People gathered at the Molina home for the Julie and the Phantoms performance.
Carrie walked through the crowd and up to Nick before saying, "Hey."
Nick turned to see Carrie and let out a light sigh before asking, "What are you doing here?"
"Julie's one of my oldest friends." She crossed her arms and stared, facing the garage. "I'm sure she just forgot to invite me."
"Look, we're not getting back together, Carrie."
Carrie let out a wry laugh and met Nick's eye. "I've heard that before. Something doesn't add up about those holograms." She placed a hand on Nick's shoulder. "I wouldn't trust her," she removed her hand, "if I were you." She placed a hand to her chest.
"What's up, everybody? Time to put your hands up, do a little dance, yup. Here's the new anthem from Julie and the Phantoms," Flynn rapped, causing the audience to cheer and applaud.
Two boys opened the doors and Julie walked out before saying, "Thanks for coming, everyone!"
Julie began playing and singing. Shortly after, the band kicked in.
After Julie sang the first chorus, the boys and Ruth came in after her. Reggie and Luke strummed their guitars while Alex banged the drums while singing into the mic. Ruth sang into the mic Luke had given to her with a smile.
The audience, excluding Carrie, danced to the rhythm. Julie did her best to avoid looking at Ruth, because she couldn't afford to be distracted with curious thoughts.
Luke and Ruth stared at Julie as they sang, and the three sang together.
Julie climbed up the piano bench, then the piano before sitting on the end as the audience sang along with her.
Luke had a guitar solo while Julie sang. He walked closer to her as he played.
Julie stood on the piano as she sang.
Luke sang, still staring at Julie. Ruth joined his side and looked at Julie as she sang.
Julie caught Ruth's eye and smiled.
Alex and Reggie disappeared as Luke, Ruth and Julie stared into each other's eyes and sang the end of the song together.
Luke and Ruth disappeared, causing the audience to freak out.
---
As the girls ate pizza, Flynn said, "I can't say this enough; that was incredible. But epic fail on that eye contact thing." Julie chuckled.
"So how do you do those holograms?" Carlos asked.
"Oh, don't try to understand it, Carlos," Ray told him. "I don't."
"That's because you're old."
Ray fake laughed. "Funny guy. I'd send you to your room, but then who's gonna clean up this mess?"
Julie giggled before saying, "Don't poke the bear."
"Mm-mm," Flynn said before tutting and shaking her finger.
Carlos walked away and Ray asked, "So what are the boys and Ruth doing right now?"
Julie shrugged. "Hanging out, I guess. You know, or whatever you do from where they're from." The girls glanced at each other and nodded.
Julie then asked, "Hey, so what cameras did you use out there?"
Ray looked between the girls. "Interested in my work?" He sat across from them. "Well, uh... I shot with an XF105. That's what I used." The girls fist bumped each other. "The latest model. It's very good. But the other guys had the wide..." Julie and Flynn placed an arm under their chins as they listened.
---
After the show, the ghosts were playing basketball together.
"Whoo!" Reggie cheered, bouncing the basketball. "Feels like we should be, like, celebrating or something. What do you guys wanna do?"
The four groaned in pain as they fell to the ground. Luke crawled towards Ruth and pulled her into his arms.
"Not that," Alex said.
Luke frowned. "That wasn't like the other ones. It's getting worse. Ruthie, are you okay?"
Ruth nodded slowly. "That one hurt."
Luke hugged her tighter and she relaxed slightly in his embrace.
"Yeah, why is this happening to us?" Reggie wondered.
"It's because you guys are in serious trouble," Willie told them.
"Willie?"
"We need to talk." The ghosts blipped away.
---
They made their way closer to the Orpheum.
Luke frowned and said, "All these jolts that we're feeling is because Caleb put his time stamp on us?"
"Why would he do that?"
"He's threatened by you!" Willie cried. "He wants you under his control. I mean, you're the only ghosts that can be visible to lifers without his help."
Alex stopped walking and asked, "And you let him do this to us?"
"I can't stop him! He owns my soul. All right, he owns every soul at that club! If he even knew I was talking to you, he - he would destroy me." He let out a sigh.
Reggie crossed his arms and asked, "So if we don't join his club, then the weird power outage thing continues until there's no power left at all?"
"Yes," Willie confirmed.
"What exactly happens when the power goes out?" Ruth asked.
"That's... That's it. You're done."
"Uh-huh," Reggie said. "Yeah. And what exactly do you mean by "we're done"?" He spread his arms slightly.
"You just... You don't exist... anymore. Not anywhere."
"What?" Alex asked.
Luke stepped forward slightly as he retorted, "So we have no choice? We have to say goodbye to Julie, give up everything that we've built together, and work for Caleb?" Willie swallowed heavily. "That's some club you guys got going on." He stepped back.
"But there is another option," Willie said. "That's why I'm here."
"Another option?" Alex and Ruth repeated.
Willie pressed his hands together. "Just please hear me out." Luke glanced at the others. "All right. 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," Luke replied. "So what's our unfinished business?"
"I don't know, but since you all died at the same time, excluding Ruth, it might be something you need to do together."
"Why should we listen to a word you say?" Alex questioned. "Could Ruth's have something to do with the band as well?"
Willie stepped closer to the blond. "Because I care about you, Alex." Alex glanced down slightly. "And I hate that I brought you... and your friends into this mess. She could, I just... I don't know." He glanced back. "I, uh... I can't be away much longer. I'm so sorry. For everything." He disappeared.
Alex moved forward, hands still in his pockets, and faced his friends before saying, "This is all my fault. I... I met Willie, Willie introduced us to Caleb, and now... now we're screwed."
Ruth narrowed her eyes. "No. It's not your fault, Alex. It's Willie. He should have told us about Caleb."
"We all wanted to go see Caleb," Luke said, taking Ruth's fist. Without looking, he opened her hand and laced his fingers through hers.
"We have to tell Julie," Reggie told his sister and friends.
Luke shook his head. "No, we can't do that. This just means more loss in her life." He looked down. "But if we don't want Caleb to own our souls," he looked up, "then we have to figure out what our unfinished business is."
"Yeah, man," Alex agreed. "And how are we supposed to do that? All right? There was so much we wanted to do." Luke focused on something. "What is it?"
"Yeah, but the night we died, there was one thing we all wanted to do together." Alex moved to stand behind Luke.
The four stared at the theatre they would have played at and Alex asked, "Play the Orpheum?"
"Getting that gig was literally impossible," Alex reminded his friends.
"But you got it?" Ruth asked. "Whoa. You guys did it."
Alex continued. "Yeah, we did it, Ruthie. Even after people knew who we were, we had to hustle, call in every favor we had. It took us years."
The four jolted and doubled over in pain and groaned. They coughed and stared at the Orpheum.
"We don't have years," Luke and Ruth said as they squeezed their hands tighter.