Chapter Text
Julie should’ve seen this coming. She should’ve known that saving her boys would make her a target to Caleb. That it would only be a matter of time until he made the next move...she just hadn’t thought he’d show up at her house.
“You must be Julie.”
She stiffened at the cool, unfamiliar drawl, spinning around.
The man, dressed entirely in black and wearing a top hat of all things, lounged on her bed with a Cheshire grin and crystal blue eyes that burned with something...inhuman. Something evil and Julie saw that he held the picture of her and Mom. A part of her wanted nothing more than to run downstairs, but she met that stare full-on, and spoke with a venom she hadn’t thought herself capable of, “Go to hell, Caleb”
He threw his head back and laughed, “Did your mother not teach you manners?”
Her heart gave a painful twinge and Julie knew exactly what he’d hoped to gain with his words and she actually smiled back, “You didn’t know my mother at all, Caleb. She’d tell you exactly the same thing.”
Probably with some colorful Spanish thrown in.
“I suppose not.” Caleb’s expression didn’t change, sliding off the bed and setting the picture back on the bedside table, taking one step toward her, then another, eyeing her like some jungle cat stalking its prey, “I guess it doesn’t really matter now, though, what you want.”
“I’m not a ghost.” she narrowed her eyes, “You can’t make me do anything.”
He chuckled, a cold, bone-chilling sound, “But I can.”
Then he lunged.
And Julie saw nothing but black.
…
Luke poofed into the studio, confused when Julie was nowhere to be seen, “Julie?”
He looked around, seeing no sign that she’d even been in the studio: the lights were turned off, her backpack wasn’t by the couch, the lid to the piano was still shut... He tried to remember if there’d been some school thing or family emergency, but he knew she would’ve told him if anything of the sort was going on.
He moved into the house, finding nothing in the kitchen, and hurriedly phased through the wall when he heard the T.V. in the living room along with Reggie and Carlos’s voices. While he normally wouldn’t intrude on the bassist’s bonding time, the worry gnawing at his stomach took immediate precedence. “Reggie?”
“Luke!” His exuberant smile faltered, “What’s wrong?”
“Have you seen Julie?”
“She’s not in the studio?”
Luke shook his head.
“But I thought you guys had a songwriting session today?”
He ran a hand down his face, “She hasn’t been to the studio at all. Has Carlos…?”
Reggie frowned, “No. If something was going on then I’m sure he’d notice...”
Both boys looked up when the front door opened, Ray carrying groceries while talking in rapid Spanish to a person on the other end (probably Victoria), but Luke saw nothing in the man’s face that spoke of concern for his family.
“Do you know what he’s saying?”
Luke shot a look at Reggie, “What makes you think I speak Spanish?”
“You took it in high school, didn’t you?”
He let out a long breath, “You are aware I barely passed it, right?”
Reggie’s mouth snapped shut as Ray ended the call.
“Was that Tia?”
“Yeah,” he set the bags on the counter, “She’ll be here for dinner.”
“Cool.”
“Have you seen your sister, today?”
“She’s in her room.” Carlos pointed upstairs, not seeming nearly as worried as Luke felt, “Said she had a headache and wanted to be left alone. I offered to help, but she sounded so tired, so I just let her sleep.”
Luke and Reggie shared a look before popping into her room.
Her bedroom, like the studio, was dark and empty, her window wide open. The bedsheets were rumpled and her bag had been dropped on the floor by her desk, her jacket draped over the top of it, and Luke crouched down to open it.
“Julie wouldn’t want us to-”
“I don’t think she’ll mind this once.” He sifted through the contents: textbooks, notebooks, folders full of homework assignments, pencils, pens…and her phone? He pulled out the device, the screen immediately lighting up to reveal a slew of missed calls and texts from Flynn, only to drop it seconds later when it began to buzz in his hand.
He stared at it, then at Reggie, “I don’t-”
Reggie picked up the phone without hesitation and pressed the green circle and another button in quick succession, holding it up in his palm with a pleased smile, Flynn’s voice coming through loud and panicked.
“Julie? Julie, are you there?”
Reggie frowned down at the phone.
Luke groaned, “Seriously, you didn’t think about how we’re supposed to talk to her?”
“Julie!”
“I just thought-”
“Give it to me!” he held out a hand, “Now!”
Reggie handed it over.
“Julie, seriously, now is not the time-”
Luke withdrew his guitar pick from his pocket and tapped it on the bottom of the phone, relieved when Flynn stop yelling. He glanced up at Reggie, tapping out another series of beats, hoping the girl would figure it out.
“Luke?”
“Yes! Uh…” He tapped once.
“Is that a…one for yes, two for no?”
Tap.
“Is Julie there with you?”
Tap. Tap.
“She never leaves her phone. Okay, uh…” There was a muffled rustling on the other end, then a curse as she dropped her phone, “I’m on my way over right now. Can you and the boys meet me in the studio?”
Tap.
“Okay. I’ll be there in five minutes.”
Call ended.
He slipped the phone into his pocket, him and Reggie poofing back into the studio to find Alex and Willie waiting for them. Luke wasn’t sure what expression he and Reggie wore, but it clearly confirmed something to Willie and Alex because the drummer pulled away from them and began to pace.
Luke walked over to Willie, keeping one eye on Alex, “What’s wrong?”
“I haven’t seen Caleb for days.”
“Is that normal?”
Willie shook his head, “The man never misses a performance.”
A picture was beginning to form in Luke’s mind and he wasn’t liking it one bit. The thought of Caleb getting anywhere near Julie had his hands itching to hit something, “Has Caleb said anything about...trying to get us back or something? Or get back at Julie?”
“No, he...” Willie frowned, looking like he wanted nothing more than to take Alex into his arms and just hold him, hands curling and uncurling at his sides, “He doesn’t share his plans with me much anymore considering...”
“Could he hurt her?”
“Julie? Normally, I wouldn’t be sure, but now...” Willie sighed, weighing his words carefully as Reggie tried (and failed) to calm Alex, speaking low, “...possibly. You’re the first ghosts he’s ever lost and to a lifer no less? As powerful as Julie and you three are together, she’s still just a girl...and Caleb isn’t exactly known for considering age-”
Flynn came through the door.
Alex stopped his pacing, fingers still tapping nervously on his thighs.
She shut the door behind them, “Is everyone here?”
All four boys looked at each other before Luke popped up to the loft and searched for his notebook and pen while Reggie knocked on the top of the piano. Finding them, he came back down, setting his things on the bench, and only felt a little bad when she jumped.
We’re all here.
“Where all her?” She squinted at the words, brow furrowed, “That doesn’t...oh! We’re all here.” Flynn smiled for the barest of moments, “Wow, Luke, Julie was not kidding. Your handwriting sucks.”
Luke glared at Reggie as he snickered, handing the pencil to Alex without a word.
Did something happen at school?
She read the words, “No, everything was fine. Carrie was even...tolerable.”
Alex looked to the others, “Now what?”
“Have you guys seen her since she came home?”
“We didn’t see her but...” Reggie perked up, “Carlos said he went to check on her and she told him she had a headache and not to bother her. That would’ve been right when he got off the bus, which would’ve been three o’clock...maybe three-thirty?” He spun to face Luke, “Hey, what time does Julie get out of school?”
He stared at Reggie, “Uh...1:45, I think?”
“Which means she was alone for what...maybe an hour?”
Alex scribbled out something while they talked, Flynn mouthing the words silently as they were written. She pursed her lips, glancing back at the house. “But I'm guessing since you answered her phone, that she wasn’t still in her room?”
Luke shook his head, “Her window was open.”
Alex relayed the comment.
Flynn stared at the notebook, suddenly looking lost. “I need to tell Ray.”
The boys all exchanged a worried look, Alex writing out a quick we’ll start looking.
Flynn nodded before leaving the studio.
Alex was (unsurprisingly) the first to speak, “Where do we even start?”
Alex and Reggie and Willie’s voices faded into the background as Luke pulled out Julie’s phone, a sharp pain not unlike Caleb’s jolts hitting him where his heart would be when he saw the picture of Julie and Flynn with their arms wrapped around each other and their heads were thrown back in laughter. Double Trouble. That’s what Flynn had called them. They reminded Luke so much of Sunset Curve. Of Julie and the Phantoms. Parts of a whole. Incomplete without the other. Take one of them away and…
The screen darkened, revealing swollen, bloodshot eyes.
“Luke?”
He set the phone face-down on the coffee table and wiped at his face, “Yeah, sorry.”
Reggie came and sat next to him on the couch, squeezing his shoulder. “It’s okay.”
Alex joined him on his other side, Willie leaning against the armrest. “Yeah, seriously. It’s-”
Luke shoved himself off the couch, “No, it’s not! I shouldn’t…” his throat tightened, Luke tearing at his hair as he began to pace back and forth across the length of the studio, “Julie’s all alone right now, alone and scared and hell, she could already be-”
“No!” Alex jumped in front of Luke, stopping him short, “She’s not!”
“You think Caleb is going to show her mercy?!” He was dimly aware of his voice rising and part of him noted Reggie’s barely concealed flinch at the volume as well as the words and hated himself when he kept going. It was like that night all over again, him and Mom screaming at each other but never really listening... “He’d sooner get rid of her then-”
“Guys?”
Julie?
Everyone turned slowly to find said girl standing in the doorway.
Julie’s eyes were wide, her face streaked with tears
Luke moved forward, “Jules, you’re okay-”
Willie grabbed his arm. “Luke-”
“Dude, what are you doing? Julie’s…”
Willie hadn’t taken his eyes off the girl, “That’s not Julie.”
“What do you mean it’s not her? She’s right there…”
Julie sighed, drying her eyes, “Why do you always have the spoil my fun, William?”
Luke stumbled back at the iciness to Julie’s voice, her beautiful brown eyes were now flat and dark and void of any fondness or warmth. There was nothing of the girl he loved in that face and that smile, the one that never failed to knock the breath out of him, was replaced with something other…a twisted replica. A broken reflection. “No…”
She laughed, a cold, cruel sound, “Oh, Luke…”
“No…” his voice cracked, static filling his head and a high-pitched whine began in his ears, like the feedback that always occurred during sound checks, except there was no switch to flip or cord to unplug to make the damn noise stop. It just kept getting louder and louder and louder and God, he just wanted to scream, “No…”
“You loved her, didn’t you?”
“Shut up!”
“She loves you too, you know.” Caleb examined a curl between Julie’s fingers, her lips pulling downward into a scowl, “It’s exhausting, really. All the longing and the pining and the he’s dead and I’m alive and it can never happen and blah, blah, blah…”
“What do you want, Caleb?”
Alex’s voice was colder than Luke had ever heard it, but Caleb ignored him and the others, focused entirely on Luke with that wolfish smile as he strode forward and Luke hated how he nearly took a step back. He’d never been afraid of Julie…
But this wasn’t Julie…not really.
“I could fix that, you know. I could give you what you want.”
Reggie finally spoke, him and Alex flanking Luke, his tone shaking, not with fear, but repressed rage. “We’ve already told you before, Caleb, we don’t want what you’re offering! We never have and we never will.”
“Oh, Reggie...” Caleb shook her head, “I never said the offer was for all of you.”
Luke went to pull away when Caleb reached out her hands, as though to cup his face in a cruel echo of that night at the Orpheum, but her fingers dug into his jaw and his cheeks. He pried her hands away from his face, fingers curled around her wrists, “Don’t touch me!”
Caleb laughed, amused by his angry outburst, staring at the glow over his skin with a joyful fascination that looked so wrong on her face, twisting her wrists in his hold, “Be careful there, Luke. Wouldn't want to leave any bruises, now would we?”
He ripped himself away, stumbling back in horror, “Oh. God…”
“Quite fascinating,” Caleb rubbed her wrists and smiled, uncaring of Luke’s emotional upheaval as he absently examined the multitude of bracelets on her wrists. “I’ve never known of a lifer being able to interact with the dead before...”
Luke was on the verge of spiraling completely, his hands trembling and his breath shortening as he stared at the monster wearing Julie’s face, speaking in Julie’s voice...and it was only the grounding touch of Alex and Reggie, their voices murmuring in his ear that kept him from going off the rails.
“Get to the point.”
Caleb smiled at Willie, “I’m impressed, William, finally showing some backbone.”
Willie’s jaw clenched, “You want something, you always want something.”
Caleb cocked her head to the side, looking at Luke, “Or someone.”
Reggie and Alex squeezed his shoulders
“Now as I was saying, Luke, before you so rudely interrupted, is that I could fix this little...” he waved between the two of them with a flourish and a smile, “compatibility issue you and Julie have. Now, bringing someone back from the dead after twenty-five years is a little beyond me but I’m sure I could arrange something for Julie easily enough. It wouldn’t be too hard, really. There are so many options...”
Luke lunged, Reggie and Alex barely holding him back as he screamed, “Don’t touch her!”
“Oh, but I can. You see,” Caleb laughed, slowly spinning around, “I am her.”
Luke strained against his bandmates.
“What do you think, boys? Something quick and painless...” He walked just out of arm’s reach, head tilted back thoughtfully around the studio, “Fall from the loft, you think? Or maybe something a little more personal...” Caleb trailed off before snapping her fingers and turning to Willie, “A stroll across Sunset Boulevard, perhaps? What’s the speed limit there, William? Thirty-five, right?”
The skater went pale.
“Or maybe she'll follow in your footsteps...become another Hollywood Tragedy?” Caleb turned that too wide smile back on them, eyes glittering with malice, “I’ve heard food poisoning is an extremely painful way to die.”
Reggie shrunk back and Alex sucked in a sharp breath and Luke was positive he wasn’t the only one reliving flashes of the night they’d died: the indescribable agony that had torn through their stomachs, how it felt as though they were on fire, the bile that had burned their throats, how bright the blood had looked against their pale, sweat-slicked skin...
“Stop it!”
The boys snapped to attention as Julie fell to her knees, clutching her head and those two words were too raw, too full of pain, to be anything but genuine and she bowed forward, whimpering something too low for anyone to hear. But before any of them could make a move to help her, she went silent and still before growling.
“You little brat-”
Willie let out a surprised laugh, “She’s resisting him.”
Luke spun to face him, “What?”
“When he possesses a lifer, they sort of…take a back seat in their own body.”
Alex looked sick, “So, she knows what’s going on?”
“Yeah, all of it.” Willie frowned thoughtfully, “But she’s actually fighting back.”
Reggie perked up, “We need to help her then!”
“You…can’t…help…her.”
Luke didn’t flinch when Caleb twisted Julie’s features into an ugly scowl and glared at him. Now that he knew she was in there, that she could see and hear everything that was going on around her, he wasn’t going to react in the way Caleb wanted him to so he smiled. He smiled at Julie just like he always did, “We can. And we will.”
Caleb lurched forward as if to hit him, and Luke stepped back.
It hurt to watch her fall onto her hands and knees, but he knew it would hurt her more if Caleb used her body to harm him or Alex or Reggie. That is what he kept telling himself over and over, fighting the urge to take her hand, to help her back onto her feet…
Luke worried his lip, “Willie can you keep an eye on...Caleb?”
Willie frowned, but nodded, “Yeah, sure.”
Luke returned to Alex and Reggie, “You guys okay?”
Reggie couldn’t look over at Julie’s crumpled form, blue-green eyes haunted as he picked at the sleeves of his flannel, tears clinging to his lashes. He let out a shaky breath, though, and forced a smile that reminded Luke of every night he’d crashed in the studio to get away from his parent’s screaming. “Yeah...I’ll be fine.”
Alex wrung his hands, eyes darting back and forth from Willie to Julie to Reggie to Luke, mere moments from a panic attack. “How are we supposed to help her, Luke? How are we supposed to fight against Caleb when it nearly erased us before?”
“How did we break his hold over us?”
“Julie started singing, but...” realization dawned on Alex’s face, “Oh!”
“Oh?” Reggie repeated, “What oh?”
“Do you think that will actually work?”
Luke ran his right hand through his hair, rings snagging in the strands as he did so, fighting to keep his voice from rising in agitation. “I don’t know, man, but do you have any other brilliant ideas? Because I can’t think of anything else that could possibly work…”
Alex glanced at their instruments, “What song were you thinking of?”
“I was thinking...”
“Luke?”
Julie’s hoarse whisper had him spinning around and he hated how he stopped himself from getting too close, crouching down just out of arm’s reach. That same jolt-like pain hit him in the chest when she lifted her eyes to his, the brown depths hazy with pain and shining with tears, but he managed to keep his own eyes clear, “Jules?”
“I can’t...” she groaned, clutching at her stomach. “I’m trying to...”
“I know.” he managed a small smile, even as the sight of her curled into a tight ball of agony one that was all too reminiscent of the ambulance...“We’re gonna help you out, okay? You just gotta hang on a little bit longer.”
Julie nodded before crying out.
He made a move to reach out, forgetting why he was keeping his distance for a split second, but that moment was all it took for Caleb to regain control and grab his wrist. Luke clenched his jaw as nails dug into his skin and he absently wondered if ghosts could still bleed...
Caleb chuckled, “The clock is ticking, Luke.”
“Let go of me.” He spat, pulling at Caleb’s grip.
“She’s so weak...” He cocked her head to the side, “It’s only a matter of time before...”
Luke used his other hand, uncurling her fingers as carefully as he could, biting back the instinctual urge to scream at the man. Caleb would enjoy the outburst and Julie would be upset because he was upset and he didn’t want her to feel any worse than she already did. “You’re wrong, Caleb. She’s stronger than you think and we’re gonna prove it.”
Julie coughed, red flecks clinging to her lips.
Luke’s hands shook at the sight, his jaw clenched tightly.
“They’ve stopped breathing!”
“Begin compressions!”
He turned away, hands flexing at his sides.
Alex’s hand grabbed his bicep, stopping him in his tracks, “Luke, are you okay?”
He yanked his arm free, “We’re playing Bright.”
“Luke-”
“It doesn’t matter!” He snapped, once again seeing his bandmates flinch at his tone but not caring as much as he usually would’ve. His emotions were all over the place, swinging from grief to fear to anger to helplessness and back to anger. Always back to anger. “My feelings about this whole thing don’t matter, okay? Only she does. So, we’re doing Bright.”
Alex and Reggie shared a look, the former nodding. “Okay.”
Reggie hesitated at the keyboard; eyes sad as he placed his fingers on the keys.
Alex poofed behind his drums while Luke picked up his guitar.
“It won’t...work!” Caleb growled out, “You’re...nothing without her!”
Luke turned away from Caleb, motioning to Reggie to begin playing, not acknowledging the missed notes at the beginning as the coughing worsened, sounding much too close to retching for their liking. He shot his friend an encouraging smile.
Reggie returned the smile hesitantly, growing more confident as he began to sing, expression lightening “Sometimes I think I’m falling down. I wanna cry, I'm calling out. For one more try to feel alive.”
Luke joined, grinning at Caleb as he saw a flicker of something move behind those eyes, something fond and warm and so much like Julie. “And when I feel lost and alone, I know that I can make it home. Fight through the dark and find the spark...”
Reggie left the keyboard and picked up his bass, his voice blending with Luke’s as he joined him at the mic and shot a wink at Julie, smiling wide, “Life is a risk, but I will take it, close my eyes and jump...”
Alex’s voice came in last, “Together I think that we can make it. C’mon, let’s run...”
Luke could feel the energy pouring out of them as they hit the chorus and hoped that wherever Julie was trapped in her own head, that she was soaking the music in like she always did. That she would become so bright, it would burn Caleb away.
Caleb glared at him, lips pulled back from Julie’s teeth in a snarl of pain.
Luke didn’t want to acknowledge the changes he saw as the song began to wind down. But all he could see was the blood smeared across her mouth as the coughing got worse, the bruise-like shadows under her eyes, how her warm brown skin seemed to grow paler with every chord he struck, how she almost looked like she was dea…no.
No, he refused to associate that word with her.
She was a star. His star. Bright and beautiful and burning with a light that could put the sun and moon and all the constellations to shame, her smile and her laugh were the things all the great love songs and ballads were written about. She was so exuberant and bubbly and alive. So fucking alive.
Just the thought of her in that ambulance: skin cold, eyes empty, heartbeat silent…
He looked back at Alex and Reggie, once more struck with the memory of that night all over again. He’d been the last to go. He’d seen Reggie’s sparkling blue-green eyes go dim. He’d seen Alex’s body finally still…had felt their hands go slack in his and he couldn’t do that again.
He refused to do that again.
“Julie!”
Luke spun around at the fear in Reggie’s voice, to find Julie’s body shaking, an odd purple glow over her skin and he ran over without thinking. But Willie stopped him and it was only the fact that the skater was Alex’s boyfriend that he didn’t immediately shove him off, “Let me go!”
“You can’t touch her!”
Luke glared; jaw clenched tightly.
“That glow you see around her?” his grip didn’t relent, fingers digging into Luke’s arms, his normally smiling face stony and serious, “That is Caleb’s last stand. He is losing this battle against Julie but if you touch her, he will take your energy and use it against her.” Those dark eyes were heavy…haunted, “I’ve seen it. He’ll lash out and kill her. I don’t want to watch Julie die and I know you don’t either.”
“Then what the hell am I supposed to do?”
“Talk to her. Sing to her. Play for her. Anything.” Willie offered a small smile to Luke, then glanced over his shoulder at Alex and Reggie, dropping his hands from Luke’s arms, “I know it doesn’t seem like it, but you had the right idea before. She heard you all and she’s fighting back so…just keep doing what you were doing.”
Luke took a deep breath, the habit no longer necessary but impossible to shake, a smile on his face when he turned back to Alex and Reggie, both of them clearly concerned at the sudden change in him, which was understandable, considering the emotional whiplash he was currently putting them through. “You boys ready for an encore?”
Alex opened his mouth, then closed it, Reggie’s brow furrowed in confusion.
“Caleb is losing, but Julie still needs our help.” He bounced on the balls of his feet, itching to start playing again. “Willie said that she’s getting strength from us, from our performing. She’s pushing Caleb out.”
Alex still looked worried, “She doesn’t look good, man.”
Julie coughed and three of them winced.
“I know.” Luke’s voice cracked and he looked down when Reggie intertwined his fingers with his and squeezed, feeling the faint tremor the bassist was trying to hide. He swallowed thickly, tightening his grip in silent thanks, “But we gotta keep going. Like she did for us.”
Alex ran a hand through his hair, “Okay.”
Luke looked at Reggie. “You good?”
“M’fine.” Reggie forced a too-bright smile, “Really.”
They all stiffened when Caleb began to laugh, the sound having taken on an odd echoing quality, like more than one voice was coming from her mouth and Luke could’ve sworn his long-dead heart lurched at the sight of those beautiful brown eyes now glowing an eerie, unearthly violet, Caleb twisting Julie’s features into something condescending and cruel and knowing…
Luke turned away, tugging on Reggie’s hand. “C’mon boys.”
The beginning chords of Stand Tall hit Caleb hard, the recognition of the song that had pulled them from the Hollywood Ghost Club the first time enraging him, but any move he made to lunge forward at any of the boys seemed to literally hit a wall, body, and limbs straining against an invisible force.
Luke could see Julie’s fire blazing brighter with every line he belted out, with every beat of Alex’s drums, every strum of Reggie’s bass…the golden glow not unlike their own whenever she touched them spreading over her warm brown skin and with a final choked scream, a purplish-black smoke spilled from Julie’s mouth, consolidating into the form of a hunched over Caleb Covington.
The usually impeccably-dressed showman now appeared haggard; his suit rumpled, his slicked-back hair hanging limply in his face. He appeared drained of all color, pale and transparent, like what everyone usually thought of when they heard the word ghost. His eyes were the only thing that remained vibrant, a cold crystalline blue that burned with such rage before he flickered and disappeared.
Alex looked to Willie, “Did he just…?”
Willie shook his head, “No, but it’ll be a while before he’s strong enough to try anything.”
“Julie!” Luke ran over to the girl crumpled on the ground, gathering her body into his lap and cupped her jaw, trying to get her to just look at him but her head only flopped limply back and forth in response no matter how frantically he pleaded with her to say something, to open her eyes-
The doors of the studio burst open an indescribable amount of time later and Luke was dimly aware of Flynn screaming for Ray and Ray’s voice cracking as he called 911, and it took the combined strength of Alex, Reggie, and Willie to hold him back when the paramedics finally came in and lifted her body onto a bright orange backboard. His mind kept jumping back and forth in time, the red and blue flashing lights of the ambulance and the fire-trucks and police cars identical to one that had come to them in that alley…
Flynn lingered in the doorway before she grabbed Luke’s notebook and ripped out a page, scribbling something down before running out of the studio. She said something to the boys but Luke couldn’t hear anything but the sirens and screeching tires, a heart monitor’s rapid beeping going faster and faster (toofasttoofasttoofast…)
Luke sagged in their hold, sinking to his knees, and he was dimly aware of the others trying to talk to him, but he couldn’t take his eyes off the smears of red off the floor. His throat tightened and even though he knew it was no longer necessary, he needed to breathe. Why couldn’t he fucking breathe?
“Luke…”
That high-pitched whine was back, the sound too much like a heart monitor flatlining-
Hands pushing down on his chest…
“Come on, kid. Stay with me…”
“Luke?”
A crash sounded behind him as he choked out a sob, the band around his chest tightening further and further, the maelstrom of emotions lashing out at his surroundings in a way they’d never done before. He dug his fingers deep into his thighs and bowed forward, trying to keep himself from spinning apart.
“Luke!”
His eyes snapped up to find Alex looking back at him.
“You need to calm down before you destroy the studio.” The drummer’s voice was warm and familiar, hands cupping his face gently and resting his forehead against Luke’s, “I know you don’t want to do that, okay? You need to get a handle on this because it’s going to help Julie. She needs all of us right now.” He spoke calmly, blue eyes remaining on hazel as chaos erupted around them. “She needs you.”
“I can’t-”
“Do you love her?”
This was Reggie, his blue-green eyes bright with tears and his tone as serious as Luke had ever heard it and a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth when Luke just blinked at him, the question bringing all the noise in his head (and thus the studio) to a sudden stand-still with a clear, resounding yes.
With every fiber of his being; every chord, every note, every lyric that poured out of him…he loved her. More than being able to play again. More than being able to connect with people again, to be heard again, to be seen again...All of that would mean nothing if she wasn’t at his side, smiling and laughing and breathing…
All he could choke out was, “Yes.”
“Okay.” Alex said, “Then just take a breath.”
Luke nodded, doing just that once, twice, three times…
He wasn’t sure how long it took for him to pull himself back from the edge, leaning back on his hands and staring up at the chairs that still hung from the ceiling. Luke swallowed before rolling up to his feet, finding the three other boys bent over the slip of paper that Flynn had left. “What’s that?”
Alex set the paper back on top of the piano. “The hospital where they took Julie.”
Luke stared at the note. “Do you know where it is?”
Silence came with the question.
He looked up, “What?”
“It’s the same hospital they brought us to when we…”
Luke let out a harsh laugh, “Of course, it is.”
Willie reached out to squeeze Alex’s shoulder, glancing at both Reggie and Luke with a forlorn expression. He seemed to weigh his words carefully, sensing the cracking ice the three boys were standing on and not wanting to break it, his voice soft and hesitant, “I, uh…I know where it is. I can take you all there if you want.”
“Yes.” Alex spoke, holding out a hand to Luke, “C’mon.”
Luke stared at the outstretched fingers then at Alex and Reggie, both watching him with those steadfast gazes that told him they weren’t going to do anything without him. That they knew exactly what was running through his head…and they did. They always did. They always had since the day they’d started making music together.
They hadn’t left him before and they wouldn’t leave him now.
Luke took Alex’s hand.