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Magic never shows up quite in the way that a person would expect it to. It isn’t how it is presented in the films or the books, with people casting spells and wishing things into existence. Magic is something every day, a force moving invisibly through the world, pulling all the threads together. Magic, fate, the supernatural… it’s all intertwined into one system and works so flawlessly a person would never be aware their involved with it until it’s too late. When Rose met the boys the night they died, something was set in motion that none of them could ever have expected.
It was a busy night at the club, and Rose hadn’t any idea who all was lurking around. She was focused on doing her job and enjoying the music that the boys were playing. She was convinced that they had something special. As they all went out to get hotdogs, Bobby stayed behind and kept her company. She was trying to be polite, but she had no real interest in him. She had just started going out with a cute young photographer, and she could feel that she had something special with him. Rose figured that, as soon as the show was over, the boys would be gone and that story would be closed.
Bobby and Rose were both confused when the police showed up at the Orpheum, looking for the owner. For the rest of her life, she never forgot the look on Bobby’s face when he heard that the boys were dead. All the blood drained from his face, and he crumpled to the ground. As Rose rushed over to comfort him, and the wails started outside of the club as the news slowly made its way down the line of waiting fans, there was one man who quietly snuck out the back door, a smile on his face.
The night of the Orpheum, Rose took Bobby back to the apartment she shared with her bandmate, Caroline Wilson. He had briefly explained to her that he couldn’t stand to go home that night, as all of the boys had been living in the garage of his parents’ house. It was where they made music and existed together, and he couldn’t face it alone. So, he went home with Rose.
As soon as they stepped through the door of the apartment, Caroline could tell that something was wrong. Rose looked like she’d been crying for hours, and the boy with her looked like a corpse. After settling Bobby on the couch, Caroline and Rose went into the kitchen to make some tea, where Rose explained the whole story.
“I just don’t know what to do, Carrie. He just lost everyone,” Rose explained.
“Well, he’ll stay here tonight, of course. And then we’ll go from there,” Caroline comforted.
Rose nodded, heading back out to the living room with Caroline. None of them slept that night. They stayed up together, listening to Bobby tell stories of his friends through his tears. Caroline and Rose were both reminded of the people that they had left behind in their lives. Rose had no one in America except the older sister that she had followed here, and Caroline had left her family behind long ago in pursuit of music. Bound together by grief and loneliness, a family was formed that night, coming quietly and slowly in place of the one that had just been lost.
“What the hell, Bobby!” Rose yelled, throwing the demo she’d just finished listening to at him. Bobby ducked, and the disc hit the door of their apartment, shattering in the process.
“Rose, just listen,” Bobby, Trever now, tried to reason. “Caroline and I just got married. We need the money. And we both know my music isn’t going anywhere, and neither is yours. This is my one shot.”
“So you’re just going to steal Luke’s songs?” She screeched. She’d recognized the songs immediately. It had been eight years since the boys had died, and five since Bobby’s parents had followed. After their death, Rose and Caroline had helped Bobby pack up the house and the garage. Rose had been the one to tackle the studio and move everything into the loft, and she’d found Luke’s old songbook while she was in there. She had shown it to Bobby, hoping it might bring him some comfort.
“What’s going on in here?” Caroline asked, walking in with her arms full of groceries.
Bobby gave Rose a look. It was then that she realized that Caroline had no idea what Bobby had done, as she had never seen the notebook. Bobby and Rose were the only two who knew. She could have exposed Bobby right then, but as she watched Caroline set down the groceries and gently shield her stomach, she felt as though the choice had been made for her.
“Bobby and I were just talking about the future,” she started slowly, keeping eye contact with Bobby the whole time. “It seems like his career is really going places now.”
“Right?” Caroline beamed. “Who knew Bobby was hiding such good songs this whole time?”
Bobby smiled tightly. “Thanks, babe.”
“Shocking,” Rose murmured.
“It sounded like you were fighting though?” Caroline asked.
“I was just yelling in excitement. Because of what Bobby offered Ray and I.” Rose decided if she was going to lie for him, she was damn well going to get something out of it.
“What did you offer babe?” Caroline asked.
“He offered us his old house!” Rose watched as Bobby paled.
“Oh, that’s wonderful! We’ll probably be out of this apartment soon anyway. I was so worried about what you guys were going to do after the wedding next month,” Caroline said.
“Ah, you know me. Mr. Generosity,” Bobby laughed.
“Such a nice guy,” Rose said. “I’m just going to go tell Ray the news.”
Rose sighed as she looked around the old garage, one hand on her back and the other on her protruding stomach. Ray had already moved the grand piano, a gift from her sister, into place, and was now working on setting up the inside of the house. The studio was all hers. The old Sunset Curve instruments still sat where they had when the boys were alive, sheets thrown over them. Rose wore the bedazzled Sunset Curve shirt for the occasion, though it was a tight fit in her current state.
She walked over and started uncovering all of the instruments. Most of their old belongings had already been boxed up. She felt as though she were never really going to get away from those boys, and kicked herself for asking for the house. It worked out well for them though, and it was a pretty house. Besides, it’s not as though anyone besides her really knew who had lived here before. Ray didn’t even know Bobby had been in a band. There was no reason for her baby girl to know the dream that had been here, or the tragedy that had followed. Rose could make this her own space, full of light and happiness. A place that that old darkness would never be allowed to touch. It was time to start over.
In a way, it made sense that a friendship forged by death would also be resurrected by it. When Rose got the call that Caroline had died in childbirth, she was so distraught that Ray worried she would go into labor early. They quickly rushed to the hospital. On the way there, Rose couldn’t help regretting the months that had passed. She’d still talked to Caroline, but she’d been cold and distant with her, punishing her for something that she didn’t even know about. She hadn’t even spoken to Bobby since her wedding, and even then it was just mild polite conversation.
They found Bobby soon after they walked into the hospital. He was holding little baby Carrie, who, it seemed, hadn’t stopped screaming since she was born. Bobby was crying just as much, though not quite as loudly. When he looked up from Carrie, he made eye contact with Rose, and all was forgiven. Unlike the time before, they’d both lost their best friend this time, and they were going to need each other to keep going.
Ray walked up and took Carrie as Rose wrapped Bobby in an embrace.
“I don’t know how to do this without her, Rose,” Bobby sobbed into her shoulder.
“Neither do I. But we’ll figure it out, Bobby. Together.”
Bobby and Carrie spent the first two years of Carrie’s life living with the Molinas. Carrie and Julie, who was born a month later, were raised like sisters. With Rose’s sister over all the time, there were always enough people to look after the original double trouble, a very accurate name.
As the years went on, life started to settle into a safe routine. Bobby and Carrie moved out after his career really took off, and Carlos was born a few years later. They were both living safe, comfortable lives. Julie had Carrie and Flynn, and Rose wasn’t worried when Julie and Carrie began fighting right before high school. Friendships went through rough patches, as she herself knew all too well.
“She just thinks she’s so much better than me mom, just because Trevor Wilson is her dad,” Julie complained.
Rose hummed, stroking through Julie’s hair. “Don’t let go of her just yet, Jules. You never know when you’re going to need your friends. Even Trevor didn’t get where he is now without help.”
“Trevor’s a legend, mom,” Julie rolled her eyes. “Legends don’t need anyone.”
Rose lowered her eyebrows and took Julie’s face between her hands. “Legends need more help than anyone. Especially if they’re Trevor Wilson.”
“Oookay…”
It was all perfectly normal and happy. Until Rose got sick.
They weren’t sure at first how to tell the kids. If it was something to be talked about all at once, over dinner, each parent takes a kid… In the end, they decided to split the kids up. Ray was in charge of telling Carlos, and Rose with telling Julie. As Ray took Carlos outside to discuss and play ball, Rose invited Julie out to the studio.
Sitting down at the old piano bench together, Rose finally knew how to tell Julie. Like with everything else in her life, it had to be through a song.
“I was wondering if you could help me write something?” Rose asked. Julie nodded eagerly.
“It’s one I’ve had in my mind for a while,” Rose continued. “Since about 1995, actually.”
“What’s it called?”
“Stand Tall. I’ve only a little bit of it written.” Then Rose started to play the chorus of the song, thinking of Trevor and the boys, and raising the girls without Caroline, of how her own children will have to carry on without her…
Whatever happens, even if I’m the last standing, I’ma stand tall .
Julie grinned when Rose finished singing the chorus. “I like it!”
Rose was silent for a moment. “I’m going to need you to finish it, Julie,” she whispered.
Julie cocked her head. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t know how to tell you this easily, so I just have to say it.” Rose turned to stare Julie in the eyes. “I’m dying, Jules. Cancer. I’ve not got much time left.”
Julie’s eyes welled with tears. “Mom-”
“I know, honey. I know. Listen to me. There are things you don’t know, things that made me want to write this, and I haven’t the time left to tell you. But I need you to finish this song, and really listen to the words. You are so incredibly talented, and you need to keep your gift. Not just for me,” Rose looked up to the loft, where the old Sunset Curve instruments still sat, “But for everyone who didn’t get to. Promise me, Julie.”
“I promise mom.”
Things went rather quickly after that. Most of the last couple of months of Rose Molina’s life were spent writing songs. When she wasn’t writing Stand Tall with Julie, she was writing Wake Up for Julie. Part of it was a distraction, but part of it was a gut instinct. She knew she had to finish the song, because she could tell Julie was going to need it.
Rose sat in her studio for a long time after finishing the song. The doctors had let her leave the hospital the week before, knowing there was nothing more that could be done. She wanted to be at her home. On that night, she felt closer to the Sunset Curve boys than she ever had in that room before. She swore she could feel them lurking just on the other side, waiting, waiting, waiting…
Rose closed her eyes. When she opened them again, it wasn’t to see Ray coming to get her, or to see the boys finally get what they’d been waiting for. Instead, she saw Caroline, but not quite the Caroline she remembered. This Caroline was glowing, golden, and healthy, the opposite of the pale sickly woman Rose remembered her being right before giving birth.
“Hey Rose,” Caroline said.
“Hi, Carrie.”
“It’s time to go now Rose.”
Rose stood up from the bench. “I know.”
Rose Molina died with no regrets and no unfinished business. She had done everything she could to prepare herself and her family for what was to come, and had had just enough time to finish her last song. A song she knew only one person would ever really see, but that was enough for her. Rose had realized long ago that she wasn’t destined for the greatness she had dreamed of as a young girl working the Hollywood clubs. But she knew her daughter was. Now all she had to do was wait.
Almost a year later, Rose watched in anguish as Julie was finally removed from the music program. All that they had worked for and hoped for was gone. Rose felt as if Julie herself was dying. If she could just get Julie into the studio, if Julie could just see the song, if she could find the boys…
After her death, Rose had learned the full truth from Caroline about the Sunset Curve tragedy. How they weren’t supposed to die, how some other force had intervened and stolen them, the curse they now fell under. As Rose got her first stroke of good luck in a year and Julie finally entered the studio, she began to form a plan. Rose had realized that Julie wasn’t able to do this all on her own just yet, but maybe there was someone who could help her, and maybe Julie could help them.
Rose smiled as she looked down on her daughter and the boys, their curse finally broken. With any luck, they would figure out on their own how to break Willie of it as well. Rose wished she could tell them the full story, but then thought that perhaps it was better that they didn’t know how close to true evil they were.
Rose couldn’t figure out why she didn’t feel at peace yet. It was as if there was something else that still had to happen, as if the battle wasn’t quite over yet. It wasn’t until the next morning that she realized why. She screamed as she watched Caleb Covington appear at her daughter’s door, finally understanding that the game wasn’t quite over yet.
Rose Molina had died with no regrets, no unfinished business. She had accomplished everything she could when she died, and now her daughter was accomplishing everything she wasn’t able to. But the game wasn’t over yet, and with a fury she had never felt when alive, Rose poofed back down to Earth, right in front of Willie.
“I need your help,” she said.