What I'm Dreaming Of

19

People gathered at the Molina household for the LJ 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 and Laila are two of my oldest friends." She crossed her arms and stared, facing the garage. "I'm sure they 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 them," 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 LJ and the Phantoms," Flynn rapped, causing the audience to cheer and applaud.

Two boys opened the doors and Julie and Laila walked out before saying, "Thanks for coming, everyone!"

Julie and Laila began playing and singing. Shortly after, the band kicked in.

After Julie and Laila sang the first chorus, the boys came in after her. Reggie and Luke strummed their guitars while Alex banged the drums while singing into the mic.

The audience, excluding Carrie, danced to the rhythm.

Luke stared at Laila as he sang, and the two sang together.

Julie and Laila 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 the girls sang. He walked closer to Laila as he played.

Julie stood on the piano as she sang and pulled Laila up.

Luke sang, still staring at Laila.

Alex and Reggie disappeared as Luke and Laila stared into each other's eyes and sang the end of the song together with Julie.

Luke disappeared, causing the audience to freak out.

---

As the three ate pizza, Flynn said, "I can't say this enough; that was incredible. But epic fail on that eye contact thing." Julie and Laila 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 and Laila said before tutting and shaking their fingers.

Carlos walked away and Ray asked, "So what are the boys doing right now?"

Julie shrugged. "Hanging out, I guess. You know, or whatever you do from where they're from." The three glanced at each other and nodded.

Julie then asked, "Hey, so what cameras did you use out there?"

Ray looked between the three. "Interested in my work?" He sat across from them. "Well, uh... I shot with an XF105. That's what I used." The three fist bumped each other. "The latest model. It's very good. But the other guys had the wide..." Julie, Laila and Flynn placed an arm under their chins as they listened.

---

After the show, the three were playing basketball together.

"Whoo!" Reggie cheered. "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.

"Not that," Alex said.

Luke frowned. "That wasn't like the other ones. It's getting worse."

"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 said, "So if we don't join his club, then the weird power outage thing continues until there's no power left at all?"

"Yes."

"What exactly happens when the power goes out?"

"That's... That's it. You're done."

"Uh-huh," Reggie commented. "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 and Laila, 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 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 Eloise, it might be something you need to do together."

"Why should we listen to a word you say?" Alex questioned.

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." 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."

"We all wanted to go see Caleb," Luke said.

"We have to tell Julie and Laila," Reggie stated.

Luke shook his head. "No, we can't do that. This just means more loss in their lives." 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 three 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. "Even after people knew who we were, we had to hustle, call in every favor we had. It took us years."

The three jolted and doubled over in pain and groaned. They coughed and stared at the Orpheum.

"We don't have years," Luke said.