Ghosted

Chapter 21: Crumbling Walls

I almost deleted this entire chapter bc I really don't like it. I feel like it's unnecessary angst.

After Reggie left the stage he started walking down a long hallway that appeared to have no end, but Reggie was sure he'd figure it out eventually or find Alex and Luke and they'd figure it out for sure.

"Reggie! Hey there you are." Alex runs up to him.

"Alex! That's was easy I thought looking for you would be like super hard." Regge smiles. "What did Caleb do to you, are you okay? Do you know where Luke is?"

"That's a lot of questions, but you know what, let's go this way and maybe I'll answer some of them." Alex says pushing Reggie in the direction he was coming from.

"No Alex, I just came from that way. Caleb put me there, I probably shouldn't go back that way." Reggie says but Alex keeps pushing him along and Reggie immediately realizes something is off.

He steps away from Alex, having a feeling that's not really him. "Yeah, um, I think, I'm just gonna go the other way." He says, trying to step away but "Alex"grabs his arm with a firm grasp, the kind of grasp the Alex Reggie knows never uses.

"You shouldn't go that way, trust me." The imposter Alex says.

Reggie pulls his arm free and rushes into another room closing the door behind him as if it would stop a ghost.

Heart racing knowing he only has seconds to come up with a plan, he quickly looks around the room for something to use to fight off the fake Alex. A baseball was right by his feet as if it was waiting for him. He quickly grabs it and as soon as he does, the fake Alex poofs in the room in front of Reggie. He squeezes his eyes shut, hoping he's not wrong about this being an imposter, and swings the bat at Alex's face and he disappears in a cloud of dark smoke and powder.

"Okay I really hope that was a fake Alex and I didn't just kill the real one." Reggie exhales.

He heads out of the room, keeping his bat at the ready just in case. He looks in all the rooms, maybe he'll find a room similar to the one he was in before and Luke or Alex with be there. The real ones that is.

Reggie pushes the next door open and it slowly creeps open and Reggie hears two voices, a man and a woman. It didn't sound like the two voices were very happy with each other. He couldn't even understand what they were saying, it sounded like gibberish but he knew they were mad at each other.

Standing in the door way, he saw his parents arguing back and forth. Voices getting louder and louder with each comeback. His father's fists were curled into tight and angry balls of fire and he could see the red on his mothers faces from where his fiery fist already burned her.

Then he saw the little boy in the corner, shaking like a leaf and stuffing his fingers in his ears as tears rolled down his face as his name was thrown in the argument, feeling completely at blame for all of this.

Reggie didn't realize this was his memory and that little boy was him. He saw that little boy and thought it was Steve and instantly felt the need to protect him, to get him out of there.

He steps further into the room and the shouting suddenly becomes ten times as loud. The shouting is so loud it was almost debilitating. The ground starts shaking like an earthquake, giving Reggie a hard time finding his balance. The walls rumble and crack, the picture frames that hung on the wall depicting the family they weren't fall off and shatter. Glass flies everywhere as if the shards got swept up and formed a tornado. It's like Reggie stuck his head in a blender with a bunch of chainsaws.

He couldn't hear anything except loudness, it was so loud it felt like he couldn't even see. The roof starts caving in and the two adults keep arguing, oblivious bro what was happening around then. Reggie wasn't even sure if they knew they were the cause of the world falling apart.

He rushes in and grabs the little boy by the hand and quickly leads him out, heart pounding and head throbbing. He shuts the door and sits on the ground with his back against the wall, breathing in and out, trying to calm down. Trying to get the shouting to stop, it was all on his head now.

Just breath. You got Steve out, he's okay that's all that matters.

He looks to his left and right but the little boy was gone. He was never really there to begin with, none of it was.

"Steve?!" Reggie says. He opens the door to the room he was in and it was like it's never been touched. It was just like all the other old and dusty rooms he went into. He sighs, realizing it was all fake. But it didn't make it feel any less real. He still left that feeling in his heart and he could still hear their faint shouts and curses at each other. He could still feel the shards of glass cutting his skin as he shielded the little boy from them.

The little boy. Reggie realizes now that little boy wasn't Steve but was him. He remembers that night. There was an earthquake and his parents were shouting, making it seem scarier. He thought as a kid the earthquake only happened in his house and it was because of his parents. He thought their argument caused it, and he caused their argument. He caused the earthquake.

Now earthquakes and arguments are one in the same. Whenever people around him start shouting at each other with hate and anger, his world shakes and crumbles, and sometimes earthquakes leave a permanent crack in the world. Much like that one with his parents did.

"Reggie? Hey you okay?" Luke sits down next to him.

"Um...yeah." Reggie says with a nod but his voice was tight as he held back his tears. "Yeah I'm all good."

At least Luke ks here now. I'm not alone. Reggie thought. There was comfort in one of his friends being there.

"Why'd you do it?"

"Huh?" Reggie looks over at Luke.

"Ruin your parents relationship." Luke says. "You ruined it, you ruin everything. You ruined their relationship and left Steve alone to pick up the pieces, and when he couldn't, he died and it's your fault and you know it."

Reggie grabs the bat and whacks the fake Luke with it and like the fake Alex he explodes and disappears. But him being fake didn't make the words hurt less. Maybe a little, since it wasn't really Luke saying those things, but it still hurt.

He always blamed himself for his parents relationship. He didn't really know why, but he always felt at fault. And then when he died, all he wanted was to go back and help Steve. He felt guilty that Steve had to deal with what he broke.

He sighs in frustration and stands up, grabbing his bat, ready to use it against any fake Alex or Luke at any moment and next time he wasn't going to be fooled. The fakes were good, but their general presence didn't provide the same warmth and comfort the real ones did.

**
After agreeing to give Caleb her soul, Julie found herself in a room much different from the old dusty rooms in the abandoned hotel. It had dark red walls and hard wood floor that she was laying on, making her back ache.

She sits up, vision feeling a little fuzzy, and looks around the room. There is no doors, and no windows. No way out. But her heart breaths a sigh of relief when hand sees Flynn lying in the corner.

"Flynn!" She quickly crawls over to her. Her legs still felt numb as she was still waking up. "Flynn, wake up." She shakes her best friend. "Flynn!"

Flynn doesn't move or respond, but Julie can see her subtle breathing chasing her to relax a little knowing she was at least still alive. Flynn was her whole world, she doesn't know what she's do if she lost her.