WILLIE SOON JOINS US AGAIN as the boys finish eating. "If ghosts could get sick, I think you guys definitely would," I say as Reggie brings another meatball sub to his lips.

"Man, I missed pizza," Luke says as he takes his last few bites.

"Reg, are you kissing that meatball sub?" Alex asks making Willie, Luke, and I look at Reggie who, as Alex said, was indeed making out with his sandwich.

"What? It's what you do with the things you love!" Reggie remarks with a shrug.

"I take it you're all enjoying the feast?" Caleb asks the audience from the stage, which tells me it's time for what he likes to call dessert. The cheers and whistles back.

"See you in a flash," I say winking at the boys before teleporting to the opposite end of the stage from Caleb.

"So many delicious sights," He continues looking at me for a moment and then back to the audience. I internaly shudder as he continues. "So many tantalizing sounds. But, your eyes still hunger for more. Something sweet. Something... savory." Caleb adds as he makes his way up to stand on the grand piano.

"How many newcomers do we have in the club tonight?" Caleb asks. A few arms raise, including the boys who are still sitting at the table. "Ladies. Let's show our guests, how we do dessert. A one, two, three, four!" Caleb says as the same beat we had before plays again and the crowd cheers loudly.

I leap off the stage to do the dance I remember rehearsing often throughout the ddecades. Caleb and I take turns scat singing as the music continues with the trumpet. "Watch me make a move. Watch me make a move. Yeah," Caleb and I sing.

"What you gonna do? What you gonna do?" The dancers sing.

"I said watch me make a move. Watch me make a move, oh," I sing.

"What you gonna do? What you gonna do?" The dancers sing and I can see Willie and the boys singing along.

"I say, watch me make a move. Watch me make a move. Yeah." Caleb sings as he walks away from the piano and to the center stage.

"What you gonna do? What you gonna do?"

"Watch me make a move. Best you ever knew." I sing as I walk to the beat towards Willie's table and hold out my hands for him to take. He takes them as I vocalize and pull him to the dance floor.

"Life is good on the other side of Hollywood. Life is good on the other side of Hollywood. So welcome to the brotherhood. Where you won't be misunderstood. Life is good on the other side of Hollywood," Caleb and I sing as Willie and I dance to the choreography together. I take his had, twirling him away before spinning him back to me.

Luke, Reggie, and Alex stand up from their seats as a dancer dressed in pink dances with each of them. Caleb pulls me and another female dancer to him and pushes us to Luke and Reggie. Luke catches me before I can lose my balance. I chuckle as I right myself before asking, "Would you like to dance?"

Luke blinks at me for a moment before processing what I asked him. "Uh. Sure," Luke accepts my offer. And with that, I take his hands and start to lead a simple swing dance as Caleb continues to sing. I do a few steps to show Luke what to do and he's a surprisingly fast learner and does the steps correctly.

After a few movements, Luke lets go of one of our intertwined hands and raises the other, and twirls me around twice before pulling me back toward him. Since the movement was unexpected I ended up having my hand on his chest and my body closer to his than I thought they would.

His face is centimeters away from mine and as much as I try I can't tare my eyes away from his. I can feel our heavy breaths from how closer our chests are to each other. I clear my throat and take a step back entwining both our hands again and I smile before going back into the dance steps. This time I turn both of us as my finishing lyric comes up. I let go of our hands and belt loudly the last words of the song, "OF HOLLYWOOD!"

And with that, the song ends. Luke and I grin at each other before the sound of the clock chiming twelve O clock erupts the room. "Oooooooh. The haunting hour is upon us," Caleb says causing a few 'Ooooh's to echo around the room.

Luke looks up at the clock behind me and his joyful expression falls. "What?! How did that happen?" Luke says.

"What? What is it?" I ask concerned.

"I'm sorry, Victoria. Dude! We lost track of time-," Luke says trying to get Reggie's attention. "Reggie!" He whisper yells as he taps his shoulder.

"Not right now man!" Reggie says as he sways with a flapper girl with a firltatious grin.

"Reggie!" Luke says before picking him up by the waist and turning him to look at the clock. "We were supposed to be at Julie's school at nine!" Luke says. I share a look with the flapper girl and shrug as we both don't know what to do in this situation.

"Oh shoot. That's right. Mabey we can still make it! Where's Alex? Alex! We forgot-," Reggie starts.

"Up here!" Alex says from above us. We look up to see Alex sitting on one of the hanging hoops. "We forgot Julie. I know. This place is- one sec," Alex says as he kicks around for the hoop to slowly turn back around. "This place is some kind of time warp," he finishes.

"Poof down here bro. We gotta get going," Luke urgently says. Alex shifts a bit as he concentrates on getting down. He seems to be having touble. I consider what to do. If he falls it's not like he's gonna die... again. I sigh before desiding otherwise.

"I'll get him," I say before teleporting up so that my legs intertwine with the hoop, my hand keeping me up and steady. "Alex, I need you to take my hand," I say holding out a hand that he quickly grips.

I teleport us down and Luke quickly pushes Alex towards the stairs with Reggie and I trailing behind. "Thank you!" Alex yells back to me as he gets dragged away.

Luke and Alex stop as Caleb appears in front of them, blocking their way of leaving. "Gentlemen, what's the rush?" Caleb asks. "The party's just getting started, and you have an eternity after all."

"You know that girl who can see us? We sort of bailed on her. See there's this dance at her school and her friend Flynn is a super cool DJ, like-," Reggie starts.

"I don't think he has an eternity to hear the story," Alex interrupts his bandmate.

"Do you have to leave now?" I ask from behind them. Tonight was one of the few nights I ever felt remotely free at the club, and I would be lying if I wanted the night to end now.

Luke turns to look at me and answers, "If we could stay for a while longer we would but we're basically late for a gig."

"But what about my offer?" Caleb asks bringing the attention back to him. I furrow my brows 'offer? Wait-,' I think as I put it together, a chill running down my spine.

"It's very cool of you Mr. Covington, but, like I said we already have a-" Luke starts.

"A band of your own. I understand," Caleb interrupts, finishing Luke's sentence. The boys nod and move to go around him but Caleb speaks again. "Oh, boys. If you ever want to come back and fix that problem with your friend, the Hollywood ghost club is always open."

"Yeah, man. We'd love to come back," Luke replies and I can tell that was a wrong choice of words as Caleb reaches out his hand for them to shake, my eyes widening in dread.

"Music to my ears."

"No! Don't-" I start, but it's too late. They each shake his hand and look down to see the same purple tattoo-like stamp on their wrists like mine.

"Oh, it's just a little club stamp," Caleb tells them. I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding in defeat.

"Cool," Reggie replies.

"Until next time," Caleb says as they say their goodbyes before turning to me with dispicable grin. "Victoria. I saw what you just tried to pull, but you can't stop the inevitable," Caleb tells me once the guys are out of earshot. Willie comes up behind me as I respond.

"Do you really feel the need to have this much power?" I ask. "Does it bring you happiness to take away people's freedom? Or is it just some big game to you and we're just your pawns?" I ask, standing up for myself for the first time in a while. He seems to find my honesty amussing.

"It's not a game. But even if it was. You wouldn't be a pawn. You would be my secret weapon, the night, if you will. And to answer your first question, yes. I do feel the need to have this much power, because yes, it makes me happy. Now about your freedom. I was going to give you a task that means you get to leave freely but If you don't want-," He taunts.

"I want it!" I interrupt quickly, suddenly desparate. "What do you need me to do?" I ask, knowing that the task might not be the easiest to do if it allows me to leave the property.

"I want you to keep an eye on the boys. Keep me updated on what their decision is for my offer. If you try to convince them otherwise or go against any of my rules... I will know," He warns. "Off you go."

I turn to look at Willie with a meaningful smile and turn back to follow the guys out, hoping they didn't leave already. As I run to the doorway I change my appearance so that I'm now wearing some ripped black jeans and a cropped hoodie with red convers.

"Guys wait!" I say taking deep breaths once I finally catch up to them. I mentally thank my genetics for my long legs as I catch my breath. They turn around and wait for what I have to say, "You mind if I tag along?" I ask casualty once my breathing steadies.

They share a look before agreeing and catch me up on what's been happening over the past couple of weeks as travel to where this "Julie" girl is.

⋙♪⋘

"No, Reggie. I will not help you guys get revenge on a lifer," I tell them for the third time.

"But he stole our songs!" Luke complains.

"Fine. I'll think about it," I sigh as we step onto campus.

Turns out, Julie goes to my old high school. I haven't been here for a while so once were in the main corridor, I tell the guys that they can head into the auditorium without me.

I look through the trophy cabinets with names of students that went here over the years and walk down the halls for a few more minutes before giving up on what I was looking for. 'They probably got rid of it years ago,' I think to myself.

I start making my way to the auditorium and crack the door open where I hear the voice of a teen girl that sounds like she's about to cry, "... and make me look like a fool? Save it. You know what really sucks. Our songs were good. And all three of you knew what I've been through..." Julie, I assume, tells the guys.

It doesn't feel like my place to listen so silently I close the door and wait outside against a shelf until someone leaves.

Moments later, Julie runs out of the double doors, rubbing her eyes so she doesn't see me as she passes me down the hall.

The guys soon follow at a slower pace, as they clutch their chests. 'Crap. It started already?' I think to myself. "You guys okay?" I ask as their heads turn to face me and they remember that I came here with them.

"Uh, yeah. We're fine," Alex lies. I nod know that if they don't start to make a decision Caleb will do the same to me and start to walk with them down the halls. I can't exactly tell if this is a comfortable silence or not between them. The only sounds are the taps of our shoes against the floor.

Like before, my eyes wander the hall, not expecting to find anything. But when I see it, I stop in my steps and huff a smile. "What?" Luke asks, seeing that I've stopped.

"It's still here," I mutter to myself walking up to a trophy case which on the side has V + L engraved and running my fingers over the poorly carved handwriting.

I hear Luke quietly say a few words to Alex and Reggie before walking over to see what I'm looking at. " V and L? You wrote this?" Luke asks. I turn to look at him and notice that Alex and Reggie left.

"Yeah, decades ago. When I was sixteen," I say before turning back to the carving with a small smile.

Luke furrows his brows as he thinks before asking "Wait. How old are you?... If you don't mind me asking"

I huff a smile before answering " I died in 1982 when I was 18. This..." I say gesturing to the engraving. "...Is from my relationship at the time." I finish before sighing and putting my hand down, in my pocket.

"Oh. That sucks. I'm sorry," Luke apologizes, looking away from the engraving to me.

"Don't be. It was years ago," I say shaking my head slightly.

"You never wanted to show yourself to them?" Luke inquires out of ceriosity.

I think for a moment before answering. "I wanted her to move on. She's happy. I wasn't going to take that way from her," I reply although it's not the full truth.

Luke nods and watches our feet as we start to walk down the hall again. "My- My parents and I got into this huge fight before I died. I ran away... If I could take it back I would... but I can't,"Luke shares.

It seems like it was a lot for him to say so I put a comforting hand on his arm to show I'm listening. Luke looks back at me and gives an awkward side smile as thanks.

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A/N: Don't forget to comment and vote! Thank you for all the support! <3 ~ Zoe Manijeh

Word count: 2514