Maybe In Another (After)Life

1.01 Wake Up

Los Angeles, 2020

Julie stands in front of her mother's studio, nervous to enter it for the first time in a year. She takes a deep breath and slowly opens the doors. Cutting on the light, she's almost surprised to see that the room looks the exact same; it feels like something about the studio should have changed just as much as her life has.

She walks over to the grand piano and pulls off the white sheet that covers it, replacing the sheet music that falls when she does.

Sitting down at her mother's piano, the very same piano she learned to play on, feels just as wrong as it does right.

"I'm so sorry, Mom," she says quietly. "That I haven't been here."

Julie shakes her head slightly and decides to get to the real reason she came out here. She makes her way over to the ladder that leads to the studio's loft and looks around at everything that's accumulated in the space since they first moved into the house.

She sees multiple instruments and boxes of miscellaneous junk. What catches her eyes, however, is a black CD case. She reads the white logo on the front- Sunset Curve- and wonders why she's never heard of them.

It doesn't take long to climb back down to the main level and slip the CD in the stereo. Taking a seat on the couch, Julie starts to bob her head as a heavy guitar plays.

Take off, last stop

Countdown 'til we blast open the top

Face first, full charge

Electric hammer to the heart

The song sounds pretty good until it's suddenly overpowered by terrified screaming. Julie covers her ears and has just enough time to wonder it was some kind of joke CD when three boys around her age suddenly appear in the studio.

The three of them appear about a foot off the ground, quickly slamming down against the floor amidst various complaints and groans of pain.

Julie watches in a mix of fear, panic, and complete shock as they all stand up.

The shaggy-haired boy in a Rush shirt looks around in confusion. "Woah. How'd we get back here?"

That's when Julie decides to focus on the fear and panic sides of her current emotions. She lets out an ear-piercing scream that quickly startles the boys into their own, all of them clinging to each other as they stare back at her.

Julie doesn't stick around to find out what happens next. Instead, she quickly runs out of the studio and back inside the house.

The boys slowly release their hold on each other as they watch her run out.

"Okay," Alex says slowly. "What is going on?"

"I don't know, man," Reggie says with a shrug. "Last thing I remember was that dark room where you-"

"Okay," Alex says again, quickly cutting him off. "Maybe let's not talk about that. Hm?"

Luke, who had wandered closer to the doors, suddenly turns on his heels to face them. "How did we get back here?" he asks again. "And where's our stuff? And-"

He cuts off as they all hear the sounds of someone walking toward the studio. Figuring it must be the screaming girl in yellow, Luke gestures at Alex and Reggie in a move that wouldn't look out of place in a high stakes game of charades.

In a clear sign that they all spend way too much time together, the two of them easily understand what he means which leads to Julie entering the studio (armed with bedazzled cross) only to find it empty.