After splitting from their huddle, Alex and Reggie moved towards their instruments, laughing and playfully shoving each other.
“Luke, can I speak to you outside for a second?” Julie asked softly, pulling him away from the others.
“Yeah, of course,” Luke replied, walking with her towards the garage door. As soon as they shut it, Alex and Reggie locked eyes. A chaotic scramble ensued—Reggie pushing Alex towards the door, Alex shoving back with equal force.
Reggie pressed his ear against the wood. “Oi, quit it,” he murmured, trying to keep his voice low.
“No *you* quit it,” Alex whispered back, mirroring Reggie’s intensity. Both strained to hear through the door, trying to catch snippets of Julie and Luke’s conversation.
“We can hear you,” Luke called out, his voice sharp. Alex and Reggie froze, then bolted towards the couches, collapsing onto them as if they’d been sitting there all along.
“Julie, what’s going on?” Luke asked, a half-smirk playing on his lips.
“How… how can I touch you, Luke? What *is* going on?” Julie stammered, her words tumbling over each other.
“I don’t know. All I know is when you touched me, I felt stronger. Alive again.” Luke answered, locking eyes with Julie.
They stood there, locked in that moment, staring at each other—too scared to look away. The tension snapped when Alex and Reggie began screaming from behind the closed door. They flung it open, finding the two perched on the couch, huddled together, eyes glued to the floor. A tiny ladybug crawled along the wood. Julie rolled her eyes.
“You do realize that ladybug can’t hurt you, you’re ghosts,” she snickered, exasperated.
“Well, we don’t know that anymore, do we? What was that? How can we touch her now? Why now?” Alex rambled, his voice laced with anxiety.
“Maybe we could always touch her, and we just never tried. Did you think of that, Alex? Hmm?” Reggie retorted quickly, turning to his friend.
Simultaneously, Luke and Julie replied, “No.” Alex and Reggie stared at them, puzzled by their confirmation.
“And how would you guys know that?” Reggie giggled softly.
“Uh… well, you know,” Julie stammered, her cheeks flushing.
Luke looked down, then blurted out, “Well, I couldn’t touch her before, and now we can. Shouldn’t we be focusing on that?”
Alex and Reggie exchanged glances, knowing there was more to the story than Luke and Julie were letting on.
“We need to know what happened, and why now?” Julie pressed.
“There has to be a reason. Something must have triggered this,” Luke muttered, “Actually, there’s a more important question. What *is* this? What are we now?”
All eyes met, confusion and worry etched on their faces. Ghosts, or something else entirely? Lifers? The question hung in the air, heavy and unanswered.