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"You sure it's in there?"
The PKE meter gave a high whine, bathing Kylie's face in an electric green light. She raised her eyes to meet Eduardo's. "Oh, it's there."
The four Ghostbusters spread out and carefully surrounded their target, throwers pulled and ready. In the center of their half-circle stood a festive green tree, trimmed with silver strands and layers of multicolored baubles.
A deep voice cleared his throat behind them. "Uh, is this safe?" A tall, broad-shouldered man with a red-gold beard stood at the entrance to the living room, looking at the scene with tight-lipped worry. The rest of the room's decor matched the tree, delicate silver garlands and small, colored glass decorations draped tastefully on every surface. A cheerful fire crackled in the fireplace.
"Sir, it would be better if you waited outside the home with the rest of your family," Roland told him. His face was deadly serious, despite the red-and-white Santa hat he was wearing. (Janine insisted that the clients always loved it.)
The man hesitated, but suddenly the tree shook and a frenzied growling came from within the branches. An angry red glow lit up deep within the tree, much brighter than any of the small white Christmas lights on the tree. As this was what had instigated a late-night call on Christmas Eve to the Ghostbusters to begin with, the man backed out of the room without further comment. After that, the sound of running feet and the front door opening and closing could be heard.
"Okay!" Garrett announced, as soon as the man was gone. He charged up his thrower, thrilled as always by the excited hum of the equipment. He too was wearing a Santa hat. (Kylie and Eduardo had flat out refused.) He aimed at the tree. "Let's just shoot this thing and get gone, I've got better things to do on Christmas Eve than deal with demonic evergreens!"
Kylie snapped at him, "Don't! Christmas trees are notoriously underwatered. If we torch it, this whole place could go up."
Suddenly a shriek like shattering glass split the air. The tree shook harder, sending ornaments flying and smashing on the hardwood floor. And something exploded from the boughs.
It was furry, glowing red, and the size of a bulldog. It landed on Eduardo's face.
The lanky teen was thrown to the ground with a startled scream as his teammates watched in shock. The creature didn't stick around. It launched itself from Eduardo to the fireplace mantle, where it raced along the top, knocking down everything that had been displayed there and dropping Christmas stockings alarmingly close to the blaze underneath. It leaped over a proton stream fired by Garrett, grabbed the chandelier hanging from the center of the ceiling, then swung itself right over the tree to the other side of the room, where a large bay window showed the snowy nighttime scene outside. It hit the window at such a velocity that the entire pane of glass shattered. The white flakes of snow swirled in the wind as a cold breeze blew into the room, and the shrieking beast was swallowed up by the night in an instant.
"What the heck was that!?" Eduardo yelped, sitting up and patting his face as if to ensure that it was still in one piece. "Cujo's little brother?"
"Christmas toy that needs a factory reset?" Garrett shrugged.
"Pagan deity angry about the commercialization of Christmas?" Roland guessed.
Kylie peered at her PKE meter, analyzing the readings. "Possessed squirrel," she reported. She sighed and eyed the broken window. "It's gonna be a long night."