"Thorn, I'm sorry to be so harsh, but you're detaching from reality! Snap out of it!" Gus shouted. "This is real. No matter what fantasy you come up with in your head, and how much you liked touring with the band, there are homicidal witches that are going to kill us if we don't do something!"

Very suddenly, the tears welling up in Thorn's eyes became a waterfall. As she started sobbing, she pressed her face up against Gus's chest and let all her tears spill out.

"I know! I know!" Thorn said in between sobs. "It's…I just don't know what to do! There doesn't seem like a way to stop them, and I don't want to be helpless. Besides…I liked everything that's been happening. These past few months have given me some of the best memories of my life, and I don't want them not to be real! I don't want to go back to playing in shitty venues that I hate, and not feeling like my life is going anywhere."

Thorn's enunciation was messy, due to fighting back tears with each word she spoke.

"It's okay, Thorn." Gus comforted. "Even if the way you got here wasn't real, the memories you created with your best friends during this time are still as real as ever. And you're going to create lots more. I guarantee you, if we get out of this, you're still going to have me as your manager, and I'm going to help you all with your music as much as I can."

"I'm sorry." Thorn apologized. "I didn't mean to scare you. I just don't want to come to terms with none of this being real, because it's way less scary not to."

"I know this is hard for you, Thorn." Gus assured. "It was hard enough for me, having to pretend all this time. But I can't even imagine how hard this is for you, thinking something was real for all these months when it wasn't. I'm the one who should be sorry, not you."

"I mean…do you think there's a way to stop them?" Thorn's tears lessened a little, now that she had let her true feelings spill.

"Let's think about what we know about them. How did you meet the three of them?" Gus inquired.

"They came up to us at our concert and said they were our biggest fans, and asked for our autographs." Thorn recounted.

"That doesn't tell us much, though. Let's dig deeper." Gus said. "How did they introduce you to me?"

"Bridgit said that her dad was a record producer, and she would ask you to listen to our music to see if you liked us." Thorn said.

"This happened after they came up to you at the concert?" Gus asked. "I'm sorry if my questions seem repetitive; it's just that we need to think about this from every angle that we can, since we don't know much."

"No. Actually, that was the second time we met them, the next night at Lester's." Thorn remembered.

"Did they come up to you again?" Gus inquired.

"No…we saw them, and gave Bridgit her necklace back because she'd lost it the previous night." Thorn replied.

"Hmm…tell me more about this necklace." Gus asked.

"We'd found it the previous night because Bridgit had left it at the booth at Jack's. Dusk wanted to keep it because we didn't think we'd ever see them again. We bumped into them the next night, and gave the necklace back. Bridgit said she was so thankful that we'd found it because it was so important to her that she wanted to give it to us."

"A-ha." Gus's face lit up a little. "If it were so important to her, why would she just give it away immediately? Things aren't lining up."

It was then that the black-haired Hex Girl had the same realization that her manager did.

"Oh my god. You're right." Thorn gasped. "You know, there's been something that's bothered me about that necklace since the beginning."

"Well, it doesn't tell us much, but I think it's safe to say that necklace is part of their plan." Gus replied. "Did Dusk bring it along with her on this trip?"

"Yeah, but she hasn't been wearing it much." Thorn pointed out. "She's left it in her suitcase most of the time."

"Thorn, I've got it!" Gus gasped. "You said when Bridgit snuck into your room, she was digging through Dusk's suitcase, right?"

"Right." Thorn said, before having an epiphany. "That must have been what she was looking for! But…if she wanted the necklace so bad, why would she give it to Dusk in the first place? Why give it to her just to take it back?"

"I don't know." Gus admitted. "It doesn't tell us much about their plan, but I'm almost positive that necklace has something to do with it. Perhaps it's some sort of charm."

"Bridgit did say it was a good luck charm. Maybe it's really a bad luck charm, though!" Thorn exclaimed. "Should we try to keep Dusk from wearing it?"

"No, I'm afraid not." Gus responded. "We don't know if the necklace is unsafe for Dusk, but I think it will be even more unsafe for all of us if we try to keep her from wearing it. It's only going to make Dusk, and possibly the witches, suspicious. It's a hard decision to make, but I don't think we can risk it."

"So what do we do, then?" Thorn asked. "What's our plan?"

"I don't think our plan should be doing anything. We don't know what they have planned right now, but we know it has to do with the necklace. At first, I thought we should come up with a grand plan to stop them, but I feel like maybe that isn't the best course. We've got a small piece of the puzzle, and maybe we can figure out more of it so our plan to stop them can be a bit more informed. I say that we just try to watch them and see if they reveal anything more about themselves." Gus said. "Even though you were saying it because you were afraid, I think you had a point that we don't know enough to be able to do anything without risking our lives. I wish we could take action, but I think we need to wait just a bit longer and observe them. Presumably, if they're reading our thoughts right now, they'll confront us or do something to punish us. I guess this is all to say, we need to test out the extent of their powers by waiting to see if they know about this meeting. If they don't, perhaps we can meet again in two nights and reevaluate. If we haven't learned anything, we can reevaluate and make another plan."

"That sounds good…I guess." Thorn said. The uncertainty of their plan put the black-haired goth on edge, but she supposed she agreed with Gus that the best plan was to wait a tiny bit longer to make an informed plan. They were able to figure out the necklace was a piece of the puzzle, so perhaps they could uncover more.

"Okay. Do you want to meet again in two nights when we're in Chicago?" Gus suggested.

Thorn thought about it for a minute, weighing the options and potential dangers of agreeing.

"Yeah." Thorn finally said. "12 blocks away?"

A smile manifested on Gus's face, followed by a nod. "12 blocks. Goodnight!"

"Goodnight, Gus. Thank you!" Thorn smiled.

Thorn had feared bumping into the witches on the dark trek back to her hotel room in the middle of the night, but thankfully, she hadn't. She had snuck back into her room as quietly as a mouse, and crawled back into bed without anyone noticing she was gone. She'd slept hard the rest of the night, probably from sleeping so poorly the previous night. She also felt a little calmer…but just a little. Her talk with Gus last night had helped her feel like she at least wasn't alone in this, even if it was still terrifying to be under the control of witches, and come to terms with this all being fake.

Thorn stretched when she got out of bed, and her heart jumped a bit when she saw Luna was still in the room. Typically she was always the last one in the room, so the fact that she had been up so late made it particularly surprising that Luna was still here.

"Good morning!" Luna greeted. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah. Like a rock." Thorn replied.

"Oh good. I heard you leave the room in the middle of the night, so I was worried you hadn't." Luna said.

Thorn's heart leaped even more now. She scrambled to think of a believable excuse.

"Oh…sorry. I was thirsty so I went to get a bottle of water from downstairs. I hate the tap water here." Thorn quickly pulled together a fib.

"Why are you apologizing?" Luna assured. "Yeah, the tap water's awful here. I don't blame you."

Thorn admittedly hadn't even tried the Indianapolis tap water, but she was glad the truth unintentionally lined up with her lies.

"I'm just about to head down to breakfast." Luna said. "Are you coming or do you want to get ready first?"

"Umm…sure. Yeah. I'll come to breakfast with you." Thorn knew her response came off a little awkward, but she was still reeling from having to lie to Luna. She hated lying, and it surprised her that Luna had noticed her leaving. That also brought up a more frightening thought: what if someone else had heard her? What if Bridgit, Nia and Sam heard her leave? What if Dusk heard her leave too, and brought it up at breakfast, and made the witches suspicious?

Thorn took a silent deep breath when she saw Bridgit, Nia and Sam sitting at breakfast together. Thankfully, Dusk was with them, which prevented the witches making things uncomfortable for Gus….or at least not overly uncomfortable, as Bridgit didn't seem to have any reservations about rubbing the whole "I love you" thing in his face the other day, when everyone was around.

"Good morning, Thorn and Luna!" Bridgit exclaimed. "How are you two this morning?"

"Good!" Luna responded.

"I'm really good, thanks. How are you?" Thorn inquired.

"I'm doing fantastic!" Bridgit replied in an over-the-top voice.

"We were just talking about our plans for the day." Sam said.

"Ah, yes." Gus replied. "We were thinking we'd take a walk by the Central Canal, then go out to lunch somewhere, and then we can head to the zoo in the afternoon."

"Sounds good to me." Luna responded.

"Yeah, that'll give us time to get an early dinner, and head to Old National Centre early." Dusk agreed.

That must have been where they were playing tonight. Thorn felt bad for not remembering the name of the venue they were playing, but her life being put in danger due to homicidal witches felt like a reasonable excuse.

"Alright, then we're set." Thorn nodded, as she picked up a bowl of Cocoa Puffs and picked up a jug of milk that was right next to it. She quickly gagged and put it down when she noticed the expiration date on it was five days ago. Thank goodness she hadn't poured any!

Thorn hated dry cereal, so she lifted her bowl up and was just about to pour it back into the container.

"No, no, no." Sam scolded with a playful tone. "You pour it, you eat it."

"Sam does kind of have a point, Thorn." Dusk chimed in. "It's kinda gross for the next person to eat the cereal you already poured.

"Fine." Thorn sighed, as she sat down and began quickly eating her crunchy, dry cereal. She tried to eat it as quickly as she could, while chugging some coffee to drown out the gross flavor.

"Oh, hey Thorn? Can I talk to you for a minute after breakfast?" Bridgit asked.

Thorn nearly choked on her spoonful of cereal. This had to mean Bridgit had read her thoughts last night when she was talking to Gus.

"Umm…sure. You can tell me what it is right now, if you want." Thorn offered. She knew Bridgit would never take her up on it, but she was so desperate not to be alone with Bridgit that she'd say anything to get out of it.

"No, that's okay. I just don't want other people around the hotel to hear. I can follow you back up to your room if you want. If you're going back up there, that is." Bridgit indirectly inquired.

"Umm…" Thorn felt trapped. She'd already told Luna she was going back up to her room to get ready, so suddenly saying she didn't need to would create unnecessary suspicion that could put her in danger. "Yeah, I am."

"Okay, great!" Bridgit said.

Thorn slowed her cereal eating pace significantly, but unfortunately, she only had a few bites left. She supposed talking to Bridgit was inevitable, so she took her last bites and stood up.

"Okay Bridgit, I'm ready." Thorn said.

"Great! I'll be right back, everyone." Bridgit informed, as she and Thorn headed towards the elevator together. "So, how have you been enjoying this tour, Thorn?"

The friendly small talk frightened Thorn more than anything. It felt like Bridgit was trying to make her nervous by drawing out the interaction as long as possible before telling her what she wanted to discuss.

"I've really been liking it so far." Thorn replied. She figured she'd play along with the witch's game until they got up to her room. "It's been a little nerve-wracking being in front of all those people, but you know, I'll get used to it."

"Well, you know, fear can be a good thing." Bridgit cryptically said. "It motivates you to remain disciplined, which is good if you want to remain grounded. You know, like we've talked about with all the Wicca stuff."

It freaked Thorn out that Bridgit was still acting like her big revelation that night hadn't happened at all. It was like the witches were trying to confuse her even more by broadening the divide between the two realities of The Hex Girls being a famous band, and this all being manipulated.

Thorn supposed her best weapon was continuing to play along.

"Yeah. We should do another one of those rituals someday. That one night was fun." Thorn finally responded.

"I'd love to. You just tell me when and where." Bridgit said, a slight smirk on her face as she entered the elevator. She knew she was being a creepy psychopath, but Thorn wasn't going to let simple mind tricks frighten her.

"How have you been doing?" Thorn asked. Bridgit wasn't the only one that could rely on creepy mind tricks to throw her off. "I'm sure going to a new city every night has been a lot for you, Sam and Nia. I've been a little concerned about you all, actually."

"Oh, I've been doing really good. I've actually really enjoyed traveling more than I thought. Sam, Nia and I all agree that traveling has been a really good thing for taking our lives in the direction we want them to be, if you know what I mean." Bridgit said, with a slight creepy smirk again.

A chill went down Thorn's spine as the elevator door opened with a ding. It seemed Bridgit was not only trying to confuse her by acting like the night she found out their secret never happened, but she was also going to throw in creepy little hints to the fact she didn't know about the witches' overall plan. If Bridgit was already being this creepy before she even revealed what she needed to tell Thorn, the actual revelation must be terrifying.

No, no, no, Thorn, that's what she wants you to think. She's just trying to scare you. The black-haired goth pushed the thought from her mind.

Thankfully, the awkward conversation would not last too much longer, as they were nearly at Thorn's room. Thorn pulled out the room key from her pocket and unlocked the door.

"Sorry it's a little messy." Thorn apologized, noticing Dusk's clothes from yesterday were still laying on the floor. She felt a little silly saying sorry to someone who had threatened to torture her, but she didn't know exactly what the socially acceptable response would be to a homicidal witch.

"So, I overheard your conversation yesterday." Bridgit admitted. Her voice wasn't evil or sinister. The comment was made in Bridgit's normal tone of voice and sounded oddly casual, which was perhaps even more frightening than if she'd said it in a cruel voice.

"Okay." Thorn said, trying to keep her composure and not freak out. "What are your thoughts?"

"Well, I know we can't let Luna leave the band." Bridgit responded, to Thorn's surprise. She was sure Bridgit was talking about the conversation she had last night with Gus, but she must have been talking about the conversation from the walk in the afternoon. "The plan was to make you a famous band, and that's not going to work if you split up."

"She's not leaving, though. At least, I don't think so. She just doesn't like touring." Thorn elaborated.

"I heard your conversation. She said she didn't like touring, it was overwhelming, and she didn't like this kind of life. Trust me, this is how it starts with every band breakup. She's going to leave." Bridgit replied, taking her black tennis shoes off and sitting on Dusk's bed.

"We're not every band, though. Luna would never leave us." Thorn defended.

"Well, you'll just have to convince her not to leave." Bridgit demanded. "We can't risk her suddenly leaving."

"What do you want me to say to her? Isn't it going to be more suspicious if I randomly tell her not to leave if she's not leaving?" Thorn didn't understand Bridgit's motivation here. It made no sense for her to worry about something that probably would not even happen.

"Work it into conversation somehow that if she ever leaves the band, you'll have to end your friendship with her. I'd recommend you try to subtly convince Dusk to be on your side, too." Bridgit elaborated.

"No! That's unethical." Thorn instinctively cried, before she realized what could be done to her if she didn't. "I mean…I don't want to do that. Luna's my friend. She's not leaving the band, and even if she did, I'm not just going to never talk to her again. I'd be very sad, but if she had a compelling reason to end the band, I'd understand.

"Well, if you don't, we've got ways of making you do it anyway. We can torture you, torture Gus, or after we're done with our plans, we can make sure you go down in history humiliated. Check out this new song we wrote for you guys." Bridgit said, taking a folded note out of her pocket and handing it to Thorn. "We'd be more than happy to have Gus release it for you guys once we've carried out our plans."

"We got packs and sacks and stacks of lots of snacks?" Thorn cried out in outrage. "I can't sing this shit! We'd be laughed out of the music industry."

"Well, then you better do what we say." Bridgit folded her arms.

Thorn sighed. She was stuck…at least for now. She had to do whatever they said, or they could torture her in ways far worse than forcing her to sing about big sacks of snacks.

"Okay. I'll say that stuff to Luna. Can it be in front of everyone, or does it have to be private?" Thorn sighed.

"You can do whatever you want. Just make sure it's done by the end of the day. We can't risk waiting too long and having Luna deciding to leave. We need to stop whatever thought process she's having before she makes a decision." Bridgit reasoned.

"Why can't you just use your powers to make her stop if she leaves?" Thorn inquired.

"Well, then she'd know we're witches, and she can't know that. No one except Gus was supposed to know that. You shouldn't even know it, but you decided to stick your nose where it doesn't belong." Bridgit snarled. "Besides, it's fun to torture you and make you do stuff against your will."

Thorn's heart sunk. She felt so helpless from Bridgit's words, but there was nothing she could do…at least for now.

"Okay, we can go back down to meet the others now." Bridgit smiled sweetly. Thorn felt like she was dealing with a real-life Jekyll and Hyde.

"Anything else you wanted to talk about?" Thorn sighed, as she held the door open for Bridgit. Thorn had planned to get ready, but quite frankly, she didn't want to sit around in that room and have Bridgit wait for her while she got ready, especially not after Bridgit had made things so uncomfortable.

"No. You've done a good job keeping your mouth shut. Just keep doing what you're doing like a good little bitch!" Bridgit's vocal tone got higher, as if she were talking to an animal, and very patronizingly patted Thorn on the head. It felt incredibly demeaning to Thorn.

The rest of the elevator ride downstairs was in silence, as Thorn felt so disgusting that she didn't want to try to play the game of making idle conversation with someone who was behaving so cruelly to her.

When they got back to the ground floor, the others were still sitting at the breakfast table nearest to the elevator.

"Hey! You guys ready to go?" Luna asked.

Thorn thought about just saying something to Luna now, but she figured it would only raise suspicion if she brought it up right after Bridgit said she needed to talk to Thorn. She hated having to do things to protect those awful crones, but Thorn comforted herself with the thought that it was only temporary, until she and Gus came up with a better plan.

It only took about five minutes to get to the Central Canal. The canal looked absolutely breathtaking. A large body of water stood in front of them, which stretched for what seemed like miles. There appeared to be a path all the way around the canal, which you could get down to by walking down a large staircase near the parking lot.

"Do we want to split up again?" Bridgit inquired. "Nia, Sam, and I can go one direction, then Gus, Dusk, Luna and Thorn can go the other."

Although she didn't understand Bridgit's motivation for putting them together yesterday, she now understood it clearer than ever. Bridgit was trying to get Thorn to talk to Luna.

"Sure!" Luna said. "I loved our chat yesterday."

"Okay, we'll meet you guys halfway around the lake." Nia said, as the three began walking in the other direction.

Thorn sighed and inhaled. Surely if Bridgit was able to overhear the conversation yesterday, she'd be listening to see if Thorn said something to Luna today. She figured she better just get it over with.

"Hey Luna. I was thinking about what you were talking about yesterday about leaving the band and all…" Thorn stuttered. She had no idea how to say this. "I was wondering, do you think we could still be friends if one of us left the band?"

"Yeah, of course." Luna replied. "Our friendship started long before we ever released music, so I don't know why the band ending would change that."

Shit. That only made it harder.

"How do you both feel about it?" Luna asked. Thorn had to say it now, even if it's not what she really felt.

"I don't know if I agree." Dusk said to everyone's shock, particularly Thorn's. "I mean, I get supporting your friends and all that, but if you leaving the band meant it ended and we weren't famous anymore, that would really hurt. It'd be hard to forgive, because you'd be ruining my success as well. That seems pretty selfish to me."

Thorn felt horrible about herself for this, because Dusk's comment was awful, but the tiniest part of her was happy that Dusk said it, so that she didn't have to break Luna's heart herself.

"What?!" Luna shrieked. Luna raising her voice was quite an uncommon occurrence, so both Dusk and Thorn's faces displayed a look of shock. "You're saying you wouldn't support me if I had a legitimate reason to leave the band? I mean, I get it'd be hard and I'd feel horrible if I did, but I think you could at least be a little bit understanding, unless you thought I was making a decision that would be harmful to my well-being or my happiness."

"What about me and my happiness?" Dusk argued. "Someone leaving the band feels like a collective decision, because it will affect all of us."

"So you're saying if I felt it was really bad for my mental health and I couldn't be in the band anymore, you wouldn't support my wishes to leave?" Luna argued.

"I'm not saying that!" Dusk snapped. "I'm just saying one person leaving affects all of us, so we'd need to make that decision together. We're really famous right now, so it'd need to be a very good reason if you wanted to leave. Thousands of people are counting on us, you know?"

"Oh, fame, fame, fame!" Luna yelled. "That's all you ever think about anymore, isn't it? So you'd rather be super famous than care about your friends' happiness?"

"You're not listening to me!" Dusk growled.

"Girls!" Gus exclaimed. "Please calm down. Dusk, it doesn't seem you're being very supportive. I agree with Dusk that you should talk about something like that before just ending the band, but I also agree with Luna that each of your happiness and mental health should be above it affecting your fame."

"Being famous is a delicate balance, though. You don't want to do anything to ruin it unless it's a last resort." Dusk reasoned, her tone of voice becoming calmer again.

"You care too much what others think of you lately, Dusk." Luna said. "You used to be empowered in yourself and didn't care what anyone else thought, which was awesome and I always admired it. But ever since our album came out, it feels like all you do is care about what our fans think and how famous you are."

"What do you think, Thorn? You've been really quiet." Gus noticed.

She didn't want to say anything that would go against what Dusk said, since Bridgit, Nia and Sam were probably listening, but she also didn't want to support Dusk because she was behaving awfully.

"I agree that it's something we'd need to talk about before we did anything…but this is all hypothetical, because no one's going to leave the band." Thorn said. She tried to keep her comments short, where it kind of vaguely supported Dusk, but also stayed pretty neutral.

"That's what's so frustrating to me." Luna pointed out. "Dusk isn't even being supportive in a hypothetical situation. Imagine how bad it would be if one of us was really struggling and had to leave."

"Oh my god, Luna." Dusk let out an annoyed sigh. "You're taking my very reasonable comments and making them seem as extreme as humanly possible. All I'm saying is we need to think about the well-being of all of us before we make any decisions."

"And is fame a factor in your well-being?" Luna challenged.

"Yeah, of course it is. Financial well-being is an important factor." Dusk responded.

"Well, you might have that if you didn't quit your job at Jack's the second we became famous, like a moron!" Luna raised her voice.

"Hey, that was below the belt!" Dusk shouted.

"I'm afraid I agree with Dusk." Gus replied. "Both of you girls are very worked up right now, so I think it's best we just set this to the side for a little while. Maybe we can talk about it more at the zoo once you've both had a chance to calm down."

"Fine." Luna crossed her arms.

Thorn had never seen Luna so upset before. Even though the black-haired Hex Girl wasn't going to admit it, Luna was rightfully upset about all this. Dusk had really changed from the fame in the past month, and was becoming borderline narcissistic. Of course it would be something they needed to talk about if one of them had to quit the band…she meant what she said regardless of what Bridgit told her to do. It was important to make sure everyone was comfortable before a rash decision was made. However, Gus made an excellent point that Dusk seemed to be placing her own fame at the same value as her friends' happiness. That was very troubling to Thorn, as if she ever needed to leave the band for any reason, she wouldn't want Dusk's love of fame to be placed above her happiness. No one deserved that.

After a quick lunch at Sangiovese Ristorante, Gus drove them all to the zoo for the afternoon. Lunch had been very awkward, as Dusk and Luna didn't talk to each other at all. In fact, they actively avoided sitting next to one another, and chose to be at opposite ends of the table. This behavior continued throughout their time at the zoo, where Thorn was a bit happy that she wasn't the one who had to say that to Luna, but it horrified her to know that Dusk actually felt those horrible things that Bridgit wanted her to say. She also felt bad for being the one to bring up the conversation that caused Luna and Dusk to fight in the first place.

"That tiger's really sweet looking, isn't it?" Sam pointed out, as they passed one of the last cages they hadn't seen yet. The tiger licked their right paw, and was curled up near a large den.

"I wouldn't know. The tiger's in a certain direction that I'm not looking right now." Dusk said, as Luna walked past the tiger cage.

"That's just being petty, Dusk." Luna challenged.

"She's right, you know." Gus said. "I don't mean to insult you, Dusk, but you're behaving quite immaturely right now."

"Why am I the bad guy in this?" Dusk snapped. "I said if anyone ever needed to leave the band, we'd have to talk about it and weigh our options. What's wrong with that?"

"You're making it too simplistic. You said 'fame is a delicate balance' and that there would have to be a really good reason if anyone ever wanted to leave the band. So basically, you're saying fame is more important than your friends' wellbeing." Luna argued.

"I never said that! I'm just saying that we have to consider the impacts someone leaving the band would have on the other two." Dusk shot back.

"Yeah, and what if I'm not happy, but my leaving makes you less famous?" Luna created a hypothetical scenario.

"Well, that would hurt me, so we'd have to figure out which one of us it hurt more." Dusk rationalized.

"God! So basically, you're saying there's no way any of us could ever leave this band if we didn't want to be in it anymore, because it would make you less famous. That's selfish, Dusk. It would be different if ending the band hurt you because you wanted to keep making music, but all you care about is your stupid dream of being famous. Just admit it! The band and fame have become synonymous to you." Luna dared.

"Well duh! We've got to please our fans, because the fame comes from them loving the band." Dusk counterargued.

"Making music should be our favorite part, though. We have to separate that from our fame and not make music just to please people." Luna's tone of voice got more annoyed. "We shouldn't care about fame if it means not caring about the music we're making. The recognition is becoming more important to you than music. I don't want our music to turn into a product, instead of a work of art."

"If you guys keep arguing all day, we're going to miss the concert by the time you're finished." Thorn pointed out.

"Thorn's right." Gus agreed. "Is anyone feeling hungry for dinner?"

"Not really." Thorn admitted.

"Yeah, me neither. We just had lunch like four hours ago." Sam agreed.

"We should probably get something before the concert, though." Nia pointed out. "We don't want you girls to be hungry up on stage."

"There's a small delicatessen not too far from the theater." Gus suggested. "Shapiro's. It's a place that's been around for nearly 100 years. We could each split a sandwich with another person, if you're looking for a lighter meal."

"That would be perfect!" Bridgit exclaimed.

"Sure, I'd be up for that." Thorn agreed. If she were honest with herself, she wasn't particularly hungry either. She hated how Dusk and Luna were arguing so much, and was worried about it for multiple reasons. Firstly, none of them had ever fought this much before in the four years they'd been friends. Secondly, this went against what Bridgit, Nia and Sam wanted. Dusk and Luna fighting created friction in the band, and Thorn was becoming really worried that Bridgit would try to intervene by forcing Thorn to take Dusk's side, even though she considered Dusk's perspective unethical and wrong.

"And that's the story of Great Grandpa Louis." the male waiter, apparently named Brandon from his name tag, informed.

"That's really interesting, Brandon!" Gus nodded. "I can't even imagine coming to the United States all the way from Russia just to start a business."

"Yeah, thanks for sharing with us!" Thorn appreciated.

"No problem! I'll be right back with your sandwiches. You said you wanted no tomato or mustard on yours, right?" Brandon inquired of Thorn.

"Yep, that's right." Thorn confirmed.

"You don't like dry cereal but you like dry sandwiches?" Sam observed.

"Yeah. Guess I just have quirky food tastes." Thorn shrugged. She tried to behave just as she would have before finding out their horrible secret, but it was difficult.

Sam was just about to respond with something else, but her attention turned to the doorbell, which dinged as a group of three teens came into the delicatessen. Previously, they had been the only customers, hence why Brandon had time to recount the story of his great-grandfather.

"Oh my gosh!" a squeaky-voiced teen wearing a red shirt and blue jeans exclaimed. "It's The Hex Girls!"

"Woah, you're right, Dean!" a girl wearing an orange sweater and black leggings replied.

"Can we get your autograph?" the second girl, who wore a pink t-shirt, hurried over to the booth where they were sitting, with puppy-dog eyes that would melt even the coldest miser's heart.

"Sure!" Dusk exclaimed. "Anybody got a paper and pen?"

"I've got some, I believe." Gus dug through his pocket and quickly found a pad of paper.

"I've got a pen in my purse." Nia replied, as she unzipped the main pouch on her purse and took one out. She handed the pen to Thorn first.

"We're going to be at the concert tonight!" Dean informed.

"Yeah, we can't wait!" Orange Sweater Girl replied.

"Any chance you'll be going on another tour after this?" the pink-shirted teen questioned.

"Oh yeah, absolutely." Dusk responded. "We'll be going on lots of tours."

Thorn pivoted her head over to Luna, who looked very frustrated and hurt. The black-haired Hex Girl wasn't really sure if Dusk was saying it to be petty, or if she was genuinely oblivious to how she was agreeing to something for the whole band without the consent of Luna. If Thorn wasn't so worried about the witches, she would be enraged at how boorish and self-centered Dusk was acting. She never thought it would happen to any of them, but it felt like the fame was really starting to change Dusk into a selfish, inconsiderate narcissist.

The moment everyone arrived at Old National Centre, Thorn promised herself that she was going to be unashamedly the Sally side of herself during tonight's concert. Creating a character for herself was admittedly a problem she had when she was up on stage in front of all those people. It was something she knew she needed to work on, and if she was going to try to defeat three evil witches, then surely she could tackle the seemingly simple task of just being herself on stage.

If Thorn was fully honest with herself, the actual reason this issue suddenly seemed of the essence is because it distracted her from the actual frightening issue at hand - she and her friends being trapped by witches - and helped her keep her mind on the concert. Each of their 19 shows felt incredibly important to her. She wanted to make sure each night, in every city they visited, was truly memorable, so simply going through the motions like she had in Detroit wasn't the path she wanted to continue down for the remainder of her concerts.

Upon walking past the theater they'd be performing in, Thorn briefly admired its auditorium-like style. It looked quite eloquent and upscale, like a theater you'd watch an opera concert in. The girls had set up all their instruments early on, so there was a lot of waiting around and anticipation for the concert. Thorn talked a bit to Luna and Dusk individually, but the energy of the band as a whole was still quite awkward, as Dusk and Luna were still not talking to each other. Luna looked even more upset to Thorn after Dusk made the comment about touring at dinner, even though she hadn't said so.

At this point, there was only a few minutes before the concert. The red velvet curtains were about to open, and Thorn had to prepare herself for making sure she was Sally when performing on stage, rather than the Thorn character she had created. Before she could do that, however, Thorn noticed that Luna seemed to be really off. She sat on the stage floor and anxiously twirled a stand of her hair. While Thorn could have used the time to continue solidifying her mindset of authenticity, she thought it was the right thing to do to attend to Luna's anxiety.

"Are you okay, Luna?" Thorn asked.

"I'm fine." Luna sighed.

"You don't seem fine." Thorn challenged.

"Sorry. I'll tell you about it after the concert." Luna promised.

Before Thorn had a chance to respond, a booming announcer's voice could be heard. "Now presenting, the new rock sensation that's been sweeping the country like magic these past few months: The Hex Girls!"

Thorn amused herself a little with the irony of the announcer's "like magic" comment. That announcer didn't know how right he was.

The black-haired goth took a big inhale as the curtain rose, and tried to remember that she was going to be as much of herself as she could.

"I'm a Hex Girl and I'm gonna put a spell on you!" Thorn sang, feeling invigoration and empowerment with each word she sang into the microphone.

The concert had almost concluded at this point, and Thorn felt it was going excellently. There were certainly times she leaned on the crutch of playing the character she created, and plenty of other times she was tempted to play that character. However, she felt like Sally at least came through somewhat when she was up on stage, which was a great triumph in her opinion. Who would have guessed all it would have taken to be herself on stage is their three biggest fans turning out to be evil witches.

"We're gonna put a spell on all of you!" the three girls chanted in unison, as artificial smoke from backstage filled the stage area.

The room erupted in cheering and clapping. After the girls took a minute to bow, the curtain closed.

"Wow, that was our best concert ever!" Thorn exclaimed, feeling hyped up from the progress she had made with her confidence on stage.

"Hell yeah! That crowd was wicked!" Dusk agreed.

Thorn noticed a silence in the room that would have normally been when Luna chimed in.

"What did you think of the concert, Luna?" Thorn inquired.

"It was fine, I guess." Luna shrugged.

"Oh, come on!" Dusk shouted. "We just had our best concert ever and all you can say is it was fine, you guess?"

"I was going to wait until we got back to the hotel to talk about this, because I didn't want to ruin the excited energy of the concert…but should I just say it now?" Luna inquired.

"Sure. If you have something to say, just say it." Thorn assured.

"I want to start by saying that we're still best friends, and I still love and care about you both very much. That's not going to change. I also still love and care about the band very much." Luna said. It seemed like something else was going to come after, but Luna remained silent for a moment.

"What are you trying to say, Luna?" Thorn inquired. "Please take your time, if you need it."

"It's clear our priorities for the band are different now, or least Dusk's are." Luna finally spoke up. She looked very emotional, and tears began welling up in her eyes. "If you guys love touring this much, and that's what you want to be doing all the time…I'm not sure I can be a part of this band anymore."

Author's note:

So I'm pretty sure Thorn's comment about the only way she'd sing "Scooby Snacks" (from the Witch's Ghost soundtrack) is by being threatened with torture is the ultimate diss haha. Alas, it was intended as a silly, irreverent joke, so I hope nobody was too offended by it. I just really don't think it fits The Hex Girls' musical style to be singing about "packs and stacks and sacks of lots of snacks" lol. I was unfortunately forced to listen to the song again, as I couldn't find any lyric sites that listed the lyrics for the song. It kept bringing up another rap song titled "Scooby Snacks" that began with the lyric "This is a robbery; gimme the loot, bitches!" which I'm pretty sure wasn't the right song lol.

Once again, Old National Centre, Central Canal, Sangiovese Ristorante and Shapiro's are all real places in Indianapolis, Indiana. Old National Centre started out as a shrine temple in 1909, but later became a music venue in 1948. For 15 years, it was the only music venue in Indianapolis. It was briefly used by an opera company in the 1980s, and still remains a music venue for artists of all genres. The Central Canal is part of White River State Park, which is where they took a walk the previous day (in chapter 14). The canal was dug in the early 1800s, and has remained one of the most popular tourist attractions of the city ever since. The Indianapolis Zoo is also a part of that same park. Sangiovese Ristorante is a pasta restaurant that opened in 1994, and was listed on a 2021 list of "36 Essential Indianapolis Restaurants." Great Grandpa Louis, who was briefly mentioned by the waiter at the restaurant, was the real owner of Shapiro's in 1910, who immigrated from Russia to start the delicatessen. It remains open as of writing this in 2022.

Likes and saves of this chapter in whatever way is most applicable (I'm trying to use neutral terms now that I'm publishing across two sites) are always appreciated, and thank you to everyone who has left a review!