Meike scanned around; the festival was hectic with oceans of people – screaming, bouncing their heads and jumping to the sound of some punk rock band on stage. By her side, Hella was lurking around too, finding them a really nice spot to hang back and enjoy the performance on stage.

“Damn I wish we could get to the front row! I don’t mind having to grab some asses along the way as long as I can get a clear view of my Synyster Gates.”

Meike sneered at her and tightened the grip on Leon’s hand before she tilted her head up to her left and meeting a pair of blue eyes. For the past couple of days before, she’d been struggling to avoid his appearance and disappearance around the house. Sometimes she swore he did them on purpose.

“Can you tell her that Gates actually likes to see girls flashing in front of him?” Jimmy leaned down to whisper in her ear but Meike chose to ignore him. She’d been ignoring him whenever they were in the presence of someone else.

Jimmy chuckled seeing her odd reaction to that statement and crouched down to meet the eye of her son.

“Hey, buddy. Still can’t see me huh?”

Meike looked down to Leon in her hand. He was pretty clueless from watching all these people cramming about and raged singing to the lyrics. Jimmy tried to touch him, waved and even danced around but Leon just stared into nothingness.

“Um, Hella. Can you take Leon to buy a hotdog or something? I’ll find a good place for us.”

“Oh but Avenged is coming up next!”

“The schedule says 3 pm, we still have a half an hour. That’s probably two or three more songs from this punk band crap.”

She heard Jimmy muttered something about; “Hey, those are my friends up there!” and Meike ignored him again.

Hella agreed and took Leon in her arms before leaving Meike alone, with an invisible person. She didn’t tell anyone that she was seeing Jimmy’s apparition now. And since Leon complained that Jimmy didn’t come to play with him anymore, that kid had been nothing but cranky. Hella was pretty much avoiding the subject, not in front of him at least or he would throw a tantrum over something so small like his shoelaces.

As soon as they were left alone, Jimmy raised his eyebrows and pulled off a smirk.

“You’re sending her away so we could be alone? Smooth.”

Meike rolled her eyes. “I’m sending her away so I didn’t come off as mental. Talking to you right now makes me feel like I wanna sign myself into a psych ward.”

Jimmy laughed aloud and motioned for them to walk ahead, finding a really good spot near the stage yet there was a massive space for her to breathe and maybe later for Leon to run around.

“Wow, good spot! Thank you!”

“You’re welcome. I was practically lived in festivals like this so I know where to find some good spots.”

“But I thought you only lived on stage?”

“Not necessarily, in fact me and my buds loved to watch other bands perform. Sometimes we wanna see from the eyes of our fans, you know.”

Meike smiled up to him, their eyes still glued on the stage to the performance from Of Mice & Men. Truthfully, the reason she agreed to bring Leon here wasn’t entirely because of what Jimmy had said, well, part of it maybe but she was here so that she could send him away to his rightful place. Hoping that Jimmy could somehow find closure to his mission and maybe seeing his friends could somehow be his last wish.

She didn’t know, she was blindly assuming.

“What would you do if you get to meet my friends?”

She snapped from her train of thoughts and was caught off guard, as if Jimmy was reading her mind right now.

“Um, I don’t know. I think, just as any other fans would do. Take pictures with them, hugs and get their autographs and so on.”

“You didn’t do any of that with me.”

“That’s’ because you’re fucking invisible, Jimmy. If you’re real right now I would’ve fainted.”

Jimmy laughed shortly. “That’s a bit…the other way around don’t you think?”

“Yeah well, I’d rather faint from seeing the real you than seeing the imaginary you.”

He sighed heavy and crossed his arms. “Trust me, I’m not imaginary. Because if I am, can I do this??”

Jimmy flipped forward and landed his palms on the ground, doing a silly handstand. Meike laughed watching him struggled with his weight and his tshirt was yanked down, revealing his flat tattooed belly.

“Quit it, Jimmy! People are gonna start paying attention to me.” she laughed even harder when Jimmy tried to walk with his hands but quickly she regained herself when people were starting to turn heads towards her. Jimmy settled himself down on the ground and straightened up his tshirt.

“Shit, I can’t do that anymore. I used to walk in handstands just to annoy Johnny. That fucker freaked out one time when he saw me in the dark.”

“Really? Wow, I never knew about this. Tell me more,”

“Wow, now you suddenly want all the juicy details about my band mates?”

“Oh yes please. Makes me feel really special.” She widened her eyes and winked at him.

“I bet you wanna know what Gates would normally do in his spare time, huh.”

“I already knew that. He said he likes to drink his beer and just hanging out by the beach or something. I’ve read about it over some interviews.”

“He’s lyinggg…” Jimmy sang.

“What? You mean he doesn’t really like to drink beer and hanging-”

“Oh, no. He does. Don’t get me wrong. But we don’t get that much spare time. So everytime we were on tour, we would have a little breathe between our soundchecks and the real show. Gates likes to experiment with his hair.”

Meike blinked at him and her mouth broke into a wide grin. “Explain more please!”

“We’ve got shitloads of hair care products in our bathroom and most of them were his. We were in Montreal I think, when Matt busted him trying to do some Superman ‘S’ thing with his hair. We’ve been mocking him ever since. When he was asleep in his bunk, I snuck in and braided his hair into pigtails.”

This time Meike couldn’t control her laughter. She didn’t care if someone stared and thinks she’d lost her mind.

“Wow, what are you so happy about?”

Meike jumped a little, only to find Hella and Leon were back and Leon was munching up a hotdog.

“N..nothing. I was watching those guys over there.”

She pointed to a moshpit that was happening in the middle of the crowd. Luckily Hella looked past that because Leon was acting cranky and wanted Meike to hold him instead. She squatted down to meet his eyes.

“Leon, what’s wrong? You look sad.”

Jimmy crouched down too, watching her talk to her son so lovingly. He missed his mother, and his whole family in the spur of a moment. He missed his four best friends too and wondered about how they would react if they knew he still exists and has been sent down to be an imaginary friend to Leon.

“Mommy, I wanna go home.”

“Oh darling, but why? You don’t like it here?”

“Maybe because he can’t see me anymore.” Jimmy cut in.

“I wanna go home and wait for Jimmy.”

Meike sighed heavily. If only she can tell him that Jimmy is right here..

“I guess it didn’t work.” Hella spoke suddenly, making Meike tilted her head up, fighting with the sunlight that was scorching above her head.

“What do you mean Hella?”

“I bought you some supernatural candles, I know, it’s silly. But at least I tried.”

Meike stood up straight and glared at her. So did Jimmy, he approached her with curiosity.

“It says that you can get your wish to come true. I kinda hope for you to wish that you could see Jimmy. I guess you wished for him to disappear huh.”

Meike gasped and clasped her mouth. She wasn’t one to actually believe in superstitious things but now she felt like she was.

“Hella, do you know what you’ve done?”

“What?”

Meike closed her eyes and plucked up some courage to blurt it out.

“The truth is, I did wish to see Jimmy on my birthday and…it came true.”

“WHAT? Seriously, Mei? You can..you..you can talk to him and everything?”

“Yes.”

Hella spun around in her position, trying to search for the invisible man but all resulted in vain.

“Where is he? Where is he now??”

“Right next to you.”

Jimmy waved and grinned silly at Hella. “Hi, gorgeous!”

“And he said you’re gorgeous.”

Hella stopped searching and blushed. She’d never thought that The Rev would call her as gorgeous even if it was his ghost or spirit.

“Wow, this is like, so unfair. You get to see him and I don’t?”

“Who told you to buy me that candle?”

“At least wish for me too!”

As Meike rolled her eyes, the performance for Of Mice & Men had ended and an organ tune appeared, regarding that Avenged Sevenfold was on.

“Oh here they are!!” Hella squealed and Meike picked Leon up to move a little closer to the stage. Thanks to Jimmy they got to stand just beside the stage where they could have a clear view of Zacky Vengeance and Johnny Christ.

“WHAT’S UP ROCK AM RING?!”

M.Shadows or Matt yelled from his microphone as the riff from Synyster Gates barged in along with harmonized guitar from Zacky.

“ARE YOU READY TO FUCK SHIT UP?!!” Matt screamed again and the crowd burst out a really loud answer. Meike covered Leon’s ear to the sound of Matt’s vulgar words.

“Critical Acclaim! Jimmy, they’re gonna-” Meike turned to her side to talk to Jimmy but he wasn’t there anymore.

“Yeah, tell him Meike. Tell him that they’re gonna use his voice in the chorus.”

“He’s gone.”

Suddenly Leon started to laugh and clapped his hands, his body squirming like he was about to dance as the drums entered with the rapid bass kick. Meike put him down and he immediately jumped and dancing around happily.

“Wow, he must have liked this song so much.”

“He likes drums.”

I’ve had enough, it’s time for something real
I don’t respect the words you’re speaking
Gone too far, a clone!

Jimmy’s voice emerged through the speakers and Leon stopped dancing.

“Mommy! It’s Jimmy! Jimmy is singing!”

Meike smiled at her son and looked up to the stage. “Oh God!” she gasped. Hella was enjoying the songs with her arm up in the air, but she stopped to when she noticed Meike was shocked.

“What? What’s wrong?”

“Jimmy’s on stage. Running around, like Leon.”

Both of them burst out laughing and Meike described what was happening on stage. Jimmy would stand beside Synyster and mocked his playing with air guitar poses and sometimes he blocked Johnny’s view and most of the time he would sing together with his arm over Matt.

“Everytime he stopped in front of Arin, he stared.”

“He stared?”

“Yeah, like he couldn’t believe somebody else is behind those drums and not him.”

“Poor Jimmy. I bet he wants to play drums so much.”

Meike nodded and glanced at her son. Leon wanted to play drums too apparently. But to Meike he’s too young to have that ambition. She would usually encourage him to play football and maybe become a professional later, but ever since Jimmy was here, she couldn’t help but rethink her decisions.

“WOW that was awesome! I haven’t been on stage in like forever!”

Meike jumped a little when Jimmy suddenly appeared next to her.

“What, he’s here?” Hella asked and Meike nodded. “Hey Jimmy, I love that song you wrote, Afterlife. I’m a big fan.” She immediately spoke into thin air and Jimmy chuckled at her.

“Thank you, gorgeous. I’m a big fan of you too.”

Meike laughed shortly and transferred the message to her. Hella blushed in red and excused herself to dance with Leon in the spacious ground nearby.

“So what do you think?” Jimmy suddenly asked, now Avenged was playing Buried Alive on stage.

“Of what?”

“Leon, being a drummer like me.”

“I dunno Jimmy. He needs to have a good teacher if he wants too.”

“I can teach him. You just have to get him his first kits, like I did when I was five.”

“You can’t teach him.”

“Why not? Oh, you’re underestimating me now? I like kids, Meike. And I would love to teach him to play drums. I have nothing better to do anyway.”

“NO! You can’t because he can’t see you anymore. And..because..I’m sending you away.”

Jimmy’s face changed slowly, his brows furrowed and his forehead creased in question. The background filled with noises of crowd singing along to the song and Hella was teaching Leon how to sing together but between Meike and Jimmy, this was a heartfelt matter.

“Yeah, I figured sending you here to your rightful place, beside your best mates, will eventually help you to cross over.”

“But why? You don’t want me anymore?”

“Jimmy, I’m a happily married woman with a beautiful son. I don’t want to be seen as a crazy wife and mother who talks to walls and laughed by herself all of a sudden.”

“That is out of my control Meike.”

“I know, and that’s why you don’t belong with us. In fact you don’t belong here at all. Maybe you should go and meet your friends, maybe that’s why you’re here in the first place.”

“How do you know for sure?”

“You’re a musical person, Jimmy. My family doesn’t revolve around music. Sure we listen to your band and everything but that’s about it. I don’t play any instrument and neither does Leon. I’m not sure whether I should even allow him to be a musician like you. He will live a wild life and I definitely don’t want that.”

Jimmy looked down to his feet. A few moments later he clasped his hand over his chest.

“I’ve never been so heartbroken like this. Sending me away, refused to see me anymore…I feel like I’m dying all over again.”

Meike closed her eyes tight and felt her cheeks started to drench from tears.

“I guess this is goodbye then?” Jimmy croaked, holding back his tears too.

“Yeah.”

Jimmy pulled Meike into a hug but she can’t feel it. His touch was bound and restricted that he was taken aback, realizing that they cannot touch each other.

“I guess, you sending me away makes you untouchable to me now.”

Meike nodded weakly. “Maybe you really don’t belong here, Jimmy.”

“Goodbye Meike. Stay with Avenged okay?”

“I will.”

He gave a small smile before turning to Leon, and met his eyes. Leon was swaying his arms up and down to Arin’s drumming and Jimmy grinned widely at him.

“That’s right, little buddy. You’ve got the talent. Go and live your dreams, don’t let your mom holding you back.”

Meike snorted out a laugh but her eyes pooled with tears. Hella noticed it and grabbed her shoulders.

“Hey, why are you crying??”

Meike pulled her into an embrace and cried as she watched Jimmy stared at them, with Afterlife song played in the background. Matt’s voice filled loudly in the air, made Meike cried even harder.

I don’t belong here,
Gotta move on dear
Escape from this afterlife
Cause this time I’m right
To move on and on
Far away from here

Got nothing against you
And surely I’ll miss you
This place full of peace and light
And I’d hoped you might
Take me back inside

When the time is right

With that chorus ended and the sound of strings emerged, Jimmy disappeared with small reluctant wave. Meike closed her eyes and hoped that Jimmy will find his way with his friends.

---

“Thanks Mei for bringing me to the festival. I owe you so much! I finally get to meet my Syn! He signed my fuck- freaking shirt!”

Meike smiled and glanced at the passenger seat. It was already night and Leon had fallen asleep next to her. She was dropping Hella off at her house now.

“No, I owe you Hella. If it wasn’t for you and your superstitious belief, I wouldn’t even get to meet him.”

“Hmm..it’s sad that you let him go.”

“I had to. Do you want to see me end up in a psych ward?”

Hella chuckled. “No. But I agree with Jimmy. You should let Leon explore his musical ability. If he’s in a band when he gets older, you’d get to be the cool mom that follows him on tour all the time.”

“Yeah right, I would be a freaking big rock standing in his way.” she laughed to the thought. But it wasn’t exactly disturbing. She would love that too actually.

“Ok, I’m off. Gute nacht.”

“Gute nacht. Liebe dich.”

“Aw, love you too.”

After dropping Hella off, she drove back to her house in silent. She didn’t even turn her stereo on. She was wondering whether her decision to let Jimmy go was right. Maybe Jimmy did belong with her, and maybe teaching Leon how to drum was his unfinished business or something.

But she would have to think about what would Daniel think if Jimmy really stayed? And besides, Leon can’t see him anymore so what’s the point?

A few minutes later she arrived in front of her house and parked carefully in the driveway. She unbuckled both her seatbelt and Leon’s, proceeding to wake him up from his deep slumber.

“Leon, baby? Wake up, we’re here.”

Leon stirred in his sleep but didn’t wake up. Meike went out of the car and picked him up on the other side, shutting the door with her elbow. Leon was drained from dancing and jumping so much, running around the concert grounds, begging her to buy a lot of band merchandises and so much more. She didn’t mind since this was his first festival day out.

Meike realized that Daniel’s car was already there but the house looked dark. She figured that her husband must be asleep by now. She slowly creaked her way upstairs to Leon’s room and opened the door. Her fingers roamed around the wall, searching for a light switch and as soon as she turned it on;

“JESUS CHRISTT!!”

The same, tall lanky guy with a set of crystal blue eyes stood there in the dark, in front of her and smiled awkwardly.

“Guess what? I’m back.”

“WHAT THE???”

Due to Meike’s quite loud voice, Leon woke up from his sleep and he immediately gasped in happy.

“Jimmy!!!” he jumped down from his mother’s embrace and went to Jimmy first hand. He hugged Jimmy’s long legs and Meike frowned at that.

“Heyy buddy! You can see me now! I missed you little guy!” Jimmy picked him up and spun him around, leaving Meike speechless and stunned.

“Jimmy where did you go?”

“I’m around, I was watching you. You don’t eat your vegetables, you don’t obey your mom. Tsk tsk tsk.” He flicked his tongue and Leon chuckled apologetically.

“Will you stay forever, Jimmy?”

“I dunno, little guy. But you have a drum lesson with me.” he smiled and glanced up to Meike. “And you, Mrs Reiger,”

Meike was still frozen with her mouth opened wide. She thought she had sent him away. Never has she been so wrong.

“You’ve got some drum kits to buy.”

Damn it. Meike thought. Looks like she will be stuck with this ghost forever.

Notes

A/N: soo this is the final chapter/round for this long one shot..happy birthday again meike..it's still your birthday week so it's okay to read this on sunday right ;)

oh there's another gift from me..turn on to the next page :P