aggravating her, even if it meant catching ghosts to do it. At least, it was the only reason she could figure for him to be a Ghostbuster.
She and the others often teased him about his lack of effort, and called him a coward. Still, she had to admit that the truth of the matter was that they came across some things that made them ALL scared, and he always stood by them. He was often even the first to leap into danger! When they'd all first met, he claimed that he had signed up for Dr. Spengler's class to get an "easy A". Well it certainly hadn't turned out to be one! Yet he was still there with them, hadn't quit ...
Though she would never admit it, she was really glad he had stayed. Sure he teased her, and was an arrogant jerk a lot of the time, but when he wasn't, he was really sweet, even kinda cute... She wondered if it was true that a boy teased you when he really liked you ...
Ahh, but he wasn't her type. Her feelings for him were another thing she couldn't admit to herself.
"Why can't I meet a nice boy, Pagan, someone more like me?"
The sun shone on a plaque on the wall, near her door. She failed to notice it as she tried to keep her cat Pagan from following her out the door.
Be Careful What You Wish For -- You Just Might Get It!
Kylie held her hands clasped in front of her, like a cute little anime-style girl, her eyes shining with tears.
Eduardo looked first at the blond bombshell to his left, then to the brunette one on his right. "Sorry, girls." He removed his arms from around each of them and stepped forward.
He took Kylie's hand in one of his and wiped away the tears from her cheek with the other. You could see his muscles rippling, even with such a simple gesture.
"Kylie... You're the only girl for me..."
"Oh, Eduardo..."
He leaned in to kiss her. He closed his eyes, and felt his lips meet her scaly ones.
Scaly ones?
He opened his eyes. And screamed.
"What's the matter, loverboy?" came Kylie's sultry voice from a 5-foot tall lizard-like ghost with horns and worms for hair.
Eduardo screamed again, and opened his eyes for real this time, only to be confronted with another shock. His alarm clock read 9:10. He was already 10 minutes late for class.
He screamed a third time and scrambled out the door. It was almost a good thing that he'd been so tired from studying all day and ghostbusting half the night that he had fallen asleep in his clothes, so he was already dressed. And the ghost they'd chased had been some sort of water elemental, so he didn't need a shower either. Still, if he hadn't been hunting it in the first place, he wouldn't have overslept and would have had time to shower.
If he didn't spend the night playing videogames instead, that is...
Even though he'd overslept, Eduardo wished he could get just a bit more sleep. What with school, ghostbusting, and the nightmares, he wasn't getting a whole lot of actual rest. And rest was what he needed most, as Garrett was fond of teasing him. With the things daily life threw his way, though, even if he had had time to sleep more, it probably wouldn't have done him any good.
Ever since they'd battled Morpheus, Eduardo'd been having nightmares, bad dreams similar to the one he'd had under its influence. They were always of Kylie. At first she seemed to like him, love him, want him. And then she changed. She would suddenly start laughing at him, mocking him. Or, such as in the one he'd just had, she'd turn into a ghost, usually the latest one they'd busted. Which made sense. His waking world seemed to consist of nothing but ghostbusting and her.
At least this time I didn't wake up bald, he thought to himself, trying to laugh it off.
But the root of the problem remained a dark cloud, looming over and around him. He had no goals, no ambitions. He thought he'd finally found something in ghostbusting, but he wasn't even very good at that! Not the way the others were. He wasn't good at the technical side, like Roland, or the physical side, like Garrett (how embarrassing! Constantly outdone in the physical prowess department by a guy in a wheelchair!), or the knowledge aspect like Kylie and Egon. Even Janine, the SECRETARY, outdid him in THAT department! So what was he?
He knew what the others saw him as. A goofbal. Lazy. Stupid. A scrawny wimp. A coward. No wonder Kylie wouldn't have anything to do with him! What did he have to offer?
He was meeting the gang later for a study session. He dreaded these. Yet another opportunity to prove to them that he was even dumber than they thought. What's more, he just couldn't seem to keep his foot out of his mouth! Why couldn't he be nice to Kylie, when he liked her so much? Or to Roland and Garrett and even Egon? The longer he spent around Kylie, the ruder he seemed to get!
He resolved to keep his mouth shut this session...
Kylie Griffin watched his retreating form, and itched to try a spell she'd found in one of Egon's books. An it harm none, she reminded herself. She grabbed her own black bag, used the wall to pick herself up, dusted herself off, and made her way to class.
Someone else watched her leave, the silver tip of his cane glinting from the shadows. He smiled.
"So much easier to catch them when they're not running."