Daughter of the Devil - r. peters // 2

𝟷𝟷. 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚎 𝚍𝚒𝚍 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝?

Alex rakes his hand through his blonde hair, pacing around the loft, breathing hard.

Alex had always suffered from anxiety, and was never good with changes. When Reggie suddenly joined Sunset Curve? Big change. When Luke impulsively bleached his hair and had blonde hair for three months? Big change. Dying? Even bigger change.

Willie coming to him and saying that he's gonna go back to the way things were before with Caleb?

Big fucking change. And not a good one.

Reggie poofs into the loft after his talk with Charlie, only to find a panicked drummer walking around, mumbling to himself, hands shaking.

Reggie's eyes widen as he steps towards Alex. "Alex, buddy, hey, hey..."

"Willie... Willie, he-"

"Hey, breathe, okay? Breathe..." Reggie takes another step towards the shaking boy, hesitating with his arms up. "Is it okay if I touch you?"

Alex swallows shakily and nods, practically crumbling into Reggie's outstretched arms, wrapping his arms around him like a monkey to his mother, letting out choked sobs and whimpers.

Reggie lets him bring him to the ground, sitting on his knees with the blonde crumpled into his chest, his calloused fingers buried into Alex's hair, shushing softly.

"Alex, hey... Shh, it's okay..." Reggie murmurs softly, simply holding the boy tight, not letting go, resting his chin on the top of his head, fingers lightly scratching his scalp. "Breathe."

Luke manages to make his way up to the loft, seeing the scene in front of him, furrowing his brows at the sight of the boy in Reggie's arms. He drops to his knees beside him and places his hand on his shoulder. "Hey, Lex-"

"No! No, no..." Alex jerks away from Luke's touch, causing the boy to flinch back in concern and slight hurt. Reggie takes a breath, looking at the brown haired boy and his confused face, simply shaking his head.

"Alex, you don't want Luke to touch you?" Reggie mumbles softly to the boy, tilting his head to try to look at him. Alex shakes his head, letting out another broken sob, and Reggie nods. "Okay, that's fine.."

Luke is confused, but doesn't touch Alex again. He simply sits on his knees beside Reggie, waiting for the drummer to calm down.

After what seemed like hours of shushing, scratching, and hugging, Alex finally relaxed against Reggie, his arms slipping from their death grip around his torso. He sniffs once, looking up at the two of them with red-rimmed eyes. "Sorry..."

Luke shakes his head first. "Don't say sorry. It's fine."

"It's not fine, I shoved you.."

"You didn't want me to touch you, that's okay." Luke mumbles softly, lightly starting to reach to put his hand on Alex's shoulder, but deciding against it.

Alex shakes his head, pulling away from Reggie, who sits back on his knees, ignoring the way the wood of the loft floor bites into the exposed skin in his ripped jeans. The blonde sniffles again, wiping his eyes with the heel of his hand.

"It's Willie." He mumbles through a thick throat. "He said... He said he was gonna... Go back to the whole Caleb thing."

Something heavy rests over the three ghosts, and Reggie tenses.

Luke's the one to break the sudden silence. "What... What do you mean, 'the whole Caleb thing'?"

Alex swallows, looking down at his hands. "Back... Back in maybe... 90s, when we were still alive... Willie was a ghost at the club. And... Caleb..." He swallows again, as if something in his throat was stopping him. "Caleb used to... Do things to him... For a while."

Both boys seem to take a breath at the revelation, but let Alex talk.

"Willie... Said that if it wasn't for Callie taking the brunt of it... Then he would still be going through it. He said... That Callie saved him."

Callie saved him...

"But now... Callies getting worse, and... And Willies tired of it, 'cause he can see the way she's started to give up, and... He said... H-he was gonna go to Caleb to convince him to..."

"Willie's gonna take her place again." Luke says softly.

Something seems to settle roughly in Reggie's chest as he huffs out a soft breath.

"Talk to her." The voice rings out in his head of the man who just told him.

Reggie bites his lip as Alex blows out a shaky breath.

"Trust me, you go on that roof, Caleb won't be able to touch you."

Reggie closes his eyes.

He knew what he had to do.