Author's note:

I'm going to switch things up a little in this chapter and have things be from Luna's perspective! Enjoy!

The red-headed Hex Girl watched the producer and her black-haired bandmate stare back at her, looking shocked.

"Umm…I don't know if we can tell her." Thorn looked panicked.

"Tell me what?" Luna questioned. She felt a sense of hurt. Thorn was her best friend. What could Thorn possibly be doing that she wasn't even comfortable telling Luna about?

"We're…um…planning a surprise for the band!" Thorn blurted. "We didn't want you or Dusk to know about it yet."

Thorn's nervous demeanor and "please believe me" look in her eyes told Luna that she wasn't telling the truth.

"I want the truth, Thorn. What's going on?" Luna asked.

"Do you think the…you-know-who…know about these meetings?" Thorn whispered to Gus.

"If they do, they haven't said anything yet." Gus whispered back. "Telling Luna would certainly be a bold test to see if they are listening in."

You-know-who? Meetings? Listening in? What in the world was happening? Who were "they"?

"You know, I can hear you guys." Luna informed.

"Crap." Thorn whispered back to Gus, which Luna could also hear.

"Do you need me to ask Dusk if she knows tomorrow morning? Or Bridgit, Nia and Sam? Do they know? Why am I being excluded?" Luna asked, feeling quite hurt and ostracized. She thought that she and Thorn told each other everything. From what little Luna could pick up from their cryptic ramblings, this sounded like something big Thorn had been hiding.

"No!" Thorn exclaimed. "I guess we have no choice but to tell her…can we?"

"I suppose you're right." Gus sighed. "If she says something tomorrow morning to everyone, we're toast for sure. This way, we at least have a chance."

"Ugh, if I just would have been more organized in my thoughts when she came up to us, this wouldn't have had to happen." Thorn lamented.

Luna became even sadder after Thorn said that. Not only was she acting like she would have preferred not to ever tell Luna, but she was also talking as if Luna wasn't there. This was all she needed. After two days of Dusk behaving angrily to her, they'd finally made up, only for Thorn to start doing the same.

"I'm right here, you know." Luna started to tear up a little. "Why is everyone being so mean to me lately?"

"Oh no…I'm so sorry." Thorn apologized. "I didn't mean for any of this to happen. I wish we could have told you earlier."

"Told me what?" Luna pushed. She wished they would just tell her instead of beating around the bush.

Thorn took a big inhale and closed her eyes for a split second, before she began speaking. She looked like she was genuinely having trouble forming her words.

"I…I don't know how to explain this to someone." Thorn's tone became anxious.

This caused Luna to get even more worried. What could be so horrible that Thorn couldn't even talk about it?

"I can do it." Gus bravely said. Luna wondered what in the world could be going on that was so monumental that the two of them couldn't even tell her. Her mind wandered to possibilities of the band going broke, or someone tricking them out of their concert money like what had happened in Salem. Perhaps Gus was quitting the record business.

"You see, Bridgit, Nia and Sam…they're not who they say they are." Gus began.

"They're witches." Thorn finally blurted.

"Well, we knew that." Luna said. "They're Wiccans. They taught me how to do that ritual to calm me down before the concert. They taught you the one that healed your hand, remember?"

"The three of them aren't just ordinary Wiccans. They're evil witches who have been manipulating our chart success this whole time." Thorn continued.

"What makes you think that?" Luna inquired. "They may be a little over the top with their praise of us, but they're not that bad."

"Bridgit has threatened me a number of times, Luna. She told me to convince you not to leave the band at all costs, because it would interfere with their plans." Thorn elaborated. "She even told me to say what Dusk said about how I couldn't support you if you left the band, or she'd torture me. Thank goodness I didn't have to."

"Oh…" Luna wasn't sure what to make of the "torture" part. Why would they torture their favorite band? It didn't quite make sense. "Well, Gus is her father. Just have a talk with her, Gus, and tell her to back off a bit."

"I'm not her father." Gus admitted. "You see, right before I met you, Bridgit, Nia and Sam came into my office and tortured me until I agreed to sign you as a band."

"Wait…" Luna didn't know how to process this. She wanted to believe them, but it seemed so outlandish and far-fetched. "So you're saying you didn't want to sign us?"

"No, I did want to sign you. You're a great band! They wouldn't have had to torture me to get me to sign you, but they have some evil plan revolving around the three of you which involves manipulating the charts to make your album go number one, so you would become a famous band. I don't know what that plan is, but they are very driven to carry it out." Gus explained. "I haven't had a chance to tell you this yet, Thorn, but tomorrow, they predicted "Hex Girl" will go #1 with 16,708 plays on the radio. Make of that what you will."

"Okay…so…" Luna stuttered. She was really having trouble wrapping her head around this. She trusted Thorn and Gus not to lie to her, but at the same time, she didn't want to fully process that this was real. She asked the first question that came to mind. "Why'd you hide it from me?"

"We didn't want to. Gus has known since the beginning, and I've only known for four days. I accidentally caught Bridgit in a lie, and that's when she told me they were witches. She said I could never tell you or Dusk, and that they'd know if we did…they can read thoughts, Luna. She accurately quoted something that happened in a dream I'd had." Thorn shuddered.

"Wait…can Bridgit read our thoughts right now? So the three of them are about to come and torture us?" Luna panicked.

"We don't know the extent of their mind-reading abilities." Gus quickly comforted. "That's why we've been meeting at night. We figure that all three of them are asleep, so they wouldn't be reading our thoughts during this time. However, it's still a big risk, so you need to be very careful."

"I promise I will." Luna solemnly said. "How much of this stuff was of our own volition then? What parts of the fame weren't a result of what the witches did?"

That's when Thorn started to tear up.

"It's okay, Thorn." Gus responded. "All of what has happened to you in the past few months has been a result of the witches' manipulation."

"Oh." is all that came out of Luna's mouth. She was completely speechless. How do you respond to someone telling you that everything that's happened for months is fake?

"It took me…or I should say it's taking a while to process this, so don't feel like you need to do it immediately." Thorn comforted. "It's perfectly normal."

"I still haven't fully processed it, if I'm honest, and I've known for months." Gus admitted. "I feel like an apology is in order. I'm very sorry for misleading you these past few months, but I didn't have a choice. The witches would have tortured me, or possibly even killed me, if I didn't do what they said. Your entire rise to fame being based off of my lies is something I don't know if I will ever forgive myself for."

"It's okay, Gus." Luna assured. "It wasn't like it was in your control. So, what are we doing to stop the witches? What's the plan?"

"We were actually just about to talk about that." Thorn informed. "We know it has something to do with that necklace Dusk was given by Bridgit."

"What would happen if we just took the necklace?" Luna inquired.

"That's quite a dangerous plan." Gus's voice became cautious. "We have no idea if the necklace has special powers, or what they're using it for."

"How do we know how to defeat them if we don't even know their plan?" Luna questioned.

"That's exactly the question we've been grappling with." Thorn responded.

"What about doing some research about Wicca and witches?" Luna inquired. "Maybe that amulet would be in a book somewhere."

"I've already tried that." Thorn said. "That's why I've been reading the Wicca book my mom gave me, but it doesn't really have anything of use."

"Luna does have a good point." Gus said. "Perhaps one of us could slip off and go to the library to research some books on Wicca or magic charms. It could provide us valuable information on the amulet, if that's a part of their plan."

"When would we do it, though? The library's closed at night, and we're traveling five hours to Cincinnati tomorrow." Thorn pointed out. "Besides, if one of us were to sneak off during the day, Bridgit, Nia and Sam would know what we were doing and read our thoughts."

"They aren't aware that I know." Luna said. "Maybe if I got up super early, like 6, and slipped off to the library for an hour, I could get back without anyone noticing. No one seems to come down to breakfast until 8 anyway. They probably wouldn't suspect anything if they wake up and I'm gone, but they would if one of you two were gone."

"That's an excellent idea, Luna, if you're comfortable with it." Gus checked. "I fully understand if you're not."

"I'm comfortable with it." Luna wasn't so sure she believed herself, but she knew how important it was to do this, so they could all be more informed on the witches' plans and perhaps figure out how to stop them.

"Thank you, Luna." Thorn appreciated. "That's very brave of you."

"Do either of you know where the library is?" Luna inquired.

"It's about a mile south of here. You make three left turns: one on East Van Buren Street, one on North Michigan Street, and one on East Randolph Street." Gus informed.

"You're amazing, Gus. Thank you! Wait…what do I do if I find something? How do I tell you guys?" Luna asked.

"Oh yeah…I guess there's not really a way to, unless we meet again tomorrow night." Thorn realized.

"Do you want to join the 12 blocks north club, Luna?" Gus said, a little bit of lightheartedness present in his voice.

"Sure, but what is it?" Luna chuckled.

"We agree to meet 12 blocks north from wherever our hotel is at one minute before midnight." Gus clarified.

"Sounds good to me." Luna confirmed. "I'm in."

"Are you sure you're doing okay with this, Luna?" Thorn inquired. "I know how scary it was for me when I first found out, so I just want to make sure you're doing alright."

Luna paused for a moment, as she contemplated her words carefully. "It's a lot to take in. I thought you guys were going to say the band is bankrupt or something. I never would have expected you to say that nothing we'd experienced in the past three months was real, or that our biggest fans are actually evil witches. But at least I'm not alone in this. I feel better knowing we're going to tackle this together…somehow."

"Me too." Thorn smiled.

In reality, Luna was so terrified that she didn't even know how to process this. Her mind still didn't want to believe this was real. As much as she hated it, part of her was a little happy that this direction that the band had gone in wasn't real, because she had really hated the past several days, and touring in general. However, it still made her sad that none of the fun stuff before was real, like recording their album and the music video. Those were memories she thought she would cherish forever, and now the ugly truth had muddied those memories forever in her mind.

Luna was experiencing a very confusing mix of feelings. As much as she hated touring, she still was latching onto the hope that maybe this wasn't really happening, and Thorn and Gus were just mistaken about the extent of Bridgit, Nia and Sam's manipulative abilities. She supposed she'd find out in the morning when she saw the number of times their song had been played on the radio, as it would be nearly impossible to be able to accurately predict such an obscure number. If their song had been played exactly 16,708 times on the radio this week, she'd know it was a result of witchcraft, and everything Thorn and Gus said would be confirmed to be true.

Luna slept very fitfully the rest of the night. She was terrified that the witches would somehow be able to read her thoughts, and realize that she knew who they were. She tried to take comfort in the fact that Thorn seemed to think they weren't reading thoughts during sleeping hours. Still, it was hard not to worry.

It was probably for the best that she hadn't slept well. She couldn't set an alarm to get up and go to the library when it opened at 6, as it would alert Dusk that something was going on.

Looking at the clock, it was 5:18. Not quite time to leave yet, but she figured she'd just get up anyway. There was no harm in arriving there early.

As she was getting ready to sneak out, she worried about how she was going to do it without Dusk noticing. Thorn had thought she was being careful and sneaking out with anyone noticing, but it was pretty easy for her to notice Thorn getting out of bed. She supposed she had the advantage of not sleeping in the same bed with Dusk like she did with Thorn.

Luna very carefully put on her coat and shoes, ensuring she was silent as a mouse. She quietly opened the door to make sure it didn't squeak or make any sort of noise that would wake Dusk up. Taking one last look at the sleeping Dusk, Luna snuck out and quietly closed the door. She quickly bustled down the stairs to get to the front entrance of the hotel, and hurried south like Gus had said. She tried to remember all the different street names he said…how did he remember directions so well? She was pretty sure he had said East Rudolph Street. Upon reaching the first street sign, she saw the name of the street must have been East Randolph Street. Ugh, how was she going to remember all the different street names if she couldn't even remember the first one?

The next one was North Michigan Avenue…at least she was pretty sure. Luna gazed at the sights around her as she walked from block to block. The sun was just beginning to rise from its slumber. Luna's eyes gazed upon the sleepy city, which didn't have a soul out anywhere. It was too early for the working folk, who still had a few hours before they got back into their daily grind; and too late for enjoyers of the nightlife, who were likely passed out in their bed from a late night of partying and drinking.

Luna's eyes lit up when she saw North Michigan Avenue. Maybe it wouldn't be as hard to navigate to the library as she'd thought it would. Only one more turn!

What was the name of the last street Gus told her about? Dick Van Dyke Street?

Luna hoped she at least partially remembered the name of the street, well enough that she'd be able to figure out the real name of the street when she saw it.

The red-headed Hex Girl walked another few blocks and saw East Van Buren street…was that it? Yes, it had to be. It made a lot more sense than the alternative Luna was considering.

Wait…did Gus say the last turn was a left or right? She was pretty sure he had said right, but she wasn't sure. Ugh, why was she so terrible at directions?

Luna took a right, but quickly became worried when she saw a bedraggled, drunk-looking man wearing a gray shirt.

"Hey lil' lady…I'm looking for my friend…bus? Have you seen it anywhere?" the drunkard slurred.

"I…um…haven't…sorry. I'm lost too. I'm looking for the library. Is it this way or the other way?" Luna inquired cautiously.

"Well, if you go left, I think you'll find the library…of sin!" the man cackled. "Nah, I'm just kidding, it's a normal library. And it's right that way."

"Uh…thanks, sir." Luna said, hurrying in the other direction as fast she could. It was clear this man was intoxicated out of his right mind.

"Of course, lil' lady! But just be careful. Word on the street is that there's a filthy drunk out here bein' obnoxious, so just make sure you don't run into him!" the drunk said, as he let out an obnoxious burp.

Luna was admittedly quite confused as to if the man was referring to himself or another drunk, but she supposed it didn't matter. She quickly found the library whilst continuing to head in the opposite direction of the drunken man.

The library was very majestic-looking. It looked like it had multiple floors, but Luna couldn't quite tell just from the outside. The front of the library had three huge picture windows spanning nearly the entire length of the brick building. There were a couple of interesting looking structures on the roof that appeared to be made of glass.

Luna stopped looking at the exterior of the library for a moment when an older lady walked up to the entrance with a key. She was wearing a white crocheted sweater and had white hair to match.

"Oh hello there, young lady!" the older woman greeted. "Are you looking for anything in particular today?"

"Yes." Luna responded, before realizing if this lady was anything like the people in Oakhaven, she probably wouldn't be too accepting of Wiccans. She'd need to come up with a good angle to present this, and quickly. "I'm looking for a book on Wicca for a school project."

"They're teachin' you that in school?" the old lady's jaw dropped.

"Um, yes…it's a project about religions you should never ever follow because they're evil." Luna quickly lied. She figured she looked young enough to be in high school, given she was only 18.

"I like that! Kids are always pushing the boundaries, but by teachin' you how evil it is with scary books, that'll frighten you kids away from that Satan religion for good!" the old woman smiled. "I believe we have a few books towards the back of the first floor, by the religious section."

"Thank you, ma'am." Luna politely said. She quickly hurried back towards the back of the first floor so she didn't have to discuss Wicca any more with that woman. It was clear her understanding of the religion was based in fear of Satanism. She certainly wasn't alone though - so many other people thought the way she did, unfortunately.

Luna quickly found the religion section, and saw a sea of books on Christianity. Bringing Jesus Into Your Life, A History of Jesus Christ, How to Accept Jesus as Your Personal Savior and even Jesus! It's Ramona and Beezus! Luna presumed the last title must have somehow gotten misplaced from the young adult section of the library. She figured that finding a book about Wicca here would be a needle in a haystack, but she had to try. She could feel her back getting tense with pressure, as finding the book wasn't even the hard part: she had to try to read the whole thing and find something that might point to the witches' plan in only an hour. It felt like a herculean effort, but she wasn't willing to give up.

After looking through what felt like hundreds of Christianity books, she found a single one on Wicca. Luna's eyes quickly went to the table of contents. Her eyes glanced over the chapter titles, including Finding Your Inner Balance, Charms from Everyday Household Objects, Healing, and Collective Energy Rituals. There wasn't any chapter called "Big Bad Mother Flippin' Witches that Have the Power to Kill Us All," so she figured "Collective Energy Rituals" was probably her best bet.

Luna had to skim the chapter since she didn't have the time to do a deep dive, but nothing really jumped out to her. There were a lot of things saying that Wiccans were stronger when they used their powers together. Another part of the chapter said that Wiccans could increasingly manifest their powers with lots of concentration and regular practice. There were a few things about rituals that allowed you to secretly get a partial glimpse into a conversation happening from afar, but it had to be a current conversation. That wouldn't explain that they could read thoughts, so Luna moved on. She went back to the table of contents looking for anything on magical amulets, but found nothing. With a sigh, Luna slid the book back in its place on the shelf. Just as she was about to give up, her eye caught another book titled A History of Magical Charms. She wasn't sure if knowing the history of charms would do any good, but perhaps she could find something about Dusk's amulet.

She paged through the book, looking at a bunch of irrelevant pictures on red rubies and various jewels, as well as a weird-looking gold charm that looked oddly like a cat. Luna's eyes shot wide open when she turned to page 99, when she saw a charm that looked quite similar to the one Dusk wore. There were a few differences between the charm on the page and the one that was on Dusk's necklace, such as the charm in the book looking pointier and more of a lime green. Dusk's charm looked more like a circular emerald. Luna's eyes feasted upon the juicy information, as her mind devoured every word.

According to the book, witches used this charm to raise demons from unimaginable hellscapes.

Luna didn't even need to see the chart data for today to prove Thorn and Gus were right. There was no way Bridgit, Nia and Sam were telling the truth that Dusk's necklace was a good luck charm. They must be intending to use her as a sacrifice to feed to the demons!

Just to make sure Luna wasn't wrong in her assertion, she scanned through the book a bit more. She found nothing else that looked like Dusk's necklace, however, she did find something else that looked almost exactly like that other necklace Dusk found at the Autumn Fest. The medallion was in the shape of a rectangle and was bright red. Luna quickly read the description for that, and discovered that it seemed to be something that Wiccans believed to allow for interdimensional travel. However, no conclusive evidence had ever been found on the necklace, and its abilities were officially unknown. Luna found this quite odd, as Wiccans were certainly not skeptics when it came to magic. The fact that the abilities of the medallion were questioned made Luna wonder if the rumors about it were true at all, or simply an old fable. Luna's mind leaned towards the latter, however.

The redhead quickly glanced up at the clock and saw it was nearly 7 already. She needed to get back to the hotel before anyone noticed she was gone. It had taken her about 20 minutes to get there, so if she left now, she would be back at 7:15 before anyone woke up…she hoped.

Thankfully, no one had seen Luna come back into the hotel. Instead of going up to her room, she just went down to breakfast, and made it seem like she had just woken up a bit early and gone down there before anyone saw her. It was a believable excuse, but still, Luna felt very awkward being around Bridgit, Nia and Sam. She couldn't believe the three of them had been manipulating them all this time.

She mostly stayed quiet throughout the five hour trip to Cincinnati. Thankfully, Luna's generally shy personality allowed her awkwardness around the three to slip by as simply Luna being herself.

Once again, Gus had guided them to one of the oldest restaurants in Cincinnati, Camp Washington Chili. Although Luna really hated the concert aspect of touring, she did enjoy all the fun landmarks and tourist attractions Gus brought them around to. It really added to the experience of seeing the world, in Luna's mind. It made her feel less like she wanted to be at home, at least in those moments.

"Alright, seven bowls of chili, coming right up!" said the owner of the restaurant, who had introduced himself earlier as Johnny Johnson. He handed everyone their chili one by one. "Enjoy!"

"Thanks!" Thorn appreciated.

"So, what are we doing tomorrow?" Dusk asked. "We don't have a concert."

"Well, your next concert is in Nashville." Gus reminded. "We can either stay in Cincinnati for most of the day and make the trip towards evening, or we can head to Nashville right away and explore the city. Perhaps you'll want to stay here to explore our hotel, as it boasts some famous guests. Elvis, Winston Churchill and Bing Crosby have stayed here."

"Oh wow!" Nia looked surprised. "Really?"

"Indeed!" Gus exclaimed. "We'll be staying at the Netherland Plaza. It's an old hotel built in 1931 that's become a national landmark. In fact, Hilton is attempting to strike a deal with them right now in order to buy the hotel. I suppose there's not necessarily much to explore, but perhaps you'd want to stay here a little longer to appreciate it. Just an option."

"I'm all for going to Nashville." Thorn shrugged. "We can appreciate and explore the hotel tonight."

Luna honestly didn't care. If she was going to travel somewhere, she would much prefer to linger there for a while and have the time to really take the place in.

"Nashville sounds good to me." Dusk responded.

"Fine by me. So we leave in the morning, then?" Bridgit asked.

Luna felt uncomfortable whenever Bridgit spoke now. Perhaps her words still came out non-threatening, but now Luna knew the truth about how truly threatening that nasty crone could be.

"Yes, we can leave right after breakfast if everyone's agreed." Gus responded, to which everyone nodded. "Oh, I forgot to mention I've been saving some exciting news for you girls! "Hex Girl" has officially made it to #1 on pop radio!"

That would have been exciting news to Luna, if not for the crushing revelation that none of it was actually real.

"With 16,708 plays on the radio this week!" Bridgit smiled in a cute, innocently perfect looking way, which honestly made it all the more evil and sinister to Luna, knowing what she knew now.

"Oh my gosh, are you…?" a teenage girl with red hair gasped. Her face was covered in freckles, but that only made her look even more adorable. "...The Hex Girls?"

Oh boy. Here came one of the parts of fame Luna hated most: being recognized by random people out in public. Her shyness around people was already bad enough even before they got famous, and this only made it much worse. Perhaps it could be viewed as a bit sad, but Luna always let the other two do most (if not all) of the talking, and sat there quietly and politely. Dusk loved the fame and public recognition, and Thorn seemed to kind of like it, so why not give them all the attention that Luna didn't want anyway?

"Yep, that's us." Thorn confirmed, with a light friendly chuckle.

"Hell yeah we are!" Dusk exclaimed.

Another male teenager joined the gaggle of teenage girls. "Woah! Is that Thorn from The Hex Girls you're talking to, Lily? And Dusk too?"

Luna felt a pang of sadness in her heart when there was no mention of her. Why wasn't she memorable like Thorn and Dusk? For the first time in all of this, she felt a bit jealous of Thorn and Dusk. Why were they more popular than she was? What were they doing that she wasn't?

"Oh yeah, and the keyboard girl too!" the teenager noted, looking like he felt bad for not remembering Luna's name.

The worst part of this all was that Luna was simply being herself, but that apparently wasn't enough for others.

"Yep, it sure is! Thorn, Dusk and Lois!" Lily responded.

"It's Luna." Thorn politely corrected, before Luna could respond. She was happy her friend stepped in for her.

"Oh yeah, sorry about that. Guess I'm not the best with names. Anyway, can I get your autograph?" Lily asked.

Calling her "Lois" only exacerbated Luna's jealousy. The keyboardist felt jealousy creep into every part of her body, causing her to feel almost sick to her stomach. She hated feeling jealous of her own friends, but she just couldn't understand why people gravitated towards Dusk and Thorn, but not her.

"Of course! I've got a pen, I think." Dusk reached in her purse, as she rummaged through the mess to find something to write with.

Luna's heart leaped when Dusk pulled up the necklace in her handbag…the same one that was supposed to raise demons.

"I forgot I had this here." Dusk pushed the necklace to the side, as she took out a blue pen right next to it.

"Oh hey! You should wear that at the concert for good luck tonight!" Bridgit exclaimed. "You haven't worn it lately."

"Yeah, good idea!" Dusk agreed. "We've already been having such amazing concerts, and wearing this might make them even more badass."

Luna's heart sank. What if Bridgit was planning to carry out her heinous plans to raise a demon tonight at their concert?

"Here we are, the 20th Century Theatre!" Gus exclaimed in a fancy voice, as the six girls approached the theater. The Hex Girls were lugging their instruments along with them, ready to go in the theater and set up for the concert.

"This looks…different." Thorn said. Luna was minded to agree with the black-haired goth. It looked more like a movie theater than a concert venue, with a large marquee prominently featured by the entrance. A large sign reading "20th Century" ran across the length of a large rectangular pillar which jutted above the roof of the building. Four smaller blue pillars were alongside the main pillar. The building looked a tad less classy than many of the other places they had performed, but maybe that would mean less people. Luna hated performing in front of all those people, so as far as she was concerned, the less people she had to get up and play in front of, the better.

"It certainly does." Dusk said. "Not as fancy as I would have liked, but it'll do."

Luna rolled her eyes. At least Dusk wasn't making petty jabs at her anymore, but she still hated Dusk's recent sense of entitlement more than anything. She wished Dusk would go back to her normal self, the one who didn't give a darn about what anyone else thought of her.

"Isn't anyone going to show us in?" Sam asked.

"I guess not." Nia shrugged.

"Well then, I suppose we can show ourselves in." Gus said.

The theater seemed quite different on the inside than most other theaters they'd performed in before. Many of the rooms didn't look like traditional concert halls; rather, they looked like a place you'd go for a dinner theater. Each room had a small assortment of tables with white tablecloths over them, all centered around a small stage. Presumably, it would be a place where a comedy or improv show would be performed. Maybe the theater they would perform in tonight would be much smaller than their typical venue, and they could get back to performing in front of a small audience. She could only hope.

"I believe it's right in here." Gus said, leading the girls to a room at the end of the hall. Luna shuddered a little when she saw it. It looked smaller than the other theaters they'd been in, but it looked like that was only because there were more seats even closer together.

Oh great. She sighed. Just what I wanted.

She was already feeling quite anxious before the show, just as she usually did. She hated going up in front of a large crowd and performing, because she didn't feel like she could be herself. It was still a little nerve-wracking for Luna to perform even back in Oakhaven, but not nearly as bad. She missed the days where it felt like she had pre-show jitters prior to the performance, but usually, by the end, she found herself getting a rhythm for performing in front of a large group of people. Now, she went from having butterflies in her stomach to an elephant on her chest. She felt like her anxiety was so bad that she was beginning to struggle to breathe. She didn't enjoy performing in front of thousands of people, who felt less like individual people and more like a massive entity ready to laugh her off the stage if she screwed up. Thankfully, Thorn was the lead singer, so people's attention was mostly on her. Her coping strategy had become simply pretending the people weren't there and that she was back in Oakhaven, performing at a small concert of 20 people.

"Ready to set up, Luna?" Thorn inquired.

The answer was definitely no. She would do anything to be anywhere else right now. Instead, she responded "Yep!" She didn't want to diminish the fun night of performing that her other two band members wanted.

She wasn't sure if she could handle any more anxiety tonight, between the nerve-wracking concert and finding out their biggest fans were evil witches.

Luna's anxiety was at its all-time high during the performance. She tried to distract herself by getting super focused on her keyboarding, but that only made her more nervous that her precision was going to be off. She tried to avoid looking at the gaze of the crowd. Even though she knew they were all there to support her and the band's music, she still felt immense pressure to perform up to their expectations. She hated it more than anything else.

"I'm a Hex Girl, and I'm gonna put a spell on you." Thorn sang.

It was just about her time to jump in with the final line. Thank goodness the concert was almost over.

"I'm a Hex Girl, and I'm gonna put a spell on you!" Thorn sang her final line.

"We're gonna put a spell on all of you!" Luna, Dusk and Thorn shouted in unison, as smoke filled the stage.

The audience clapped vigorously, with some shouting, whooping and hollering intermixed.

As the curtain closed, Luna braced herself for the inevitable question. She always felt like she was bringing her bandmates down with the answer, so she tried not to make it seem as intense as it actually was.

Sure enough, Dusk was the first to say it, as per usual.

"Woah! That was a wicked concert, wasn't it?"

And then Thorn would usually express a tad more concern for her situation, while also stating her own opinion.

"Yeah, the crowd energy was great! How was it for you, Luna?"

"It was decent." Luna said. That was admittedly a lie, but she tried to not be too over-the-top so it wasn't as much of a falsehood. She hadn't enjoyed any of their performances since she left Oakhaven. Thinking about it, Luna felt like she was getting more anxious with each performance, and their three biggest fans being witches only made it worse.

Luna kept hoping it would improve, and that maybe she'd come to enjoy touring. However, she ultimately knew in her heart that she was never going to suddenly enjoy this. She was shy and introverted, and didn't like being around tons of people for long periods of time. Eventually, she would have to come to terms with the fact that she simply didn't enjoy this format of performing, even if it would break her friends' hearts.

Author's note:

Have you heard? The 20th Century Theater is hosting BRUNCH!

Or at least, that's what it says on their website lol. I wanted to start the author's note in a creative way, since there wasn't a huge plot twist like there has been in the past four chapters haha. I suppose it was sort of a confirmation of an unfortunate thing that's been looming in the background the past few chapters.

There was quite a bit of history behind some of the places the girls visited this time. Starting off with the public library in Chicago, the Harold Washington Library was created in a build competition for a new library in 1987. The contest was organized by the mayor, Herald Washington, whom the library was ultimately named after to honor him, due to his unexpected death during the competition. The winner of the competition was Thomas Beeby, who constructed the design for the library along with ten other citizens after the competition ended on June 20, 1988. The construction process for the library was long and arduous, taking nine days short of three years to fully construct it. In October 1991, construction had finished and the library was dedicated on the fourth of the month. October 7, 1991 is when the library officially opened its doors. As a brief side note, I found it interesting that on the date of writing this, the library was apparently closed in observance of Abraham Lincoln's birthday. I hadn't realized anyone still got the day off, given we have President's Day now (which some people still don't even get a day off for, unfortunately including myself lol).

Moving on to their hotel, the Netherland Plaza opened in 1931 as the "Saint Netherland's Plaza," and has a guest book boasting reservations from Winston Churchill, Bing Crosby and Elvis Presley. According to several interviews done with Elvis, apparently the best hamburger he ever ate was served to him at this hotel, and he would regularly frequent the place when he was on tour due to the excellent burgers. Construction for the building began in 1929. It has since been declared a national landmark in 1989. Around that time, they also dropped the 'Saint' from their name, renaming the hotel to just the Netherland Plaza. Gus's comment about the hotel being in negotiations with Hilton to buy them out is referring to a deal that did indeed come to fruition two years after this fanfic is set, in 2002. The name still partially stuck, however, now it is called The Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza. The hotel remains open to this date.

Lastly, Camp Washington Chili is one of Cincinnati's most famous restaurants. According to their website, the restaurant "could not have been located in a more appropriate neighborhood," which I was really grateful for because I was very concerned it might have been located in an inappropriate neighborhood lol. Though it wasn't an official restaurant back then, the building served soldiers during the Civil War and the Mexican-American War. In 1951, Johnny Johnson opened the restaurant and still continues to work there to this day. Johnny was the owner that served the girls their chili. I guess I also went on that whole tangent about how I didn't want to write real people, then wrote Johnny into this chapter. I guess he only gets one line, so it's fine lol. Their website also says all of their hot dogs are sustainably sourced through a local slaughterhouse. Yummy. Just what I want to think about as I'm eating a meal lol. Apparently Camp Washington Chili is still a huge tourist attraction and a staple of Cincinnati cuisine, which is why I included it here.

The gold medallion that looked like a cat is a reference to the cat medallion in "Who Was That Cat Creature I Saw You With Last Night?" from The Scooby-Doo Show.

I hope you enjoyed reading the events of this fanfic from Luna's point of view in this chapter!