Chapter 5
As she stared at the empty circle, the ghost's final words echoed in her head. You cannot trust them. She looked at the masked people. Despite protecting Thorn and her friends from Alexander Levre, neither Cyrus nor Matella explained why they were looking for that piece of parchment, what group they were part of and even why they were dressed the way they were. This, coupled with Alexander's initial remarks and the fact that they nearly shot them, troubled her.
They're not telling us everything. Thorn wanted more answers—both about the group and herself—but she needed to be careful about how she asked them.
"Thanks for saving us," Thorn said.
"Oh please, we're the ones who should be thanking you," Matella replied. "If you three weren't here, we would've failed our mission."
"Hmm. So what's so important about a piece of paper anyways?" Thorn asked as nonchalantly as possible.
"It's nothing important, just some minor work," Matella quickly said.
Thorn raised an eyebrow. "But clearly it's important enough to risk dying over," she asserted.
Cyrus moved closer to Thorn with crossed arms, but Matella moved in front of him with a raised hand.
"Sally, it really isn't your concern," Matella belittled.
"It's Thorn. And I think we should get to know as we helped you get it," Thorn retorted.
"Such an appropriate name," Cyrus muttered from behind the witch as if he was speaking through clenched teeth.
Thorn caught a glance from Luna; the redhead's expression begging Thorn to stop prying for information, but Thorn wasn't done with the masked people.
"Well then, Thorn," Matella began, her tone becoming both annoyed yet strangely intrigued, as if she was impressed by Thorn's stubbornness. "Now isn't the time for answers."
Thorn looked into the distance and she heard the wailing of sirens grow in intensity as they approached the cemetery. With so much going on, Thorn didn't consider that the explosions would be heard in town.
"Of course," Thorn muttered under her breath, rolling her eyes in the process.
Cyrus placed a finger to his ear. "Bring the van around," he ordered, clearly speaking into an earpiece.
A few moments later, a white van screeched to a halt in front of the cemetery. The side door slid open revealing another masked person. Cyrus and the three nameless people ran toward the fence.
"I'd suggest you three follow us," Matella said as she ran to the fence with the other masked individuals. The witch raised her hand to the fence causing several posts to bend outward creating an opening.
"I agree, I'm not explaining this to the cops," Dusk remarked and she too took off toward the hole in the fence.
Luna and Thorn shot concerned glances at each other but after glancing over the ruined cemetery, ran after their friend. After a brief sprint, the three girls caught up to the masked people. Unfortunately, Matella was in the process of closing the door.
"They're leaving us!" Dusk shouted.
"You can't just abandon us after we helped you!" Thorn hollered at Matella with a raised fist.
Matella paused, leaving the door half open. She sighed and fully opened the door.
"Very true," she said almost cheerfully. "But no talking after you tell us where to drop you off."
Cyrus grunted but didn't stop the girls from entering, much to Thorn's surprise.
Thorn was aware of how dangerous it was to get in the van, but these people had the answers to so many questions and she didn't think Matella would let anything bad happen to her, Dusk and Luna. Plus, trying to explain the destruction of a historical cemetery through magic, witches and ghosts without the masked people to the police probably wouldn't end well; the potential charges they faced could hinder their musical careers.
The girls sat down and after telling Matella where their hotel was, remained silent yet on guard. The door slid shut and van sped off through the empty streets of Shardon. Taking back roads, the van managed to evade the local authorities.
The van came to a halt and one masked man opened the back doors.
"Out," Cyrus ordered.
The girls hopped out of the van and Matella followed them to the back door.
"Now can you answer my questions?" Thorn asked in frustration.
Matella chuckled and reached into her pocket. She grabbed something small enough to be enclosed in her hand.
"If you want answers, find us again," Matella responded, tossing the item to Thorn. "Otherwise, never tell anyone about this night."
Thorn caught the object and inspected it. The object was round, about three inches in diameter and about two inches in height. It resembled a gray locket, but there were no obvious ways of opening it. Thorn noticed that there were fifteen raised symbols on the surface of one side of the item, symbols she didn't recognize. The other side was completely smooth. The edge of the object was ridged like a coin and separated the two halves.
"What is this?" Thorn asked as she looked back at Matella.
But the van doors had already closed. The van then started up and drove off, leaving the girls alone in the hotel parking lot much to Thorn's dissatisfaction.
"Holy shit! That was insane!" Dusk exclaimed, essentially summarizing the entire night.
Luna sighed with exhaustion. "I'm going to bed, tonight was too much," the redhead stated as she headed to their hotel room.
Thorn just looked at the mysterious item.
"What's that?" Dusk asked noticing the item.
"No idea," Thorn said and put the object in her pocket.
Thorn yawned. While she wanted to investigate the object, she knew it would have to wait until tomorrow. She and Dusk then followed Luna back to the hotel room.
"Where the hell were you three? I've been trying to call you all night!" an irate Gus shouted as the three exhausted girls entered the hotel room.
He paused for a moment when he saw their appearances. All three of them were completely disheveled and covered in dirt; their clothes were charred and their hair was singed.
"What happened? Are you girls okay?" Gus asked, his anger replaced with concern.
"Thorn's a witch," Dusk muttered with a slight chuckle as she, Luna and Thorn passed Gus and collapsed in to their respective beds.
"Huh?" Gus stuttered while shaking his head. "If you don't want to tell me what happened, fine. Just be aware that we need to be on the road by eight, as I got you girls a replacement gig in New York."
"Ughhhhh," the girls collectively groaned.
Gus sighed, turned the light off and exited the room, and closed the door behind him.
In the darkness, Thorn's mind raced with all sorts of questions, but her body's exhaustion was too much; she passed out within a few minutes of laying down.
"Hey Thorn! Get your ass out of bed!" Dusk hollered as she shook the still asleep girl.
"Huh? What time is it?" Thorn groaned into her pillow as she woke from her slumber.
"It's quarter to eight, you got fifteen minutes to get ready," Luna replied.
It took Thorn a minute to process the information and another to realize she had overslept.
"Shit!" Thorn shrieked as she jumped out of bed. "Why didn't you wake me up earlier?"
"We tried waking you several times, but you wouldn't get up," Luna said.
Thorn was surprised to find out she slept through her friends efforts to wake her as she was a light sleeper, but quickly brushed the thought away. She grabbed some spare clothes from one of her duffle bags and headed into the bathroom. She glanced at the shower and groaned; she desperately needed and wanted a shower, but knew she didn't have to time for it, so she just changed out of her charred clothes and into the new ones. She headed over to the sink and washed the soot, dirt and old makeup off her face.
"Jeeze, you look terrible," Thorn said to herself while looking at her reflection in the mirror.
She struggled to keep her eyes open, which were sunken and had dark circles beneath them. Her hair was an absolute mess and the singed ends were dreadful.
"Ugh," she sighed realizing how much time it would take to actually fix her hair, time she didn't have.
She grabbed her brush and spent most of her remaining time trying to fix her hair.
"I'll deal with this on the bus," Thorn sighed, her hair looking more presentable.
She gathered the rest of her belongings and threw everything into the duffle bags. Packed, she headed out the door to find the tour bus running and ready to go; Luna, Dusk and Gus having long since finished loading their bags onto the bus and Gus was waiting outside for Thorn.
"I thought I made it clear that we needed to be out by eight," Gus said pointing at his watch.
"Sorry Gus, I won't do it again," Thorn half-apologized as she rushed past him with her bags and boarded the bus.
Thorn tossed her bags haphazardly onto the floor before falling into her cot, oblivious to Luna and Dusk's concerned looks.
"Are you alright?" Dusk asked.
Thorn just stayed in her cot.
"Give me ten minutes," Thorn mumbled into her pillow, the reply barely audible to Dusk and Luna.
Thorn blinked several times as she woke up and climbed out of the cot. She felt better than before, but was still drowsy. She made her way over to the mini-fridge in search of food.
"So much for ten minutes," Luna joked, sitting on the couch working on some music sheets.
"How long was I out for?" Thorn asked.
"Almost an hour and a half," the redhead replied.
Shit Thorn thought, surprised by how long she was asleep for. She had many long nights before— most of their shows would start late in the evening and Thorn wrote some of the band's best songs in the early morning hours –but she always got up when she needed to. Oversleeping and then passing out later was not normal.
"Well, last night was a lot for me," Thorn sighed as rummaged through the mini-fridge, eventually grabbing small bowl of fruit salad.
Luna placed the music sheets on her lap as Thorn slumped into the seat next to her.
"You're not taking this too well, aren't you?" Luna said.
Thorn moved several pieces around with her fork, shook her head and sighed.
"I don't know…" Thorn stuttered. "It's all so confusing and overwhelming."
Luna nodded in agreement.
"I don't know what I am anymore" Thorn began as she placed the bowl of fruit to the side and her face began turning red. "I mean, am I really…a witch?"
The Wiccan looked down at her trembling hands; they seemed so foreign and unknowable to her. Thorn felt a hand on her shoulder and caught a glance of Luna's dark purple nails.
"I don't know but it doesn't matter," Luna said. "You're still Thorn, a badass rock star and my friend."
Thorn couldn't help but smile a bit at her friend's comforting words, but it receded after a few fleeting moments of reassurance.
"But why me and why didn't this magic show up before? I've lost count of how many times I tried to cast a spell or do a ritual and nothing happened. It doesn't make any sense!" Thorn vented as tears welled up in her eyes.
"What about when you defeated Sarah Ravencroft? That had to count for something," Luna suggested trying calm her friend down.
"I don't know anymore," Thorn responded while shaking her head. "I thought that had to do with me being Wiccan. But if it was really because of something else I had no control over, then…"
Tears trickled down Thorn's pale cheek as she stopped to cry. Luna pulled the crying girl closer to her.
"And when I find people who can provide me with answers, they dip! I'm left with even more questions and a fucking…I don't even know what it is!" Thorn ranted between sobs.
Luna leaned back and put her hand to her chin. "What are you talking about?"
Thorn shrugged and wiped her face.
"Matella gave me this coin thing before she left," the Wiccan explained as she tried to regain her composure.
"Can I see it?" Luna responded.
Thorn got up and rummaged through her duffle bag. She removed the mysterious item and handed it to Luna. The redhead looked over the object and was just as confused as Thorn.
"Did she say anything when she gave this to you?" Luna questioned without looking up from the object.
"Yeah," Thorn said between a few sniffles as she started to calm back down. "She said 'find us again or don't talk about this night to anyone.'"
Luna continued to inspect the object. Thorn knew Luna was deeply in thought. If anyone can figure out what that is, it'll be Luna the Wiccan thought while watching her friend try to help her.
After twenty minutes of the two looking over the object, Luna's eyes widened and she smiled, much to Thorn's delight; she hoped Luna had figured out what the item was. Maybe then she could finally get the questions she had about herself and last night answered.
"They're coordinates!" Luna exclaimed as she gave the item back to Thorn.
"How could you tell?" Thorn asked raising an eyebrow.
"Matella's comment indicated that this was supposed to help us find them, so I figured it was some kind of map or compass," Luna explained. "But the fifteen symbols didn't make much sense until I realized the significance of the number fifteen."
"And that would be what exactly?" Thorn replied trying to think of some occult meaning for fifteen but was drawing a blank.
Luna pulled out her phone and opened a map application. She turned her phone to Thorn and pointed to a set of coordinates showing their approximate location in the upper right corner of the screen: 41.12218, -073.35515
"There's fifteen digits in the coordinates," Thorn realized.
"At least in certain formats," Luna clarified. "But based on what we do know about this thing, it's my best guess."
Thorn smiled, maybe she would get her answers. But when she looked up at Luna, the redhead wasn't smiling. Oh no, there's a catch Thorn thought as her smile diminished.
"Unfortunately, we don't know which number correlates to which symbol, so it's pretty much impossible to determine the correct location," Luna added with a frown.
"Great," Thorn sighed as she slouched back into her seat.
Finding the truth about herself seemed so far out of Thorn's grasp and every minute she spent in the dark felt like she was getting further away from it. What if I never find the answers? Thorn shuddered as she tried to brush away the negative thoughts.
"Hey, why don't we get Dusk to fix your hair?" Luna said grabbing the end of Thorn's hair in an attempt to take Thorn's mind of the mystery item and her crisis of faith. "These singed tips aren't doing your looks any favor."
Thorn chuckled. "Oh yeah, I have to do something about this pronto," she wearily said.
Luna grabbed a crumpled up ball of paper and tossed it at Dusk, who was laying in her cot facing away from the two other girls. The blonde bobbed her head to the music she was listening to through her headphones and was engrossed in one of her magazines, oblivious to anything outside. The wad of paper hit Dusk right in the head.
"What do you want Luna?" Dusk said as she removed her headphones and put down her magazine.
The drummer turned to Luna but saw Thorn. Dusk hopped out of bed with a concerned look on her face.
"Good to see you're awake," Dusk said. "You doing okay?"
"Yeah," Thorn replied, though her tone suggested otherwise. "Think you could help me with the singed tips?"
"Absolutely," Dusk cheered. "Take a seat and I'll go get my supplies."
Thorn smiled. At least this would keep her mind off things for a while.
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot," Dusk said a she rummaged through a bag. "I picked up a few things when we were in town."
Thorn looked over at Dusk. She was holding a pair of silver necklaces. Her attention was drawn to the necklace with a bat pendant, not unlike the ruby one she often wore when performing.
"Wanna try it on?" Dusk asked as she handed the necklace to Thorn.
"Sure," Thorn said and she took the necklace.
"OW!" Thorn shouted and she flung the necklace across the bus. Her fingers were red, as if they were burnt, which was the best way to describe the pain she felt. She rubbed her fingers and the redness quickly subsided.
"What, you don't like silver?" Dusk teased as she retrieved the necklace.
Thorn shook her head in confusion. "Must've been a static shock," she said trying to rationalize the situation. She didn't want to deal with whatever just happened. "Can you just help me with my hair?"
"Yeah," Dusk replied, as she looked at the necklace in her hand. "Whatever you need."
A/N
Hope everyone's still enjoying the story; reviews and feedback are always appreciated, so thanks to those who already left one. It looks like I'll be updating every Friday for the foreseeable future.