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Felix pulled into the driveway of the Molina house, and Reggie noticed that Luke and Julie still weren’t back with Alexis’s car. He figured that they probably just decided to drop it off with Alexis and then walk over, and they’d be back in a minute. He turned to Felix.
“So…” He says, suddenly nervous again.
“So?” Felix smiles.
“Do you wanna come in? And… tell Alex?”
Felix takes Reggie’s hand. “Yeah, I’d like that.”
“Awesome,” Reggie grins. They break contact for a second to leave the car and join hands again as they walk to the garage. They enter it just in time to hear Rose Molina say “You need to get to the school.”
“What’s going on?” Felix asked as Reggie stared at Rose, mouth agape. He recognized her immediately from the photograph in Julie’s room. He didn’t know how he hadn’t seen it before.
“The girl from the Orpheum,” Reggie breathed. Alex froze.
“Oh my God, you’re right Reg.”
Rose smiled for a moment. “Nice to see you again. But now is not the time. My daughter is in danger, and I didn’t send you down here to abandon her.”
“Julie’s in danger?” Felix asked, stepping forward.
“ Felix?” Alex gaped.
Willie set his hand on Alex’s shoulder. “Not really the time babe.”
Reggie saw that they weren’t any closer to fixing the situation than when he’d walked in. “Right, okay,” he clapped his hands together, trying to mimic the confidence that Flynn always brought to these situations, “Drive us, Felix?”
“Yep,” he nodded, walking out to get the car started and give Alex and Reggie a moment.
“ Felix ?” Alex repeated.
Reggie looked down. “I was really confused. I tried to tell you, the other day? I know it’s weird, I’m-”
Alex hugged him. “I’m sorry. I should’ve helped you.”
Reggie willed himself not to cry, hugging Alex back. “It’s okay. Let’s just go help our other friends now, yeah?”
“Yeah,” Alex nodded.
“You ride with them. I’ll meet you there,” Rose told Willie.
“I could just poof over there Rose, they might need my help.”
Rose shook her head. “Absolutely not. Don’t go near Caleb without Alex, Willie. Stay by his side.”
“Okay,” Willie agreed, going to join Alex and Reggie as they ran toward the car.
Reggie got into the passenger seat as Willie and Alex sat in the back. As they began to speed off, he had to mention just one more thing. Turning to face the back seat, he cocked an eyebrow at Alex.
“ Babe ?” Reggie teased.
Alex blushed and looked out the window. “Shut up.”
Julie and Luke stood across the gym facing Caleb. Luke had tried to throw out an arm in front of Julie when he first appeared, but Julie had just grabbed his hand and stepped up to stand next to him. Nick was still on the floor, no signs of movement.
“What do you want, Caleb?” Luke asked.
“The same thing I’ve wanted since 1995, of course,” Caleb grinned. “You. All of you, actually. I’ve gotten a bit tired of waiting around, too.”
“The boys are alive now, Caleb,” Julie said. “It’s over, you’ve lost.”
Caleb shook his head. “Oh, no no no no,” He tutted. “I haven’t lost at all, Julia .” He paused, taking another step towards them. “I took their lives once. I can do it again.”
Luke went rigid. “What?”
“You didn’t think you were the only people who ate street dogs that night, did you? Did you never stop to wonder why you were the only ones who died?”
“You poisoned us ?” Luke shouted.
Caleb cocked his head from side to side. “In a way. I just sort of made things happen.”
“What?” The rest of the band had finally arrived, entering from the stage entrance of the gym. Willie looked like he was going to be sick.
“What are you saying, Caleb?” He asked.
And then suddenly Rose was there, too. “Caleb doesn’t just take souls, Willie. He takes lives.”
Julie stepped forward. “Mom?”
Rose poofed over next to Julie, smiling as she reached out and touched her cheek. Then she turned her attention to Caleb.
“Caleb Covington.” She strode forwards across the gym towards him. “I’ve heard so much about you.”
“Rose Molina,” Caleb growled. “Decided to start fighting me to my face, finally? Instead of controlling all of this from… beyond.”
Rose laughed. “And wouldn’t you just love to know what ‘beyond’ really was? You’ve spent almost 100 hundred years hiding from it.”
“So you really do know it all then,” Caleb whispered.
“Mom, what’s going on?” Julie asked.
Rose turned back to face everyone. “None of this has happened by chance, Julie. Everything, since the boys died in 1995, has been planned by Caleb.”
“Not quite all of it, Rose. You’ve played God a bit yourself,” Caleb corrected.
Rose turned back to glare at him. “Not like you have done. Why don’t you tell them what you’ve done? And then we can discuss who is the one that has been playing God.”
Willie stepped forward, Alex keeping his hand on his shoulder. “Did you make me crash that day?”
Caleb rolled his eyes. “Oh, come on. I did all of you a favor. Had it all worked, it would have been a mutually beneficial deal. Yes, I did kill you, but it was for a purpose. I needed souls to work for me. But I couldn’t just take anyone. I needed lost souls. Those who hadn’t much left in their life, and would be willing to keep anything they still managed to have. So I would’ve ensured you kept what you had forever.”
“But it didn’t work,” Rose continued. “At least, not for all of you. He tried with the boys first, but he didn’t count on the fact that they had each other. That they loved each other. And that made the difference. So they were never really dead, just waiting for something to break them free of Caleb.”
“But I didn’t have anyone when I died, so it worked for me,” Willie nodded. “I thought my parents hated me, and I just wanted to ride and ride forever to get away from them.”
“And that one thought was enough to get you killed?” Alex was livid.
“It worked well enough for me. It’s hard to be without a parent's love, even if it’s just in your head. It’s a very powerful thing.” Caleb shrugged.
Rose hummed. “Seems like you and Willie are rather similar, no?”
“Watch it, Rose. They don’t know it all yet. I’m still in control here. And, most importantly, now I have leverage.”
Caleb snapped his fingers, and Alex felt Willie start to be pulled away from him. Alex wrapped his hands around Willie’s arms and held on tighter.
“Now, I’m getting really tired of all of this.” Caleb started, walking slowly toward the boys, Willie still trying to fight the pull toward him. “I have what you want, who you want, Alex. There’s really no reason not to join me. And once you’ve joined, if the others loved you, they’d follow you.”
“Alex would never join you!” Julie shouted.
Caleb lost his composure. “I am the one in control! I will wipe Willie out, right now, in front of all of you! And none of you will be able to do a thing! You’ll just have to sit back and watch.”
But Alex wasn’t hearing the arguing. His mind was stuck on what Caleb had said before.
“...if the others loved you…”
Lost souls .
And, in the studio, all those months ago. The night of the Orpheum.
“I love you guys”
Alex nearly stumbled when it hit him. Before he could even think about it, he turned so that he was now standing in front of Willie, blocking his path to Caleb, and kissed him. He put all of the longing and pain he had felt into it, but all of the happiness that Willie had brought to him as well. He couldn’t help but think, if it hadn’t been for Caleb, this could have been his life. He could have had this, with Willie, far before now. But also, because of Caleb, he was getting it now. And he had to accept that.
He broke off from the kiss. “I love you, Willie. I didn’t realize before, not really. I don’t think I wanted to let myself. But when I thought I’d lost you, and the idea of losing you again now… Despite everything else I’ve gone through, that would be the worst. I can’t let that happen.”
Willie brought his hands up and cupped Alex’s face. He smiled at him, the small, shy smile that only came about when he was looking at Alex. “I love you too.”
And then Willie was glowing.
The other boys and Julie gaped at the pair, slowly beginning to fit the pieces together. Rose looked to be biting back a smile, and Caleb had completely stopped walking. His composure cracked, his eyes went cold.
“So this is how you want to do it? Fine.” He started walking back towards where Nick was still lying on the floor.
Willie and Alex broke apart as everyone started shouting.
“Leave Nick alone!”
“You’ve done enough!”
“It’s over Caleb! Go!”
Caleb snapped his fingers, and Nick began to wake up. His eyes went wide as he saw Caleb standing over him. He tried desperately to crawl away from him, but Caleb caught him by the collar of his shirt.
“So Willie has someone who loves him.” Caleb tugged Nick up by his collar.
“And the boys have their band and their new families,” another pull, and Nick was in front of him.
“But who does Nick have to love him?” Nick was panting in Caleb’s hold, sweat beading on his forehead as he clutched at his chest. They watched in horror as Caleb’s stamp began to appear on Nick’s hand.
“Now, you might not have any love for old Nick here, but I think you all rather like the idea of being heroes, don’t you? Well, here’s someone to save. I’m your villain, right? Come be a hero and take his place.”
Julie shot an agonized look at the boys. She felt as though she had done this. Nick had been her friend, had kept coming around simply because he liked her. She should have seen the change in him, should have pushed him away and kept him out of this. She remembers that he started acting differently the day he came to her after the Orpheum. All of this, because he’d wanted to give her some flowers.
Julie went to walk forward. Luke shot out his hands to grab her, but before he could even touch her, the door of the gym burst open yet again, this time revealing Carrie, Flynn, and Bobby.
Carrie rushed over to Nick, while Flynn made her way over to Julie. Bobby stood in the entryway, trapped at the site of all of the friends he had lost.
“It’s really you,” Bobby breathed.
Luke’s shoulders had tensed when Bobby walked in, a million thoughts running through his head. He had no regrets over the way things had turned out in his life, and he was happy to be close to his parents again. Despite that, he still couldn’t find it in himself to forgive Bobby yet for stealing all of his songs. He knew Bobby probably had his reason, but Luke really didn’t care to hear them.
Julie laid her hand on his bicep. “Not right now, Luke.”
Luke worked his jaw. Finally, he relaxed his shoulders and nodded in Bobby’s direction. It was the most he was going to get.
“How are you even here?” Alex asked.
Bobby started stuttering out a response, Rose interrupting him with a shrug. “I made a couple of stops.”
Caleb groaned. “Well isn’t this beautiful. A final group to save the day. Doesn’t change anything. Just more people to take in the end.”
Carrie laid her hand atop Nick’s where the stamp was forming, ignoring her proximity to Caleb. Her eyes burned with an intensity that the others in the room had never seen before, at least not from Carrie. Rose and Bobby were both familiar with the expression from the countless times they had seen Carrie’s mother wearing the same one.
“You asked who loved Nick, I heard you from behind the door.” Carrie’s bottom lip quivered slightly as she spoke, but she stood tall as she faced Caleb.
Caleb cocked an eyebrow. “And you think the way a teenage girl feels about her first boyfriend is stronger than I am?”
Carrie shook her head. “No. I don’t love him like that, not anymore. But I do love him. He’s my friend, one of the only people in my life who was in my life for me , and not for my dad or what I could bring to them. I thought I had to be with him, because who else could I ever find that would give me that? But it wasn’t right. The love I felt for him, it wasn’t like that. And I don’t think he really loved me like that either.”
Nick’s entire body was coursing with pain. He felt as though his veins were on fire and his heart was about two beats away from exploding, but he managed to turn his hand just slightly, just enough to grasp Carrie’s. He gave a weak smile, shaking his head the smallest amount.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured.
Carrie squeezed his hand back. “Me too. Friends?”
“Friends,” Nick agreed.
The mark on his hand began to fade as quickly as it appeared. Caleb dropped him in disgust. He fell against Carrie, who staggered with him across the gym to stand with the others.
Caleb’s eyes roved frantically over the group. They all looked pale and shaken, standing there grasping each other’s hands. They had nothing to fight with against Caleb except for their words, and an unshakeable knowledge of who they were. Caleb could not be killed nor destroyed, he was more powerful than all of them combined. Yet not a single person sagged or fell under his gaze, instead staring back steadily with the knowledge that, no matter the outcome, they would not be facing it alone. Caleb could feel he was losing, that all he had built and fought for was rapidly slipping through his fingers. In a last-ditch effort, his eyes landed on Bobby.
A bright light began emanating from the side of the room. “Don’t even think about it, Caleb. I love him, and Carrie, more than anything else in any lifetime. And that has never stopped.”
Someone stepped out from within the light. Bobby began crying as she took shape.
Rose nearly squealed. “Caroline?”
“Well, I couldn’t let you be the only momma bear, now could I?” Caroline laughed.
Carrie went from supporting Nick’s weight to having to be supported by him. Carrie recognized the newcomer immediately. Everyone always told Carrie she looked exactly like her. She had her eyes, her hair, her name. When she was a little girl, she went through a phase where she would wake up in the night crying for a mother. If Julie Molina could have a mother, why couldn’t she? So her father started telling Carrie about her. They would stay up and look through photo albums and watch home videos. Carrie had spent her whole life missing someone she’d never even met.
“Mom?” Carrie whispered.
Caroline Wilson beamed at her daughter, as she stepped another few steps into the gym. From out behind her tumbled three other figures. Two were older, wearing clothes that no one had seen for a century, while the other was a young man in old military garb. At the sight of them, Caleb went paler than death.
The young man looked remarkably sad as he took a step towards Caleb. The other two that came through with him stayed back, confused about the strange new world they had walked into, but determined to be there nonetheless.
The young man set his hand on Caleb’s shoulder. “Hello, Caleb.”
Caleb squeezed his eyes shut, willing them away, willing everyone away from this moment. He may be able to close his eyes to it all, but there was no denying the pressure of the hand on his shoulder. He opened his eyes again and stared hard at the person in front of him.
“Louis,” he breathed.
Louis swallowed harshly. “You’re older now.”
“I got to live.”
Louis smiled at that. “That’s all I ever hoped for.”
It was all too much for Caleb, he stumbled back. Staring frantically around the room, looking for an escape, a denial, someone to blame. With promises of hell in his eyes, he finally turned on Rose.
“How dare you-”
Rose interrupted him. “This wasn’t me, Caleb,” she whispered.
“We came on our own,” the older lady said, stepping forwards. The man, his hand on her shoulder, never able to bear losing contact, stepped with her.
“It’s time to end this, son.” His voice was old and gruff, his words harsh, but there was nothing unkind about him. Both of them looked at their son only with love.
Luke stepped forward. “What’s going on? Who are these people?”
Caleb ripped his eyes away from his parents to stare back at the rest of the group. “These are my parents. And this is my, was my. My Louis.”
And then came the whole story. The group listened in shocked silence to Caleb’s tale, as Louis and his parents stood apart from him, aching to reach out but too afraid to.
“I met Louis when I was just a boy. We were friends. It was years before I realized how I felt, and when I did, I was terrified. I knew what the world would think about me, and I knew my parents would hate me for what I was. And, I figured, so would Louis. So I distanced myself from him. I was only 14. So I started practicing magic. I’d fallen in love with Vaudeville as a little boy and figured no one would think twice about why a traveling magician was alone. And then, when I was 16, my parents died in a boating accident, and I suddenly found myself with nowhere to go.”
Louis continued on as Caleb’s voice failed him. “So he came to me. He didn’t tell me why he’d been gone so long, and I didn’t ask. Just that his parents were gone now, and he needed someone. And he looked so small, and so broken, that all I could think was that I needed to care for him. And that’s when it clicked for me. There was a reason that I had always been drawn to him, had always wanted to be around him, and had spent the last two years miserable without him.”
Caleb took over again. “He was braver than I was about it, not hesitating about what it might mean about us as I did. We got four years together. And then Louis, at 22, was forced to enlist when America entered the war. I was only 20, one of the ‘lucky ones’ under the cut-off. And I was left behind.”
Louis took another step toward him. “We wrote letters to each other, trying to hide the true meanings behind our words in case anyone intercepted them. And then, finally, it looked like things were starting to come to an end. And they certainly did, for me. I was killed in combat in October of 1918, just a month before the end of the war.”
“And I was left to live with that. I couldn’t bear it. I had lost everyone, and would no longer be accepting anyone else in my life to lose. So I became a magician, as I’d planned, and lived for 6 more years before I died in an accident. I was terrified of death, of facing what was on the other side. Facing who was on the other side. I knew my parents had to know what I was and would haunt me for it, and that Louis would resent me for being the one to live. The worst Hell I could imagine was having them hate and be disgusted by me, and I knew that that was exactly what I was going to get.”
“We never would have felt like that, Caleb,” his mother cried. On the other side of the room, Willie began to shrink into Alex’s side, some of the feelings sounding eerie familiar. Louis looked just as horrified as Caleb’s parents.
“Caleb, I-” Caleb held up a hand and stopped them.
“I know. Seeing you all here now, I realize it. But I just couldn’t then. So when the man in black appeared as I was dying, I would have done anything to put off that torment.”
“The man in black?” Alex asked.
Caleb huffed a laugh. “Weren’t you boys listening all those months ago? ‘He said, Covington, I got an offer that you can’t refuse.’”
“He told you you could avoid it forever as long as you stole souls,” Reggie realized, looking over towards Alex.
“And I did exactly as he asked. For almost 100 years, I’ve done what he asked. I think it started to turn me into someone else.”
“So you haven’t always been all…” Julie asked, gesturing towards everything about Caleb.
“Jerky murder demon?” Flynn supplied. Julie finished.
Caleb smiled slightly. “No, I used to be described as more of a maudlin bastard, though I suppose ‘jerky murder demon’ is an apt description of what I turned into.”
Willie gaped. “Did you just tell a joke?”
“I think having them here has started to turn me back into what I was. Before everything.”
Caleb’s parents finally managed to walk up to him, throwing their arms around him. “We love you, Caleb. Nothing would ever have changed that.”
They released him as Louis finally approached. He wrapped him into a tight embrace. Caleb buried his face in Louis’s neck. The group felt as though they should look away.
“I loved you more than anything my life Caleb, and I have loved you the same in death. As I died, my last thought was of you, and I smiled as I realized that, at the very least, the world had not yet lost you. I am so sorry that you could ever have felt like I would resent you for it. I’m sorry you never knew.”
Caleb swallowed. “I think I knew. I think I could feel you, sometimes. The way you felt. I was just so scared. I’m not anymore.”
A light engulfed them as they held each other. Caleb was finally free. He smiled at his family as Louis released him and they made their way over to the portal in the wall.
Caleb looked around at everyone. “I suppose this is goodbye.”
The phantoms all spoke at once.
“Bye!”
“Please don’t be a trick, please don’t be a trick.”
“Nice knowing you, hope to never see you again.”
Caleb laughed, a real, true laugh this time. “I owe you all the deepest apology. I have taken everything from you. But, I have to ask for one more thing.”
The group tensed. Julie drew in a quick breath, knowing it was too easy. Willie was ready to start just fighting him. Flynn felt her eye twitch.
Caleb continued before their imaginations could stray too far. His task was small, but would take years to be accomplished. As he stepped through the portal, he simply called back, “Forgive me in your memories.”
And then he was gone.
Julie couldn’t believe it. Caleb was really gone. She wrapped her arms around Luke, burying her face in his chest. It was all over. Everything, except for one last little thread: The portal was still open.
Realizing this, Julie stared around confused. She shrank further back into Luke as Rose made her way over, suddenly understanding.
“Julie,” Rose smiled, running her hand down Julie’s cheek.
Julie shook her head as she started to cry. “No. No, come on, we’re supposed to all be happy now. I’m not supposed to have to say goodbye again. That’s not what’s supposed to happen when you win.”
“Julie, I was never supposed to be here. You all won, not me. I just helped. And I am so, so proud of you, always. The boys will all stay, but Caroline and I have to go again now.”
Caroline looked over from where she was hugging Carrie and Bobby and smiled. “We can rest now. All this time, I wondered what that nagging feeling I always had was. Now I know.”
Luke kept his arms around Julie as Rose continued, a solid wall at her back supporting her.
“Never give up, Julie. You, all of you, are capable of accomplishing more than I could have ever dreamed. Keep that close,” Rose laughed softly. “Stand tall.”
Caroline had one last message for Bobby and Carrie. “Be who you know you can be, my loves.”
Then, the two old friends grasped hands and crossed back over. The portal closed behind them.
Carrie made her way over to Julie. They were both crying, but Carrie was smiling as well. She grasped Julie’s arm. “Those few moments were more than I ever imagined getting. I think, given everything, that’s actually kind of great.”
Julie, after years of fighting, could finally say she agreed with her.
Luke groaned as he flopped down onto the couch next to Julie, wrapping his arm around her shoulder and bringing her into his side. “Can we all agree to never do that again, please?”
Alex and Willie lifted their pizza slices in salute from their place on the floor, while Reggie just threw out a thumbs up from where he sat curled up on Felix’s lap on the other chair.
Flynn, sitting on the other end of the couch from Luke and Julie, pretended to gag.
“Okay, I’m definitely super happy for all of you, but also this,” Flynn motioned to all of the cuddling in the room, “this is just a lot. I’m too alone for this.”
Julie shifted so that her legs were laid out on the couch and rested her feet in Flynn’s lap. “There, do you feel included now?” She teased.
Flynn stuck out her tongue at Julie, but didn’t push her feet off.
Carrie laughed. She and Nick were sitting at the table they had dragged into the studio with the box of pizza. Bobby was inside with Ray and Carlos. They hadn’t explained every detail of the event with Ray, but he knew the gist. He was happy that they were all okay, but knowing that his wife had been almost alive for a bit, and that he had almost lost his daughter as well, was taking its toll. He had ordered pizza for the kids before retreating into the house to talk to Bobby, who was the only other one that could even hope to understand. They decided not to tell Carlos too many details. He just knew that he had free pizza and no one cared that he was taking up the TV inside the house to watch episodes of Top Chef.
“Don’t worry Flynn, it’s not like you’re the only single one in the room,” Carrie reminded her.
Flynn turned to her. “That reminds me: What are you both going to do now that you’re a) not possessed or b) being nice and also single?”
Carrie shrugged. “Probably try to just focus on music for a while. Dirty Candy’s fun, and I think that’s what I need right now.”
Nick nodded. “Yeah, I did just spend the last few months trapped in my own body, so I think I might need to take a bit to like. Deal with all of that. What about you guys?”
Felix responded first. “Well, if I’m dating someone in the band, does that make me a groupie now? Because if so I’m going to be a great groupie.”
Willie nodded vigorously. “We should make t-shirts. Get backstage passages.”
“Hey, hey, no one gets backstage passes without my approval,” Flynn interjected. Felix and Willie stared at her, both turning on the puppy dog eyes.
Flynn caved. “And, as band manager, I firmly declare that you get as many backstage passes as you want.”
Julie nudged Luke. “We should probably start writing some new songs to perform at all of these shows for them to be backstage at.”
Luke beamed at her. “Sounds great to me.”
“Maybe write them with your drummer this time, yeah?” Alex teased.
Luke laughed. “I don’t know man, I might not be ‘woke’ enough yet.”
Alex scowled back at him.
Reggie just smiled, snuggling closer to Felix. “It’s nice to be back.”
Their group had grown and morphed over time, with people falling in love and realizing who they were. Friendships were repaired, villains were vanquished, loves and families were reunited. But at the end of it all, they were all back.
Fin