after the show, the four of us were hanging out in front of the garage, tossing around a basketball.

"it feels like we should be like, celebrating or something?" i tell the boys as luke tosses the ball through the net.

"yeah, what do you guys want to do?" reggie asks, grabbing the ball as it bounces back up. he tosses the ball back to luke and we all get hit by a jolt again, one much worse than the others. it knocks all of us off our feet onto the ground. i fell slightly sideways and almost landed on reggie, who stuck his arms out to brace me.

"not that." alex says, rising back to his feet.

"that wasn't like the other ones." luke comments. "it's getting worse."

"why is this happening to us?" reggie asks the group and we all shrug in response.

"it's because you guys are in serious trouble." willie's voice comes from behind luke.

"willie?" alex steps forwards as all of us turn to look at the boy.

"we need to talk." he says quickly, and we follow him as he explains what caleb did and what's going to happen to us.

"so all these jolts that we're feeling, is because caleb put his stamp on us?" luke asks as we follow him around hollywood.

"he's threatened by you. he wants you under his control." willie explains. "you're the only ghosts that can be visible to lifers without his help."

"and you let him do this to us?" i snap at him, my anger rising.

"i can't stop him!" willie turns around to face us. "he owns my soul. alright? he owns everybody's soul at that club. if he knew i was here talking to you, he-he would destroy me."

"so if we don't join his club, the weird power outage thing continues until there's no power left at all?" reggie clarifies, crossing his arms and glancing at me quickly where i'm standing between luke and alex.

"yes." willie sighs.

"and what exactly happens when the power goes out?" i ask, leaning on my brother slightly.

"that's, thats it." he replies bleakly. "you're done."

"uh-huh, yeah. and what exactly do you mean by 'we're done'?" reggie asks nervously.

"you just, you don't exist, anymore." willie says. "not any where."

"so we have no choice?" i can see luke slowly getting angrier as he speaks. "we have to say goodbye to julie, give up everything that we've built together, and work for caleb?" willie nods slightly.

"that's some club you guys got going on." i shake my head and scoff at him.

"but there is another option! that's why i'm here." willie continues.

"another option?" alex repeats.

"just please hear me out," willie begs. "alright, if you guys could just figure out what your unfinished business is, you do it in time, you could cross over and be free from all of this."

"okay, so what's our unfinished business?" luke asks.

"i don't know, but since you all died at the same time, maybe it's something you need to do together." willie suggests.

"why should we listen to a word you say?" alex demands.

"because i care about you alex." willie blurts out. "and i hate that i brought you, and your friends into this mess." he sighs. "i can't be away much longer. i'm so sorry, for everything." he poofs away before any of us can respond.

"this is all my fault." alex sighs. "i met willie, willie introduced us to caleb, and now, now we're screwed."

"we all wanted to go see caleb." luke assures him.

"we have to tell julie." reggie says, subtly stepping closer to me.

"no, we can't do that." luke tells us. "this just means more loss in her life."

"but if we don't want caleb to own our souls, we have to figure out what our unfinished business is." i continue.

"yeah and how are we supposed to do that?" alex asks. "there was so much we wanted to do."

luke's gaze moves up and i follow his eye line to the big lit up sign on the other side of the street.

"what is it?" alex asks, spinning around to see what we're looking at.

"yeah but the night we died, there was one thing we all wanted to do together." luke explains as we all stare up at where our lives should have changed 25 years ago, not ended.

"play the orpheum?" reggie clarifies.

"getting that gig was literally impossible." i tell my brother.

"even after people knew who we were we had to hustle, call in every favour we had." alex reminds him. "it took us years."

another jolt knocks us back again.

"we don't have years."

~*~

the next day, alex and i decided to visit the orpheum for basically no reason other than to wallow in self pity.

"we were so close." i say quietly, stepping on to the bench to sit next to him.

"it's like luke said, we were gonna be legends." he nods as i lean my head on his shoulder.

"i'm scared." i admit.

"me too, nat." he sighs, spinning his drumsticks in his hands. "but, i'm sure it will be fine." he assures me, though the waver in his voice shows me he doesn't really believe it. alex always tried to be strong around me, especially when he knew i was upset, but he's never been good at hiding his feelings.

willie suddenly poofed up on the other side of alex.

"is this seat taken?" he asks and alex shrugs.

"i'll, uh, see you back at the studio." i tell him before poofing away.

i landed back on the couch between reggie, and luke in the chair next to us.

"this whole thing sucks." i mumble to them, breaking the silence. reggie strums a few sad notes on his bass instead of responding.  luke simply nods and clicks his tongue. "this is boring." i comment after a few more minutes of silence.

"sorry we're not more fun," luke says sarcastically. "it's not like we're on the verge of a second death or anything."

i roll my eyes at him as reggie chuckles softly next to me.

"i thought you were supposed to be the optimistic twin?" i raise my eyebrows at luke.

"hard to be optimistic while our world crumbles down around us." he shrugs.

"at least we're together?" i suggest, and suddenly we're struck by another jolt.

"being together doesn't make those hurt less." reggie points out, coughing slightly and rubbing his chest.

"i gotta get out of here." luke mumbles before poofing away.

"so," reggie says awkwardly.

"so?" i repeat after he doesn't speak for a moment.

"hey, can i ask you something?" he turns his head sharply to look at me, and i glance back up at him, nodding. he pauses slightly before speaking again. "that, uh, that was a really good song." he mumbles, looking back down at his feet.

"not a question, but thanks." i laugh slightly.

"yeah, but my question was stupid." he shrugs.

"i like stupid questions." i nudge his shoulder. "like," i try to think of something dumb to ask. "oh! like, do you think penguins have dreams about each other?"

reggie looks back at me his a wide grin and shakes his head slightly.

"no, not like that." he laughs. "okay, here goes." he takes a big breath and his face changes from joking to serious, making a pit form in my stomach. "basically, i was just going to ask- i don't know how to say- um, oh god i'm blowing this." he shakes his head. "okay! basically i just wanted to say, since we're probably not going to exist anymore in a few days, i would hate myself for not saying it. but i always kind of wished, something could happen between us." he sighs, squeezing his eyes shut. "like, more than friends."

"still not really a question." i joke in an attempt to lighten the tension.

"yeah i was gonna try to be smooth and lead it in through talking about the song, and i just, i'm not good at this." he admits.

"what are you talking about?" i question. "you've never had a problem talking to girls?"

"yeah, but it's one thing when it's just flirting with random people." he shrugs. "it's different when," his voice goes softer, almost as if he doesn't want me to hear. "when you care about the person."

i don't respond right away, unsure of what to say. is he saying he likes me?

"sorry if this makes stuff weird. i just had to say it, before, you know..." he trails off.

"no, no it's not weird." i assure him, followed by an uncomfortable silence. reggie awkwardly strums his bass again, making me smile slightly. "just so you know, it was about you."

"what?" his head whips in my direction.

"the song," i say. "it was about you." his mouth hung slightly open as he stared at me. i wasn't entirely sure i wanted to hear his response, so i poofed away.

~*~

i went for a walk around the neighborhood, trying to clear my head before getting back to julie's and heading in to the house. reggie was sitting at the table talking to ray, who still had no idea he even existed.

"hey reg," i speak as i slide into the chair across from him.

"hey talia." he smirks and kicks my feet under the table.

"talia?" i raise my eyebrow at him.

"yeah, i mean, i always wanted to call you that so i figured i'd go for it." he looks away awkwardly to glance at ray's computer.

it's so weird seeing reggie like this, he seems so vulnerable when he's talking to me now. he's usually so relaxed and goofy.

"i like it." i smile and he glances back at me. "what are you doing?" i laugh slightly at reggies happy expression.

"just chatting with ray." his smile grows, looking back at the man who had basically become a father figure to him. "oh, i like this one." he points to the pictures on ray's computer, and hooks his feet around mine starts lazily swinging them under the tables, making me smile.

"it's got a good composition." i laugh as reggie agrees. alex poofs into the chair next to him.

"hey, what are you guys doing?" he asks us.

"i needed a pick-me-up, and hanging with ray always does the trick." reggie explains.

"does it?" alex questions. "okay."

"i just got here." i inform him. alex turns to me with a smirk, subtly nodding towards reggie. he gives me a look that i already know means he wants to talk to me about it later.

"dad, i have a ghost update." carlos walks in to the room and sits at the table across from his father.

"okay this might be interesting." alex says as we turn our attention to the boy.

"really? come on carlos, we've talked about this." ray sighs.

"i know you're not a believer, but i want you to listen to this." he insists, taking a seat at the table.

"do i have a choice?" ray rolls his eyes.

"no." carlos states.

"you go little man." reggie encourages and i laugh quietly.

"after julie played with her hologram band last night, i couldn't sleep." carlos continues.

"those songs do get stuck in your head, huh?" ray jokes and reggies smile grows.

"he likes our new music too." i tell the boys.

"eh, still doesn't count." alex shrugs.

"i learned on youtube that ghosts haunt because something is bothering them." carlos explains. "so to get rid of them, you gotta find out what crawled up their ghost butts."

"ha! he said ghost butts." reggie laughs.

"language!" ray scolds his son, causing both carlos and reggie to apologize. alex and i shake our heads at reggie.

"so i searched the house for clues on who used to live here, and i found a bunch of old stuff in the garage." he explains. "what i learned is, we're being haunted by a ghost with a dream. a dream that never came true. a dream that was cut short by a tragic accident."

alex, reggie and i glance at each other worriedly.

"okay you don't actually think-" alex is cut off by carlos speaking again.

"our house is being haunted by a very talented, chef!" the three of us let out a long sigh of relief.

"looks like somebody fell asleep watching Ghost Hunters and Chopped." ray suggests.

"you know how there are two restaurants in LA that claim they've invented the french dip? guess what i found in this shoebox. a recipe, for a third french dip!"

"no way!" reggie speaks, followed by the same thought from ray.

"it was invented in 1905, by a guy who dreamed of a soggy sandwich." carlos bows his head slightly. "but died before he could share his gift."

"ah, the gift of dipping." reggie and ray say together.

"it's like we're the same person!" reggie exclaims.

"just like!" alex mocks him.

"so we gotta make his sandwich, and we gotta eat it." carlos explains.

"ah, and then he'll see his dream realized and finally leave this world for good." ray nods.

"so are you in?" carlos asks excitedly.

"yeah! let's make a dream come true." ray agrees. "i do love french dips." he mumbles, getting up from his seat to follow carlos to the kitchen.

"i'm gonna miss them." i comment once they leave.

"yeah," reggie agrees.

"me too." alex adds, before the three of us poof away.

~*~

*im just gonna say here that i'm not adding natalia to the unsaid emily scene because i feel like that should stay just julie & luke. this is where it would be in the story tho so that's why i'm saying it*

~*~