here was a point in Roman’s life where he doubted his friendship with Fletcher. It wasn’t a surprise considering how often Fletcher would twist his own jealousy into a problem that was always Roman’s fault but when he was sitting in his car, waiting at Beck’s house, he realized there was no else in the world he’d do this for.

“What’s your plan?” Sam leaned his seat back fully aware that they parked close enough for someone in her house to see outside that window. “Nice costume change by the way.”

He wagged his finger at Roman’s outfit. He’d grabbed a change of clothes from his locker resulting in him wearing a 90’s band shirt, dress pants and running shoes. Not the best look, but it was better than the football uniform. He took a moment before answering Sam in case he changed his mind.

“I’m going to ask for the necklace back,” Roman said dryly. “I’ll text you when I’m ready.”

“That’s not going to work.”

“Have you seen me? It’ll work.”

Roman slammed the car door behind him. As he walked to Beck’s door, he felt his heart sinking into his stomach. He rapped on the door, the knocks almost in sync with his racing heart rate. Not even a second had passed when Beck swung the door open. She’d pulled her hair back into a messy ponytail and her eyes were red and puffy; presumably from crying.

“What? Came here to rub it in?” Her voice cracked.

“Actually, I’m here to apologize for how I acted towards you in culinary and for how Fletcher treated you.”

“Yeah, sure.”

“I’m harsh, I know. I can be very abrasive and moody but I didn’t mean to upset you. And I certainly didn’t like seeing how Fletcher treated you.” Roman leaned in, putting his arm on the door frame.

“Come in,” she said softly.

As he weaved his way through her house, he considered a career in acting. Over the years he’d become pretty accustomed to faking emotions. Beck led him up to her bedroom which looked like the stereotypical teenage girl's room. Gesturing to the small pink couch, Beck waited for Roman to sit. Awkwardly, he wedged himself as close to the arm rest as possible while Beck sat on the other side. She sniffled as she started to speak.

“I just don’t get it. I just always thought we’d get married, ya know live that picket fence life?” Beck sounded genuine but it didn’t stop Roman from having to bite his tongue. Under different circumstances he’d have told her exactly where she went wrong.

“I think most people saw it that way.” He wasn’t sure of what he should actually say but he figured if he just spoke softly, she would nod along. A second of silence passed before she started crying again. “It’s okay. Take a deep breath.” He eyed the room for anything that looked vaguely like a necklace.

Beck scooched closer to him, resting her head on his shoulder. Shifting back, Roman tried to make it seem like he wanted to see her rather than wanting to be as far away as possible. She looked at him with puppy dog eyes and grabbed his hand. It took everything in him not to pull away.

“I just feel so alone.” Beck rubbed her thumb over Roman’s knuckles.

For a split second, he looked down at her, noticing the chain of necklace. Regretfully, he reached over and pushed her hair behind her ear. She was wearing the wooden charm. Am I really going to do this? Roman questioned himself and his morals. In fairness, he was morally ambiguous at best. No point in changing that now.

“I am sorry.” He lied and put his arm around her. “You didn’t deserve that.”

“I know!” She sniffled and looked up at Roman with an all too familiar stare. Her eyes traced the outline of his lips as she leaned in closer. He swallowed his pride and let her kiss him. She tasted like cherry chapstick and toothpaste. “You aren’t as bad as everyone says.” I’m worse.

“You’re really pretty, you know that.”

“I don’t feel pretty.”

Sometimes, Roman really loathed himself. Even after everything Beck had done, every rude interaction and her years of insane competitiveness, he still felt bad for what he was doing. It could have been knowing that Fletcher would have killed him for what he was doing or he just saw Beck as a person for the first time instead of treating her like a nuisance. Roman rested his hand on the small of her back as he leaned in to kiss her. He just needed to distract her enough to unclip the necklace. She slid her hands up his shirt, tracing her fingers along his bare skin. Pushing her hair back, he started to kiss her neck trying to pretend it was anybody else. Slowly, he brought his hand up and started working on the clasp.

“Just a second.” She pushed him back gently as the clasp gave way. Carefully and with an exact precision, Roman pulled the necklace into the palm of his hand. “I need to freshen up.”

He could tell she’d been waiting for this moment. Once she was out of the room, he immediately texted Declan to call him faking an emergency. The two had a verbal agreement for moments like this although Declan rarely needed it. Roman shoved the necklace into his pocket and waited on the edge of his seat for the call or Beck’s return.

Beck came back first. Thick red lipstick coated her lips and she changed into a red summer dress. Roman considered it a bit tacky, but he supposed she was trying. Without hesitation, she joined him on the couch and marked him with lipstick. All Roman could do was play along until his phone rang.

“Ignore it.” Beck whispered.

“It’ll just take a second.” Roman dug his phone out of his pocket, fully aware that Declan as per usual would start hollering. He just hoped whatever fake catastrophe he came up with wasn’t totally embarrassing. “Hey Declan, I’m busy- Oh. Are you okay?”

“What’s wrong?” Beck pouted looking up at him but it was clear she could hear Declan’s faux sobs.

“It’s my brother.” Roman said, covering the speaker before continuing his ruse. “Oh my god, are you okay? Yeah, yeah, yeah... I’ll be there as soon as I can...Yup.” he hung up the phone

“So, where were we?”

“Sorry, I have to go. Declan is in the hospital. Not entirely sure what’s going on.”

“Stay.” Beck held his hand. “It’s not like you even like him anyways.”

“Uh...” Roman didn’t know how to respond to that. “You don’t know anything about me.” He tried to laugh and break the tension. “Seriously, I have to go.”

Half jogging, Roman left Beck’s house as her objections fell on deaf ears. The moment he was out of the door, he amped up the pace. Sam reached over the car, and opened the driver's side door for him. Falling into the car, Roman felt himself almost instantly relax. He didn’t take any time to start the car and drive away.

“Did you-” Sam started.

“Yes.” Roman answered a little too quickly.

“How did she-”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Did you-”

“No questions.”

“Okay, I’ll let the lipstick you’re covered in answer for you.” Sam huffed and slouched down in his seat.

“I may have kissed her to get the necklace off of her.”

“Looks like a hell of a lot more than that.”

“You tell Fletcher and I will end you.”

***

It was dark by the time they got back to the Wildes house basement. Henry had worn out Fletcher’s voice, all of his angry outbursts came out dry and thin, close to losing his voice. Ellis had found some sort of stool that he now resided on while Helga sat on the workbench reading the files Fletcher had been so desperate to get. Fletcher let out a croaking laugh as Roman tried to speak.

“How'd it go? Did she laugh you off her front porch?” The confidence Fletcher displayed was nauseating.

“Being pretty is a hell of a power.” Roman replied, dangling the necklace in the air.

“Fantastic!” Helga clapped. “Now we just need to temporarily pull Fletcher to the front. Try telling stories or showing him something he likes.”

“We could dump him in the pool.” Roman said but was only give the response of blank stares, questioning just how dumb he was.

Sam started off with listing off every achievement Fletcher’s ever gotten and just how impressive he was. On paper and in life, Fletcher was exceptional. As Sam prattled on, Roman noticed the way Fletcher’s body jerked around like he was trying to suppress a laugh.

“Your boy has low self-worth.” Fletcher finally burst out laughing.

“Watch it, or I’ll light this whole place on fire.” Roman didn’t know much about ghosts but he’d seen a few movies where burning the body would solve the haunting.

“Go for it, pretty boy. I’m sure arson would make a wonderful addition to that rap sheet of yours.”

Roman took a step back, letting Ellis and Sam continue telling stories and making suggestions for how to get Fletcher to come forward. Most of Sam's stories consisted of tales of boyhood recklessness that Roman would rather Helga not know but it was too late. On the other hand, Ellis tried playing songs on Fletcher's phone, talking about the food he liked and anything else that Fletcher had shown remote interest in. Nothing worked.

“Let’s take a break.” Helga suggested and pointed at Ellis. “Take a seat. Your shoulder is only going to get worse.”

“I told him that. He needs to go to a hospital.” Sam added.

“Why don’t you just heal him?”

“Huh?”

“You can heal him. Just put your hand here” Helga guided Sam’s hand over Ellis’s shoulder, who winced at the contact. “Take a deep breath in. Focus your energy on drawing the pain away.”

Roman watched curiously as Sam took a moment and closed his eyes. It was a few seconds before Sam yelped and jumped back. As if it was instinct, he started to rub his shoulder. Ellis seemed relieved and pulled down his shirt to reveal the stab wound replaced by a white scar.

“That hurt.” Sam sounded offended.

“Yeah, pains got to go somewhere. It won’t physically hurt you; you just get to feel the suffering.” Helga explained. “We need to regroup, figure out what makes Fletcher tick.”

Everyone started throwing around ideas while Roman checked his phone seeing a stream of miss calls from his mom. He knew it wouldn’t end well but he couldn’t bring himself to call her now. Between the lipstick and broken football gear, he couldn’t imagine the lecture she’d give. Awkwardly, he crossed the room to stand by Helga.

“Do you have a makeup wipe?” Roman asked and gestured to his neck.

“Sorry, I came prepared for a possession, not for cleaning up after-”

“Wait.” Sam pointed at Helga. “That’s good. That could work.” Sam got down on his knees, level with the work bench and whispered softly to Fletcher. Unsure of his plan, Roman strained himself to hear what he was saying. “You know only a couple hours after you broke up, Roman was tonguing Beck. She practically fell into his arms. I wish you could have seen it. The two acted like they’d been waiting for this just so they could be together. I mean he’s covered in lipstick. Couldn’t even be bothered to wash it off before coming back.”

Erratically, Fletcher’s body seized. His eyes rolled around back to green. His jaw set tightly as he gave a death stare to Roman.

“You bastard. That’s my girlfriend!” He shouted; his voice still hoarse from all of Henry’s manic yelling.

“Ex.” Roman corrected awkwardly as he rubbed the lipstick off himself, although it didn’t work very well. “I wasn’t into it. She was very teary- I'll shut up.”

“Is he back?” Ellis asked as Helga strapped the necklace on him.

“Yes and unbelievably pissed.” Fletcher snapped as Roman jumped to untie him.

The moment Fletcher was let loose, he took a swing at Roman but stumbled before he could make contact. Sam leaped in front of him and firmly held his shoulders while yelling an almost incoherent explanation of why Roman actually kissed Beck. Although it did nothing to calm Fletcher, it did ease him enough to refrain from taking another shot.

“Where do we go from here?” Fletcher sounded like the air had been knocked out of him.

It was a hard question to answer. In spite of everything, Roman was beginning to trust Helga. Obviously, she was aggressive and persistent but so far, she’d really only helped them. Her crash course in magic hadn’t been in depth but it worked for the time. Maybe she was right all along.

“We have a spell book. The spell apparently brings peace to the dead or some shit. We need a human heart and it has to be one the blood moon. There are some other stipulations too but those are the big ones.” Roman explained.

“Never heard of a spell like that.”

“We found it in a witch's den. Fletcher was the only one able to open the door.”

“I’d wager it’d be his family’s spell book then.” Helga paused and took one of the organ filled jars off the shelf as if it were a jar of pickles. “It’s worth a shot at this point. Get what you need to do the spell. I’ll see if there are any protection charms I can make for us in case something goes wrong.”

It occurred to Roman for the first time, the end was near. All he had to do was make it to April 13th then it would finally be over. Sure, they’d still be dealing with magic and Henry but there wouldn’t be a constant threat on his life. Dread and unadulterated excitement swirled in his chest.

April 13th, I can hold on till then, Roman hoped.