Chapter Text
After everything that occurred over the last few days, Luke was happy to just relax with the rest of the band in their garage. Julie was playing a gentle tune on her piano, Alex looked deep in thought (probably thinking about Willie), and Reggie was lounging on the couch strumming randomly on his guitar, possibly trying to duet with Julie.
If so, it wasn’t working.
Even though the whole ordeal with Caleb was technically over, Luke couldn’t shake this feeling that he would try to come after them again. After all, he was an extremely powerful ghost and magician who was obviously used to getting his own way. Luke stared at his wrist, relieved beyond imagination that it no longer bore that purple mark. His body sometimes tensed at random, anticipating a jolt at any moment, staying that way until he reminded himself that it wasn’t going to happen anymore. None of them had any clue why hugging Julie had removed the stamps but at the time they’d all been far too relieved to care.
A sudden knock on the garage doors shattered the tranquillity inside. Julie and Reggie’s playing ceased and she frowned. Luke understood her scepticism; no-one ever knocked before entering the garage. Besides, her family were all away and Flynn was sick at home. There wasn’t anyone else he could think of who would want to visit them. Instinctively, Luke got up from the armchair and stood in between the door and his family. He knew if it was a lifer that his presence wouldn’t make a difference but it made him feel better
“Hello?” Julie called out, her chair scraping as she stood up. “You can come in.”
A moment passed by before Willie phased through the door and everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief.
“Willie!” Alex yelled, leaping up from his chair. He practically threw himself at the other ghost, the pair entangled in a tight hug.
“Didn’t think you missed me this much Hotdog.” Willie chuckled, his eyes twinkling with mischief and delight.
Luke and Reggie exchanged a knowing glance, both of them grinning stupidly at the sight. They knew how much Alex had suffered from his homophobic parents’ rejection of his sexuality, so seeing him openly act like this was cathartic.
Julie appeared by his side and nudged him (he was still adjusting to the fact that she could touch them now). “So this is the famous Willie?”
Luke briefly didn’t reply, too stunned by how beautiful Julie looked, the morning sun illuminating her as if she were an angel.
Clearing his throat, Luke quickly answered her. “Uh, yeah, that’s him.”
“Is Alex okay with the nickname?” Julie asked.
“Yeah, he told us he finds it sweet.” Luke replied.
Julie shot him an incredulous look. “But…you know what, never mind.”
Luke grinned. He loved how considerate she was, thinking that Alex would hate the constant (and frankly embarrassing) reminder of how they’d died. He’d assumed that too until a stammering Alex admitted to finding it endearing.
“So, I’m assuming that you are the famous Julie Molina?” Willie seemingly materialised in front of the pair.
“Yep. I take it you’re Willie,” he nodded and Julie smiled brightly. “Alex has told me a lot about you.”
“Oh really,” Willie cast a look at Alex, who promptly stared at his feet. “Nothing too scathing I hope.”
“Nah, mostly just about how helpful you were. Thanks, by the way, for getting us on the list for the Orpheum.”
Whatever tension Willie had been clinging to melted away and his frame relaxed. Luke guessed he would’ve been nervous because of the whole Caleb ordeal. He knew from Alex that Willie had blamed himself for what had happened, and although Luke initially wanted to blame him too he knew the only person that he truly held responsible was Caleb himself. Besides, Willie had been trying to help them that night.
“So what brings you over here?” Reggie asked. “Want a preview of the next show?”
“Unless, you’re just here for Alex.” Julie grinned mischievously.
Willie stuttered for a minute. “Uh, mostly for him yeah, but I also wanted to tell you guys that I might have found some answers for you.”
“Answers?” Luke queried.
“About why you three can suddenly touch Julie.”
“Really?” Alex stood next to him, his eyes wide.
“What have you found?” A stream of questions flowed from Reggie’s mouth. “Is it somewhere nearby?”
“Not really,” Willie sheepishly replied. “Caleb always keeps track of powerful ghosts in the world, in case any ever came after him or if they grew weak enough for him to make a deal and own their souls, like what he tried to do with you guys. Two of these ghosts I heard him complain about a lot are apparently extremely gifted in the art of the arcane. They’ve been running a detective agency for over thirty years and rumours say that one of them escaped Hell for the second time recently.”
The entire room froze at the final sentence.
“H-Hell? Hell is real?” Julie whispered. She sounded terrified; Luke subtly held her hand and some of the fear leaked away when she grasped his hand back.
Solemn, Willie nodded.
“If he escaped Hell, doesn’t that make him a bad person?” Reggie dared to speak the question on all of their minds.
Willie shook his head. “According to Caleb, he was only there on a technicality.”
“A technicality?” Alex frowned and they all shared the same confused expression.
“Yeah, I don’t know the details around it, but I do know that they’re good at their job. Best in the business.”
“How come Caleb never used his stamp on them?” Julie asked.
“Those two boys are protected by Death herself," Willie chuckled at their faces. "Yes, Death is also a being. Moreover, they’re in London. Too far out of his territory to risk it.”
“London?!” Julie exclaimed. “How are we supposed to get to London?”
Willie pursed his lips. “You can’t, not without some form of transportation, and it’s definitely too far to poof over there. Thankfully, mirror travel exists.”
“Wait, what?” Reggie’s eyes expanded so wide Luke was surprised they didn’t pop out of his face. “That’s a thing?”
“Yeah,” Willie twisted around, taking in all of their surprised faces. “You guys really don’t know about that? Didn’t you die in like the 90s?”
“Technically we’ve only been ghosting for a few months, since Julie summoned us.” Luke explained, a part of him feeling self-conscious about their ghost inexperience.
“Fair enough. I can show you what to do if you want,” Willie offered.
“Could you take us there right now?” Luke requested.
“Woah, woah. You guys are just gonna pop through a mirror, go to England and hire some agency we’ve never heard of until now?” Julie summarised.
The boys and Luke locked eyes and he saw the same resolve in them. They wanted answers about what had happened and maybe they could find out more about how to get Willie his soul back.
“Yep.” Luke turned back to her, hoping she would at least consider it.
To his complete surprise, Julie shrugged. “Okay. Just, promise me you’ll be safe.”
“We will.” Luke promised before giving her one of his charming smiles, making her beam back at him.
Willie cleared his throat. “You guys need some space or do you wanna go to London Luke?”
If he was still alive, Luke was certain his face would be identical to a tomato, or at least the pink that coloured Julie’s face.
“Do you guys have like a full size mirror anywhere?” Willie asked.
“Uh, no, I don’t think so.” Julie answered. “Does it have to be a large one?”
“Makes mirror travel a lot easier,” Willie explained. “Should be easy enough to find in a shop. Let’s go.”
“Hold up.” Reggie intercepted.
The three boys ran over and hugged Julie, very reminiscent of their hug after their stamps were removed.
“I mean it, be careful. No stupid reckless actions.” Julie’s muffled voice demanded.
Luke couldn’t help tightening his grip after hearing her words. She’d been so sure that she was going to lose them because of the stamps; now that she had them back she didn’t want to lose them again.
“We promise.” Alex agreed.
The hug broke apart and Luke lifted his hand in a final goodbye before they poofed away. They reappeared in one of the busy LA streets, people crowding every inch of pavement, barging past people and through the dead teens.
“Over here!” Willie beckoned them over to a shop filled to the brim with mirrors. He pressed one of his hands to the mirror’s surface and it rippled, like a lake when a stone was chucked into it. “Okay, all you have to do is concentrate on the place you want to go. Mirror travel has its own challenges, so don’t let your mind stray whilst you’re inside. Got it?”
Exchanging a look with Reggie and Alex, Luke nodded, trying to tame the twinge of fear that had taken root in his non-existent stomach. What if these detectives refused to help them? What if the one from Hell sent them down there? Or, what there was no detective agency and it was just a trap?
No, he couldn’t think like that. Willie wouldn’t willingly put them, well not Alex, in danger.
Taking Reggie and Willie’s hands and praying to any deity that was listening for luck, Luke followed him into the mirror.
The sensation was strange, but not entirely unpleasant, and before he knew it, the experience was over.
They weren’t in Los Angeles anymore.
The mirror they had emerged from was in a vastly different location to the one they’d entered through. Instead of a shop full of mirrors, they were in an alleyway that smelled worse than Reggie’s unwashed clothes back when they were alive. Dropping Willie’s hand, Luke focused on making sure his friends made it through. Reggie popped through soon after and, with an encouraging tug, Alex emerged from the mirror’s surface, his eyes tightly closed.
“Well, that wasn’t really what I was expecting.”
Willie laughed. “That went quite well for your first time. Now, the agency’s office is on the top floor of this building,” he gestured to the red-brick building on their left. “Good luck!”
“Wait, you’re not coming with us?” Alex questioned.
Willie’s normally happy expression dimmed. “Sorry Alex, but I can’t risk Caleb finding out I communicated with them. I don’t want more dead boys to get in trouble because of me.”
“We weren’t in trouble because of you,” Alex reminded him. “See you when we get back.”
His smile returned in full force and the two lovebirds hugged before Willie waltzed back through the mirror, leaving the three of them in the back alley.
“Ready boys?” Luke checked, wanting to make sure they were both certain before they went through with this.
“Yep.”
“Let’s do it.”
~
The top floor was surprisingly quiet and dark in comparison to Luke’s expectations. The décor left something to be desired, it being mostly dark wood and old fashioned lights. At the end of the corridor was a door with the words Dead Boy Detective Agency on the window.
At least they knew they were in the right place.
The three of them stood at the threshold, none of them daring to knock. They had no clue what awaited them on the other side of that door. Taking a deep breath, Luke finally banged his hand on the wooden frame.
Muffled whispers wafted through the door, sounding argumentative. A few seconds later, footsteps were heard and the door opened, revealing a young Asian white haired girl with a bright smile and braids.
“Hello. Can we help you?”
“Uh,” Unsure, Luke desperately glanced at Reggie and Alex, but they were both just as clueless about what to say. “Is this the Dead Boy Detective Agency?”
“Yep. Come on in!”
“Niko, who is it?”
The girl, presumably Niko, annoyingly kept the door slightly ajar. “Clients.”
“Oh God, didn’t we just finish the rush?”
“Clearly you finished being polite.”
“Shut the fuck up Edwin!”
“Guys, be civil! Show them in Niko.”
Nodding to her colleagues, Niko beamed at the boys and opened the door fully. Whatever imaginings Luke had had about their office was immediately thrown out of the window. The wood-panelled room was filled with items in some form of system. Most of the shelves were heaving with old, thick leather-bound books in various colours. One of the walls held their case files, with some marked open and scores marked closed. Luke felt far more reassured at the agency's abilities upon seeing how many successful cases they had. The closet held an absurdly large collection of Cluedo and a few other board games, like Monopoly. At the back was a large desk that was perfectly organised and gathered around it was the rest of the agency. A pale white boy in Edwardian clothes sat on the chair behind the desk, currently bickering with a pretty black girl who dressed similarly to Julie. The fourth member, an Indian boy, was sitting on the desk fondly rolling his eyes at the pair of them. After smiling at the boys, Niko sat down on a chair next to the desk.
“Alright, enough guys. You can keep arguing over nonsensical stuff afterwards.”
The Edwardian straightened his coat. “Quite right Charles.”
His attention focused on the trio and Luke felt nervous under his stare.
“Welcome to the Dead Boy Detective Agency. My name is Edwin Payne, this is Charles Rowland, our psychic Crystal Palace, and Niko Sasaki. How may we help you?”
Luke felt Alex subtly push him forwards, earning him a glare.
“Um, hi. I’m Luke, this is Alex and Reggie. We, uh, need your help to understand something.”
Edwin frowned. “You came here because you don’t know something? That is not the service we provide.”
“Oi, bedside manner Edwin.” Charles gently chastised him.
Edwin sighed heavily. “Explain it then.”
“This ghost called Caleb Covington put this stamp on our wrists after we visited his club. The stamps would hurt us at random, gradually getting worse. The choice was either play at Caleb’s club for eternity or be destroyed.”
“Doesn’t sound like a hard decision.” Crystal joked.
“Yeah, but we’re already in a band, with a lifer named Julie. When we play with her, people can see us. It was an easy choice, just not the one without consequences. Anyway, when we hugged Julie the stamps just vanished.”
“Hold up, you call the living ‘lifers’?” Charles asked.
“Yep.” Reggie replied.
“Why don’t you just call them the living?” Charles’ expression changed from cheery to confused.
Luke shrugged. “I think it’s a cool nickname.”
“Getting back to why you’re here,” Edwin frowned slightly. “You want us to figure out why a powerful ghost’s stamps magically disappeared? That’s all?”
Looking back on it, Luke realised that an esteemed detective agency that was protected by Death probably wouldn’t consider their case to be something worthy of their time.
“Well, when you put it like that it doesn’t sound important, but what if happened again or to someone else? It would be nice to finally have some answers just in case.”
Edwin hummed and the four members shared a look, as if communicating without words.
“What else can you tell us about this Mr Covington?” Edwin queried, opening his notebook.
Hope flickered to life in Luke’s chest, but before he could start explaining Reggie started rambling.
“He owns this club in LA that is super fancy and he tried to get us to play in his house band but we didn’t want to because we’re already in a band with Julie, who can see us for some reason, we have no idea why, and ever since we hugged we can touch her now, which is super weird but also really nice because she is a really good hugger-“
“Reggie, dude, he asked about Caleb, not Julie.” Alex scolded him.
“Actually, all information is crucial for a case,” Edwin sat up straighter in his chair. “He said that this girl can see you and has been able to touch you since the stamps were removed.”
“Is she a psychic?” Crystal asked.
“What’s a psychic?" Alex rebutted.
“A psychic is someone who can talk to and see ghosts. I also have some ancient powers courtesy of the women in my family.”
“That is awesome!” Reggie shouted, startling the whole agency.
“Yeah Reggie, it is awesome.” Crystal smiled widely, staring pointedly at Edwin.
He sighed heavily. “Can we please focus on the facts of the case? Is there anything else about Caleb that you can tell us?”
“Oh right. He can sometimes make ghosts visible to lifers, he can do some really powerful spells and is super cunning and smart.”
“He also owns the souls of everyone at his club.” Alex added.
The atmosphere of the room immediately shifted from comfortable to tense. Edwin’s face dropped to an expression akin to fear and the rest of the agency were not-so-subtly glancing at him. Luke also saw Charles gently hold one of Edwin’s hands.
Clearing his throat, Charles addressed the trio. “Just so we’ve got this right. You’re up against a ghost who is strong enough to own multiple soul contracts and you want us to help you?”
“Soul contracts?” Luke questioned.
“Soul contracts are when an entity takes someone’s soul in exchange for something, like the being working for them. It’s like a really fucked up currency.” Charles gritted his teeth as he talked.
“Uh, just out of curiosity, can these soul contracts be broken?” Alex piped up.
Luke knew he was asking if he could free Willie from Caleb.
Charles seemed to pick up some of what Alex was putting down. “You want to free someone from Caleb’s control.”
Alex nodded.
“The only way this kind of contract can be broken is if the owner decrees it.” Edwin’s voice was considerably shakier than when he had last spoken. “There’s no other option, no loophole, nothing.”
“Guessing you have experience with this kind of thing.” Luke said, hoping he sounded as considerate as he had in his head.
Edwin gave a small nod in reply. He took a deep breath and steeled himself.
“We shall take your case.”