18│Prayer For The Dying

687 32 2
                                    

┌────── . ° ♩ ✦ ♩ ° · ──────┐
Chapter Eighteen
PRAYER FOR THE DYING
└────── . ° ♩ ✦ ♩ ° · ──────┘

 ° ♩ ✦ ♩ ° · ──────┘

Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.

────── . ° ♩ ✦ ♩ ° · ──────

Rosalie was right. This whole time, the bad feeling she had when they first entered the Hollywood Ghost Club and met Caleb Convington had been right. She had thought perhaps she was just too skeptical of everything, but her gut was right.

As Willie told them what all had happened that night at the Hollywood Ghost Club, everything about their stamp, and what it did, all Rosalie could do was think about her mother. For ten years, she had been sitting in the shadows, gazing upon her family as they lived their lives. Watching as her mother aged and became old, she changed from kind and full of energy to being alone and bitter.

And thanks to Luke, Alex, and Reggie, Rosalie had finally found and made her peace with what had happened to her. She met a new family, one that loved her no matter what and would do anything for her.

Only now, it was being stolen from her.

Willie leads them through the streets of Hollywood, lit by the hundreds of lights and twinkling signs above them. Rosalie trails behind Luke, her hands in her pockets, eyes were glistening with fresh tears as she keeps her head low. There a million and one things she wished she could've done before something like this happened. She thought she'd have an eternity until she went to heaven or something.

"All these jolts that we're feeling is because Caleb put his stamp on us?" Luke questions Willie, slowly bringing Rosalie back to reality.

All of her thoughts about her mother and her death were beginning to recede back into the darkness of her mind. "He's threatened by you! He wants you under his control. I mean, you're the only ghosts that can be visible to lifers without his help." Willie tells them, his voice breaking as he does.

A small part of Rosalie felt back for him. She knew this was not what he wanted. He got excited about meeting four new ghosts, probably fell for the blonde boy who plays drums, and made a mistake. A mistake that got them all wrapped up in a time for existence.

"And you let him do this to us?" Alex exclaims, the three boys stopping in the street.

Willie turns around with a look of hurt. Rosalie walks up and stands next to Luke, his hand brushing her hip. "I can't stop him! He owns my soul, alright? He owns everybody's soul at that club." Willie tells them, his eyes burning red with tears he was trying to hold back.

Rosalie reaches out and takes Luke's hand, the overwhelming fear that she was going to lose him just like she was going to lose Julie. She was not prepared for any of this. First, she gets found down by the beach, and then she ends up learning that she has a deep passion for music and joins the band. And then, she ends up liking a guy she's too afraid to admit to—all for it to come crashing down on her.

Cold Case » Luke Patterson ¹  ✓Where stories live. Discover now