JATP: When Ghosts Sing

Chapter 18

Julie's POV

Luke holds me tightly as I stare at the picture of my mom and I in utter disbelief. Why would someone as good and kind as my mom ever want to get involved in something so destructive? How could she have been a part of something like that?

I get up and go downstairs to leave the house. I just need to get away for a minute. I start walking down the street and thinking about everything that happened with my mom. Mostly all the good memories, the bad ones are too painful. Luke trails me from behind, I assume to make sure I'm alright. I end up walking to the Orpheum, and yet I don't really know why.

"I remember meeting your mom back in '95 here." Luke says after catching up with me. I turn my head sharply to look at him.

"What?" I ask plainly.

"Well, I mean, I didn't know her very well at the time. It was the night Sunset Curve was supposed to play the Orpheum. She was wiping a table down and watching us do our soundcheck." Luke answers and I feel like he's holding something back but I don't push. It's gotta be hard for him to think about the day he died.

We both stand at the entrance quietly before I have another episode. I stumble back and feel Luke catch me in his arms before I hurt myself.

I'm standing on the Orpheum stage, alone, and everyone is staring at me expectantly. I stand there awkwardly, not knowing what to do or say when someone comes up behind me. I feel a strong hand grip my shoulder and look to see Caleb standing behind me. I try to back away, but it's like I'm frozen in place and can't move.

"Sing." he commands, whispering in my ear. Without knowing what I'm doing, I open my mouth and start singing a song I've never heard before in my life, and yet it seems so familiar. The song doesn't end, it keeps going for what feels like hours. Suddenly, there's only three people standing in the audience: my mom, my dad, and my brother. My mom looks at me with a horrified expression and only when it turns to anger do I realize that she's not looking at me, but at Caleb.

I'm forced to keep singing until I hear my mom start to yell at Caleb. I close my eyes, trying to get away, and just like that, I am. I'm backstage, but forced to watch as Caleb uses my mother for whatever he wants, however he wants. She's forced to start the song over and I gasp in horror as she manages to break away from his control only to be hit by a jolt of electricity like the guys had. More than that, my dad, Carlos, and I all feel it too. A sudden realization hits me as I realize why my mom joined his club and why she never told anyone: she was trying to protect her family.

I try to run up to her and hug her for what she did for us, but I run right through her. I try again, but the same thing happens. It takes me a minute to realize that I'm being pulled out of the episode.

"Jules, are you okay? What happened?" Luke asks, worriedly wiping tears from my face as he holds me on the sidewalk in front of the Orpheum. We must look like a couple of weirdos right now, but honestly, I'm too upset to care.

"I found out why my mom joined the HGC. She was trying to protect her family."

"She must've died doing it." Luke says sadly as the realization hits him. He pulls me in for a hug as I cry into his shoulder. We stay that way for about twenty minutes before I get up and start running home. When I get there, I immediately go into my room and grab the dress my mom had and try to rip it up. I don't want any reminders of that awful club. But something stops me. I look around and nobody's there. Weird. I try again, but it's like a force is holding me back.

I look down at my hands and the dress and realize that maybe I don't need to destroy the dress, but turn it into something new. Something better. I grab a pair of scissors and get to work altering the dress. Luke calls me to make sure I'm okay and I tell him that he doesn't need to stay with me if he doesn't want to. He comes back over anyway and watches as I fix my mom's dress, handing me things as I need them.