“Hey, Johnny? Jimmy wants to know if you’re okay.”

Johnny changed his gaze from the road to Blake beside him. He threw a small glance at the rearview mirror and saw nothing in the backseat of his car, but he knew Jimmy was there, watching him.

He smiled eventually at her. “I’m okay. Don’t worry about it.” Mindlessly he landed his palm on her thigh. But only for a brief moment.

“Did you…call her already?”

Johnny shook his head.

“Why not?”

“And say what, Blake?”

She shrugged, glancing at Jimmy once. Jimmy said something to her, before she translated back to Johnny.

“You should tell her the truth.”

Johnny snorted out a laugh. “No way. Matt will be fucking furious with me. If the news of Jimmy came back spread, even the slightest bit,” he inhaled and whistled out a breath seconds later. “Can you imagine?”

“No I wouldn’t know how it feels to be the center of public attention.”

Johnny laughed aloud. He put on a signal before going on a left turn. “Yeah but you are the center of our attention. Everyone wants to know where’s Jimmy, what is Jimmy doing. Don’t you get tired of that?”

Blake wondered for a bit. She didn’t get tired, yet. She felt accepted. With angry parents who never visited her and a shy quiet life she led in her eerie book store, made her a family of own. But with them, she will always be attended, always been asked to talk to, eventhough they mostly would want to talk to Jimmy but she was content with all of that.

“Hey, I’m gonna stop by for some coffee. You want anything?”

Blake jolted from her thoughts and looked around. Johnny was searching for a parking spot in front of a fancy coffee shop just opposite a vast view of a beach.

“No thanks, Johnny.”

Johnny shrugged and left her in the car. While she was alone, but not quite alone, she watched as Jimmy leaned to the back seat and gazed out the window.

“Hey Jimmy. You’re okay? You seem quiet this couple of days.”

Jimmy smiled at her. His smile was so comfortable that it melt her insides instantly.

“Sometimes a man gotta take a rest, baby.”

She felt her cheeks flushed upon that calling. Jimmy never called her that before. Not in seven days of their encounter. It’s only been a week and she was falling head over heels for this ghost already.

“I wonder how many ghosts have you seen in your life but you never knew that they were ghosts?”

Blake snapped from her blushing thought. She wondered it too, in fact, everytime, ever since she met Jimmy.

“I used to saw a couple of people around the park where I live. One would ignore the other and the person who being ignored just stood by beside him. I didn’t know that they were ghosts. They looked normal, like you.”

Jimmy leaned closer to her front seat and smirked. “I’m never normal, darling.”

She blushed again. “Jimmy! Stop calling me that!”

“You’re sure? You want me to stop?”

She bit her lip and turned around to face the front. Jimmy leaned even closer and rested his chin on her shoulder. She gasped at his touch.

“Blaky baby. You want me to stop? Hm?”

“Yes.” She mumbled shyly.

“So you want me to go then?” Jimmy teasingly pulled away from gazing so near at her face.

“What? No!”

Jimmy chuckled slightly and wrapped his arms around her front seat, circling her shoulders. His long arms was never a problem whenever he hugged her, she would always drown in his embrace.

“What would I do without you Blake?”

“You said that before.”

“I meant it.”

She glanced at her left, their lips almost touched but they purposely let it hung on to each other without making a move. When Blake was about to go forward, Johnny came into the car. He was startled for a bit, watching Blake in a strange pose.

“Uh, what were you doing?”

“Nothing.” Blake straightened herself up before pulling on the seatbelt again.

Johnny can sense something, but he didn’t say anything about it. He just hoped that this poor girl won’t fall in love with his dead best friend.

But, it was too late. She already was.

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

Matthew switched on the lights. A bright flash fluttered for a few seconds before it hit the room and torched everything in view. He scanned around gingerly. It had been a few months since he was here. The painful moments, the laughter they made, the tears they shed together while recording Nightmare, were still green fresh inside his head even now.

Things were exactly where they had left before going on tour. The guitar pick that Zacky dropped when he was playing for So Far Away and can’t control himself from crying was still there, lying on the floor. Brian’s bandana that he used as a temporary capo still draped over the chair and his own scribbled stack of lyrics for the whole album was still on the notation stand. Everything felt nostalgic.

Matthew proceeded, placing the studio keys on top of the table and continued scanning around. He went into the drum room. Jimmy’s kits were no longer there. They decided to put it up at the Hard Rock Hotel as a tribute for him. Sure their hearts felt heavy to let it go, but they can’t bear seeing someone else playing the kits either. It was Portnoy’s idea, after he - himself felt emotional for using it.

“Hey, Matt.”

Matthew felt a hand patted on his back. He rustled around to find Arin, with his beanie on and a sling bag crossed over his shoulder. Matthew did his best to draw a smile for him.

“Hey Arin. How’s your mom?”

“She’s getting better. Sorry I can’t join you guys drinking last night.”

Matthew ruffled his beanie and chuckled slightly. “It’s okay, kid. We understand. Just, don’t be a stranger.”

Arin pulled off his beanie and flashed a bitter smile. “I dunno, man. Ever since Rev got back I feel – weird. Like I don’t deserve to be here. Like an outcast-”

“Dude, how many times do I have to tell you? You fucking deserve to be here. There is no one that can play the way you do.”

“No one but Rev. And he’s better.”

“Rev is different. And we’ve gone past that. Hell, I’m happy that he’s back but I’m happy that you’re one of us too. Don’t stray off okay, kid?”

Arin smiled sincerely this time. He couldn’t thank Matthew enough. He was the first one that accepted him into the family when everybody else was still in their mourning phase and pretty much blared their temper onto him.

“Morning, guys!”

Both Arin and Matthew spun around and saw Johnny went in with a bright smile splayed across his face and his hand holding a cup of iced latte.

“Morning, Johnny Christ. What are you so happy about?”

As soon as Matthew shot that question, Blake walked in – wearing an Avenged Sevenfold City of Evil tour t-shirt that was too big for her and she waved awkwardly at them.

“Blake! Hi!” Matthew went over and hugged her briefly. She could drown in his huge torso so easily.

“Hi, Matt. And a guy I didn’t catch his name earlier.”

Arin held out his hand and smiled nervously. “I’m Arin.”

Blake tilted her head to the side a bit, like she was listening to something. “That’s the kid who replaced me.” Jimmy muttered under his breath.

“Oh, the drummer.” She took Arin’s hand and shook it.

“Is Jimmy here?” Matthew asked when he saw Blake was communicating to the thin air.

“Yes.”

Matthew grinned widely. “Welcome back, Jim. Do you remember this studio? You were recording your own voice at the vocal room, and I was coaching you.”

Jimmy swung his arm over Matthew’s shoulder but it hung in mid air. “I remember dude. I remember Brian kicked me so hard when I smashed his guitar when I’m drunk. Those were some good times.”

Blake stepped in and looked at Matthew intently. “He remembers. And he also recalls the time when Brian kicked him for smashing his guitar.”

Matthew laughed and shook his head. “That fucker. He was drunk that night. They recorded a demo version for So Far Away. They sang so badly I had to remake the demo.”

“Oh yeah. That song about Brian’s grandpa. Whatever happened to it?”

“Uh, he asks, what happen to the song?” Blake translated for him.

Matthew looked at her grimly. “It became a song about you, Jim. Brian was devastated but he completed it finally.”

They all stood in silent, before Johnny called and offered Blake his cup of iced latte. She simply nodded and went over to him to take a sip.

Matthew watched in suspicious as the both of them were giggling over a mere drink. He put the pieces together and gasped quite loudly.

“Did you guys sleep together?”

Both Blake and Johnny spat their drink off and Johnny nearly dropped the cup in his hand.

“No!”

“Yeah, no way!”

Matthew narrowed his eyes at them. Jimmy laughed hard, but only Blake could hear it.

“Relax dude. She did sleep with him. But only sleeping. They didn’t do anything. Johnny is too…well - short.” Jimmy commented and patted air on Matthew’s shoulder. Blake shot an angry glare at him and he immediately stopped laughing.

“She’s wearing your tshirt right? And why are you guys even together?” Matthew asked again, not satisfied.

Johnny looked down to Blake’s attire. She did too. Well, that was because she did came from Johnny’s house and she didn’t bring her clothes with her.

“I gave it to her as a gift. Jeez, calm your tits, Matt.” Johnny rolled his eyes and started to move towards his bass guitar which placed neatly on its stand.

“Do you have the set list for next week?” he then casually asked.

Matthew, still suspicious however, rummaged through his backpack and brought out a handful of papers.

“Yeah, we start with Buried Alive first because that is the highest demand for our show,”

While they both discussed on about the set list of tracks they’re about to perform next week at Vegas, Blake watched as Jimmy went over to Arin who was already sitting behind his drumkits and knocked a few cymbals to test it out.

“Let’s see how good you are.” Jimmy smirked, with both arms across his chest. Arin, who didn’t hear him continued to kick the pedal and smashed a few toms in pure ignorance.

“Come on, play a track for me!”

As soon as Jimmy groaned that sentenced, Arin smashed hard onto his toms and snares and his feet kicking the pedals in full speed – the intro for Welcome To The Family. Jimmy stunned and froze. He watched Arin turned into a demon with his mouth dropped open. As Arin played on without the sound of guitar or vocal, Jimmy felt impressed. His feet won’t astray; they just planted to the ground making him look like Arin’s biggest fan ever.

“Dude, you can play!” he shouted and clapped his hands when Arin stopped abruptly to loosen a few screws of his toms.

“You can definitely play! Wow that was fucking awesome!”

Not long after Jimmy felt giddy and excited over Arin, Brian came into the studio running with Michelle. He heard chaos over at the door and he quickly turned to it.

“Guys! Blake’s not home! She’s – oh hey. Here you are.”

“What’s wrong?” Blake staggered at them, her brows furrowed.

“Uh, we saw your room was empty this morning. I thought you ran away.”

She laughed slightly. “I slept over at Johnny’s.”

“WHAT?” Brian, Michelle and Matthew yelled in unison. They glanced over slowly at Johnny who casually slapped his four strings without realizing anything. He nodded his head to the sound of his own rhythm and accidentally spun around to meet their piercing eyes.

“What?” he asked in a monotone voice.

“Jimmy is so gonna kill you.”

Johnny frowned hard, still not getting the picture. “Why would he?”

“You did sleep with Blake!”

Johnny raised his eyebrows while Blake paced forward to calm Matthew down. “Hey, listen. I didn’t-”

“She was Jimmy last night.”

Suddenly a voice interrupted. All of them twirled to the door and Zacky was standing there, a guitar bag on his shoulder and his expression weary. Johnny baffled at the blunt explanation from Zacky.

How the hell did he know this? It was supposed to be a secret between me and Jimmy!

“I was there, at your house, Johnny. I heard you guys talking.” Zacky, as if he read Johnny’s mind lazily made his way pass Blake and started to unzipped his guitar bag.

Matthew shifted his gaze from Zacky to Johnny, back and forth. “What’s going on here guys?”
Johnny took a deep breath, ruffled his hair into a mess and pulled away his bass guitar from his shoulder.

“I asked Blake to be possessed last night. I needed to talk to him.”

“What? And you think we don’t? That is so selfish of you, Christ.” Brian snapped suddenly.

“I know, I’m sorry. I gotta clear up something.”

“What kind of thing?”

Johnny looked at each of them intently. Even at Arin who just joined in their conversation from the drum room.

“Jimmy didn’t commit suicide. He told me. Probably he was in pain too much that he didn’t realize how much pills he took.”

Silence caught long between them. Blake gazed over at Jimmy who leaned his back against the wall, hands across his chest and listened to their conversation carefully.

“I know he didn’t.” Brian spoke in a low voice, breaking the murdering silence finally. They all nodded in agreement and reminisced their own version of Jimmy’s memory.

“Ouch!” Suddenly Jimmy felt burn on his arms. He quickly glanced at it and he saw his spreading sleeve tattoos on his right arm was fading slowly until half of it gone, missing, just like that. Like his LEANA tattoo on his ring finger.

He frowned hard, confusion blinded his mind. But when he saw Blake’s blue eyes were watching him, his vision gone blurry, his body uplifted in a slow motion movement and he can feel that he was slipping away, again.

Matthew shed a tear and chuckled slightly when he saw all of them looking down, just like the early days of recording Nightmare.

“Guys, come on! We’re here to practice for Vegas. Besides, Jimmy’s right here with us. Isn’t he, Blake?”

He turned to Blake behind him – who was panicking over at the wall.

“Blake? What’s wrong?”

“Jimmy! He’s gone! He’s missing!”

Notes

A/N: whoa. i'm out of chapters. gonna continue writing thi son weekend with other loads of work. kill me now. haha