who you gonna call

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

The next morning, Alina woke up with the nightmare she'd had last night a fuzzy memory. Sometime during the night, Will had left, and she was therefore alone. But she was safe, and she was alive, and so with newfound determination, Alina threw off her covers. She was going to have a damn good Halloween, and she didn't care what anyone said or did. It was going to happen.

She got dressed, changing into normal clothes and packing her costume into her bag. It was quite simple, a black turtleneck and leggings with felt bones sewed onto them, but she'd worked on it for ages, and had even consulted Mr. Clarke in order to make it anatomically accurate. She'd also bought skeleton gloves from the Halloween store with some of her excess change to complete the look. She stared at the costume now, thinking that maybe she could go into being a doctor when she got older, but then she remembered all of the blood that would come with it and shot that idea down.

After packing black and white face paint in case she wanted to paint her face at school, Alina slung her bag over her shoulder and headed into the kitchen. Joyce and Jonathan were already there, and the smell of eggs met her nostrils. They had eggs quite a lot for breakfast, but Alina didn't mind. She was opening the cabinet to get cat food out for Skywalker when Jonathan finally turned to look at her.

"What happened to your costume?" he asked her, confused. "I thought you were going to go as a skeleton."

"I am," said Alina, standing on her tiptoes to reach Skywalker's cat food, the cat in question curled up on his bed, meowing. She pulled his breakfast out of the cabinet. "I knew you were going to want to take pictures, but I'd prefer it if you did it after school. Also, it's grade eight now. I don't know if anyone's going to wear a costume to school. But if I go and everyone is, I'll change. If not, I'll stay as it is."

"That's smart thinking, honey," smiled Joyce, pouring a glass of orange juice. "Hey, I'll be right back. I'm going to go wake Will up." And with that, she set the orange juice down on the counter and strode off to find Alina's friend. Alina heard her calling down the hall for him. "Will! Come on, honey, up and at 'em."

The toast Jonathan was making popped, and Alina shook out some food for Skywalker and poured him milk before snagging a piece. Joyce continued to call Will's name before coming back down the hallway to meet them. "Jonathan? Alina?"

"Yeah?" holding a piece of toast in his hand while trying to scoop eggs onto it, Jonathan turned, confused, towards his mother.

"Where's Will?"

"What?"

"Where's Will?" Joyce repeated, trembling a little. Alina had been told that it was on a morning just like this that Will had disappeared, and she couldn't help but feel a little nervous, even though she knew it most likely was nothing.

"He's not in your room?" Jonathan asked her, and Alina shook her head. She hadn't seen him when she woke up this morning. Again, the nervousness hit, and she remembered the part in her dream where Will really had gone missing.

"Uh..." Joyce went to the bathroom door, throwing it open. "Will?" then, after a moment, there was a pause, and Alina figured she'd found him. "What are you doing?"

After a second, Will's awkward voice wafted out of the bathroom. "Peeing?"

Joyce shut the door and turned back to them. "He's in the bathroom."

Alina sat down at the table with her eggs and toast, and Joyce went off to her room to get something. Digging her fork into her breakfast, Alina commented to Jonathan, "I think her nervousness is getting to me. For a second there I was worried, too."

Jonathan loaded his own plate with food and sat next to her. "She's still so anxious about him. She doesn't want him to go missing again."

"I know," said Alina through a mouthful of eggs. "But Will said last night that he's getting uncomfortable with all of this hovering." She swallowed. "I would too."

Jonathan sighed. "I'll talk to her," he said, brushing some cat fur off his pants. After having a dog, Alina figured that living with a cat was a strange adjustment.

Alina nodded, and the rest of breakfast passed without comment. After Alina and Jonathan had stacked their plates in the sink, Alina went to the bathroom, brushing her teeth, and, at the last minute, twisted her hair into two buns on the sides of her head. She smiled at her reflection, making finger guns in the mirror, and then headed back out to grab her lunch, where she found Will, looking fresh in his Ghostbuster uniform—homemade. He was going as Egon.

At Will's raised eyebrows, Alina smiled. "Don't worry. I'm still gonna go with you. I just didn't change right now to avoid—"

"Will! Come on, let me take your picture!" Jonathan's voice rang out across the hall, and both of them turned, Will grimacing.

"That," Alina finished. She patted Will's proton pack. "Good luck out there, soldier."

"Oh, be quiet," grumbled Will, before heading down the hall to take pictures. As much as he complained, though, Alina knew he was enjoying himself as he held up his blaster, Joyce clapping excitedly as she watched him pose. Eventually, he pulled Alina in there regardless, and she ended up laughing as Will mimed blasting her. The photos would turn out amazing, she knew, and so she didn't complain.

Finally, Alina waved goodbye to Will, Jonathan and Joyce and hopped on her bike to join her friends at their meeting spot. She found Dustin and Lucas there, but no Mike. He'd obviously also been suffering the wrath of his mom's camera, and she giggled.

Both Lucas and Dustin looked adorably nerdy, and Alina almost couldn't look at the former in his Venkman costume. "You guys are such dorks," she snorted, and Dustin's eyes lit up.

"I'm taking that as a compliment," he said. "But does that mean you aren't mad at us anymore?"

Alina exchanged a glance with Lucas. He obviously hadn't told Dustin about what they'd done last night. She was surprised, and a little embarrassed. But it was nice, in a way. Nice they'd had something to do on their own, even if it had ended abruptly. But in that glance, the two of them promised not to speak of it to anybody.

"I'm not mad," she said after a second. Then she smiled, and threw her arms around both of them. She couldn't help but love them. Both of them.

"I like your hair," Dustin said after she'd released them, and reached out one hand to touch her space buns. "You look like Princess Leia."

Soon enough, Mike came barreling down the road on his bike, his eyebrows raising when he noticed Alina without costume. She let out a laugh at his expression. "I didn't forget about Halloween, Wheeler. I'm just going to change at school, okay?"

"Got it." Mike nodded, and that was all it took for the four of them to set off. As their bikes traced the path to Hawkins Middle, Alina closed her eyes, satisfied, her nightmare from last night nothing more than an old memory. No more blood, no more shadows and lightning and red skies. Just her and her legs burning as she pedaled, the hums of the Ghostbusters theme song—sung by Dustin, Lucas and Mike—in her ears.

As they pulled up to school, Alina was feeling significantly better, and she even joined in on singing. "Who you gonna call?"

"Ghostbusters!" the four turned to find Will with a huge grin on his face.

"Egon!" Lucas chirped, running towards his friend and pulling him into a hug.

"Venkman!"

"Whoa, whoa." Mike raised a hand, stopping Lucas in his tracks. With a furrowed brow, he looked at the label on his uniform.

"What?"

"Why are you Venkman?" Mike asked.

Lucas raised his eyebrows, and Alina moved to stand beside him. "Because I'm Venkman," he answered, shrugging, confused on what he meant.

"No, I'm Venkman."

"Why can't there just be two Venkmans?" Will piped up, trying to resolve the conflict before it escalated. During the past couple of months, Mike had been unnaturally grumpy. Not only did he constantly get in trouble in class now, but he also constantly snapped at his friends for no reason. Everyone except Will, of course. Even Mike knew that Will needed a break after what he'd gone through last year.

"Because there's only one Venkman in real life!" Mike's voice was getting higher and faster, and his face was beginning to turn red from frustration. "We planned this months ago! I'm Venkman, Dustin's Stantz, you're Egon and you're Winston." He gestured to Lucas, whose smile had faded.

"I specifically didn't agree to Winston," he said calmly.

"Yes, you did!"

"I don't think he did," said Will. Alina thought back to the day they'd all decided on their costumes for Halloween. She remembered Mike suggesting that Lucas be Winston and Lucas immediately shooting him down.

"He didn't," she piped up, cracking open a bottle of water and taking a couple of long sips. She was getting overly hot again.

"No one wants to be Winston, man," Lucas snapped in annoyance, and Dustin shook his head in agreement, pursing his lips.

"What's wrong with Winston?" Mike asked, and Alina immediately scoffed. Mike knew full well what was wrong with Winston. He just was trying to make him seem better than he really was so Lucas would change his stupid label.

"What's wrong with Winston?" Lucas repeated incredulously. "He joined the team super late, he's not funny, and he's not even a scientist!"

"Yeah," said Mike, "but he's still cool."

"No, he's not," said Alina, taking another sip of water. "Stop lying, Mike."

Mike shot her a glare, and Dustin chuckled. Lucas just smirked at him. "If you think he's so cool, then you be Winston."

Mike blinked, out of arguments. Lucas had really gotten him there. He sputtered "I can't!"

"Why not?"

Mike blinked again, glancing around as he tried to come up with an excuse. "B-because..." he didn't get too far in his bogus argument before Lucas was cutting him off.

"B-b-b-because you're not black?" Lucas snapped, crossing his arms.

"I didn't say that!"

"You thought it!"

"Mike," Alina began calmly. "Nobody's going to notice if there are two Venkmans. Both of you can just keep the costumes and everything we'll be fine." She screwed the top of her water bottle back on. "And I can tell you were thinking of that. But a white person can dress up as a black character—as long as they're not racist about it—and a black person can dress up as a white character. So if you really do think Winston's so cool, there's nothing stopping you from dressing up as him."

At that, she stowed her water bottle back in her bag and high-fived both Lucas and Mike.

"Guys!" Dustin called, and the four of them whipped around. Dustin was staring at a school bus, where numerous amounts of kids spilled out of it, clutching their books and backpacks. All of them were dressed completely ordinarily, none of them in costume.

Alina turned around. None of the kids streaming into the school were dressed up either, and she had a sinking feeling that absolutely no one in the entire school had as well. Will, Dustin, Mike and Lucas in their Ghostbusters costumes stuck out like sore thumbs. It was exactly what Alina had been afraid of, and why she had packed a change of clothes.

"Why is no one else wearing costumes?" Dustin asked, gazing around the schoolyard.

The school bell rang, and Lucas looked around frantically, hoping that at least one other person had dressed up for Halloween. Seeing nobody, he turned back to his friends, his mood soured as he uttered one word.

"Crap."

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

a/n: and alina is back! as of right now, i am officially off writing hiatus! woohoo! anyway, i'm so glad to be back, and i'm super excited to continue on with mad'ouk, especially as we get into the later chapters. everything's been pretty normal so far, at least for stranger things standards.

anyway, as usual, if you liked it, remember to vote and comment! i love you all! <3

'till next time!