A Gift or A Curse

“Lacey! You’re home!”

Lacey stared at him and Blake, looking confused. Her eyes ran wildly all over them, trying to depict the picture in front of her right now.

“John, who – who -” she stuttered, her hands still holding on to the door handle, like she was ready to leave anytime

“Lacey, calm down. This is Blake, a friend of ours.”

“A – friend? What is she doing here, Johnny?”

“Uh…” Johnny blinked his eyes fast, trying to find a cover up story for this. Jimmy, watching how Lacey was anxiously standing beside the door got up to his feet and greeted her.

“Hi, Lacey. I believe we’ve met once before. I’m Jimmy.”

Both Lacey and Johnny gasped for two very different reasons yet united into the same curiosity.

“Jimmy? But he’s -”

“Dead. I know. I came back.”

Lacey glared at Johnny with her mouth dropped open. Johnny rubbed his face and landed both his palms on his hips later.

“Oh, come on John! You can do better than this!”

Johnny startled and furrowed his brows at her. What the hell is she talking about now?

“If you wanna cheat on me at least do it with dignity and not using your dead best friend’s name as a lame cover up story! Do you think I would believe that even the slightest?”

“Lacey! I didn’t-”

“Oh grow up and get a grip, John! I don’t want to see you anymore. You’re just like Zacky!” She made a bold statement and after that, gone she went into the darkened night, slamming the door shut in front of them.

Jimmy glanced at Johnny who stood still and frozen stiff watching his love crumbled right before him.

“I’m sorry, man. I didn’t mean for this to happen. Let me just go back to Brian’s place. You gotta chase her and fix this.”

Jimmy patted him on the shoulder and went over to the door that was tightly shut by Lacey earlier.

“No, Jim. Stay with me tonight. I can’t go through this alone.”

His steps adjourned as he turned his back facing Johnny again. “You’re sure? I’m in a body of a girl.”

“Stay. Please, Blake?”

Jimmy raised his eyebrows upon his last request. He was asking for Blake or me?

*****************************************************************************************************

Zacky paced around in front of his own car. He had followed the two of them until here, from the moment he heard that Johnny will bring her home. He thought to himself over and over again. Johnny would never make a move on her, he already had a great relationship with Lacey. But yet here he was, making a hard decision on whether to just barge in on them or to leave it alone.

He had set his heart in a whole, full determination as his feet marched forward to the door. But he quickly turned back to hide behind the bushes in Johnny’s front yard when he saw Lacey was walking towards the lawn with keys in her hand. He can’t be seen, moreover by his ex-girlfriend’s best friend right now. He listened carefully to their slow argument that would build up to an octave higher later.

He heard Blake was introducing herself as Jimmy. Why would she do that? Zacky asked himself from behind the bushes.

“Oh grow up and get a grip, John! I don’t want to see you anymore. You’re just like Zacky!”

Whoa. Zacky thought. His eyes widened when he heard his name was mentioned. After that, Lacey stormed out of there, sobbing hard and went for her car. Zacky stood up straight and watched as she sped her car away. He glanced once at the door and approached it slowly. He heard a faint sound of murmur between Blake and Johnny but it became clear as he drew nearer.

“No, Jim. Stay with me tonight. I can’t go through this alone.”

Jim? Jimmy is here?

“You’re sure? I’m in a body of a girl.”

Oh shit, he’s really here! Zacky raised his hand eagerly to knock on the door.

“Stay. Please, Blake?”

Zacky froze as his action dropped. His knuckles hung in mid air. He wondered aimlessly, why would Johnny mentioned Blake’s name if she was really Jimmy?

Ahh this is getting confusing. Zacky rubbed his face with a palm in frustration. He walked back to his car wearily and let Johnny win for once.

******************************************************************************************************



When she woke up around 7 the next morning, she was baffled. Sitting in unfamiliar bed, around an unfamiliar room with a familiar guy beside him, fully clothed. In fact both of them were fully dressed and she was tucked inside a blanket while he was splayed on his chest resting his bearded chin on the pillow with his mouth open.

“Johnny? How did I end up here?” She looked over at Johnny for a moment.

“Damn, I slept with two of Jimmy’s best friends already?” Blake whispered to herself. She didn’t actually mean it. She knew nothing had happened between her and Zacky, or even Johnny.

Every waking moment she spent after being possessed by Jimmy felt like a hangover. She didn’t remember a curl from last night. All she remembered was, lying on the couch and Jimmy didn’t kiss her. They only kissed once and that lead to his possession. They haven’t tried it on with no intention of possessing.

“Jimmy?” she called, tossing her blanket off. That ghost was nowhere to be seen. Did he slip away again? She wondered quietly.

As a matter of fact he didn’t. He was in the other room of this house, which was dedicated to the band’s development from the start until present. Johnny made this together with him, he remembered it now. They would paste their posters all over the wall, articles being cut and framed, their first and last vinyl records on par with their platinum awards that Johnny kept – all of it made him realized how his life was well spent.

He heard the already opened door creaked; he turned to find Blake was standing there, watching him.

“Jimmy?”

He smiled briefly and held out his left arm. She immediately took it. He felt at ease with her habit of running into his arms now everytime he offered.

“Wow. Your face is all over the wall.” She commented.

“Yeah. You can call this room as The Sevenfold Shrine. I made this with Johnny back when we were young. Can’t believe he continued on even after I’m gone.” He brushed his fingers on the stack of vinyl boxes and instantly realized that Blake was staring up at him.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I want to hear you play.”

Jimmy chuckled. “Sadly you can’t. I can’t even – hey! That’s a great idea to scare them off isn’t it?”

“What?”

“Let’s go to the studio and let them see me play without seeing me. Cool huh?”

“Jimmy! They’re your friends! Stop freaking them out!”

“Oh no they won’t be freaking out, trust me. Besides I gotta show that new kid how it’s really done.”

Blake was speechless, not knowing what to answer to that. She frowned at him and her mind wandered aimlessly as she traveled her blue eyes all over his. Jimmy bent down and gave her a peck on her lips.

“Okay okay. I won’t do it. But where’s the fun in being a ghost if I can’t scare them away?”

Her heart fluttered like crazy upon that brief and sudden kiss from him. Unknowingly, she landed her palm on his neck and pulled him closer to her mouth. She longed to taste his kiss again and last night she was rendered in frustration. Jimmy was a bit taken aback by her boldness but when she ran her tongue on his lips, he opened his mouth for access. He rested his hands on her back as she faced him properly and locked her arms around his neck.

Suddenly Jimmy felt like he was being pulled back.


There was a little girl - probably around 7 years old - on the curb side of the street, crying silently as she squatted down looking at her own knee. Jimmy approached her.

“Hey little girl, are you okay?”

That little girl looked up but ignored him completely. She went on crying and Jimmy can help but sense a little familiarity within her. Her brightest blue eyes filled with tears, her almost burgundy hair. Then he remembered a certain little girl that he loved back when he was alive. Quickly he crouched down, so she was eye to eye with him.

“Zoey?! You’ve grown! So fast! How??”

That girl cried even louder. Jimmy looked down to her small knee. There was a deep bleeding cut on top of it and he felt panicked immediately.

“Oh fuck, you’re hurt!” he quickly touched her leg but he can’t. His touch just usually went through like the wind.

“Blake!” suddenly a voice called from behind him, making him startled and spun around swiftly. The voice belonged to a little boy with copper colored hair, around 9 years old, with a magnificent set of blue eyes, who came running towards them both.

“Judy!!” the girl called back. Jimmy frowned to himself.

“Blake?” he whispered. That little boy called Judy ignored Jimmy’s presence and also went as panic as he did earlier.

“How did this happen? Didn’t I tell you to wait for me?”

“I- I want to ride the bike. Mommy bought it for me.”

“I know, stupid. But I told you to wait for me. I’ll teach you how to ride it.”

“You are late!”

Judy chuckled and asked Blake to climb on to his back. Blake obeyed, shedding her tears away. Jimmy realized then, that this was Blake’s memory. He was inside Blake’s mind and it has never happened before. That boy named Judy was apparently her only brother that she always talked about. He felt familiar with that name though.

“JUDE QUINN! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO YOUR SISTER?”

Judy looked up abruptly and saw his mother was standing in front of them angrily.

“Mommy, I – I didn’t do anything wrong!”

“Shut up and come inside!”



Jimmy pulled away from the kiss instantly. He was gasping for air – weird because a ghost doesn’t need air. But he does whenever he’s around this girl. Blake shot a puzzled glare at him.

“Why? What’s wrong Jimmy?”

Jimmy looked at her in disbelief. He didn’t know that merely making out with her can make him rummaged through her memory like that. Remembering Jude Quinn, his head ravaged with a lot of questions.

Is this the purpose of why am I here?

Notes

A/N: ta-dahhh!! haha XD