[1] Blank Slate || Julie and the Phantoms ✔

CHAPTER 12: Meeting Willie ✔️

WHEN WE ARRIVE at the park, Alex and Reggie are waiting at a bench, serenading a random couple. Leave it to them to do that. Honestly speaking, that's pretty sweet.

"Hey! What took you so long?" Reggie asks, hopping down from a table.

"Not everyone can zap across space," I remind.

"Right, we're sorry for leaving you behind," Alex says. "Now that we're all here, let's go meet Willie."

I see a teenage boy with long, dark hair skateboarding near some cops. "Hey, good day officers!"

He spots Alex and skates over. "Hey! What's up man? You brought friends."

"Yeah. These are my bandmates, uh Luke and Reggie," Alex introduces them.

"Hey. Cool, I'm Willie." He offers a hand and Luke shakes it. I lean out from behind Luke so Willie can see me. He freezes and his brown eyes widen. "Oh my God I thought you were...what are you doing here?"

The next thing I know I'm being hugged by a strange ghost.

And the hug is pretty tight.

I freeze up, flapping my hands around as a signal for release.

"Whoa! Hey, hands off," Luke says after the hug becomes a little prolonged. "You only just met her."

"Who, Adelaide? No, we go waaaay back," Willie says. He claps me on the shoulder, then pulls me aside. "How did you escape? I don't understand, I really thought you were..."

"My name's Lila Mae," I cut in, "not Adelaide. I think you have me mistaken for someone else."

His face falls for a second, then an understanding passes over him. "Oh, yeah, no I get it. There are a lot of people in this world. They say you have seven doppëlgangers."

The boy fidgets with his choker.

"Sure," I back away and notice that Luke and Reggie have moved closer to me.

Alex looks confused, like Willie doesn't normally behave this way.

"Lila's a lifer," Alex explains, "she's like Julie except she can touch ghosts too."

"Sick." The nonchalant skater attitude slips back as quickly as it left. "So...you guys here to learn some tricks?"

He swings his fingers in the direction of the police and their sirens begin blaring, lights flashing. They rush over to figure out what went wrong.

Willie grins mischievously.

"Do it again! Do it again!" Reggie cheers once they stop.

I shake my head. He's like a child.

"Actually, we were thinking of doing something a little bigger," Luke says. "An old bandmate stole from us. We wanna confront him face-to-face."

"All right. Is this, uh, old friend of yours a lifer?" Willie asks.

"Oh, he's a lifer," Reggie says with contempt, crossing his arms. "Too much of a fancy-pants for street dogs."

"Yeah, I'm sorry," Willie says, "speaking to lifers is even out of my league."

"We can speak to Lila Mae," Luke points out.

"That's probably because I died and came back to life," I explain to Willie. "It's a long story."

He raises his eyebrows. "There is one ghost who might be able to help you guys. He's kind of a big deal."

"Literally anything would help," Luke says in a pleading tone.