"Heard you guys were having a party," Rio says to the group of women she assumed summoned her.
"How did you?" Agatha says in shock as she approaches the green witch.
"I was in the neighborhood." Rio responded back in a sarcastic tone. "Surprise, my lady." Rio continued as she produced a flower from her hand to give to Agatha.
Just as Agatha was about to storm off, another sound could be heard from the hole Rio just crawled out of, and it called all the women to guard.
"Any guess on who this is?" Rio said, laughing.
Just then, something starts crawling from the hole, similar to how Rio had done. The coven can see the shape of a female forming, and then she snaps her head up, causing the coven-less witches to jump.
"You have got to be kidding me," the young woman says dryly. "Who asked for the Advil?"
"Me," Alice said questioningly.
"Heads up," the woman said as she tossed a small white bottle to Alice.
The woman looked over the top of her glasses. Her eyes focused on Agatha.
"Welcome to the Witches Road," Teen said, trying to welcome the newcomer.
"Yeah, more like a nightmare." She said, turned her head, and started to walk down the road.
"This should be fun," Rio whispers in Agatha's ear.
Agatha stops and turns to face Rio, who is walking past her down the road.
"So," Teen said as she ran to catch up with the newest member of the coven-less.
The girl looked back at him with an irritated look on her face.
"Do you have a name?"
"Yes, do you?"
"Yes..." The boy is talking, but nothing can be heard but muffling.
"A sigil, unoriginal but effective," she said as she looked at Teen.
"Your turn," he said, persisting.
The girl stops and looks at Teen. "Bella." As she says her name, she sees a house in the distance, then turns to look at Teen.
"Here we go again," the teen replies as the rest of the group catches up to them.
"Pass," Alice says as she turns around to walk back the way they just came.
"A mutiny already?" Rio gasped as she winked at Bella, who rolled her eyes, clearly unamused.
"Alice," Agatha says as she bumps into Bella, who is going after Alice. "What's the plan, Alice?"
"Go back. Go around. Go anywhere but inside that house." Alice said.
"Yeah, so it doesn't work that way. You see 'The Road,' Bella air-quotes, 'it's more of a have-to. Once you start, you have to follow through.' Bella stops and leans up against a tree. 'It's like that song, Hotel California. You can check out anytime you want, but you can never leave.' Bella continues dryly."
"Dramatic much?" Agatha says back.
Just then, the group stops. "I agree, but The Road clearly does not. So I guess we go." Agatha continues, and the house that was once behind them is now in front of them.
"Waxing moon," Agatha states as they approach the door of the house.
"The fire phase," Teen adds.
The group turns to look at Alice, who lets out a heavy sigh as Agatha pushes open the door.
"Don't drink anything. Don't eat anything. Don't touch anything." Alice says to the group that has just entered the house.
"Feels like there's a story there," Rio says with intense eyes.
"Oh, check me out," Agatha says as she looks in the mirror.
"Seriously, we are an album cover waiting to happen," the teen interjects.
"The road changes for the coven," Lilia continues.
"The road is subtle," Alice finishes.
"So what happens next?" Rio said with enthusiasm.
"A test," Lilia says plainly, looking at Rio.
"There is probably a clue, like there was in the last trial." Teen says, "Maybe we should find it."
As the group starts to thin out to look for the next clue, Bella finds herself standing alone with Rio and Agatha.
"The Witch's Road? Clever, Harkness," Bella says angrily.
"Don't you dare, and when did you start going by Bella?" Agatha replies, moving quickly towards Bella.
"Ladies, shouldn't we save this love fest for after the trial?" Rio says as she jumps between Agatha and Rio.
"If you had Rio, why did you need me?" Bella asked as she looked at Agatha.
"You know magic. It is unpredictable," Agatha says with a shrug.
Bella rolls her eyes and walks off.
Agatha looks at Rio, "Who does she think she is, talking to me like I'm some sort of basic witch?"
"Not everything is easy to forgive, Agatha. I thought you of all people would understand." Rio says with a tone of sadness before walking away.
Agatha finds herself in the control room of a studio when she hears, "Knock, knock," as Rio walks into the room.
"How's the quest for power going?" Rio asks as she walks towards Agatha, swirling a knife in her hand.
"It's going," Agatha answers.
"Who are these people," Rio asked as she looked out the window towards the recording studio.
"Oh, they're my new best friends," Agatha answers Rio sarcastically.
"I'm feeling impatient. I feel like I want to cause some damage." Rio says frustratingly as she pulls her knife up.
"You're too early." Agatha responded.
"Am I? What do you know about it early? You know what happened last time you thought earlier would be better." Rio retorts. "I am here because of magic, as it does take the path of least resistance."
"That doesn't explain her," Agatha says, pointing to Bella.
"She has never truly had a choice, Agatha." Rio turns to look back out the window. "Why did you bring that boy?"
"Oh, many hands," Agatha says, looking up at Rio, who can clearly tell that Agatha is lying.
"Maybe The Road is like Switzerland? Maybe we just call it a truce. You know, just one more big adventure." Agatha says as she stands up to look at Rio directly in the eye.
Rio doesn't say anything as she tries not to fall into Agatha's trap.
"So what happens next?" Agatha asked Rio as she placed her hand on the PA microphone that was sitting on the desk.
"I get to watch what you do best."
"Which is?" Agatha asked.
"Kill all the witches around you one by one," Rio says dryly.
The group of women and teens stop what they are doing when they hear the conversation.
"Something never changes," Bella says from the chair she is sitting in, completely unaffected by the conversation between Rio and Agatha.
"Then you get your power and I get my bodies." Rio continues.
"What does that mean?" Lilia asked as her head shifted around the room to look at the group.
"Agatha kills witches, something you all should know by now...and last time I checked, we are all witches. Except for this one here, but I am growing to enjoy his enthusiasm." Bella replies as she carelessly spins around in the chair, eating a bag of candy.
"Where did you get food?" Jen asked inquisitively.
"Who comes to The Witches Road without food? What some?" Bella asked as she approached the group.
Just then, the group is startled by the loud noise of music.
"What is that?" Jen asked, also covering her ears.
"Sorry, I thought it was a clue?" the teen said as he held up a record cover that read 'play me.'
"It is spinning backwards," Agatha states, pointing to the record player.
"Make it stop." The group yelled in unison.
Agatha quickly picks up the record machine and smashed it to the ground which makes the noise stop.
"We have been cursed." Lilia says.
That thought is suddenly interrupted by the sound of a metronome ticking.
"I think this means the trial has started." Rio says laughingly from the sofa that she is not sitting on with Bella.
"Why are you smiling?" Jen asked.
"She is a tourist." Agatha replied quickly
"She is a psycho." Jen whips back.
Rio looks at the group smiling as Bella shakes her head.
"Maybe this curse isn't so bad." Teen states after a minute.
"I feel lighter." Alice says a second later. "Does anybody else..."
Before Alice can finish her sentence she is interrupted by Lilia who is screaming in pain.
Bella starts to get up but is stopped by Rio. Bella looks over at Rio and nods.
"Can I borrow this?" Alice asked as she takes the knife out of Rio's hand.
Alice draws a circle around Lilia while saying a spell.
Just as Lilia stops screaming the group hears another scream that is now coming from Jen. Alice runs over the Jen drawing another circle while saying the same spell.
"Her shoulders!" Teen points to Jen shoulders that both have burns marks showing.
"Well this should be good," Bella says to Rio as she gets comfy on the couch.
"Do I have one too?" Lilia asked as she pulls the jacket off her shoulder.
"Do you hear that?" Teen says as he looks around the room for the source of the noise.
Out of nowhere wind and screeching can be heard in the room. "What is that?" Jen asked.
"That is the curse." Rio responds looking up from a newspaper.
"Backwards record." Teen finally says.
"What is the song forward?" Lilia asks.
Alice goes over to pick up the pieces of the broken record. As she pieces the record back together she can see the song is 'The Ballad of the Witches' Road' by Lorna Wu.
"It's you isn't it? You brought it in here." Agatha says as she pulls Alice up from the record.
"I..I didn't think that it was real. I thought everything I was doing was my fault." Alice replies in tears as she pulls down her jacket to show a scare that is in the same shapes as the burns on Lilia and Jen's shoulders. "I convinced myself they were birthmarks, even thought she had the same ones."
"What are we talking about..." Jen said before being cut off by Bella.
"A generational curse." Bella said finishing Jen's sentence.
"Oh you poor thing." Lilia says looking at Alice.
"Poor her, poor us. No we have her families old ass generational curse on us." Jen says angrily.
Just then a grunt is heard from Teen and he is pulled back from the group and is thrown through the window of the control room.
The group gasp and run towards the direction of Teen.
"Hey I got attacked by the curse. Does that mean I am part of the coven?" Teen asked as he starts to sit up.
"Is he okay?" Jen asked still standing in the circle.
"So what you live in this circle now?" Agatha asked as she walked out of the control room.
"Maybe." Jen responds.
"What's the plan Agatha." Rio asked
"We have to play Lorna's Ballad." Agatha says as she looks to Alice.
"I am not playing that song." Alice replies back.
"All signs point to a jam session." Agatha says.
"We sang the song and we got to The Road, what good is it to sing now?" Alice continues.
"Expect Lorna's version is different." Teen replied.
"Ahh, yes. What did Lorna want from The Road? What was her intention?" Agatha asked out loud.
"To save her daughter." Bella finally chimes in from the couch.
"You should have burned like a crisp years ago, but here you are. Sullen and aimless, but alive. That is because at any given moment someone, somewhere is playing that song you hate so much. That is because Lorna's version is a protection spell. It protected you." Agatha says to Alice.
"Maybe now it can protect us." Lilia says to the group.
The curse can be heard screeching again. "Alright, everybody pick up an instrument." Agatha says to the group.
(Group plays Lorna's Ballad)
"Did we do it?" Jen asked as ash falls around the room.
"It's gone." Agatha answers.
The piano opens up and reveals to be the exit for this trial. "We did it!." Alice says as she looks into the piano.
The group hears a thud behind them and sees that Teen has collapsed.
"What is wrong with him?" Agatha asked.
"He is bleeding we need to get him out of here." Jen continues.
The group carries Teen through the piano and back to The Road. Agatha is the first to say anything. "What do we do? What do we do?"
"He is young and strong." Lilia replies trying to soothe the situation.
"Don't." Agatha spits back at Lilia in anger. "Don't," she says again this time to Rio in a very gently voice.
"Jen what do you need?" Agatha pleads.
"Can I take care of this one?" Bella asked looking a Rio.
"No." Rio responded sharply.
"Water and moonlight." Jen replies to Agatha.
Alice quickly runs to get the water and hands it to Jen who then moves to the moonlight with the water and starts a spell. Once the spell is over Jen brings the water over to Teen and slowly pours it on his injury.
"It isn't working." Agatha says to Jen.
"Give it time." Bella responds to Agatha.
Agatha and the young woman stare at each other for a short time before they focus is pulled back to the situation at hand.
"It is getting better." Jen says as teen slowly starts to stir.
"Jennifer. Look what you did." Lilia says reassuringly as she looks at Jen.
"She is an idiot. She knows that this boy is not her son, right?" Bella says as she looks over at Rio.
"Don't call her an idiot." Rio responded unamused.
Agatha has sat with Teen ever since Jen healed him hours ago. When he finally started to stir around some of the worried dropped off her face.
"Still alive. Great." Agatha says looking at the boy.
"Agatha did you put the sigil on me?" Teen asked.
"No. Well I don't know. A sigil works both ways, it silences the person who cast it and the person they cast it on. That is why we don't use them a lot they are super irritating." Agatha replies back.
"Can it be lifted?"
"Sigils are destroyed not lifted when they are no longer needed Teen."
Teen looked a little defeated and drops eye contact from Agatha.
"You don't need a name to know who you are." Agatha says trying to comfort Teen.
Teen stays silent for a minute before looking back at Agatha.
"Agatha. What happened to your son?"
Agatha looks a Teen unamused and she stand up not wanting to talk about this subject. "Heal fast. We aren't going to stay here for long."
Agatha walks back to the group of women who are all around a fire.
"How is he?" Alice asked Agatha as she approached the fire.
"Mouthy," and irritated Agatha replies as she takes a seat next to Rio.
"Agatha, why don't you show us your battle scares?" Jen says.
Agatha rolls up a sleeve revealing a scar. "Knitting needle to the elbow. Ever heard of the Daughters of Liberty?"
The group shakes their heads in a collective no.
"Exactly."
The group laughs before Jen looks over at Bella. "What about you?"
"Me?" Bella asked.
"Yeah, any battle scares." Jen says.
"The scars I wear cannot be seen." Bella replies and she looks at the ground.
The group doesn't say anything and is Rio steps in to break up the awkward silence.
"I have a scar." She says quickly.
"No, you don't." Agatha snaps back.
"Yes, I do. A long time ago, I loved someone and I had to do something that I did not want to do even though it was my job and it hurt them. She is my scar." Rio blurted.
Nobody in the groups says anything until Agatha gets up. "I have to go stretch my legs." The group watches as Agatha walks away and Rio gets up to follow her.
Rio approaches Agatha softly and gently places a hand on her back. Agatha turns around and pulls Rio into a hug. "Agatha. You know that boy isn't yours."
Agatha pulls back and walks away from Rio.
As Agatha walks back she stops to watch as Bella is checking up on Teen. Agatha watched the young woman as she laughed and joked around with the younger boy.
"It was never her choice." Rio said as she walked up to Agatha.
"There is always a choice." Agatha said bluntly to Rio who continued to walk past her back to the fire.
