Disclaimer: I don't own Julie and the Phantoms. I only own my OCs and Sam (I am Sam lol).
A/N- Hope y'all like this chapter! I have exams this week, so I won't be updating much.
REVIEW OR I WILL SMACK YOU IN THE FACE WITH A DEAD FISH.
It was a beautiful day, with the birds chirping and the flowers blooming, along with a clear sky. However, not everything is what it seems. The mood was dark, sad, and dreary.
The reason why?
It was July 22, 1996; exactly a year after three amazing, teenage boys were killed by food poisoning from street dogs.
The families of Luke Patterson, Reggie Peters, and Alex Mercer were gathered around their respectable family member's grave. The graves were side by side. At the funeral, the three mothers-Emily Patterson, Mary Peters, and Audrey Mercer-wanted their boys to be buried together. So, that is what happened.
Emily and Mitch were gathered around Luke's grave weeping soundlessly. They picked up an electric guitar pick and placed it on the ground in front of his grave and picked up the old pick. They did this every time they came over to his grave. The other families would do the same.
"Why?" Emily asked Mitch, tears rolling down her face. "Why couldn't I just have supported him with his music? He would be here if I did! I'm such a horrible mother..."
Mitch wrapped his arms around his wife. "It's not just your fault, honey. I played a part in it, too."
They continued crying together and placed some orange flowers in front of his grave that read:
Luke D. Patterson
June 18, 1978 - July 22, 1995
Beloved son, friend, musician
The song has ended but the melody lingers on.
.oOo.
A couple of feet away, the Peters family sat in a circle around Reggie's grave. They were all holding hands with their heads down, sobs wracking their bodies. Mary and John were holding hands but if you looked closer, you could see that they didn't have their rings on.
The two had gotten divorced about a month after Reggie's death. The house was so much calmer, and Reggie's siblings were very happy about that. John and Mary had mostly stopped fighting every time they saw each other and had settled to being friends. They got along more than they did when they were married, and everyone was perfectly fine with that fact. Sure, the two had little spats sometimes but everyone got into fights every now and then. Things were pretty tense in the family since Reggie died.
The oldest siblings, Ryan and Regan (twins) were sobbing loudly. They had both left for college as soon as they graduated so they could get away from all of the fighting. They didn't really think about how that affected their other siblings. It quite obviously affected Reggie the worst. He always went to the twins when their parents fought because they would always go out when it happened and they would take him with them. His little brother, Ross, had a best friend to go to across the street whenever things got rough. Reggie didn't have that, which is why he went with the twins.
When they left... he didn't have anyone else to go to. Mainly because Reggie was thirteen when they left, so he couldn't drive. It was just his luck when he got closer to Luke and Alex. Sure, they had always been friends. But they definitely grew closer when they were assigned a school project at the end of the 7th grade that required them to spend every day together.
They eventually formed Sunset Curve a couple of years later, and by then, Reggie was closer with Luke and Alex than he was with any of his other siblings.
And that broke his sibling's hearts because they knew how true that fact was.
Reggie's fifteen-year-old brother, Ross, was sniffling, letting go of Regan's hand now and then to blow his nose. On the outside, he seemed like the calmest of the family, but on the inside, he was like Alice from Alice in Wonderland when she was turned into a giant.
The truth was, he had been the last family member to see Reggie before he died.
Ross blamed himself for Reggie's death.
Here is why:
Reggie had practically started living at the garage with Luke and Alex but sometimes he spent the night at his actual house to keep Ross company while their parents fought.
One of those nights, Reggie told Ross about how he and the band were going to play at the Orpheum. They were allowed to bring a plus one, but Luke and Alex couldn't exactly do that for obvious reasons. That left Reggie asking Ross.
Ross remembered that night so well:
Reggie was lying on Ross's floor in a sleeping bag, right next to Ross who was in the bed. The two weren't really speaking until Reggie spoke up.
"Hey, Ross?" Reggie asked in a hopeful voice.
"Yeah?" Ross replied drowsily.
"I-I was wondering... Well, you see me and the band got a call today telling us that we'll be playing the Orpheum and that we're allowed to bring a plus one. I was wondering if you wanted to come with us to see us play there?" Reggie seemed to hold his breath while waiting for Ross's response.
Ross sucked in a sharp breath in surprise. "Wow, Reg, that's-that's awesome! That's so freaking cool! You're playing the Orpheum!"
Reggie sat up. "So do you want to come?"
Ross turned to face his brother. "When will it be?"
Reggie perked up. "July 22."
"Oooh." Ross winced. "Sorry, bro, I have plans with my buddies that night."
Reggie frowned in disappointment. "Oh... Okay."
They both went back to their original positions.
"'Night, Rossie," Reggie murmured.
Ross made a face. "Ew, don't call me that. 'Night, Reg. Love you."
Reggie smiled sleepily. "Love you, too, lil bro."
Later that week, Reggie left his house for the Orpheum, giving Ross a final hug goodbye.
That was the last hug he had gotten from Reggie.
That was the last time he saw Reggie (unless you count him seeing Reggie in a casket, of course).
So, yeah, Ross blamed himself for Reggie's death. If he had just canceled his plans with his friends and gone with Reggie and his friends to the Orpheum, he could've...
He could've saved them... Somehow, he could've convinced them not to eat those street dogs.
But he didn't.
His family had only just found out about it a couple of weeks ago and had been trying to convince him that it wasn't his fault. He would have had no idea what would have happened.
Ross knew it was his fault that his big brother died.
It was all his fault.
The Peters took out a black pick that Reggie used to play his bass just as the Patterson's were doing next to them. The family didn't know that Reggie hated using picks when playing his bass. He preferred using his fingers because it "just felt right" and was "more comfortable." Sometimes, he did use a pick, but most of the time he didn't.
Sadly, Reggie wasn't close to his family anymore when he started playing bass, so none of them knew this. They also didn't know that he could sing. They just knew that he could play bass. They didn't know how well though.
The matriarch of the Peters placed Reggie's (barely used) pick on the ground, along with some red roses in front of his grave that read:
Reginald J. Peters
March 28, 1978 - July 22, 1995
Beloved son, brother, friend, and musician
Live to the fullest, for life is all too short.
The Peters family let out a loose, wet sob as one. About four feet away from them was the Mercer family.
.oOo.
The Mercers, I guess you could say, were the perfect family. They were prim and proper, always neat, got good grades, had good jobs, and loved their children with all their hearts. They just didn't like how the world was changing. They were... how can I say this without being rude?... old fashioned.
When Alex came out to his parents, Audrey and David, they totally freaked out. They didn't like that their little boy was one of those people. They already hated how he dressed in pink, had anxiety, liked to dance, wore ripped clothing, and was in a rock band. It was ruining their perfect family's image!
So when Alex told his parents that he was gay, his father shouted some very... um... rude things at him, while his mother sobbed loudly in the background. David gave Alex ten minutes to pack and get out of his house. As soon as he had shoved all of his stuff into his backpack, Alex's father grabbed him by the end of his pink hoodie and had quite literally thrown Alex out the door onto the sidewalk.
Alex ran to the garage where Luke and Reggie were living (the garage belonged to Bobby's parents. It was their house and the garage was Bobby's hangout that they never came into because they wanted to give him space), and Sunset Curve made it official. The boys were now their own little, broken family that couldn't be torn apart no matter what.
When Alex was kicked out of his house, his little sister (thirteen years old at the time), Melissa, was away at a sleepaway camp for two weeks. When she came home asking where Alex was, who was practically her best friend, David and Audrey didn't have the heart to tell her what they did and what her brother was, so they told her that Alex had run away.
Melissa's heart was broken and every night she would sit by her window waiting for her brother that would never return. Every night, she would just pray to God for hours on end, asking Him to bring her big brother back to her.
One day, about a month after Alex had left, Melissa walked in on her parents discussing what happened and they didn't realize that she was there. She heard the entire story, and in her fury, Melissa marched right up to them and screamed in their faces for about an hour.
She screamed about how they were liars.
She screamed about how she didn't care that Alex was gay. He was still her brother! Her blood!
She screamed about how they should have loved him and supported him for who he was instead of throwing him away like last week's newspaper!
She screamed about how they should be ashamed of themselves and that they were the monsters, not Alex!
By the time Melissa stopped screaming at her parents, her voice was hoarse and she was in need of a drink of water. Her parents stared at her, shocked. Melissa glared at them and left the living room in a huff, slamming the door once she reached her bedroom.
Audrey collapsed onto the couch, David soon following her. They sat there and what their daughter said to them finally started to sink in. Tears pricked at the back of David's eyes and Audrey started crying loudly, both of them realizing what they had done was wrong.
They should have supported him. They weren't worthy to be Alex's parents. How could they do this to their own flesh and blood?! They were so blinded by their beliefs, they didn't realize or care about how painful it was for Alex! Melissa was right! They were the worst parents ever!
The next day, Audrey and David got up, woke Melissa, apologized, and set out looking for Alex. They never found him. The three family members walked back up to their house, tiredness stinging their eyes along with tears.
Melissa had hoped that she would find her brother and see him again. She prayed as they walked up the driveway, asking for about the hundredth time for God to bring her big brother back to her.
The family went and sat down in their living room, but as soon as they sat down, red and blue lights flashed throughout the room. There was a knock on the front door and David opened it, his wife and daughter standing behind him curiously. In front of the family was a police officer clutching his hat with a sad, mournful look on his face.
The officer told them that there had a very bad accident involving very bad food poisoning down at Sunset Boulevard. The victims were Luke Patterson, Reggie Peters (Melissa gasped as she heard his name. His brother, Ross, was one of her best friends and crush), and Alex Mercer. The Mercer family fell to their knees as one. Melissa let out a cry of anguish, David couldn't bring himself to breathe, and Audrey had dropped onto the floor into a dead faint.
The next week, everyone attended the three boy's funeral. As her parents cried, Melissa peered down into Alex's casket, almost puking at how pale his skin was and how the bruises under his eyes made him look like a corpse.
Probably because he was a corpse.
In the end, Melissa did get her brother back like she prayed and begged for him every night and day for the past month.
Just not the way she wanted it to happen.
She wanted an alive Alex, with tan skin, and happiness in his clear green eyes.
Instead, she got a dead Alex with pale, cold skin, and non-existent light in his now glassy eyes.
No.
This was not how things were supposed to go.
The Mercers gathered around Alex's grave and placed pink azalea flowers in the small vase in front of it. Melissa grabbed two drumsticks out of the back of her pants pocket and tenderly laid them down in front of the flowers.
Alex's grave said:
Alexander R. Mercer
October 14, 1978 - July 22, 1995
Beloved son, brother, friend, and musician
A citizen without reproach, a friend without pretense, a philanthropist without display, a Christian without hypocrisy
Sobs wracked Melissa's body and David rubbed her back soothingly, muttering soft words to her as his own tears streamed down his face. Audrey seemed to clench and unclench her fists. She had an uncharacteristically angry look on her face and steam seemed to be coming out of her ears.
Melissa liked to call this look "Momma Bear Mode," which happened to be quite rare.
As Melissa and David began noticing this, they slowly crawled away. You did not want to be in the way of an angry Audrey.
The Peters saw this and looked perplexed as to why Audrey was mad.
The Pattersons looked up when they realized everyone was silent and had bewilderment plastered across their faces. They finally noticed that Audrey was glaring right at Emily.
"Audrey, why-" Emily started to ask, confusion etched across her sad face.
Audrey blew up. "Why?! WHY?! If your son hadn't become friends with my Alex and dear Reginald, we wouldn't be in this mess and we'd all be happy families," Audrey snarled. Everyone watched with big eyes. "Because of your son's bad influence, my Alex is dead!"
Now, normally Audrey is a very cool and collected person but with losing the son that she never got to apologize to made her feel like punching someone with words and that someone happened to be Emily Patterson. Emily seemed to be feeling the same way.
Emily drew up to her full height (which wasn't that tall), her face turning a glowing red. "Don't you dare bring my son into this, Audrey. Nobody except the street dog vendor is to blame for the boys' deaths, especially not any of the victims. Not my son."
The two women kept arguing and everyone was watching it like it was a tennis match. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.
Mary was miffed when she heard Reggie's name thrown into the argument and she stood up to interfere. However, before she could do anything, Emily said something that made them all pause.
"Oh, yeah? Well, at least my son knew that I loved him, unlike Alex, Audrey," Emily spat, her eyes like a cold, yet fiery furnace.
Audrey's eyes turned dark and as cold as Emily's. "At least my son actually loved me, unlike Luke, Emily," she snapped, saying Emily's name as if she spitting out poison and that poison was her name.
Everyone sucked in a sharp breath as the words were exchanged.
David and John got up quickly to hold their wives back from scratching each other's eyes out, but a loud sob was heard. It didn't come from any of the families.
Everyone looked around and jumped when they saw a teenage girl sitting between Luke's and Reggie's graves. She wasn't there before!
Everyone jumped up and backed away from her. "Who the heck are you?" Ross asked.
The girl looked up. As soon as she saw them, she grinned madly and hopped to her feet. She walked towards them while waving her hand. The mascara running down her cheeks immediately vanished.
"Witchcraft..." Audrey whispered nervously.
"Well, you're not wrong, I guess," the girl declared cheerfully. "I am a major Potterhead and I'm a girl, so in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, that would make me a witch."
Audrey whimpered fearfully.
The girl turned to Ross with a wide smile on her face. "Hey, Ross! To answer your question, y'all can call me Sam."
Ross gulped. How did she know his name?!
The girl smiled even wider. "I know your name, Ross, because I created you. I created all of you."
Ross's eyes widened along with everyone else's. "Are you-are you God?" Melissa asked Sam.
Sam's big hazel eyes went even bigger. "Oh, no. I'm, uh, I'm a human like y'all. I'm not Him."
Melissa slumped. "Oh."
Sam's eyes twinkled as she looked the girl up and down. "Oh, man, I had so much fun writing you. I admit, the Mercer family was the easiest to write. Great job on that talking to you gave your parents by the way. I was so proud when I wrote it. You are a queen!"
"Oh, um... thank you?" Melissa asked, confused.
Writing me? she mouthed to Ross.
Ross shrugged. Maybe she escaped from the mental hospital, he mouthed back to her.
Sam glared at the two of them. "Oi! I did not come from a mental facility! Although, my friends do tell me on a daily basis that I need to go to one ASAP."
The three families stared at her a little more than just creeped out.
"Why are you here?" Regan spoke up.
"I came here to help y'all. It's a little project I thought of at three in the morning one day and I thought it would be fun to do."
Emily stared incredulously towards the pretty girl. "And you just expect us to just agree to do that?"
"Yup," said Sam, popping the P. "Mainly because it has something to do with Luke, Alex, and Reggie."
Mary squeaked. "What? Our sons are dead!"
Sam gave a little laugh. It was a laugh that made you think that she knew something no one else did. "Yeah, I know. Trust me, I know. However, they may be dead, but they are not truly gone from this world, you see. And I'm not talking about all that cheesy stuff about them being with us in our hearts. I mean it quite literally."
Melissa sucked in a sharp breath. "What do you mean?"
The twinkle in Sam's eyes intensified and she held out her arms. "Grab onto my arms and I'll show you."
Everyone gathered around Sam's body hesitantly.
Sam rolled her eyes. "Jesus, y'all, I'm not gonna bite. I may be ashy but I don't have Corona or anything. At least, not anymore. I still don't have my sense of smell back now that I think about it."
Everyone grabbed onto her arms. "What's Corona?" Ryan asked curiously. "How would it make you lose your sense of smell?"
Sam scowled deeply. "Maybe I'll explain it to y'all later. Let's just say it's a virus and it's causing a worldwide pandemic and lockdown. It sometimes makes you lose your sense of smell and taste if you catch it."
Ross gaped at her. "Are you sure? How have we not heard about this?"
Sam grinned cheekily. "Probably because it's not gonna happen for another twenty-five years."
David frowned. "Then how would you know-?"
"I'm from the future," Sam interrupted.
Everyone stared at her.
"Alright, let's get this show on the road! My back has been aching all day and I wanna sit down. Scoliosis really is a horrible curse."
Before anyone could say anything else, Sam closed her eyes and the shadows from the trees started gathering around them like a tornado. The shadows wrapped around them like a blanket, and without further ado, the three families disappeared with a final whisper from the black curtains draped around them.
A/N- I AM DONE! YAAAAAAY! I hope y'all liked it! It's a lot longer than the last one lol.
Sorry about all the badly written angst. It's my first time writing angst and I'm terrible when it comes to emotions (my family freaked when they saw me cry at Unsaid Emily and was like "Whoa, she has emotions!" and "She's not completely heartless after all!"), so yeah, I'm sorry that the angst sucked.
Y'all like the families? They are all my OCs! Who else ships Ross and Melissa?
The gravestones... I had to look up the birthdays, and I got Reggie's and Luke's, but Alex's was not there, so I made his up.
I think this chapter is really good ngl. It was hard though. I had writer's block for most of it and I only wrote the Mercer's part today.
And yeah, I really did have corona a while back. Not fun. Me, my dad, mom, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, three of their five kids, and 18 people in our church caught it. One guy died. May he rest in peace. My dad and I still haven't gotten our smell back *sob* My aunt still doesn't have her taste or smell back.
REVIEW OR I WILL MAKE YOU DO THE HOKEY POKEY ON A PILE OF LEGOS.
Peace and Ancient Greece,
Sam ;)