I've Had The Time Of My Life

Chapter 9

Carlos was sitting in a dark room. He couldn't remember when he got there, or how long it had been since Caleb was telling him his evil plan. Caleb did leave out a few key details that would have been helpful – like how to thwart him – but otherwise, things were a blur. He tried to move, or call out for help, but found it was impossible, almost as if his hands and legs were bound, and his mouth was covered.

Caleb had said earlier that he was able to possess people. Is that what was happening to Carlos now? Was this his consciousness, trapped in his head? In all his ghostly research, Carlos had never found tips on how to tell if you're being possessed or not. Or had he been taken over by whoever Caleb worked for? The thought was terrifying. Not only because the whole being possessed thing, but having to be aware that someone else is controlling your body for the rest of your life. It would always feel like he was looking at someone else's life, and no one would ever know that it wasn't really him.

Carlos was so deep in his thought that he missed a squeaking sound. But soon that sound was accompanied by a voice.

"Carlos?" the voice said.

Was this the voice of whoever was possessing Carlos? Were they talking to him in his mind?

"Carlos, are you in here?"

That would be a pretty strange thing to say to the person you were possessing, and now that he took a moment to think about it, the voice sounded familiar. There was a crash and something fell near him. A moment later, a bright light filled the room.

Carlos looked around for the voice. Before he could spot them, he noticed that he was in a regular room – in fact, it looked like it might be a dressing room? And he was pretty sure that if he was possessed, this is not what it would look like. A chair had fallen over near Carlos, and he finally spotted the owner of the voice – the young ghost who had left him Julie's note.

The ghost rushed over to him. "Okay Carlos, I need you to be calm okay? I heard everything Caleb said, and I'm trying to help... I know Jul – okay well I actually I don't know Julie, but I know some of her friends." Carlos raised an eyebrow in response. "Sorry man, my name is Willie, and I'm going to help you escape."

***

Julie turned around to see Flynn and Carrie standing in her open doorway. Flynn already knew about the guys, but Carrie was in complete shock, not that Julie could blame her. She remembered her initial reaction to when the guys first appeared in the studio. All things considered, Carrie was handling it pretty well.

Flynn and Julie locked eyes, and had one of their telepathic moments. They knew they could try to convince Carrie that she hadn't seen anything, or they could finally tell her the truth. Well, it was time to see if this really was Carrie 3.0.

Flynn walked Carrie over to the couch and sat her down. Carrie was at a loss for words, which Julie took advantage of. She explained the whole story – even the parts about Carrie's dad being in the original band – and Flynn popped in every now and then with a comment. A few moments passed. Julie looked at Flynn who shrugged her shoulders in response.

To say Carrie's mind was blown right now would be a gross understatement. She was trying to understand everything Julie had said, and while she was sure she missed some details, she thought she had the big points covered; boys were ghosts, her dad was in their band and stole their songs (eek – though it did explain "My Name Is Luke"), and Carlos had run away/was kidnapped by the big baddie ghost.

"And when we walked in, what had just happened?" Carrie asked, sounding confused.

"Right... well the guys think that Carlos might be in New York City. Did I mention that the ghost club rotates in major cities? Anyway, they are trying to find where the club could be more specifically, so they poofed (that's what they call it when they... teleport I guess?) to NYC to see if they could find other ghosts who might have a lead." Julie tried to explain.

"They do realize that New York is like massive, right?" Carrie said.

Flynn looked at her phone. "There are 18,823,000 people according to Google. And those are only the living ones. How are they going to find out which ones are ghosts? Just walk up to people and see if they can bump into them or not? Cause that's not going to work."

Julie panicked. "Why?"

"Cause they can touch us remember? And do you even know if they can see ghosts still?"

Julie held her head in her hands. They really had not thought this plan through.

"I bet my dad could get us on a plane to New York tonight. We could try to help?" Carrie suggested.

Julie exhaled deeply through her nose and pursed her lips. "No, you're right, the city is huge. How would we find the boys? No, we should stay here. They'll check in with us."

Almost as if Julie had summoned him with her mind, Reggie appeared in front of her.

"Okay so Julie – oh um hey Flynn... and Carrie. Um I was just um I mean I just um we're working on magic tricks so we don't have to rely on the holograms anymore." Reggie was many things, but coming up with a believable excuse as to how he suddenly was in the room was not one of them. "Ta-da." He shook his hands as if he had completed an illusion.

"I already know ghost boy. Julie told me everything. I can't say I understand it, but at least I know it." Carrie said with her arms crossed. "Oh," she said in a softer voice, "and I'm sorry... you know about what my dad did." Reggie had no words, but gave her a slight nod.

"REGGIE! Focus! Why are you here? There's no way you could have found Carlos already. You've only been gone for like 20 minutes." Julie said.

"Right, sorry Julie." Reggie took a deep breath and focused his eyes on Julie. "So, we think we've found where the club is."

"Oooookay... why are you saying this so dramatically?" Julie said. "You're kind of making me nervous."

"So we were able to find the club, or what we think is the club, because all of a sudden there were these huge purple flashes from one of the old hotels, and then there were these blue flashes." Reggie said. He still looked more anxious than excited, almost as if he was holding something back.

"You do realize it could be spotlights, Reg. Like a dance club situation." Flynn said. Flynn thought Reggie was great, but from what she had been told, he could be a little daft every now and then.

Julie was on edge. While Flynn's question was valid, Julie could tell by Reggie's demeanor that there was something not right about the situation. "Reggie... why are you here? Where are the guys? Where is Luke?" The anxiety was evident in her tone of voice.

Reggie had hoped that Julie would be so caught up in the news about the club that she wouldn't ask about the others. Alex had instructed him to only talk about the club, not to panic Julie with too many details, and then poof right back to him. He wasn't sure how he was supposed to answer her questions. He started pacing around the room, wondering if he could go pet Butter quickly and see if that helped. But he knew he didn't have time. He had to go back and help.

"The guys are alive... or you know the same as normal. Um but I actually have to go back. Uh we forgot our phones so I said I would come back here to tell you that we found the club." Reggie looked like he was a trapped animal and was trying to find a way to escape.

"Reggie." Julie said with a threatening tone. "What aren't you telling me?"

Here's some wisdom for you.

"Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die." Buddha