Chapter 6
The remainder of the drive was uneventful and Thorn was thankful that the ride was over when the tour bus drove up the road that lead to the front of a large, round glass building overlooking the Hudson River that glistened in the mid-afternoon sunlight. The road was paralleled by a grass paver dotted with small trees spaced evenly apart that served to separate the parking lots from the road. The van circled around a fountain surrounded by spotlights at the end of road. Above the entrance were large letters spelling out 'Hudson Valley Performance Center' with smaller letters beneath them showing that the building was in Bolfield, New York. From the van, Thorn could see signs reading 'The Hex Girls-Tonight at 9:00 PM' with images of her and her bandmates beneath the caption.
"Wow, Gus must've worked overtime to get this going," Dusk said while looking through the window.
Thorn glanced across the bus out the opposite window. The parking lots were already full of cars despite the show not starting until the evening. Thorn had to admit that Gus pulled off a miracle with setting up this show last minute.
The bus drove around to the backside of the venue and pulled up to the back entrance.
"Guess it's time to get to work," Luna said as she grabbed one of her bags.
Thorn just nodded, grabbed a bag and exited the bus with Luna and Dusk behind her. Outside, Gus was talking to a blonde woman in her early thirties dressed in a blue shirt with the venue's name printed in white letters on the front, a white skirt that went down to just past her knees and a pair of white high heels. The woman held a touchpad and was discussing the venue with Gus.
"We've managed to get most of the people who had tickets for the cancelled show seats here," the woman said. "Though it will be a bit cramped as we are at max capacity."
"Excellent," Gus remarked as the two noticed the girls exiting the bus. "And here are the stars themselves."
Thorn smiled as the woman rushed over to them and shook their hands.
"It's so nice to meet you three," the woman said. "I'm Gloria Wright, the manager of the Hudson Valley Performance Center."
"It's a pleasure to meet you," Thorn replied.
With the introductions finished, Gloria led the girls and Gus into the building.
"Don't worry about your equipment, I'll have my staff unload it for you," Gloria stated.
Thorn watched as several staff members walked past her and head to the bus where they began unloading the various pieces of equipment from the back of the bus. Thorn grinned, at least she wouldn't have to carry everything in. The black-haired girl turned her attention back to Gloria and the rest of the group as they made their way to the stage.
Impressive Thorn thought as she and the rest of the group reached the stage. For what amounted to a last minute change of venue, the performance center got a lot done in such a short period of time: the speaker system was set up and ready go; the spotlights and overhead lights were almost done and the backdrop depicting the Hex Girls logo—two purple concentric circles with four lines connecting the two and 'HEX' written in the center circle—was set up. The only thing left to set up were Dusk's drums and Luna's keyboards, which were being brought onto the stage by some of the staff members.
"Are we going to get chance to test the equipment?" Luna asked as she looked over one of the speakers.
"Of course," Gloria said. "Feel free to test whatever you like."
Thorn watched as Luna walked to where one of the staff members was removing part of her three-piece keyboard set from its case.
"Sorry, but nobody touches my keyboard," Luna asserted as she walked up to the startled staff member.
"My bad miss," the staff member said as he quickly placed the keyboard back in its case and backed away from the redhead.
A second staff member gave an awkward laugh as he placed down what turned out to be part of Dusk's acoustic drum kit; the blonde gave him a stern look.
"I'll just grab the last cases from the bus and let you set it up," the staff member said as he started walking back to the bus.
"Good call," Dusk replied with her hands on her hips.
Thorn smirked at seeing her friends get defensive over their instruments. It made sense as they had been using the same equipment since they first started the band years ago. Still, it was always funny to watch them react to others even touching their instruments.
Thorn's reminiscing ended as she caught sight of another staff member carrying her guitar case. She ran over to the staff member and snatched the case from his hands.
"Thanks, I got it from here," Thorn said.
"Fine by me," the staff member replied.
Thorn nodded to the staff member to acknowledge his help and he walked off stage. She tried not to sound rude, or at least not as rude as Dusk and Luna, as she was just as protective over her guitar as her friends were of their instruments.
Thorn opened the case and removed the customized guitar she had received from her parents years ago: the elegant black-and-red body in the shape of a bat, the smooth gray neck and the red V-shaped headstock made the guitar the most iconic instrument in the band. Of course, some of the tricks she learned over the years made her and the guitar quite popular, the most notable being the "witch's cauldron" where Thorn would swirl the guitar as if she was mixing a potion in a pot.
Thorn smiled as she took out a pick and strung out the first notes of "Earth, Wind, Fire & Air." Her smile diminished as she sighed and rolled her eyes. Why is it always out of tune? She made some quick adjustments and repeated the previous notes.
"That's better," she said to herself.
She continued to play miscellaneous notes as she paced back and forth across the stage, trying to get a feel for space on the stage, the room's acoustics, the lighting and other aspects of the performance. After a few minutes, she paused in the center of the stage and concluded that everything seemed fine. Now to get back to this. She tapped her pocket containing the mystery item Matella gave her. She made her way to a guitar rack that was set up nearby and placed her guitar there. Thorn walked past her bandmates, who were busy setting up their instruments, and approached Gus and Gloria.
"Hey, where's the changing room?" Thorn asked.
"Go to the end of the hall, turn right and it's the first door on the left," Gloria answered.
"Thanks," Thorn said and she turned to go down the hall.
But before she could leave, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to see Gus with a concerned look on his face.
"You're not going to finish testing out the equipment?" Gus questioned.
"No, everything looks fine," Thorn answered.
Gus raised an eyebrow.
"But you didn't test the…" Gus began.
"It's fine," Thorn replied with her voice slightly raised, cutting off her manager.
She brushed off Gus's hand and resumed walking down the hall.
"Darling, are you alright?" Gus called out to her.
Thorn didn't look back or stop walking.
"Yeah," she said as she removed the item from her pocket.
Thorn looked over the object, oblivious to anything else around, and walked down the hall.
"How does this sound?" Dusk asked as she played the percussion part of "Hex Girls."
Luna chuckled. Even for just testing sound quality, Luna had to admire Dusk's passion and energy when playing the drums; her strikes looked chaotic, but in actuality each one was carefully timed and precise.
"I think you'll need a few more microphones," Luna laughed.
"There's already like eight here, do I really need more?" Dusk groaned as she grabbed some extra mics from a nearby case.
"Two more and you'll be good," Luna said.
As Dusk set the additional microphones up, Luna turned her attention back to her keyboards. The two gray keyboards decorated with the band's logos were arranged in the shape of an upside-down 'L' which gave her easy access to both keyboards. The redhead made her way over to the keyboards where she checked on both pieces of equipment. She looked over the electronic keyboard first and found it to be in working over. She then looked over the second—and arguably the more important of the two—keyboards. The second keyboard had a series of buttons, dials and sliders in addition to the keys and was connected to a computer system and mixing board located offstage. Here, the venue's mixing engineer would manage all the sounds coming from off stage and ensure the best quality music for the audience. Luna glanced up to the small structure above the entrance to the seating area that was lined up with the center of the stage. Through the windows, Luna could see the mixing engineer looking at several monitors. While the mixing engineer would control what the audience heard, Dusk, Luna and Thorn needed to hear a completely different mix (primarily to make sure they were in tune, synchronized and sounded good). This is where the monitor mix came in, though Luna wasn't sure where the monitor mixing engineer was.
Luna walked over to Gloria, who was still talking with Gus.
"Do you have someone to manage the monitor mix?" Luna asked with her arms crossed.
Gloria hesitated.
"Um, well…our technician couldn't make it tonight," Gloria said with an embarrassed laugh. "You know, this being a last minute show."
Great Luna thought as she rolled her eyes. "So I have to do it myself then," Luna sighed.
"Sorry," Gloria meekly replied.
The redhead turned away from the embarrassed woman and returned to her keyboard set. She placed her hands on the second keyboard and groaned.
"Just what I needed," Luna said to herself. "More stress."
She glanced away from the keyboards for a moment and looked at another case that rested against the wall several feet from her and groaned. Ugh, no bass tonight. While she was better known for playing the keyboards, Luna also occasionally played the bass. She enjoyed it and wished she got to play more of it as it was much less stressful than the keyboards. She groaned again as she turned away from the case.
"What happened now?" Dusk asked after noticing her friend's frustration.
"There's nobody to control the monitor mix, so I have to do it," the keyboardist replied.
"Oh. That sucks," Dusk said not knowing what else to say.
Luna slowly nodded. Without another sound engineer, Luna would have to control what she, Dusk and Thorn would hear when preforming. At any moment during the concert, if Dusk or Thorn signaled for an adjustment in their sound, Luna would have to make it on the fly with the second keyboard while performing. It's not even a full day after I was nearly killed by a ghost, and now I have to make sure we don't fuck up a concert. Luna started preparing her equipment for the additional workload.
"Hey, I'll try not to be too much of a problem for you," Dusk said as she nudged her friend on her shoulder.
Luna broke from her thoughts and smiled at her friend.
"Thanks," Luna said with a slight chuckle.
Dusk nodded and returned to her drum set.
Rest assured that Dusk would help her out, Luna felt much better about concert. She resumed working on the keyboard but then paused after a few minutes. I still need to tell Thorn Luna remembered.
"Hey Thorn," Luna called out without looking up from the device.
No answer.
"Hey Thorn!" Luna repeated, slightly louder than before.
Still no answer.
Luna looked up from the keyboard and realized that Thorn was nowhere in sight. She glanced around the stage and noticed Thorn's guitar was on a guitar rack.
"Where's Thorn?" Luna asked aloud, her tone becoming annoyed.
"Hmm? She's right he…" Dusk stopped and noticed that the guitarist was gone. "Never mind."
Luna sighed and went back over to Gus and Gloria.
"Where the hell did Thorn go?" Luna stated.
Gus sighed.
"That poor girl took off to the dressing room hardly ten minutes ago with something on her mind," the manager responded.
Luna and Dusk nodded as they ran down the hall to the dressing room.
Thorn sat in one of the spinning chairs in dressing room, her feet kicked up on the counter. She looked over a page from one of her symbology books before glancing up at the inscribed object she had placed on the counter. Thorn frowned, flipped the page and looked back at the book. She sighed and turned the page only to sigh again as she saw the empty back cover.
"Nothing," she muttered to herself as she tossed the useless book onto the counter.
The black-haired girl crossed her arms and glared at the symbols on the object that had eluded her attempts at identification. What the hell do they mean Thorn pondered as she placed her hand on her chin. Her thoughts were broken when she heard the door open.
"Hey Thorn, this place doesn't have a monitor mixer so I have to do it now," Luna hollered.
"Oh, okay," Thorn said without looking away from the object.
Luna and Dusk approached Thorn.
"Can you put that thing away for one night so we can focus on the concert?" Luna said.
Thorn sighed. She took her feet off the counter, swirled the chair so she could face her friends, and then crossed her legs.
"I'm sorry Luna, but I need answers," Thorn replied.
Luna closed her eyes and took deep breath. She then opened her eyes.
"Look, I understand that this means a lot to you, and I really want to help you, but we have a concert to put on," Luna said. "So I need you to put this puzzle on pause and be a rock star."
Thorn bit her lip. She wanted to admit that Luna was right and her friends were depending on her to perform well, but images of the symbols kept flooding her mind and she glanced back at the inscribed object.
"I just can't focus on anything else but this stupid thing!" Thorn shouted and, without watching, swiped her hand over the item in frustration.
Thorn flinched when she heard several makeup containers fall to the ground followed by a loud thud. The startled girl got up from the chair and turned toward the source of the noise and saw the inscribed object, while covered in splotches of assorted makeup, impaled into the wall about fifteen feet from the counter.
"What the hell happened?" Thorn asked as she turned back to her friends.
Luna was wide-eyed and she covered her mouth with her hand while Dusk had a childlike grin on her face.
"You totally just moved that thing with your mind like a Jedi," Dusk said with a smirk.
No Thorn thought shaking her head in attempt to push away those thoughts but her doubt waned as she looked at the object in the wall and then back at her friends; Luna's was just as startled and confused as Thorn was while Dusk was adamant that Thorn somehow made the object impale itself into the wall.
"I…" Thorn began but stopped as she had no idea what say.
The Wiccan glanced around the room looking for a way to escape from the whole confusing situation. She noticed in the back of the room a door labeled 'shower' and grabbed some bathing supplies from one of her bags the venue staff had brought in. After all, she still needed a shower after the previous night.
"I'm going to take that shower now," Thorn stated before hurrying over to the door.
"Don't you wanna see what else you could do?" Dusk asked.
"Nope," Thorn replied without hesitation as she disappeared behind the door.
Dusk walked over to the object and pulled it out of the wall. She briefly looked at the hole left by the object and pushed a clothing rack in front of it.
"We should be gone by the time they find the damage," she commented with a smile.
With the hole dealt with, Dusk returned her attention back to the item. She didn't recognize any of the symbols nor did she have the slightest clue as to what the item was but none of that was important to her. Thorn's a witch the drummer thought with giant grin on her face and that was all that mattered. She had just watched her friend, albeit unintentionally, send an item flying across the room with only a wave of her hand and the blonde wanted to know what else she was capable of. Her imagination ran wild with all the things the band could do with real supernatural magic.
"Luna, you know how much cool shit we could do with magic?" Dusk asked her friend before enthusiastically listing off several ideas. "We could cast spells on people and make them do what we want them to or write magic infused songs or even magically create unlimited amounts of liquor."
That last option made Dusk's eyes light up in excitement.
"Are you serious!?" Luna shouted. "After seeing Thorn distraught from this your first thought is to use her to get drunk!"
Dusk sighed, bit her lip and looked down at the floor. She was so caught up in what she would do with magic that she failed to consider how Thorn was dealing with the whole situation.
Dusk looked back up at Luna and feigned a smile.
"Relax, it was just a really bad joke," Dusk backpedaled. "I wouldn't actually make her do any those things if she didn't want to."
Dusk sat down in the chair as Luna glared at her. Still holding the object, Dusk swirled the chair around so she didn't have to see Luna. She sighed and looked at her reflection in the mirror. Ugh, you messed up that one. She needed a distraction. She glanced back down at the object and placed balanced it on its side. With a flick of her wrist, Dusk rolled the object across the counter and it left a streak of makeup in its wake before it hit the wall and fell down. As she went to pick the item up, Dusk's attention was brought to the streak. She leaned closer and her eyes widened when she saw a single letter: ē.
"Whoa, there's something written on the edge of this thing," Dusk stated.
"What do you mean?" Luna asked as her frustration with Dusk was replaced with genuine curiosity.
The redhead walked over to Dusk and looked down at the makeup streak.
"I don't see it," Luna said.
"What are you blind?" Dusk teased. "The letter 'e' is clearly there."
Luna leaned closer to the streak. After a few moments she grabbed the object and rolled the item's edge in some more makeup. She then rolled the item across the counter.
"Ha, I was right," Dusk exclaimed as she leaned back into the chair.
Luna said nothing as she finished with the item. Dusk glanced back at the streak and noticed a string of small letters in the makeup that repeated a single word: revēlō.
"Re-vel-o," Dusk read. "What's that like Spanish or something?"
Luna shrugged, pulled out her phone and looked up the word.
"Latin actually," Luna corrected. "It means 'I reveal or show.'"
"Soooo… is it supposed to show us something now?" Dusk asked as she picked up the object.
Luna shrugged and raised her hands. With her friend unable to figure it out, Dusk looked back at the object. After a few moments, Dusk grinned.
"What if it's like a spell?" Dusk reasoned.
Luna raised an eyebrow. "That's sounds pretty cliché," she responded.
Dusk admitted that it was a cliché idea; say a Latin word or phrase and then some magic happened. But after the past twenty-four hours, Dusk was willing to try anything.
"Hey, I don't see you coming up with any better ideas," Dusk defended.
"Okay then, recite the spell," Luna dared.
"Pfft, fine," Dusk said.
She placed the object on the counter and took a moment to center it. She stretched her arms, briefly turned to Luna and nodded before looking back at the object.
"Revēlō," Dusk said.
Nothing happened.
"Revēlō!" Dusk said much louder than before.
Still nothing. The drummer repeated the word several more times and even waved her hand over the object like Matella and Thorn had done the previous night. Yet nothing happened. Dusk looked back at Luna only to see her chuckling and the blonde grimaced in response. Dusk grunted as this all but confirmed that she didn't have any magical abilities. She glanced over to the showers as she acknowledged that Thorn was the only one who could get the object to reveal its secrets.