The Hex Series Part Two
"Sally!" Quinn screamed as he ran onstage towards his sister, Sally groaned softly under the two ton speaker. But before he could do anything to help her, Dusk came up behind him and pushed him behind her out of harm's way. "Stay behind us." She hissed.
The Phantom stepped closer, raising his finger in the process and pointed at the quartet, he spoke without emotion, "next time…you die!" The Phantom threatened, before disappearing in a puff of black smoke.
The Hex Girls dressing room.
"You're lucky all you have is a minor concussion ma'am, that speaker could've done far worse." The doctor said as he finished examining his patient.
"Thanks doc," Thorn said smiling at him gratefully.
"Remember to keep that icepack on for an hour or so." The doctor reminded Thorn as he put away his stethoscope and left.
"Here, have some of these." Quinn said as he handed, his sister a couple of pain pills.
Thorn, smiled at him gratefully, and popped the pills Quinn gave her. Before turning to the rest of the gang, and asking what they were going to do about the ghost.
"It has to be an inside job" Dusk said. "Think about it, who besides us is going to know where were at any time of the day?"
Before anybody could say anything else, the door to the dressing room slammed open revealing two buff security guards and their manger behind them.
"I don't know about you, but I have had an enough of these ghost attacks, so ladies meet your new shadows John and Ron." Gus said as he introduced them.
Dusk smiled at them, revealing her pearly white fangs, they remained impassive.
Luna waved, and Thorn shrugged. "So, Miss Thorn are you okay enough to go back on stage?" Their manager asked. "I think so." Thorn stood up and the room immediately started spinning. Thorn sat back down before she could make a fool of her self
Luna grimaced, "I hate to say it, but maybe we should cancel the show just for tonight."
"No way in hell, should we cancel. Dusk said, "We worked way too hard to cancel because some asshole ghost says we do."
Quinn eyed Daphne, a thoughtful look on his face. "Ya'know if Daphne over there would put on a wig and the right makeup she could totally pass for Thorn."
Velma raised her eyebrow, "so use Daphne as bait?"
"That could work," Thorn said
"Yeah, that could definitely work." Luna said, agreeing with Quinn
Dusk looked Daphne up and down, "with all the darkness, no one would know the difference, provided you can sing Daphne?"
"If I can't, you could always use auto tune." Daphne suggested.
"Okay, everybody out. We need to get Daphne dressed and made up." Thorn commanded
They all got out and waited in the hallway, Thorn, opened the door a few minutes later. Or rather Daphne did, she wore the same outfit as Thorn did, if Fred didn't know any better he would've called them twins.
"Alright gang, let's go over the plan one more time." Fred announced as the gang and the girls huddled around him.
"Did everybody, like the phantom?" Luna asked the humongous crowd
Luna got an ineligible response as the crowd roared. "So everybody knows that the Earth is precious and should be cared for, right?" The crowd shouted "yes."
Luna grinned, "So I think you'll know what our next song is, right?"
The crowd thundered in anticipation, Luna made her way over to, her keyboard and started the song as the stage lighting hummed to life, spotlights shown on Dusk as her drum beats melded with the electronic sounds of Luna's keyboard, Daphne walked on stage and began to sing, her voice enhanced with auto tune.
Daphne, only got partially thru the song before the same shrill feedback as before interrupted their song and silenced their instruments.
The metallic gold Phantom screeched, "You were warned!" as he lunged towards Daphne, Luna and Dusk hopped down from their places, before they could reach Daphne. Two steel cages dropped from above and trapped the two Hex girls, imprisoning them into place, as they watched helplessly as the phantom abducted Daphne and vanished into a puff of black smoke.
Hours passed without finding any sign of Daphne.
Velma, was really holding the urge to ask Thorn for an autograph when she stumbled upon Quinn and Thorn fighting. "I should've just stayed in Oakhaven, I can't believe I let -." But whatever Quinn was about to say died in his throat as he looked passed Thorn and saw Velma gawking at them.
Quinn scowled when he saw her and brushed passed Thorn, fixing his earbuds in place and ignored the woman as he went past her.
"What was that about?" Velma asked the black-haired girl.
Thorn, sighed, "He's scared of the Phantom, and he's scared I'll die if we continue touring, I know he likes to act tough and scowl but he still sleeps with a nightlight."
Velma chuckled at that, the brief levity was a welcome feeling, they still had no idea where Daphne was, or who the Phantom is. "I wanted to tell you," Velma began but before she could explain any further the stadium trembled with such force, it knocked Velma to the floor and had Thorn flailing her arms around.
Velma stood up and looked at Thorn quizzically, "Earthquake, maybe?" Velma offered. Thorn shrugged her shoulders.
Outside terror dome stadium. A tour bus with The Hex Girls, logo stood alone in the dark night, with its neon purple and pink paintjob a beacon to their success. Quinn opened the bus doors and he went to his bunk and put his earbuds in, immedialty The Meatmen came on with Tesco Vee'S angry voice inflamed his anger at Thorn.
Tired and angry Quinn, soon fell asleep in his bunk his mp3 player shuffling along his long list of punk music, and Johnny Cash albums, Quinn tossed and turned in his sleep, nightmares about the Phantom killing Thorn then killing Dusk and finally killing Luna while he was helpless to stop it.
Quinn woke, felling cold and the felling of free falling. He tried to move, reaching for his blanket only to find that he was bound in rope, realization dawned on Quinn, that he had been kidnapped by the Phantom. And Quinn tried to scream only to find that he was gagged, Quinn looked around to see where he was, and he scanned left and right and realized that he was hung way up high and secured to the rafters, his stomach dropped as Quinn saw that Phantom was levitating up towards him.
The Phantom rose mere inches to his face, The Phantoms breathing sounded metallic and cold on every other breath The Phantom would make a clicking noise, black leather gloves rose to his gold plated face, with a hiss of air the mask came loose. The mask he held with one hand, dirty blonde hair stuck out every which way, and angry blue eyes, intensified with a permeant scowl etched into his face. It could be only one person: Daniel.
"I'm going to undo this gag, if you scream I'm going to gut you like a fish, and I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. Nod if you understand."
Quinn nodded, and Daniel took out a sharp looking blade and cut off his gag, Quinn coughed.
"Why, Daniel would you do this?" Quinn asked meeting Daniel's glare with a glare of his own.
"For years, before your sisters were famous, I was the record label's number one profit, I would imagine every girl out there had a poster of me on their walls and cds of me playing in their cars on their way to work."
Quinn didn't think it was possible, but Daniel's scowl deepened even more as he was recounting his story, " and then one day, I was out years of hard work and success suddenly didn't matter anymore, they said they had to make room for more serious talent and ability, and so I was replaced with The Hex Girls."
"If you hate them so much, why do you work for them?" Quinn asked, puzzlement written all over his face.
"Because stupid boy, it was the only job I could get, and what better way to destroy your enemies then from the inside out"? Daniel spat.
"So, why kidnap me?" Quinn wondered aloud.
Daniel smiled it was almost worse than his scowl. "I heard your argument with Thorn, earlier in the stadium how you said you hated her."
"So, by kidnapping me, you hurt her indirectly." Quinn finished for him.
"Maybe, you're not a stupid as I thought you were, I'll give them back the imposter while I try to kidnap the real Thorn, and then I'll sacrifice her to my master."
Quinn looked at him as if he was insane.
"I also blew up your bus, hopefully that killed the hippie and his dog, and hopefully that will also please my master as well as Thorn will."
….
Thorn, and Velma walked towards the commotion and they could see firefighters putting out their bus, Thorn had her mouth open in shock, Velma could see the other Hex Girls over towards the caution tape.
Velma had a bad feeling and she dreading bringing it up. Velma cleared her throat and got Thorn's attention. "I hate to say this, but where's Quinn? I don't see him over there with Luna and Dusk." Velma pointed them out
Thorn's face went pale, paler than normal and Thorn ran towards the burning bus, with every intention of going inside the bus. The firefighter caught her and held her in place until the blaze was put out. Thorn fell to her knees, gripping the firefighter's protective coat, crying into it.
Dusk and Luna made their way over to where Thorn was kneeling.
"Thorn, what happened?" Luna asked concern in her voice
"I think, my little brother was inside-."
She didn't get a chance to say anything further, because the firefighter picked her up and put her on her feet. "Listen miss, I just got word that there were no bodies found on that bus only charred clothes and props." The firefighter reassured her before walking away and returning to his men.
Velma walked up towards the girls. "Guys, you won't believe this but Daphne just called me." Velma said trying to break the uneasy silence, the girls looked at Velma, their tears of joy smudging their makeup.
"And I think I might have a plan that could trap that Phantom." Velma said. "But first we need to find the rest of the gang and were going to need traps lots and lots of traps." Velma smiled her face full of glee.
Thorn sniffed. "What about Quinn?"
"I think he'll be returned just a soon as we catch that Phantom." Velma said reassuring Thorn.
Later that night, the cathedral packed to the max, and just like before they were going to use Daphne as bait, the clothing department set Daphne up, with a hooded cloak and the props department set up the stage, with a weathered chair shaped into a romantic heart, fitting since the song was called ' trap of love'.
Luna started the song with her keyboard, while pink smoke filled the stage. Dusk matched her beats to Luna's keyboard, while Thorn hidden from view played her guitar matching the tone of the song.
Daphne sang, her voice entrancing the audience, while swaying and moving around the stage, the audience roared at the effects of the projector screen, it showed hearts being ripped in half and being put back together wrong.
The girls sang in unison as Daphne hit the final lyrics of the song, while the rest of girls hit the final notes of 'Trap of Love.'
Daphne turned around and walked back towards the heart chair, put the cloak back on and sat down, while the rest of girls held their hand together in a praying symbol, being obscured with grey smoke, the curtain drew obscuring Daphne once more.
"You see that? You little bastard?" the Phantom asked, they were high above the audience hiding in the rafters. "That should be me! And it will once I take out Thorn." The Phantom promised Quinn.
The Phantom attached rope to the support rafters and tied a harness around himself, his plan was simple, swoop down and take Thorn on the return trip, and he would drop her into the middle of the crowd.
And so he did, The Phantom swooped down from his rope and snatched who he thought was Thorn, or rather he snatched a dummy that was tied securely to the chair. With one hard tug the Phantom was pulled down to the stage and had a net thrown onto him. They did it they caught The Phantom!
"Thorn, would you like the honors of unmasking the guy who's been terrorizing you guy's for weeks?" Velma asked.
"Where's our littler brother freak!" Thorn shouted as she pulled the mask off.
"Daniel?" Luna asked looking shocked.
"Why? We treated you like family?" Dusk asked anger in her voice, she clenched her hand into a fist.
"I did it for the fame!" Daniel shouted. "With you people out the way, I would've been famous once again, I would be rolling in the money!"
Daniel grinned. "As for that little bastard, you call a brother I wonder. Can he fly?"
The Phantom had enough slack in the net, to push a few buttons on his wrist, which caused the rope Quinn was caught in to free him, free him to splat twenty stories into the cold concrete.
Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Scooby ran, he ran faster than he thought possible, and in just a nick of time cushioned the boys fall.
Thorn ran to him, she got down on a knee and hugged him, tears of joy ruining her makeup once again, seeing he was fine, Dusk and Luna made their way over to him each giving him a hug.
"Don't you ever do anything like that again? Do you hear me?" Thorn told him in between hugs.
Quinn, nodded yes.
"With the bus gone, where are we going to sleep?" Dusk asked in between yawing.
"I called the record label, I told them about the bus fire and told them what was up. They made a reservation at the local Hilton, they said they would be sending a new bus into to town tomorrow." Luna answered.
"How are we going to get their?" Quinn asked his voice had begun showing signs of tiredness.
"I guess we could call a cab?" Thorn answered.
"Nonsense." Fred began, "there is plenty of room in the mystery machine, I'll just drive you myself, as soon as the Phantom is in custody."
They didn't need to wait very long, somebody had called the police, and within minutes the Phantom had been loaded and carted off to jail.
As promised Fred, drove them to the local Hilton. They gave him their thanks and walked inside
The front desk person, checked them in and gave them each a card and would call when their bus was there.
"Bad dreams, sister Thorn."
Luna said as she placed her card into the reader.
"Goodnight, Thorn, goodnight kid." Dusk said as she did the same to the door next to Luna's.
Thorn opened their room and walked inside. It was a moderately sized room, two big queen beds, a flat screen tv, a little kitchen and a humongous bathroom. Quinn threw what little he had on a bed. And Thorn walked into the bathroom. Quinn could hear a shower run, he laid on the bed and within minutes he was out, for once not dreaming of the Phantom.
"Tomorrow we" but the rest died in Thorn's throat as she saw Quinn was sound asleep. She smiled at him and pulled the covers over him, as she made her way to her own bed. Within minutes her own chest rose and fell and she was a sound asleep.
Thorn was woken up by the ringing phone, she answered it. "What?" she said into the receiver.
"Miss, Thorn, this Jim with the front desk, I just wanted to inform you that your bus is here and is waiting in the back of the building whenever you're ready to leave."
"Did, you call my sisters?" Thorn asked into the receiver.
"I did, they are waiting in the breakfast room, downstairs." Jim said confirming what she already knew.
Thorn, put the phone down and looked over to where Quinn was, he was still sleeping, she decided she would let him sleep a little longer and luckily she had a change of clothes and put those on before she headed downstairs.
She saw Dusk and Luna at a table with pancakes and juice and waffles, her stomach rumbled in anticipation, she sat down and began to eat.
"Quinn, still sleeping?" Dusk asked.
Thorn said "yes." Between bites of pancakes.
Luna smiled as she sipped her juice.
The girls, sat and talked and laughed, remembering their fight with an actual witch. "I need to grab some clothes for Quinn and me." Thorn said as she stood up, "you guys want to come with?" Thorn asked, Dusk shook her head no and Luna said she already went to the bus.
Thorn went out the backway so she wouldn't be spotted by the paparazzi, she stopped and looked at the bus, and it was practically identical to the old one. Thorn told the bus driver they would start heading off in an hour.
Thorn, grabbed some clothes and headed back to their hotel room, when she opened the door she saw that Quinn was up examining some bruises on his side, Thorn grimaced. She cleared her throat.
Quinn let his black shirt fall back down, covering his wounds once more. "I thought you might want some clean clothes, so I brought you these." Thorn said as she tossed the clothes onto his bed.
He bundled them up and headed towards the shower, ten minutes later he was out with his new clothes on that clung to his not yet dry skin.
They packed their things and headed downstairs to the main lobby. They checked out and headed towards the bus, Quinn could see paparazzi in the front. "I don't get it." Quinn muttered.
"What? What don't you get?" Thorn asked him.
"Why these people want your pictures, I mean Luna's cool and Dusk is way cool." He started
"I guess you're kind of cool." Quinn said, continuing his train of thought, "I don't get it."
Thorn, took a breath before answering. "We are world famous, Quinn, why do you think were touring?"
Quinn shrugged his shoulders, "money?" he answered.
"Sure, that's part of it, but it's also because we are talented enough that people want to see us live, and hear our music, it's like you and that punk rock band The Misfits, you have the attitude and you have the music, wouldn't you have wanted to see them live?" she asked him.
Quinn nodded yes.
" It's the same way with us, and if we can get our message out there and we help the planet then that is a huge bonus, even if only we could change one person, that one person, could change another and another and so on and so forth."
By the end of their conversation they had made back to the bus, Luna gave him a big smile and a hug he winced, but didn't say anything.
Dusk gave him a head nod and a fist bump.
"I saved you a pancake, it's in the fridge if you're hungry." Luna said
Quinn gave her a genuine smile, before going to the fridge and scaring down the pancake.
"Where to?" the bus driver shouted from the front.
"LA." Thorn shouted back. "We got a music video to shoot."
"Alrighty ma'am I'll get us there in one piece." The driver promised, before putting the bus into gear and heading onto the highway.
To be continued.