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Chapter Four
LIFE GOES ON
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Mara Adams was woken up early as her phone rang through the silence of the house. She rolled over and picked up her phone, expecting it to be a telemarketer. But when she received the news that her daughter has been found, she quickly jumped out of bed. That led her to ask the question, "Is she okay?"
The police officer, on the other end of the line, could hear the hope starting to bubble up inside of Mara, and it hurt her to have to tell her the truth. "No, actually, I'm sending officers over to your house now." She spoke, unable to tell Mara the truth over the phone. She didn't want to be the one who broke the news to her.
Mara had been waiting ten years for any sort of lead that might suggest where her daughter had gone. She had spent many countless nights sitting on Rosalie's bed and staring at their picture. She wanted more than anything for her daughter to be safe and return home unharmed, but she knew that would be too good to be true. A part of her feared the worst even in the beginning, but now a decade later, she was almost certain. But still, hearing that the officers were coming to her house to tell her something regarding her daughter did little to spark hope. Instead, it filled her with dread. She had prepared herself for years of hearing that her daughter was dead, but it was something she never wanted to hear.
She quickly got out of bed and threw on some clothes before making her way into the living room. It wasn't too long before there was a knock on the front door. Mara let out a breath and walked over to the door, and opened it. Two officers stood there, and when they saw her, they looked between each other, wondering who would speak first.
"Ms. Adams, your daughter, was found this morning." The taller officer said softly. It was hard for him to say this, considering he had a daughter of his own and couldn't imagine the pain that Mara must be going through.
Despite the growing fear of what these people were going to tell her, Mara looked up at them, hopeful, "Where is she?"
"I'm sorry, but your daughter is in at the forensic lab." The other officer said, and after those words left his mouth, Mara felt like the air had been sucked out of her, and she struggled to breathe. She had to lean forward and brace herself against the door to keep from falling to the ground. "We can take you there if you would like." The officer said.
Tears flooded her eyes, but she nodded her head. She needed to see her because she knew that if she didn't, then she would always believe in the possibility that Rosalie is still out there somewhere.
...
The three guys stood outside the building where Reggie's house used to be. They had been looking for it when they were interrupted earlier by the police. Though Reggie was sad about his house no longer being here, he couldn't seem to take his mind off of Rosalie, the girl they had just met. None of the guys could. She was the first ghost they had seen since they had been back. Granted, they have only been back for like a day.
The three of them started to leave the beach, wanting to get back to the studio. They had just met Julie, but they already wanted to tell her what happened today and how they met another ghost. But they all stopped when they saw a poster hanging on the post beside the sidewalk. It had a picture of a girl that looked a lot like Rosalie with the words "Missing" in big red letters. The three guys shared a look, knowing that they didn't know the whole truth about Rosalie.
Alex seemed to be the only one who put it all together. How she went missing ten years ago, and her body was just now found. He figured she had been murdered. He shuddered at the thought, wishing desperately that he was wrong.
"That's Rosie!" Luke said as he pointed at the picture on the poster. The other two guys stared at him, weirdly, "What?"
"You already gave her a nickname? You've known her for like five minutes!" Alex said.
Luke shrugged his shoulders, "Well, yeah, but at least I didn't cry for twenty-five years."
Reggie looked between them and then back to Alex, "Luke's got a good point."
Alex shook his head, "What does that even have to do with anything?"
Luke was fixing to answer when Reggie spoke up, "Who cares, come one, let's go tell Julie we made a new friend." He said excitedly.
"Okay, just because we meet another ghost doesn't make her our friend, and besides, she was trying to get rid of us the whole time," Alex said, but she followed his friend back to the studio.
The three of them appeared in the studio shortly after and saw Julie finishing up a song that she had been playing. Each one of them held a look of shock on their face as they listened to the last bit of the song. They now know that Julie had lied to them, but they could also understand why. Alex reached out to give Julie a hug as well but was quickly stopped by Luke. Being as quiet as possible, Luke gave Alex a look, and the three of the poofed out of the studio and stood outside the doors.
Once they were outside of the garage, Alex turns to Luke, annoyed, "Dude, why'd you stop me? " He asked. "Julie needs a hug."
Luke stared at the door to the garage, then turned back to Alex, "Bro, a ghost hug isn't the feel-good moment you think it is alright." Luke says as he adjusts his sleeveless hoodie on his shoulders, "Trust me. What Julie needs right now is a bit of privacy."
"You know what? I think you poofed us out because you can't handle when other people cry." Alex accused him. "I should know. I cried in a room for twenty-five years and didn't get a single hug from either of you." He said as he pointed a finger and both Luke and Reggie.
Reggie, who had been quiet this whole time, reached out his arms, "All right. Bring it in." He said as he went in to give Alex a hug.
Alex stood facing Luke and turned around a little and held up his hand, "Don't touch me!"
Reggie stopped and whispered softly to himself, "This is why no one hugs you."
Luke looked between the two of them, "Okay." He spoke slowly, bringing the attention back to him. "I think the first thing we should do, once we get the courage to go in there, is ask Julie why she lied about playing the piano."
His friends nodded their heads, "Yeah, you know, maybe tell her how amazing she is." Alex agreed.
"She's legit. I got ghost bumps." Reggie said, and then he held up his arm from the others to see.
Before the other guys could respond to him, a girl walked past them while crying, making them all stop talking and stare at her as she went into the garage where Julie is. "On my gosh. Was she crying too?" Alex asked.
"Yes!" Luke exclaimed as he turned around to face him. "And the only thing scarier than one girl crying," he said as he held up one finger, "is two girls crying." he then added a second finger so that he was holding up two.
Alex turned to Reggie as he whispered, "He's right."
"Guys, we definitely can't go in there," Luke told them.
Reggie's eyes got big as he got an idea, "But we can listen." he spoke, and he ran over to the door to the garage and peered through the window in the door. Alex and Luke followed closely behind them. They listened in on the girls talking about Julie being kicked out of music. Then Julie telling her that she just played the piano and sang. They could hear the excitement in the other girl's voice as she told Julie that they would try and get her back into the music program.
The two girls walked out of the garage, and the boys scrambled away from the door to make it look like they weren't listening in on the conversation. Reggie quickly took a seat on the ground, looking up at the sky, while Luke stood casually with his arm propped up on the garage door. Alex turned away from them and focused his attention on a lamp that hung on the wall.
Julie closed the door, and then she noticed the guys, "Oh hey!" She spoke without meaning too, and her friend turned around and gave her a weird look. Realizing what she did, she ignored the ghosts and turned to her friend, "Let's hustle!" she said as she raised up her arms and walked away.
As they walked up the steps, Julie turned back and gave a small wave over to the boys, "Don't worry, we weren't listening." Reggie said, and immediately after, Luke kicked him. Julie didn't say anything to that. Instead, she noticed that her friend was looking at her like she was crazy. She started swatting at the bush that was behind her. She started giggling awkwardly and hurriedly left, saying that they needed to go.
The guys stood outside of the garage, knowing that they would have to wait until Julie got home from school to tell her about their new friend. The three of them walked through the door to the garage, "I wonder why Julie didn't tell us she could shred on the piano?" Reggies spoke as he reached out and hit Luke softly to get his attention.
"And sing. That girl can sing." Luke said excitedly.
"It probably has something to do with her mom. You know?" Alex said to them. "Must have been pretty hard." He said, then he walked towards the latter to the loft and climbed up it. "Anyway, I really feel for her."
Luke made his way over to the piano, "Yeah, but now she's got music back in her life, just like us." He said as he looked up in the loft at Alex.
Alex peered over the railing, "Yeah, I'm not sure you can call what we have a life." Reggie nodded his head in agreement with Alex. After a couple of minutes, Alex found a trash bag full of their clothes that they had before they all died. " Oh hey, some of the clothes we left behind are still up here," Alex called down to his friends. He picked up the bag and threw it over the railing.
Luke looked down at the bag, and Alex threw and took off his hoodie, "Sweet." Alex threw down another bag, and Reggie caught it with a chuckle. "Oh, same clothes since '95, boys," Luke said, and then he pulled off his shirt. He started going through the bag as Reggie smiled down at him. None of them noticed the garage door opening until Julie's dad walked through Reggie.
Reggie looked confused, "Oh, that was weird!" He said as Luke pick out a shirt and quickly put it on. "But somehow, I can tell this man has a kind heart."
Julie's dad, Ray, looked out in the room, "So how have you been?" He spoke and then looked down at the camera he was holding in his hands.
Reggie looked at him, shocked, thinking that it wasn't just Julie that could see them, "Honestly, not that good." He said. "See, we ate these hotdogs and 𑁋"
"Julie sang for the first time this morning." Ray interrupted Reggie, and then he walked over to the piano where Luke was. "She hadn't done that in almost a year. You would have loved it."
"Yeah, we saw 'cause we were..." Reggie started but then trailed off when he realized that Ray couldn't actually see them. "Oh!" He waved his hand in front of Ray just to make sure, "Oh, I get it." He looks up at Alex, "He... He's not talking to us."
Luke, who had taken a seat on a nearby chair, spoke up, "You are so lucky you can play bass." he said, and Reggie looked at him offended.
"Pretty sure he's talking to Julie's mom," Alex told them. Ray spoke again, saying how Julie reminded him of her, "Called it." Alex said with a smile as he pointed at Ray.
Ray looked down at his camera again, "I'm taking pictures for the real estate website. I don't really want to move, but..." All three of the guys stood around the piano, listening to every word that he spoke. Ray set the camera down and looked away as tears started to build up in his eyes. "I guess it's best for Julie."
As they listened to what Ray was saying, Luke leaned forward on the piano, and he felt himself on the verge of tears. "Oh no, Luke, not you too," Reggie said as he noticed Luke holding back tears.
"He...He's talking about moving, but the poor guy, he doesn't want to move."Luke sniffles as he tries to hold back his sobs.
Ray walked over to the plant and took a picture of the piano, the guys not bothering to move since they can't be seen. "Oh, man, now he's got me too," Reggie said as he started to fan himself to dry the tears.
Alex looked between his friends, "Okay, how am I the emotional one?"
"Can we go see Rosalie again, see how she's doing?" Reggie asked Alex.
He nodded his head as he turned back to look at Ray, "Yeah, listening to this feels wrong." with that, the three of them poofed out the room in hopes of finding their new ghost friend.
...
Rosalie sat in the police station, waiting for her mother to walk through the doors. She felt as if she had been caught by the police doing something stupid, and her mom was coming to pick her up and ground her. If only that were the case. Instead, she was dead, and her mother was coming to confirm the body, although there isn't much she can do.
The police station was busy, with the phone ringing almost nonstop and the policemen coming in and out from a case. She tapped her foot on the ground as she sat in one of the chairs outside of the sheriff's office. Every time the door opened, she would look over, expecting to see her mother, but every time it wasn't her.
It was like that for a couple of minutes, and then she walked into the building. Rosalie felt her heart start pounding inside her chest at the sight of her mother in a state of distress. She felt bad for her mother. She never wanted this for her. She wanted her mother to be happy and forget about her, not still crying.
The sun shined down through the glass door and hit Mara, illuminating her blonde hair. Rosalie saw the sheriff walked over to her and led her towards the back down a long hall. They wanted to meet with Mara first before she saw the body to explain to her what they believed had happened to her daughter. Rosalie followed behind them, and as they walked into an empty office room and shut the door, Rosalie walked through it.
She wondered why they came to this office and not the sheriff's office, but it didn't really matter. Both of them took a seat, and the sheriff pulled out some documents. "There was a body found early this morning on the beach." He said as he set the paper down on the desk. "We have reason to believe that it is your daughter, Rosalie."
At the mention of her daughter, Mara's eyes glanced up and stared at the sheriff. "What makes you think it's her?" she asked, trying to stay hopeful that her daughter was still out there somewhere alive.
The sheriff looked at her, grimly, "The forensic team worked their magic, and the results came back with her DNA that you sent us ten years ago." He could see her finally realize that her daughter was gone and she wasn't coming back. "I'm sorry, Ms. Adams," he said.
Mara sniffled back a cry, "Do you know how she died?"
He shook his head, "Not yet. That will take more analyzing, but from what we have gathered, she was murdered." He told her. From the state of the tattered shirt that was on the body there have been speculation that she was stabbed, but they would know for sure when the results came back.
Upon hearing those words, Mara felt as if she couldn't breathe, "Murder?" she repeated, not wanting to believe it. "Can... can I see her."
The sheriff looked at her sadly, "I'm not sure if it is a good idea to see her like this." he said after a few minutes. "Here is a picture of where she was found." he slid over a piece of paper with a picture on it.
Mara's eyes glued onto the picture as she took in every detail. The ocean splashing onto the shore, the discarded plastic bucket and shovel, the hole in the sand, and a few birds soaring across the sky. "Who could have done this to her?" Mara sobbed. She held a hand up to her face and wiped away a few tears, "She was just a child."
The sheriff shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know, we don't have any suspects, there's hardly any evidence left. Maybe if we found her ten years ago, we could have solved this, but I'm not sure if we can now." he told her honestly knowing this is not what she wanted to hear. "It's just been so long, and this has been deemed a cold case."
A small part of Mara knew that this would happen. She knew that all evidence would be gone after so many years but hearing it didn't make the news any better. She let out another sob. Rosalie stood in the corner of the room, and she felt anger build up inside of her. She didn't want her case to go unsolved. She wanted justice. She walked over to her mother and tried to pull her into a hug, but her arms went through her. Mara looked up at the sheriff, "Can I still see her?"
Rosalie shook her head, "No, mom, don't. Don't let that be the last image you see of me." she tried to tell her mother, knowing that she couldn't hear her.
The sheriff nodded his head, and the two of them headed over to the forensic lab where Rosalie's body resided. The ride there was quick, and none of them spoke. The sheriff led her into the building and down the hall where the room was that they were headed to. "Mom!" Rosalie called out, trying to get her to stop from going into the room. She reached out with her hand, and for a brief second, her fingertip brushed past her mother's arm.
Mara turned around after she thought she heard a faint voice calling for her. Not seeing the source of the voice, she shrugged it off, thinking it was just her grief playing tricks on her again. After Rosalie had disappeared, Mara could have sworn she saw her in her bedroom early in the morning one day. But she had just woken up and when she blinked her daughter was gone. Her therapist said that it was normal to see those we lost, that it was just her way of healing.
Rosalie watched helplessly as her mother turned back around and headed into the room. She couldn't bring herself to go in there as well. She didn't want to see her mother's reaction to that. Instead, she stood outside the door and waited anxiously. She wondered if her mother would keep the torn up clothes that were still on her body, but she hoped that she didn't.
Over the years, as she learned how to work the teleportation that she now had as a ghost, she found out that when you use it, it makes a small little sound like the wind blowing, and it created a small flash of light. So when she heard and saw the light, she felt glad. She didn't want to be alone through all of this anymore. She turned around and faced the boyband that she had met a few hours ago.
"Hey," She said softly. She felt bad for the way she had treated them earlier. She had just been caught up in all of this.
All three of the guys smiled at her, "Hey," They all greeted her at the same time.
Reggie looked at her for a moment as he gathered what he was going to say, "So we were thinking..." he trailed off.
"We were wondering if you want to come stay with us at the studio?" Luke asked, and Rosalie looked at him, confused. She didn't know what studio he was talking about.
Alex shook his head at his friends, "We'd have to ask Julie first, but you can come hang out with us until she comes back from school." He said.
Rosalie was shocked. She felt a smile form on her face, "Yeah." she beamed as she tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear, "I mean yeah, sounds fun. And hey, I'm sorry about earlier, it's just..."
Luke cut her off, "It's fine. Come on, we'll show you a few songs that we wrote." he said, and without looking behind as her mother exited the room, she flashed out of the building with the three of them.
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Hey guys, thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and if you did, then don't forget to vote and comment.
So the next chapter will start to follow the show, and I'm excited to see how Rosalie fits into it.
Thank you guys for 600 reads!