Jimmy didn’t show up the next day, though. As a matter of fact, Jimmy didn’t make another appearance for nearly a week. Wren figured he probably just needed some time to think about everything he had learned and just needed space. Still, when he made his appearance, she made him explain the box under his floorboard – turns out it was some sort of time capsule he made as a child – and in return, she showed him the music video for the song his best friends wrote for him and then showed him the foREVer tagline.

“People are even getting it tattooed on their bodies,” Wren told him, impressed. “You must have been some sort of legend.”

Jimmy laughs. “We…” he trails off, frowning. “Avenged Sevenfold has the greatest fans.”

“Don’t say it like that,” Wren tells him. “You haven’t been forgotten. You haven’t been replaced. Everything they do is in honor of you. Avenged Sevenfold fans are still Jimmy fans.”

Jimmy smiles but doesn’t reply. Wren doesn’t press the matter either as the next song on the Avenged Sevenfold playlist she created begins to play.

“I need to see them,” Jimmy says suddenly.

Wren understood why. “So, go see them.”

Jimmy shakes his head. “I’ve tried. It’s not as easy as that. I can’t leave this place. I don’t know why. I mean, I grew up here, so I guess that’s why I'm tied here but…it’s not like I had an easy childhood. If I was meant to spend my afterlife somewhere why couldn’t it have been somewhere I always had a good time? Like…I don’t know, Johnny’s Bar.”

Though she wished she did, Wren didn’t have an answer for him. Silence blanketed them again.

“I think,” Jimmy started after three songs played, “I think I have to see them. I have to say goodbye to them. I think that’s my only unfinished business. I need them to know I…I didn’t want to die.”

Wren nodded. It made sense but… “Jimmy, if you can’t leave how are you supposed to see them?” Wren asked. Jimmy replied by giving her a mischievous grin. “Oh, no! No way! For one, my parents would kill me if I brought someone like them into this house and for two, how am I supposed to get them here in the first place?”

Jimmy shrugs. “Just tell them you moved into my childhood home and they should come visit. Fuck, I don’t know. I didn’t think that far ahead.”

“Well, did you at least think about how I’m supposed to find them so I can talk to them?” She asked.

“No, but they’re my best friends. I know where they live, where they eat, where they party.”

“I don’t know, Jimmy,” Wren says, uncertain. “It’s been almost eight years. They’ve probably changed, their habits have probably changed…they have kids now. So, they might not live where they did when you were…well, alive.”

Jimmy sighs. “Please, Wren? I can’t live like this anymore. I don’t want to be stuck in this house for eternity after I traveled the world. It’s torture.”

Jimmy’s words reminded Wren of something she came across while searching about the band online. Without saying a word, she boots up her computer. Ignoring Jimmy, she types in a few words and waits for the page to load. “Jimmy, they’re about to leave for tour,” she tells him, showing him the screen.

“In two days? Are you kidding me? That means I have two days to get them here or I'm stuck until they come back!”

“Yeah,” Wren starts off slowly, “or it means we know exactly where they’re going to be and when.”

“Oh!” Jimmy exclaims. “You can go to one of their shows and talk them into coming here.”

“I still don’t see him I'm supposed to do that,” Wren expressed.

Jimmy gives her a look and tries to hid a smile. “Well, I’ve never known all of them to turn down a girl when it comes to sex. So, you just have to offer sex, make them come here and then once one see’s me, he will call the others and –”

Wren covers her face with her hands. “Oh, my God!” She shrieks, completely embarrassed. “Jimmy!”

“I’m just saying!” Jimmy laughs.

Wren laughs too and then says, “Okay, but they’re all married now. So, let’s do this without making me a homewrecker.”

“So, you’ll do it?” Jimmy asks eagerly.

“If we can come up with a way to make it work,” Wren agrees hesitantly.

“Oh, you’ll figure it out!” He exclaims, skipping around the room. “Can you buy tickets?”

Wren shrugs. “I just thought I’d wait for them outside the venue.”

Jimmy gives her a look of disbelief. “What? No way. You have to go watch them, I want to hear all about the concert. Please.”

Wren watches Jimmy as he pouts. “Well…I’ve never been to a concert before,” she says, “and I do have that emergency credit card.”

“See! It’s meant to be!” Jimmy exclaims again.

“But this isn’t an emergency, Jimmy!”

Jimmy scoffs. “You’re helping me escape what might possibly be my very own personal hell. What other kind of emergency are you waiting for?”

He had a point. Though, Wren didn’t think that point would go over very well with her parents. Oh, the emergency credit card? Yeah, I used it so I could help the ghost living in our house cross to the other side. Yeah, I had to go to a metal concert to do so. Wren could almost feel the straight jacket wrapping around her.

“Okay, fine.” She gives in. If she’s going to be locked inside a psychiatric hospital, she might as well make it worth it.

---

The venue was crowded and Wren felt out of place standing in the line next to people who were obvious fans of the bands they were about to see. The line moved at a decent pace but Wren still felt nervous; she shouldn’t have come. What had gotten into her lately? She was never a rule breaker, never one to disappoint her parents…and yet, here she was. Forget the psychiatric hospital, her parents were going to kill her when they found out.

Wren found her seat easily enough. It wasn’t the best seat, but she figured the less money she spent, the better. She had no clue who the opening bands were but the crowd loved them. During the break between the second opening band and the band she came to see, Wren pulled out a small notebook and began doodling. Jimmy wanted to hear all about the concert and this little notebook was going to make sure she didn’t forget a single detail. It was probably a bit much but she couldn’t help it, she was always deemed as an overachiever.

The crowd begins to go wild as the lights begin to dim and Wren focuses on the stage. A familiar guitar riff starts, causing Wren to smile and write THE STAGE at the top of the paper. Being the little smarty pants she was, Wren googled the set lists for the most recent shows and then studied the songs so she at least knew some of the words and it wasn’t so obvious she had just become a fan a week ago. As each song played, she wrote the song title at the top of the page and then wrote down little quirks or funny moments that happened during or in between the songs. She wrote down the jokes they told and how loud the crowd cheered when Brian played a solo.

Then, before she was ready for it, Matt was bidding everyone a safe night and they left the stage. Wren stood from her seat, expecting the group around her to follow her lead but instead, the entire crowd began to chant.

“Sevenfold! Sevenfold! Sevenfold!”

Wren glanced around the giant room before smiling and retaking her seat. Soon enough, the stage lit back up.

“You want some fucking more?” Matt screams into the mic.

The crowd cheers in response. Wren joined in and she pulled out her notebook as the song began. At the top of the page, she wrote ENCORE: A LITTLE PIECE OF HEAVEN.

The wait after the concert was excruciatingly long but Wren knew it would be. Jimmy told her the band likes to drink backstage after the show. Eventually, the door opens and people begin filing out. The few diehard fans that waited with Wren began to freak out. Wren didn’t understand how someone could love a band so much they would stick around for hours just to get a picture or a signed napkin. If it wasn’t for Jimmy, Wren would have been home hours ago.
Then again, Wrens parents never even gave her the chance to love something unimportant like a metal band. Maybe she was missing out on life because she was too busy preparing for it.

“Did you enjoy the show?” Someone asks Wren, snapping her out of her thoughts.

Unable to find her voice, Wren nodded. She was still uncertain how she was going to go about this.

“Did you want us to sign something or did you just want to say hi or…” Wren recognizes Brian as the one speaking to her. The rest of the band stands nearby, still talking to the other fans. What looked like a bodyguard and friends and family stood closer to the bus, watching the band as they interacted with their fans.

“Actually,” Wren starts. Her voice cracks and she stops, the anxiety makes her want to get sick. “Jimmy,” is all she can muster.

Brian gives Wren an odd look and shifts his gaze. “Uh, yeah, we miss him too. Jimmy was a really great guy. It sucks he’s gone.”

“He’s not,” it slips out of Wrens mouth accidentally but it slips out strong enough to catch another band members attention.

Brian looks slightly relieved as Zack comes to his aid. “Right, we don’t mean he’s gone-gone. He will always live through each of us and through our music. He’s the reason we still do this. Well, him and our fans.”

“No,” Wren whispers. “I mean…he’s gone, yes, but…” She could feel that imaginary straight jacket tightening around her. “He’s at my house right now. My parents…we moved into his childhood house, you see, and I found this box of his stuff and then he just…popped up. Well, he was always around but I guess the box of stuff made him want to show himself…as a ghost, you know? I didn’t even know who you were until he told me and then we googled you and learned you were going on tour. Before you leave, though, Jimmy thinks that he has to talk to you because of his unfinished business. So, he wants you to come with me. Please.” Word vomit. Wren knew she needed to stop talking as soon as the word “No” hit her lips but she couldn’t. It just kept pouring out of her mouth and there was no controlling it.

The good news was Wren no longer had to worry about her parents killing her when they found out about the emergency credit card because from the looks of it, she was about to be brutally murdered by Jimmy’s friends. Their faces contorted and twisted into angrier and angrier expressions. A voice inside Wrens head told her to run but her feet were glued to the ground. She knew she had to stay, she had to make them believe her. It was for Jimmy.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Matt asked her.

“Do you think this is funny?” Zack narrowed his eyes.

Johnny scoffed. “Get the fuck out of here before we call the cops for harassment.”

“I’m not lying! I swear, okay? If you’ll just come to me house I can prove it.” Wren told them desperately.

Brian laughed but it was humorless. “We’ve heard a lot of bullshit over the years from fans trying to get us to go home with them but yours takes the biggest fucking balls award. Get the fuck out of here.”

The group of band members began to walk towards the bus. When the bodyguard stepped up and told the fans that was enough and to go home, Wren knew it was time to admit defeat.
The hour-long drive home was painful. She did all this, defied her parents and for what? Nothing, and now she had to go home and tell Jimmy she wasn’t capable of helping him. She as going to have to tell him he was stuck in that house forever.

Jimmy was waiting on her bed for her when she got home. It was late and she was exhausted, she just wanted to go to sleep but she knew this couldn’t wait. “Well,” Jimmy asked, hope coated his voice. “Are they coming?”

Wren couldn’t answer him. She didn’t move a muscle until her lip began to tremble and she began to cry.

“Oh.” She hears Jimmy say. The hope that once filled his voice was replaced with disappointment. “Well, that’s okay,” he says after a long moment.

“I’m so sorry, Jimmy,” Wren cries.

“It’s okay, Wren,” he says softly, but she knew better.

Wren sits on the bed next to Jimmy and cries as Jimmy stares at his hands. This continues for several minutes before Jimmy cleared his throat.

“Well,” he starts, attempting enthusiasm. He fails miserably. “You feel up to telling me about the concert?”

Wren dries her eyes with her fists and nods, pulling out her notepad. She begins to tell him all about the concert. He laughs at all the right times and even smiles throughout her story but Wren could tell it was forced. She knew she had to make this up to him. She just wasn’t sure how.

Notes

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