~ nothing to lose : a luke patterson book ~

18. Edge Of Great (part 3.)

The party just ended about 10 minutes ago. The boys are playing basketball in the courtyard while I sit on the steps leading up to the house. I watch them play with a small smile on my face, happy at life.. or afterlife. Alex must've seen me, probably looking bored, so he decides to come over to me.

"Wanna play teams?" He asks me, offering me a hand. I smile and nod at him, taking his hand. We walk over to the others as Reggie hands me the ball. We all look at each other and cut our eyes playfully. I back up to the back of the courtyard and get ready. I start running and Reggie tries to get me, but I spin before he can. I then start again and Alex tries to get me as well, me juking him before he gets it. Finally, I get to the hoop, about to dunk. All of a sudden, Luke charges at me, grabbing by my waist and tackling me. Before I actually hit the ground, I throw the ball and it somehow makes it in.

"YEAHHH!" I yell. I wriggle out of Luke's grasp and run over to Alex. We do our handshake and Reggie runs over, giving us a tight hug. Quickly after, Luke comes over and we're all in a tight hug, jumping up and down. We all eventually pull away, laughing loudly at each other. I go back and lean against the rock wall and Luke lines up to shoot. He makes it in, us cheering.

"It feels like we should be doing a big celebration or something. What do you guys wanna do?" Reggie asks.

"Drink a Hi-C Ecto Coo-" Before I can finish, we all get hit with a jolt. Luke and Reggie fall back while my knees go weak, me falling as well.

"Not that." Alex breathes, clenching his chest. I lay on my back, curling my knees up to my chest. I hug my knees, taking a deep breath. These are worse than second day period cramps.. and that's saying something.

"This wasn't like the other ones." Luke realizes. "They're getting worse."

"Why is this happening to us?" Reggie groans. Luke realizes I'm still on the ground, so he comes over and helps me. I stumble a little, and he wraps an arm around my waist and one of my arms goes around his shoulders. 

"You guys are in serious trouble." A voice says. I snap my head over in the direction of where it came from and I see Willie. A jolt of anger courses through me, and I let go of Luke, walking towards Alex. 

"Willie?" Alex mumbles. I stand in front of him being protective, even if he's older and taller than me.

"We need to talk." Willie sighs. We all look at each other and sigh, grabbing hands knowing Willie wants us to go somewhere. He quickly poofs us to a sidewalk and we begin walking and talking immediately.

"All these jolts that we're feeling is because Caleb put his stamp on us?" Luke questions.

"He's threatened by you." Willie explains. "He wants you under his control. You're the only ghosts that can be visible to lifers without his help."

"And you let him do this to us?" Alex asks.

"I can't stop him!" Willie voices. "He owns my soul. Alright? He owns everybody's soul at that club. If he knew I was here talking to you, he.. he would destroy me."

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

"Yes." Willie mutters.

"What exactly happens when the power goes out?" He continues. 

"That's.. that's it. You're done.." Willie sighs.

"Uh-huh. Yeah. And what exactly do you mean by 'we're done?'" I almost laugh. This whole thing is ridiculous.

"You just.. you don't exist.. anymore. Not anywhere." He stutters.

"What?" I breathe.

"So we have no choice?" Luke steps forward. "We have to say goodbye to Julie, give up everything we've built together, and work for Caleb?" 

Willie just looks down to the ground and sighs in response.

"That's some club you guys got going on." I scoff.

"But there is another option." Willie counters. "That's why I'm here."

"Another option?" Alex scoffs as well.

"Just please hear me out." He begs, stopping Alex from saying anything else. "Alright, if you guys could figure out what your unfinished buisness is, you do it in time, you could cross over and be free from all of this."

"Okay, so what's our unfinished buisness?" Luke takes a step back to where he was before.

"I-I-I don't know." Willie stumbles. "But since you all died at the same time, it might be something you need to do together."

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

"Because, I care about you, Alex." He responds. "And I hate that I brought you.. and your friends into this mess. I uh.. I can't be away much longer. I'm so sorry. For everything." and with that he poofs away.

"This is all my fault." Alex steps up and takes Willie's spot. "I.. I met Willie, Willie introduced us to Caleb, and now.. now we're screwed." I take a step forward, engulfing my brother into a hug.

"We all wanted to go see Caleb." I whisper. "Don't you dare put this on you. We didn't know what was gonna happen."

"We have to tell Julie." Reggie says, breaking me and Alex out of our hug.

"No, we can't do that." Luke chimes in. "This just means more loss on her life. But if we don't want Caleb to own our souls, we have to figure out our unfinished buisness."

"Yeah, and how are we supposed to do that? Alright?" Alex faltered. "There was so much we wanted to do." Luke's eyes travel to something across the street, and I look over in the direction. "What is it?" 

"But the night we died, there was one thing we all wanted to do together.." Luke trails off.

"Play the Orpheum?" Reggie asks.

"There's no way." I breathe.

"Getting that gig was literally impossible." Alex adds. "Even after people knew who we were, we had to hustle, call in every favor we had. It took us years." 

We feel another jolt pulse through us, and almost fall backwards. I stumble back into Luke, and feel a sting go through my back where we touched. I stand up straight, rubbing my back. That hurt.

"We don't have years." Luke says.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

a/n: IM SO SORRY THIS IS SO SHORT I DIDN'T WANT TO MERGE ANOTHER EPISODE LOL. hope you like it tho :)