· 。ﾟ☆: *.☽
▎ 𝑭 𝑨 𝑹 𝑭 𝑹 𝑶 𝑴 𝑵 𝑶 𝑹 𝑴 𝑨 𝑳 ▎
𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘-𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄 ━━ ENDING THE FIGHT.
࿔·ﾟ*ೃ࿐ ࿔* 🎸🥁🎤🎶
sometimes we need to lose the small
𝗯𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲𝘀 in order to win the war
･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ.･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ.
"SERIOUSLY, Ashley, you have to tell me how you did that!" Ray Molina was still gushing at his daughter's best friend as he, Ashley, Julie and Carlos began making their way up the path towards the Molina household. "You just appeared on stage by magic and it looked like you were one of the holograms!"
"A magician never reveals her secrets, pops." Ashley winked, grinning. She had called Ray 'pops' for as long as she could remember. It had been his idea in the first place after he had begged her to stop calling him Mr Molina and Ashley couldn't remember the time when she hadn't seen him as a second father.
After the crowd at the Orpheum had finished cheering and clapping for Julie, Ashley and their band who had disappeared, the two girls had run to the side of the stage and attacked a Flynn into a ginormous hug. This was the moment that Ashley truly felt like she was going to cry, a mixture of relief and gut-wrenching sadness filtering through her system, but she had managed to hold it back.
As Julie had changed back into some normal-feeling clothes, before her family came up to congratulate them, and Ashley had released herself from the leather jacket, Ashley had been forced to relay to her and Flynn what had happened and how on earth she had managed to poof onto the stage like a hologram.
Ashley had told them everything from the moment she met Caleb in the studio to the moment she had almost collapsed on to the Orpheum stage. The only part she had left out was the threat that Caleb had left with her, the words still rolling around in her head - now the boys had crossed over, that didn't matter, right?
When the Molina family had burst through the doors of the dressing room, there had been a lot of words thrown around at once. A lot of congratulations and praise and then Ray Molina questioning Ashley over and over again about how she had managed to appear on the stage like a hologram. Had Julie known? Had the tech crew known? Had she planned it with the band beforehand?
Ashley had had to throw together a story fast but she managed it.
In the end, they had stayed to watch a few of Panic! At The Disco's setlist songs, watching in secret from the back of the room - after Brendon Urie had managed to corner Julie and Ashley to praise them for their performance, which had sent both Ashley and Julie spiralling into a pit of astonishment - and had decided to head home, Ashley tucked in the back seat of Ray Molina's car.
Besides, she never had picked up her car keys from the studio when she went back for them. They were still buried beneath the leather jacket, her car still sitting outside Julie's house so how else was she supposed to get back?
"What if Ashley is a hologram?" Carlos spoke up, grinning.
Ashley looked down at the young boy, raising her eyebrows.
"Can you see me?" Ashley was smirking as he nodded. "Can you touch me?"
Carlos reached out his hand as if preparing to shove his hand through Ashley's shoulder, but he jabbed her on the arm instead, hand hitting solid flesh unlike what would happen if he had actually touched one of the boys. Carlos nodded again, hiding a chuckle, looking up to meet Ashley's eyes once more.
"Then I'm not a hologram, am I?" Ashley chuckled, smiling at him now. "I'm the same old Ashley who encourages all of your ghost hunting adventures, appreciates your fierce protection skills and secretly steals fries off your plate when you're not looking. Trust me, little man, it was all an illusion. I'm real."
Ashley reached forwards to ruffle Carlos' hair and he swatted her hands away, but he was smiling and Ashley knew he was happy. They were all happy.
That show at the Orpheum had been insane.
"You and your Phantoms were unbelievable tonight." Ray took a break from pestering Ashley as they reached Julie's front door, deciding to gush instead. "You'd know, I'd like to thank them for bringing music back into your life."
Ashley nudged Julie with her elbow, smiling.
"I already did." Julie chuckled. "We both did. But I didn't thank you, Papi."
Julie handed the dahlia flower she was still holding to her little brother as she made her way over to her father to pull him into an embrace. Ashley watched Carlos smile at the flower, the girl thinking about the three leaves she could see on the stem before Carlos broke the soft moment and spoke up again.
"Hey, Julie, Ashey, uh, can I talk to you both for a second?"
Ashley had a sneaking suspicion she knew what that was about.
"Yeah." Julie pulled away from her father to look at Carlos, shooting Ashley a look which the girl tried to subtly avoid. "Yeah, um, just give us a minute."
Ashley caught her eye and knew what she was thinking.
"Okay, I'll wait up." Carlos winked. "Don't ghost me!"
Ashley coughed to hide the chuckle that had bolted up her throat at the comment as Julie's eyes widened and she turned to look at her best friend, confusion dancing in her eyes. Now that was going to be an interesting story.
Ray chuckled from behind them as Julie turned back to him.
"Just a minute." Julie smiled at her dad as she leaned in to kiss his cheek, Ashley smiling at them both as they started to make their way down the steps. Ashley knew where they were headed, knew what they were about to do, and she could feel her heart pounding in her chest as she thought about it.
"Love you!" Julie turned back to her dad for a moment.
"Love you too. And I love you, Ash, even though you won't tell me how you did your trick. It's going to eat me up inside not knowing, you know."
"You're never gonna let that go are you, pops?" Ashley smiled at the man as she grinned back, watching as the two girls slowly began to walk away from him.
"Not until you tell me."
"Well, guess you'll never let it go." They were a distance away from him now but Ashley was still calling out to him. "Oh, and by the way, love you too!"
She heard Ray Molina chuckle as they made their way down the path.
"Your brother knows, by the way. About the boys?" Ashley saw Julie's mouth open to speak but she waved her hand, cutting her off. "Don't ask me how he figured it out because I have no idea, I just know he knows. I found out a lot when I went back to the studio before, some things I'm still confused about myself."
Julie chuckled, nudging Ashley's shoulder with hers.
"Well, he's going to be disappointed when he finds out they're gone."
That comment made Ashley's heart clench and Julie saw her face twist, taking the blonde's hand in hers. Ashley had been holding in her emotions since the boys had disappeared from the stage, but there was going to be a moment, maybe when she was in her car in the morning, driving home, that she would break.
She couldn't believe the boys were truly gone.
When the two of them reached the studio, they both paused outside the doors, hesitating. Julie shot Ashley a look - there was a part of them both that secretly wanted to walk away, to not accept that they were a duo again, but they knew they had to do this - and the blonde nodded, placing a hand on the door.
The studio was dark when the doors opened, shadows bouncing off the walls with the lights switched off. Neither Ashley nor Julie reached to switch them on as they stepped further into the studio's darkness, still hand in hand.
Ashley would never be able to walk in there again without thinking about something that had happened in each part of the room. The space near the loft, where the instruments were, where Ashley had laid eyes on her brother for the first time, the brother she thought was gone for good. The sofa, where she had sat with Reggie, pouring her heart to him, the first time she had wondered whether the pain inside her was more than just panic. The grand piano at the back of the room, where she had written 'Finally Free' with Luke, where she had heard Alex using 2020 slang, or trying to, where she had learnt of them crossing over.
Where she had told Reggie she was in love with him.
Ashley took a trembling breath and Julie gave her hand a squeeze.
After puffing out a sigh, Julie began to speak.
"I-" the girl paused, not knowing what to say to the boys she hoped were listening to her words- "I know I already said this but, uh... thank you, guys."
In the darkness, Ashley saw Julie look towards her, asking her with her eyes if she had anything to say, but she didn't. Ashley had a feeling her words wouldn't come for a while, even if there were so many thoughts bouncing around her head.
Even if Ashley did have words though, she wouldn't have been able to say them. Because before Ashley had even had a chance to shake her head, there was another a voice, a voice that, with a sickening realisation, Ashley recognised.
"You're welcome."
There was a chorus of disgruntled groans and someone hissing, "Dude!" as Ashley and Julie locked eyes with one another, expressions confused, but panicked. Ashley broke away from her best friend for the first time to scramble for the light, flicking the switch so the studio blossomed with a dull, yellow glow.
In the centre of the room were the boys.
Ashley felt a jolt in her chest at the sight of them, so sharp and painful she almost yelped out. They were lying on their backs on the ground, huddled up, coughing and spluttering, groaning without even meaning to, and it wasn't hard to tell they were in so much pain. Luke was the only one who lifted his head to meet their eyes when the lights came on, the other two having no energy.
Why were they here? What happened to them crossing over?
Julie seemed to have the same exact questions.
"Why... why are you here?" She sounded panicked. "I... I thought-"
Her voice was cut off by a blinding flash of white light as the boys were hit with another electrifying jolt, letting out yelps and groans as the jolts buzzed through them. They seemed to be hurting now more than ever. Why was this still happening to them? Had the Orpheum not been their unfinished business?
"I thought you crossed over. Why didn't you cross over?"
With another sickening jolt of realisation that bloomed painfully behind Ashley's ribs, the girl gasped softly, the noise coming out choked as it got blocked by tears in her throat. She remembered the ghost club, remembered the words.
"Oh my god." Her words came out as a whisper. "Caleb was right."
"I guess playing the Orpheum wasn't our unfinished business." Alex had got to his feet but couldn't stand without holding onto one of the amps that were leaning up against the wall. Ashley had to fight every painful urge not to go and help him stand, knowing nothing she could do would be helpful to him now.
"Point, Caleb."
Ashley felt her heart clutch as Reggie spoke up. She didn't even need to look at him to know how much pain he was in, she could hear it in his voice, but when she lifted her eyes to him, she wished she hadn't, the feeling of sharp pain so evident in her chest that she almost cried out. He looked so defeated.
What were they supposed to do?
"We wanted you guys to think that we crossed over, so we pretended to." Luke had sat up from his laying position, teetering softly as he held onto himself.
"We just... we had nowhere else to go."
He was crying and Ashley hated that neither she nor Julie could do anything but watch this happen. A sick feeling rolled over in Ashley's gut as she thought of what might've happened had they not come into the studio to say thank you to the boys once more. The boys would've been lying there, in pain, alone, all by themselves, and they would've been destroyed. Ashley and Julie will have spent their whole lives believing they had crossed over when they were just gone.
"We thought you guys would go straight to bed."
"Yeah, well, I knew they were going to come out here, but nobody ever listens to me-" Ashley would've admired how alike she and her brother sounded in that moment had they not been overtaken by yet another electrifying jolt of pain. Ashley flinched when they yelped out again, groaning, the pain getting worse.
"You have to save yourselves right now." Ashley's voice came out choked as she suddenly found her words, moving across the studio so she was standing right in front of Reggie. He wanted nothing more than to just stand up and hug her, do something, but he didn't know what would happen if he tried to stand. "Go join Caleb's club, please. It's better than not existing at all.
"Please just go. Go! Poof off! Do something! Please. Do it for me, for us."
Ashley didn't realise she was crying until she felt the tears on her face but there was no use trying to stop them when they were already rolling down her cheeks.
"We're not going back there." It was Reggie speaking and Ashley felt a chill ripple up her spine as something cold seeped into her skin. When she looked down at her hand, Reggie was mimicking holding onto hers, his hand going right through her skin. When she looked up to meet his eyes, he was crying too.
Luke had gotten to his feet now and was making his way to stand between Julie and Ashley, limping slightly as the jolts took a toll on his limbs.
"No music is worth making if we're not making it with you guys." Luke looked between Julie and Ashley, a serious look flashing through his teary expression.
"No regrets."
That set Ashley's emotions off on an all-time high as she backed in between her brother and the boy she was in love with, still curled up in a sitting position on the floor. She couldn't believe that after everything the boys had fought for, they would so much rather cease to exist than make music with anyone but them.
They truly were the best things to ever happen to them.
Ashley, her focus on trying not to cry too hard, completely missed the scene in front of her as Julie took Luke into her arms and held him, her breath ragged.
"We love you guys."
Reggie had tried to stumble down towards Ashley, not wanting her to be on her own until there was a soft, glowing, yellow light coming from Luke and Julie's direction and his attention was caught by it as he looked back up towards them.
It was in that moment that Julie realised exactly what she was doing.
She was hugging him. She was holding him. She could touch him.
Julie pulled away from the hug for a moment, not taking her hands off of Luke's arms as Ashley looked up to the scene in front of her, the shock that flooded through her system almost drowning every sense she had.
"How can I feel you?" Julie looked down at her hands.
"I- I- I don't know."
Julie's first instinct was to reach up and put her hands on his face, trying to prove to herself that this was real, she was touching him, and Luke did the same, mirroring her actions, Ashley watching with warmth trickling into her heart as they held each other in the middle of the room. They were both smiling tearily.
As Julie and Luke tried to wrap their heads around the fact they were touching each other, Ashley and Reggie had started making their way to their feet. Ashley didn't want to get too close, not knowing what would happen if she did.
This was some type of universal magic she didn't know how to control.
"I feel stronger." Luke had turned around to his best friends, eyes no longer full of panic. He looked stronger to, his eyes glowing almost brightly.
"Alex, Reggie, come."
Reggie caught Ashley's eyes, almost asking for permission, and the blonde nodded towards Julie, trying to muster a smile. There was still panic in her chest, so painful she didn't know whether she would be able to get any words out.
Alex and Reggie slowly began to make their way over to Julie, trying to sling their arms over her shoulders but nothing happened. Both of them went right through her, as they were so used to doing, the only person they were able to touch being Luke. Julie's expression flooded with bright concern.
"It's not working. Why isn't it working?" Luke's voice came out soft and worried until Ashley practically saw the lightbulb flick on in Julie's head, her eyes brightening as she turned her gaze and looked towards Ashley.
"Ash Attack," Ashley almost lurched at the sound of her name, "come here."
Ashley was confused, but she made her way over to the small circle they had created in the studio, going to stand between Alex and Luke. The blonde reached out a trembling hand, unable to keep her fingers steady as she reached up to place a hand on Alex's shoulder, expecting her fingers to go right through him.
But they didn't. She was touching him.
Ashley choked on a breath, tearing her hand away in shock as if she'd been burnt by Alex's skin. Both her and her brother were looking down at her hand as if Ashley had just punched him hard in the shoulder, the drummer lifting his fingers up to brush his shoulder where Ashley's hand had just been.
Ashley had just touched her brother.
"Oh my god." Ashley's voice was shaking as she breathed out the words. "Oh my god I just- I mean- what the heck? Julie, try touching them again, I mean-"
Julie knew what Ashley was heading towards.
She had been heading down the same path.
When Julie reached up to take Reggie and Alex by the back this time, she felt solid people underneath her arms, Reggie and Alex now touchable as she wrapped them both up into an embrace. Julie let out a trembling breath.
Ashley has been the missing piece of the puzzle.
Ashley almost jumped back when she felt an arm go around her shoulder but when she looked up to realise the arm belonged to Alex, her whole body relaxed. Luke did the same on the other side, able to touch her too, losing himself in this new ability to touch his best friend, as all five of them bundled each other into a giant group hug, all of them completely baffled at what was happening.
They could touch each other, at last.
As the five of them clung onto each other, almost desperately, Alex and Reggie began glowing with the same soft, glowing light that Luke had been admitting when Julie had taken hold of him, the light surrounding them all like a thick blanket. When they pulled away, Alex and Reggie's eyes seemed brighter, new energy in them that hadn't been there before, strength flooding into their skin.
"Woah." Reggie let out a breath, eyes still watery as he looked up to meet Ashley's eyes to find she was already looking at him. His fingers were itching for him to reach out across the circle and touch her, even if it was just to touch her shoulder, but he knew there would be time for that after they figured out what the hell was going on. "I... I... I don't feel as weak anymore."
"Yeah, me neither." Alex stumbled on his words and Ashley could feel his hand still brushing her back as if he couldn't stop touching her, almost like if he did, he wouldn't be able to anymore. "Not that, you know, I was ever that weak."
All of them chuckled at his comment.
There was a moment of stillness as everyone looked to one another, all of them wondering what was going to happen now, how things were going to change, until Ashley couldn't fight the itch anymore and she turned towards her brother, colliding with him in the biggest hug she had ever given anyone.
If Ashley had waited five seconds more, Alex would've done the same thing.
Ashley's brother wrapped his arms around his little sisters shoulders and pulled her close, gently rubbing her arm, as if he couldn't get enough of the fact that he was finally able to touch her. Despite the heaviness in her stomach, it fluttered at the feeling of her body pressed against his. She sunk into the warmth of his side, appreciative of the simple gesture and after weeks of being unable to touch him, it felt like the best feeling in the world. His touch made the room warmer somehow, her future within its walls seeming a little less bleak.
While she was in his embrace, she could feel his body shaking, but she wasn't going to judge him for getting emotional, feeling tears on her own face as she pressed her face to his shoulder, taking in every ounce of him that she could.
She had been twelve the first time she had learnt she had a brother. If future Ashley had told that twelve-year-old girl that five years later, she would be hugging the big brother she had been grieving over, she wouldn't have believed her, because how would that have ever been possible? It shouldn't have been,
But here they were, holding one another in an embrace so tight Ashley could barely breathe. Ashley was having a hard time convincing herself she wasn't dreaming, that this whole situation wasn't just a filament of her imagination.
"Ash, I love you." Alex was stumbling on his words through the tears as the siblings pulled away from one another, trying his best to steady his voice even though it wasn't working. "I am never even thinking about leaving you again."
Ashley let out a chuckle that was choked with her own tears, reaching up to brush her hand across his face, the same thing he had tried to do the day they first met. He mirrored her action and when she felt his hand on her cheek and saw the fondness flash across his face, she wanted to start crying again.
This was everything Ashley had ever wanted and more.
Alex pulled his sister back into his arms again without another thought, as if he couldn't get enough if the feeling, knowing that this was going to be his chance to have her all to himself before a certain somebody diverted all of her attention to him. Ashley melted into his hug again, still completely baffled.
"Oh my god, you guys are gonna make me cry again, stop!" The siblings pulled away from the hug and when Ashley turned to look where the voice had come from, she could see Julie wiping her eyes with her sleeves, trying to fan air into her face with her hands. "My mascara looked great before just now."
Ashley opened her mouth to say something before she felt arms wrap around her waist lifting her from the ground as she let out a surprised squeal. She knew who this was by the flash of blue fabric she had seen at the corner of her eye.
"Luke put me down!" Ashley was laughing now, as the boy spun the girl in excited circles. "I have the ability to hit you now and trust me, I will use it."
Ashley's heart melted when she heard him laugh but she let out a sigh of relief when he put her back on her feet again, bouncing around her so he was stood in front of her, grinning widely in her direction. You would never have known that just a moment ago he and his bandmates were lying weak and defenceless on the floor of the studio, bouncing around her like an excited puppy the way he was.
The boy didn't hesitate to pull his best friend into his arms, grinning.
"This means I don't have to haunt you for not writing new music." When Luke pulled away after holding Ashley in a tight embrace for a moment, he was still grinning. "It just means I can bug your ass to write music from down here."
Ashley, for the first time since they had met, shoved his shoulder so hard he almost stumbled backwards into Julie. There was a thrill behind the action, finally being able to do it after not being able to for weeks on end.
"You're gonna have to be careful what you say to her now, Luke." Julie was smirking, her arms crossed from where she was standing a little distance away. "She will use that ability to her advantage as much as she possibly can."
Luke lifted his hands in surrender as he grinned at his best friend.
It was when the room fell silent, a tense silence, the people in the studio anticipating something they knew was going to happen when Ashley felt the electricity prickling on her skin, seeing him from the corner of her eye. She didn't want to look up, knowing if she did it would make the whole thing real and she was completely unsure of how she felt that it was actually happening.
"You're not even gonna look at me, Ash Attack?"
The blonde let out a choked chuckle, feeling the emotion rise in her chest again as she lifted her eyes to meet his. They were mirroring one another's teary expression and Ashley tried to take a step towards him, but couldn't, frozen.
"Now, this is what we're not going to do." Ashley turned at the sound of Alex's voice and looked to meet his gaze. "We're not going to wait weeks for something like this to happen and then stand still. So, here's what we're gonna do."
Ashley's brother stepped behind Ashley and lifted the girl from the ground as she let out another surprised squeal, carrying her the short distance between her and Reggie and placing the girl down in front of him. Ashley could feel her hands shaking violently and she tried to ball them into fists to cease the trembling.
"We're gonna turn around," Alex was backing away slowly as he spoke, towards where Julie and Luke were standing in the other side of the room, "so just pretend we're not here. Do whatever you guys need to do."
Catching his eyes one last time, Alex grinned widely at his sister, winking, before turning his back to her and Reggie, Luke and Julie doing the same. They weren't exactly alone, but it was the best they were going to get in that moment.
When Reggie reached his hand out, Ashley didn't miss his fingers trembling as he lifted his hand to her cheek, brushing his knuckle down her skin with such a gentle touch Ashley thought she might cry. It was everything she had ever wanted, everything she had ever needed and there was a part of her that still couldn't believe it was real. Touching him like this, it was happening.
Ashley reached a shaking hand up to cup his cheek and the bassist seemed to lean into her touch, melting into the feeling of having her hand against his skin.
"Do you know those moments where you've wanted something for so long-" Reggie's voice came out choked as if he was trying not to cry- "and then when it happens, you have no idea how to act? This is one of those moments."
Ashley chuckled, flushing. She hadn't realised how similar their thoughts had been until he was speaking his mind out loud to them both.
"Kiss him. Kiss him right now or I will."
The blonde choked on a breath, unable to hold back the laugh she felt bubbling in her throat. Reggie flushed from in front of her, rubbing the back of his neck.
Ashley didn't even need to turn around to know who had whispered that.
The two of them met eyes once more, teary looks mirroring one another and they both knew it was coming. Reggie gave Ashley a shy look before he pulled her face closer and their lips met. He kissed her and the world fell away. It was slow and soft, comforting in ways that words would and could never be. His hand rested below her ear, his thumb caressing her cheek as their breaths mingled.
As cheesy as it sounded, Ashley felt like she was in a movie. For that single moment, time stopped. She didn't care about the people around them in the studio who she knew were now watching them excitedly - quite frankly, she barely even noticed they were there. It was just her and Reggie in the room.
Reggie, in all of his seventeen years of life and twenty-five years of the afterlife, would admit that he had never, ever felt like this before. Warm, strong, grateful, appreciated. Loved. This was an entirely new feeling. It was going to be a complicated relationship between them, they were going to face so many hurdles, but the boy knew that the girl he was holding was meant to be in his life.
Ashley was meant to be his.
Needing to catch their breath, the two of them pulled away from the moment they were having, leaning their foreheads against one another as Reggie let out a flustered chuckle. Ashley felt his breath on her face, warm as it had never been.
"That was nice." Reggie chuckled a little, his eyes squeezed shut.
"Hell yeah, it was."
The two of them stayed in that same position, holding onto one another before Reggie pulled Ashley into a hug, the blonde allowing herself to melt into his arms. His hug was stronger than any Ashley had ever known as if just holding her wasn't quite enough. In that moment of feeling him so close to her, she was awake somehow, more alive than she had been in so very long of a time.
It was this kind of love that made everything else feel possible.
"Oh my god, I'm so single!" Ashley chuckled into Reggie's shoulder as she heard her brother crying out in anguish. "Why does nobody want to love me?"
Pulling away from Reggie but not removing herself from his side, as if the ability to touch him would disappear if she could no longer feel him, the two of them stepped closer to their friends so they were all back in the centre of the room again. It was comforting for some reason for Ashley to feel Reggie's hand sitting on the small of her back, massaging circles into her spine.
"Alex, you had to have known that was coming." Julie turned to Ashley's brother, her eyebrows raised. "You can't expect us to be given the gift of touch and for Reggie and Ashley not to be all over one another. It was a given."
Ashley, flushing a bright red, buried her head into the side of Reggie's neck, trying to hide her flush from all of her friends as the bassist chuckled softly.
"Okay, maybe I should've expected it." Alex shrugged in defeat. "But while we're all still here, do you think we could try that hug thing one more time?"
All of them chuckled as they pulled one another into a tight group hug, Ashley once more nestled in between her brother and the boy she loved. It felt so safe to be able to finally hold one another in a band circle after weeks of hovering their hands in the air, unable to truly appreciate each other as they wanted.
Ashley couldn't imagine a situation more perfect.
When they all pulled away again, there was a moment of comfortable silence until Ashley noticed the boys' wrists beginning to shine brightly as she grabbed Reggie's arm and hauled it into the centre of the circle. Alex and Luke placed their arms next to his and all five of them watched as the blue stamps which had been invisibly sitting on their wrists for the past few weeks got brighter and brighter until they lifted themselves from the boys' wrists and, like Ashley's had done, disappeared into the air in a shower of purple and blue ashes.
"What do you think that means?" Julie was looking between them all.
The boys let out soft, choked sobs again.
"I think the bands back."
"WAS it frightening being trapped in Caleb's club as a human?" Julie's words left a soft cloud of cold, white smog floating above her head as she looked up towards the sky, stars twinkling in the black of the night. "I mean, imagining what could've happened? Being tied up and shocked by the stamp."
After the whole emotional ordeal in the garage, Julie and Ashley had climbed onto the roof of the studio to breathe, needing some time away from the phenomenon that had just occurred. They both adored that they could now touch the boys but they just needed a breather. It was a lot to take in all in one go.
Ashley, from where she was laying beside Julie on the roof, lifted one of her wrists above her face, stroking the soft, red rings which encircled both of her hands - they were bruising, but not too dark, so as long as Ashley kept her hands away from her parent's eyes for the next week, she should be out of the woods.
"I guess so, but I would've been more frightened had the boys not been there." Ashley turned her head to give her friend a sideways glance. "Them being there helped me feel safer, somehow. I knew Caleb wasn't going to hurt me. He was too desperate for the boys to join his club and he knew they would never if he did."
Julie sighed softly into the night.
"I'm glad he let you go."
"Me too, JuJu, me too."
The two of them lay in silence, listening to the distant sound of midnight L.A. traffic, honking horns and distant voices, cats mewing in the streets below them, the sounds of the boys' soft voices floating up from the open studio doors.
"Do you think this means we're apart of their souls now?" Julie spoke up again after a while of silence. "Their instruments were connected to their souls and they were the only things they could touch. Maybe that same rule applies to us now."
"I would like to think it does." Ashley smiled into the sky, seeing the stars. "It would be nice to think about being apart of Alex's soul. Whatever it is, I'm grateful for it, because now it means I can fight them whenever they get on the wrong side of me and they can't use their ghost skin as protection against me."
Julie coughed out a laugh, curling up on the roof as she smiled. There was a shuffling sound from below the roof like someone was jogging out onto the drive and when Ashley sat up to see what was going on, Luke was stood in the middle of the driveway, hands on his hips, eyebrows raised when Ashley caught his eye.
"You know the doors are open, right?" Even from so high up, Ashley could see the he was smirking at her. "We can hear every word you guys are saying."
"That's because you're nosy." Ashley smiled at him, melting a little inside when he smiled back. "If you don't stop listening in on our words and don't shut up complaining, I will come down there and get you. I can do that now."
Ashley watched as Luke was overtaken with a laugh.
"Love you, Ash Attack."
"I love you too, Luke."
Leaning back against the roof, Ashley let Luke go back into the studio as she let out a soft chuckle, shaking her head. When she turned to Julie, she was smiling.
"He loves you, you know?" Julie grinned. "You make his life more interesting."
"He loves us." Ashley reached out to rub her best friends arm. "I can't believe it's over, this fight with Caleb, I can't believe we beat him in the end."
"Do you really think it's over?" Julie turned her head back to the sky, holding onto Ashley's hand now. "I mean, you heard what he said. 'You tell those boys of yours that this isn't over'. What do you think he meant by that?"
"He could've meant the stamps." Ashley had to admit, she had been thinking about Caleb's words a lot since what happened in the studio, how serious he had been when he had threatened her. "And now they're gone, whatever hold he had on the boys is gone too. He can't control them anymore. He's lost."
Julie nodded, agreeing. The stamps were gone, the boys were okay.
Things would be better from there on out. The fight was over.
Or was it...?