Chapter 13

Alex's POV

For the first time in forever, I'm the only one that's not panicking. That doesn't necessarily mean I'm calm, but I'm definitely more calm than Reggie and Julie. Julie's worried about her friendship with Flynn and about Carrie trying to get information from her dad. Reggie's freaking out about Luke. We were all starting to get worried about him, but Reggie was full on freaking out worrying about him.

"He should've been back by now, why isn't he back yet?" He say. "What if he got lost on his way back, or what if he's in trouble? What if Caleb took him again?" Reggie looks at me, the panic on his face clear as day. "What are we gonna do?" He asks me.

I am just now realizing that without Luke, things were completely different. Luke is the one who motivates us when we're down. He's the one to pull us out of the cloud of worry and panic and on track to where we need to go. But Luke's not here to pull us out of the fog and the fog is so thick this time around I can barley see Reggie through it as he keeps going further into it.

"I don't know." I admit. "But we'll figure it out. I'm sure he's fine."

"You guys should go look for him." Julie says. "Bring him back to the house and we'll figure out how to get his memories back."

"Well what are you gonna do?" I ask.

"I gotta try and make up with Flynn, she's mad at me for leaving her yesterday." She says.

"But didn't you say you left because she was being mean towards Carrie?" I ask.

"Yeah, but she's still my friend." Julie says.

I'm pretty sure Julie and Flynn are secretly in love with each other but I also feel like Julie has feelings for Carrie. The way she was worrying about her shows she cares, and she left Flynn, her best friend's house, defending her. But what do I know about love? I was only right about all of Luke and Reggie's past relationships and their current one with each other. I know absolutely nothing.

Julie grabs her bag and heads out to presumably Flynn's but I wouldn't be surprised if she stopped by Carrie's.

Before I can turn back to Reggie so we can make a plan of where to look for Luke, he poofs away.

Reggie's POV

I have to find Luke, he could be in trouble. Who knows why Caleb erased his memories, but it must all be a part of his plan to get us to join his stupid house band. I wish we never found out about Trevor stealing Luke's songs, because then we never would have ended up in this position.

First things first, I have to check the Hollywood Ghost Club. That's why I left without Alex. Both of us don't need to risk our afterlives.

I poof into the Hollywood Ghost Club and Caleb is performing on stage with all his feathery but deceiving dancers, wowing the audience of rich people who sold their souls for this. When I saw who was on the stage with him, my heart burned like it was on fire and my veins turned to ice. It was Luke, and it didn't look like he was being controlled in the slightest. He looked like he was enjoying himself, like how he normally looks when he plays.

How could he leave us and play for him!? I know he doesn't have his memories, but he said he remembered having feelings for me, yet he left me to play at the Hollywood Ghost Club. Why would he do that? I thought he trusted me?

Wait- maybe Caleb did something to his memories again or maybe this is all just part of his plan. He wants us to join us band, so maybe that's not really Luke, he only wants us to believe that it is so we join his band to stay together. I'm not gonna fall for it.

Oh who am I kidding that's definitely Luke. The passion and joy across his face says it all. He does his little leg kick and his voice his perfect as always. It's  Unreplicatable.

But I still know this has to be a part of Caleb's plan, Luke wouldn't just join Caleb even without his memories, right? Caleb and Luke head backstage and I decide to follow them.

"See, I told you performing on my stage would make you feel right at home."  Caleb says. I peek around the corner and listen in the their conversation, Caleb's back facing me. I am facing Luke's direction but hopefully he doesn't see me.

"Yeah totally." Luke says. "Thanks again for giving me my memories back. Now I know I can't trust them, they were lying to me this whole time."

"I told you." Caleb smirks. So this was all part of his master plan. By why would he want him to not trust me and Alex? For an evil mastermind he doesn't seem to have this planned out very well. "So, now that we have the upper hand, you know what you have to do right?"

"Yeah yeah of course." Luke says. "Just run it over one more time so I'm sure?"

"Fine, if I must." Caleb sighs.

I lean in a little closer to make sure I can hear the plan so I can report back to Alex and we can make our own plan. I leaned a little to far and the light caught sight of me, and so did Luke. He let out a quite gasps when he saw me and Caleb was about to turn around and I was gonna be busted, but Luke drew his attention away.

"Uh.... So I go back to the studio and get them to come here with me, right?" He says. I quickly hid back behind the wall hoping it wasn't too late and Caleb didn't see me. But if Luke was on Caleb's side, why did he help me. A piece of him must still be in there somewhere. "Any suggestions on how to get them to come?"

"Don't tell them to come here, lure them to the Hollywood Strip. I'll be there waiting to take their souls so you won't have to worry about them coming after you any more."

So that's what he told Luke.  That we were the ones after him. If only I could tell him that he was talking to the real threat right now.

"Sounds like a plan." Luke says. "I'll go to the studio now." He says.

Shoot! I have to get there and warn Alex. Before I can poof away though Luke poofs in front of me, quickly covering my mouth to keep me from making noise as Caleb walked by not noticing us.

"I'm not gonna hurt you, I promise." Luke says taking his hand away from my mouth. I am so confused is he brainwashed to be on Caleb's side or is he still on our side?

"Then what was that plan about luring us to Caleb?" I ask.

"Reggie I know this looks bad but I can explain. Sorta, it's kinda complicated. You just have to trust me." Luke says. "Caleb tried to give me fake memories but I guess possessing me took a bigger toll on him than he expected because he gave me my real memories back. I'm just pretending to be on his side."

"I want to trust you, I really do." I say. "But I don't know if it's really you. This could all be an act, and your just tricking me."

"That's fair, you probably shouldn't trust me." Luke says.  "Not until this is over."

Him saying that is all I need  to trust him. If he knows himself I can't trust him, he really is him.

I wrap my arms around him. "I trust you now." I say.

"No Reg, I'm serious." Luke says gently pushing me off of him. "I may be trustworthy now but if Caleb finds out I'm not on his side and possess me or something again, you can't trust me."

I know he's right. Trusting him would be too risky, but I don't want to leave him alone in this place.

"Are you gonna come back to the studio?" I ask.

"I can't do that, it'll put you, Alex, and Julie in danger." He says. "But just remember that I love you, I always will."

"Hey I'm not the one who lost my memories." I  tease, trying to make this hard situation a little easier . "I think if anyone is going to be needing a reminder it's you."

"No, because my love for you is unforgettable." He smiles. "I'll never need to be reminded that I love you."

"I love you too." I say.

"Alright, you should get back before Caleb comes back." Luke says.

"Yeah, okay." I say. "Be careful."

"As careful as I can be." Luke says which scares me. Luke can take a lot of unnecessary risks at times, and I am worried that he is gonna do the same here and end up in trouble.

Julie's POV

I made my way to Flynn's house and on my way I revive a couple texts from Carrie.

Carrie: Jules, I got some info snooping around some of my dads thingsCarrie: turns out someone else knows he stole Sunset Curves songs and was gonna rat him out but my dad paid him offCarrie: if we just pay him more, we could get him to report my dad for plagiarism

Me: that's great but where are we gonna get that kind of money?

Carrie: I don't know, but we'll figure something out, right?Carrie: oh crap my dads home Carrie: he knows I know somehow Carrie ...typing...Carrie ....typing...

I watch as the text bubbles show she's typing but they abruptly stop and I receive no new messages. Carrie's in trouble. Saving my friendship with Flynn will have to wait. I shove my phone in my pocket and make a sprint in the opposite direction towards Carrie's house.