Going up to Witching Mill Village was an unfamiliar experience for Leticia. After watching that horrible talk show segment the other day, all the former guitarist could feel frustrated and helpless, watching her former band mate fighting the mind control. The only thing that Leticia could do was give the message to Cho and allow her to translate Raleigh’s message. The former guitarist had to put on her ugly, flat shoes for this walk. Hiking was never her strong point, even during the days when Leticia went to summer camp as a child. 

The weather has been getting warmer lately with signs of spring flowers popping and forest animals hopping all around the area. This time, Amelia was taking Darren and Leticia up to the village instead of her serious and cold brother, Toby. After a long walk to the village, Leticia rested on a rock nearby, looking over to where Darren was leaning on a tree behind her. The two of them huffed in exhaustion, trying to catch their breath. Amelia still stayed cheery and unfazed that the three of them took a long walk in the forest! So the music magic mage skipped towards to the village's security entrance, making a little dance while she put in the color combination code. Once Amelia opened the entry to the village, their next quick journey was to go to the small cafe cottage.

“We’re here!!” Amelia called to them, opening the cafe door.

“Finally…” Leticia breathed then followed her into the cottage along with Darren.

“Hey, Mellie!! It’s been so long since you've been here!” The cafe worker, Celesta, runs up to hug Amelia tightly.

The former guitarist watched the music magic mage greet the plump woman, returning her hug back. They chit-chatted a bit, before Celesta led the group to a table. As she sat down next to Darren, the former guitarist observed her surroundings to find Rose. Marieum had told them that Rose would be here, since this place was very secluded and it was the only one of the few places that the Rise of Light members would not look for her. Considering that very few people knew about this place, Leticia can see why Rose chose this place to meet Marieum to get her feeding. Seeing Celesta and Amelia talking, Leticia got involved in their conversation along with Darren.

“So, Celesta, how long have you known Amelia and Toby?” The mage asked.

“The two of them go way back with me, since our school days. The Ruxerth Dark House Squad! Brooklyn, our sassy leader. My dearest Tobias, our second-in-command. Our cool, melody sweetheart Amelia, and our helpful necromancy friend, Holden! Oh, and don’t forget, power thunder house: Me!” the cafe worker answered in the brightest tone.

Amelia scratched her head in embarrassment. “We weren’t a squad. We just worked together on a lot of assignments in school! Anyway, it’s just great to see you again, Celesta.”

Celesta crosses her arms, then her eyes dart over to Leticia and Darren. “And what brings you two here? I hope you don’t start trouble here again because I was in deep crap with my boss from the last time you all were here.” The cafe worker frowned in disappointment on her face when she looked at Darren.

“Celesta, I promise nothing will happen this time. No drama, okay?” The music magic mage smiled, winking in reassurement.

“You better be right. I got enough shady people doing their business here. Even Brooklyn came over here to talk with that little pink haired girl…” The cafe worker chatted, until the music magic mage put her hand up for her to stop.

“Woah, wait! Brooklyn is here! They are here?!” Amelia exclaimed.

“Who is Brooklyn?” Leticia asked when she saw the music magic mage’s face immediately turn pinkish-red in shock.

Amelia licked her lips, then opened her mouth. “Brooklyn is my ex. She is studying to be a psychiatric mage healer and I am guessing they have a study assignment here from their college.”

“Brooklyn probably took an assignment in your parents’ psychiatric holistic clinic that deals with supernaturals with unstable powers,” Celesta added. Then, she waved her hand and opened her mouth again, “but enough about Brooklyn, why are you here, Ms. Electra Star?”

“My friends are here to meet someone by the name of, um… Lily,” the music magic mage answered, darting her eyes carefully at Darren and Leticia.

The former guitarist cringed when she heard Rose’s cover name. That very name that she knew Rose for all of her life. This fake person who Leticia thought she was. All those horrid memories of the truth came rushing back to her. The lies that this woman told her band for years. All the stuff that Rose did made Leticia's stomach turn once again, but she had to keep it together.

Playing with her fingers, the former guitarist grew impatient, until she heard the door swing open again, revealing four people entering the room. Immediately she recognized the red-haired woman, Rose accompanying her was another tall, rugged clothed, brunette haired man, her sister, Marieum, and her… mother? How did Rose find her mother? Getting up from her seat, Leticia runs up to her mother, stopping the four of them chatting with each other. Noticing the lowered eyebrows on the four people’s faces, it looked like there was a tense argument that had happened. However, Leticia focused more on her mother than any of them.

Her mother changed her appearance a little by cutting her long, bushy hair and turning her eye color into a more hazel color.

“Mom?” Leticia said in a loud voice.

Her mother turned to see her with a shocked look on face. Everything went silent among the group as her mother walked up to Leticia. The older woman pulled her into a bear hug, hearing the sounds of sobs into her ear. The former guitarist almost choked herself in tears, allowing her mother to hold her tight. For once, this time, her mother and her did not argue. After an emotional reunion between them, the former guitarist focused on Rose, who was standing and watching them on the side.

Releasing herself from her mother’s grasp, she went up to Rose to confront her. Wiping her tears away, her anger was about to rise again at this woman, who was partly responsible for ruining her reputation.

Rose quivered her lips when she said, “Leticia, it has been…”

“Save it,” Leticia spat, waving her hand, not even bothering to allow Rose to finish her sentence.

“Rose told me what happened and I’m very annoyed that she did that to you,” her mother said, crossing her

“Esmeralda, I told you earlier that everything that I do is for a good reason!” Rose explained.

“And what good reason would you run around pretending to be my daughter and her bandmates?! It’s bad enough that you turned Harvey into a cat, haunted my family, and went undercover as a teacher… What good reason do you have doing any of those things!?” Her mother, Esmeralda yelled.

“Wait, haunted? I’m clearly confused…” Leticia’s brows furrowed while watching the two of them were about to go at it with each other.

“Oh, for the love of all that is dark and evil, sit the hell down! All of you brash humans, allow my idiotic sister to explain her side of the story!” Mariuem shouted.

Everyone, except Rose, flinched when the vampire got annoyed with all the arguments. Leticia did not blame Marieum for doing so. Celesta, not wanting her patrons to get more upset, led the group to a more private area of the cottage cafe. There were so many questions that the former guitarist wanted to ask Rose, especially who was the poorly dressed man who was with her. That man also looked familiar, as if she had seen him from somewhere before…

“Wait, you’re that man in the picture with mom, Auntie Emma, and Rose!” Leticia pointed at the man, who was wearing a long, beige trench coat.

“Hm… I think Robert had a picture of this same man in the storage closet where I worked at his shop,” Darren added to Leticia’s comment about the mystery man.

The man pulls a cigarette box out of one of his pockets. The former guitarist felt her blood rage over his ragged appearance. He looked so awful, with stains on his trench coat and holes in his leather boots. Leticia wanted nothing more than to give the man a serious makeover, but she will have to hold back on criticizing the man. She could not help to hear Rose huffing in disgust when the man took a puff of his cigarette. It reminded Leticia of all the times that she could not stand Dakota smoking close to her. At least her best friend was more considerate when smoking in different areas, avoiding where people gathered.

“Ah, yes. This man… well… remember I talked a bit about Sapphire Black to you two in the past? Well, I didn’t get into the details about how the band disbanded, which both your mother and I will tell you.” Rose directed her eyes to the man, then continued. “This was our manager, Harvey Roade. Leticia, you may have also known him as Stormy, who was Raleigh’s cat.”
   
“Wait, what?” Leticia tilted her head, staring at Harvey, who took a puff from his cigarette, blowing a smoke circle.

“Um… sir, Celetie doesn't like people who smoke here,” Amelia pointed at his cigarette, making a sour face at the man.

“Harvey, put it out!” Esmeralda ordered the man.

Harvey puts out his cigarette, then leans forward at the table. Leticia felt a cold vibe around him as the man stared hard at everyone around the table. The former guitarist noticed Rose was biting her lip when Harvey glared the most at her. Leticia thought something very serious must have happened between the two of them. Soon, Rose opened her mouth to confess everything at once to the group.

Leticia listened to her former manager closely, talking about the violent rally that happened at the 1985 Clare Point View music festival. Each part of the story Rose had told the group was chilling at the fact the Rise of Light staged a violent rally at the music festival. Her mother also added in some details that Rose missed in the story. Watching her mother brush her hair up nervously, this was the first time Leticia ever looked at her mother in a vulnerable manner.

“Mas… I mean, Farris had planned for a rally at the music festival that day. Our band was the last to play because we were headlining and he wanted us to make a statement at the end…” Her mother told the group.

Rose struggled to explain the events. “As soon as we were to finish our last number, we were to announce ourselves as loyalists to the Rise of Light, then attack any Outsider around us to show the Outsiders government we meant business. But Master Farris said we weren’t supposed to kill people there!”

“Are you clueless, Rose?! You, Emma, and I knew Farris meant to kill people! Why did you think I dropped our band out at the last minute?!” Esmeralda scolded the red-haired woman.

“Wait, Farris used a music festival to send a message?” Leticia heard Darren speaking out of turn, interrupting the argument.

“Obviously! Get a bunch of people together and, of course, the undead bastard…” Mariuem talked, until the former guitarist had to sidetrack the conversation.

“Hold up, why are you calling him undead, Mariuem?” Leticia asked, not sure she was going to like the answer.

The vampire crossed her arms and casually remarked, “He’s an immortal, who should’ve been dead a long time ago.”

“That is not true, Mariuem!” Rose retorted at her vampire sister’s accusation.

“Can you ladies forget about how the man is immortal at the moment? We need to figure out how to save Robert and my master!” Harvey shouted at two.

When Leticia heard Raleigh’s name in the same breath, her suspicion towards the man grew. The former guitarist's brows raised and questioned, “You ditched Raleigh when she was trying to find you long ago. Why would you suddenly care about her now?”

There was a moment of silence in the room among all of them. Harvey stared down at the table, then fiddled with his hands nervously. Leticia hears the poorly dressed man mumbling to himself, then turns his attention to her again.The former guitarist leaned over to the man, wanting to learn more about him. “Raleigh was very sad when her cat went missing. She assumed you were dead. If you cared about Raleigh so much and hated Rose, why didn’t you come back now?” She questioned the man.

Harvey’s eyes diverted away from her and answered, “It’s complicated. It was one weird night.. A burst of light hit me, then, suddenly, I woke up as a man again. Not knowing what to do and not wanting to scare the girl, I just left. I would’ve loved to sit in and explain to Raleigh, but… I just wasn’t thinking. So, instead, I just stayed in hiding, since the light didn’t completely cure me. I kept on changing back and forth from cat to human and I needed to get that managed.” He took a potion bottle out of his coat pocket and continued, “Unfortunately, I still haven’t completely solved the issue. At least this potion helps me a bit in controlling my transformation at will… I didn’t mean to upset a sweet girl like Raleigh. I left for her safety, but now I know…” The man glared at Rose with intense eyes. “I should’ve never left my owner alone with this woman…”

“Harvey, it wasn’t…” Leticia overheard Rose say something until Harvey stood up from his seat.

He interrupted, “Stop saying that this isn’t your fault! It was both of your fault. At least Em had the common sense to leave the cult. You haven’t! You put one foot in the cult and another one out of it. Choose a side, witch! You already ruined everything enough. Just look at what you did to Em’s daughter and her friends!”

Overhearing Harvey’s anger brought Leticia’s own anger, and Marieum hissed at Harvey. Rose was the reason everyone was in this mess! However, she noticed the woman's eyes darkened then gets up from the table, not answering to the man. Watching Rose leave quietly, Leticia watched her open the door and left the room. After so much going back and forth, she knew the group screwed up when the woman could not take anymore of this fighting! The former guitarist realized how hard it was for everyone to work together to take this big cult down. She did not completely forgive Rose, but now was not the time to keep on harboring negative feelings. Marieum got up and glared at all of them in annoyance.

“I hate to admit this but, whether you hate it, my sister is the key to solving all of this. I suggest you humans get yourselves together and make a plan. Farris is already on the move and if you don’t get over yourselves, there will be more bloodshed,” Mariuem told them with a solemn look, then went out of the room to get her sister.

After learning so much about the past, Leticia knew that the only way to stop all of this is they all had to work together with Rose. As much as she hated the woman, Marieum was right that Rose was the key to take down Farris and Nico at once. Putting their feelings aside for her former band manager would not be easy for Leticia.