It has been about two months since she was living in Melicona. Signs of spring were coming out with flowers from the garden at the hideout. Still, Leticia was a bit relieved about the mayors of Melicona and City Square’s decision on letting Darren, Chantel, and Leticia stay; it was the best news that she heard today from Mara. She can breathe a sigh of relief that she had one less thing to worry about. Today, Leticia had a chat with her boyfriend, Trenton, and her cousin, Dana, using the mirror interface in Mara’s office. Amelia was on the side of her, but not playing on her phone not listening to their conversation.

Dana was someone she has not heard from for a while. Based on what she learned from previous meetings, all of her family, except her father, left Clare Point View. Luckily, Trenton informed her that Dana and her aunt, Emma, living in another town in secret, not too far where he was now living with his parents. While she was glad that her boyfriend and cousin were safe, there was a cold tension between Dana and her. Leticia continued to chat with the two of them, and she asked more questions about updates.

“Trenton, how is my dad?” The former guitarist asked.

Trenton rubbed his head, giving a glance at Dana, who shrugged his shoulders, “The last time I visited Clare Point View, your old man looked depressed. He just seemed so dazed and heartbroken since your mom and little brother left Leticia. I know the authorities have been keeping him under surveillance 24/7, and he is constantly on edge. It's just madness right now. I’m doing my best to help him, but… I’m worried that he might just lose it.”

Leticia rubbed her temples in stress, hearing that these people were harassing her father. He had nothing to do with all of this! What was his crime?! Marrying a Supernatural and starting a family with her?! People should just leave him alone! It was one thing to treat her like a criminal, but her entire family?! In her mind, people should just screw off.

“Wow, you ask about your father? But do you even give a damn about your mother and your little brother, Miguel right now?” Dana said coldly and sternly to the former guitarist.

Leticia cleared her throat and replied, “I was gonna ask about them, Dana, since you claimed you saw them just recently. How are my little bro and mom?”

“A fucking mess. Your mother is still playing the whole denial game with Miguel and my mom told her off on that, so now your mom can’t keep doing this shit anymore. Meanwhile, Miguel isn’t adjusting to his new town well. His powers are revealing itself as well. The kid has no clue what to do, so I’m coming down there more often to help him with that! He is mad at you and Raphael right now and I don’t blame him because what you two did was stupid as hell,” Dana ranted at Leticia, which made her sit back in her chair.

Feeling immense guilt, she heard Trenton defended her, “Look, Dana, all of this wasn’t all Raphael and Leticia’s fault.”

“Did I say it was both their fault? I said that those two were stupid, and I completely warned Leticia and she didn’t listen. Stop hiding the fact that you aren’t pissed at your girlfriend for lying to you earlier. If she just left the damn cult alone, we wouldn’t be in all this! Both of your bands would’ve not disbanded and Linda--” Dana stopped when he said his girlfriend's name out loud.

Not surprising to Leticia, her cousin felt upset about Linda being gone and suddenly breaking up with him. The conversation then shifted to Darren and Chantel's investigation about the former Midnight Force member, Marco. Revealing this information, she saw the look of determination on Dana's face, signaling his motivation to get involved. Sitting still in her chair, Leticia waited for her cousin to yell at her some more, but the man just stormed out of the mirror view instead, leaving Trenton by himself. She slid down in her chair some more, watching her cousin leave, and looked at her boyfriend.

Dana was right: Maybe Leticia should have listened to her mother and left everything alone, but, then again, if she did, would both of the bands have kept a blind eye to their label’s borderline illegal activities? The former guitarist shook her head, feeling stressed out on what she has to do next. Darren and Chantel already made progress in improving their powers, but she has yet to show some improvement with hers! Leticia jolted her head up when Trenton was waving at her for her attention. Her eyes focused back on him and wished so hard that her boyfriend was here to hold her tight right now.

“I need your permission for something, Le.” Her boyfriend blurted out with his eyes darting around away from her.

“What is it?” She asked.

“I need to pretend to date your bandmate, Cho, for a bit,” 

The former guitarist choked, then gasped, “What?!”

“It’s only until the authorities get off my back, babe. They have been asking me questions about your whereabouts, and literally, everyone knows we are dating. I could’ve asked Dakota to do this, but I didn’t because I ain’t going to mess up your friendship and she seems too stressed out these days. So, I asked Cho this, and she was okay with it,” Trenton explained.

Leticia just stared at him blankly when he told her all this. These authorities were literally probing into every part of her life, to the point of being disturbing! Even though she knew Trenton was still willing to protect her, this was even too much for him. Her mind drifted off into space, thinking of a hundred ways to deal with this before her boyfriend snapped her back to reality.

“Leticia?” Trenton asked tentatively.

“Whatever, Trent. I don’t care at this point. Whatever you need to do, do it. If it means we can’t be together anymore, so be it,” she blurted out, without thinking a single thought.

“Leticia, this is not even a breakup for real. Listen, we can get through this together,” Her boyfriend leans very close to the mirror, then puts his hand on it with a worried face in concern for her.

“It doesn’t matter if it is or not; it feels real to me.” Leticia turned her head, waving for Amelia’s attention. “Amelia, hang this call up, please.”

“Babe, wa-” Her boyfriend was about to say, until the music magic mage turned off the transmission.

The former guitarist sits in her chair, numb, then puts her face in her hands, crying when the transmission turns off. While she was sulking in her pity, Leticia felt a hand rubbing her back. She stopped crying and lifted her head to see Amelia was the one rubbing her back to calm her down. Watching the music magic mage move in front of Leticia, kneeling down to her lap with a small, bright smile on the music magic mage’s face. Amelia’s face soon brightened up some more, then shouted, “Hey, let’s go shopping!”

Bewildered by the mage’s excitement, Leticia replied, “Amelia, I’m really not in a mood for…”

“Nonsense! Let’s turn that frown into a smile!” The music magic mage piped up and took the girl’s hands, pulling her out of her seat.

As the music magic mage dragged her out of the room, ignoring the former guitarist’s protests. Leticia had to accept her fate: she needed shopping therapy.

--------

Spending the afternoon shopping with Amelia made Leticia feel better a bit. After the event, the two of them arrived back at the Alecsandri manor with a bag of clothes and accessories in their arms. They dropped on the couch in exhaustion from their shopping adventures. The former guitarist could not remember how much fun she had shopping with someone for once. Most of the time, people would usually not be interested in shopping with her.

Sometimes her best friend, Dakota or her boyfriend would go with her, but even those occasions were rare. Amelia was the closest person she ever met that loved the shopping experience and actually took her personal fashion advice. Something that most people would scoff at her whenever she suggested them. Taking off one of her boots, Leticia pulled out a gold and leather high-boot out of the box to put them on. She slipped on the boot while Amelia was busy trying on the hats she brought.

“Do you miss it?” Leticia heard the music mage’s voice.

Moving to take out another boot, the former guitarist replied, “Miss what?”

“The grind? Touring? You know, your band? I’m just asking.” Amelia questioned.

Her band? Of course she did! When she finished putting on her new boots, Leticia stood up then walked up to the big window. Watching the raindrops fall, she saw people running to get a place dry, recalling back the memories she had with her band..

She remembered one gig that her band had to do in the rain. The former guitarist sat down and told the music mage about what happened on that day.

"Well, I can't forget this one special day...." Leticia started her story.

She told Amelia about how chilly the weather was and how they forgot the check the weather forecast. The former guitarist moved on to talk about the crappy situation that her band was in.

"It became a shit show pretty quick when some of the water spilled on the stage. We had to run to the mall get rain coats. Man, I remember when Dakota fussing about her hair getting wet and Raleigh getitng worried about her hearing batteries going low,"

That gig was an unforgettable moment of their lives, since it was the hardest they rocked the audience. It was their first big time gig. She would give anything to go back to those days when she was ignorant about her powers. Briefly, Leticia wondered where Marieum took shelter when it rained. The vampire had told them the kingdom she had belonged to no longer existed and the rain could easily burn her. However, Leticia remembered Marieum talking many times about taking care of yourself when you're on your own. The former guitarist stopped then, turned to face Amelia, who waited for her response.

Leticia told her, “Yeah, I miss them. After our gigs, we would go shopping. As much as some of them hated it, it was a kind of the way we bonded together since that rainy day gig. Sometimes I wished that I never had these stupid powers or wished I dealt with this whole thing differently.”

“Oh, I’m… so sorry you are feeling this way,” the music magic mage added.

" I don't blame any of them if they hated me right now for putting them in this situation, even Katerina. I failed them as a leader," Leticia finished her story.

After a while, the two women talked more about their lives. The former guitarist felt better the more she talked to Amelia. However, there was a wave of worry that went through her mind about what was going on back home. Leticia and Amelia chatted until the mage brought up something serious in the conversation.

“You heard about the massacre of 1985 Clare Point View Music Festival?” Amelia questioned.

Putting one of her new, red, short skirt dresses down, Leticia tilted her head curiously, “How do you know about that?”

The music magic mage shrugged and said, “I’m just wondering if you know. I know most of the music community here talks about the event. Don’t you have memorials about the event back in Clare Point View?”

“Memorials?”

Leticia was trying to think back to when she was back in the Clare Point View music scene. Thinking about that event, people have talked about the 1985 Clare Point View musical festival massacre. However, it was told that the event happened when a fire started and a mysterious group murdered people before the blaze burn down the area.

Biting her lip, Leticia answered Amelia’s question, “Yeah. At Crystal Park, there was a small memorial for victims. Nothing too fancy other than the town barely wants to talk about it. Just like BayState…”

A thought came to her head. Just like Baystate… Could it be another event that the Rise of Light had a connection to? Leticia got up and glanced at Amelia, who had a confused look on her face.

“Amelia, can I use your mother's mirror interface again? I need to talk to Gloria,” Leticia asked.

The former guitarist needs answers. If she need to look for them, it was time to talk to her estranged aunt.