He shifted slightly and a small black case came into sight. He moved from the table and moved into one knee. Whether he was looking at me I couldn't tell. The man in front of me had everything a man should. But he was missing a face. He asked me something that only used four words "Will you marry me?"

But I didn't get a chance to answer. Everything slowly began to fade into a white light. It didn't take long before the dream crumbled away. As I opened my eyes I took in my surroundings. I was still in my hotel room, still in bed. I stood up and exited the room. I walked in to find a young woman with long dark hair sat in front of the television. When I walked in her big brown eyes landed on me. She smiled "Look who's finally escaped from the sandman's clutches."

"Good morning to you too, Curly Q." I said to my childhood friend Cindi, who had acquired the name Curly Q because of the long dark curls that hung around her face.

"More like evening." She announced "It's already 6:30, you slept for a good few hours. Now get dressed. The clubs won't wait while you laze around."

"You're calling me lazy?" I asked as I moved into my bedroom to grab some clothes "I have to use the Jaws of Life to get you out of bed before noon. So the only lazy one in this room is you."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now if you're done with the whole blame game, we have somewhere to be." But when she saw the dazed look on my face, she started to ask questions "Is everything, okay?"

I looked up to meet her gaze "I had that dream again. The third time this week."

"Are you sure it's a dream?"

"It has to be. It can't be a vision; I don't see things in my sleep. But it's a possibility."

"Well if it is a vision and it does happen later on. I have to be the maid of honor in your wedding. And if I'm not, then I will sabotage your entire day."

"We're getting a bit ahead of ourselves aren't we? I mean marriage? Cindi, I'm only twenty. And I am in no way ready for that."

"Honey, you're the psychic, not me."

"I know and it can be a pain at times." I pulled on my black boots "Sometimes I wish that I never had this gift."

Cindi made her way over to me and gave me a hug "Aw, poor baby…you ready to go now?"

"Curly Q!"

"What? The hottest club in Vegas, single men, dancing and who knows after a few drinks your problems could disappear."

"Drinks? Curly Q I can't even get something that doesn't have the word 'virgin' in front of it and you expect me to get drunk?"

"One, you're 20 it's only a year." She was counting on her fingers "Two, like anyone will even bother to check your I.D. Then there is the famous number three, that's never stopped you before!"

"I know, but this is Las Vegas. I have a feeling that something big is going to happen. Whether it's bad or good I don't know. So we have to be careful."

She smiled at me and then placed both of her hands on my shoulders. She shook me hard "In order for anything big to actually happen we have to get outside this hotel room!"

"Okay, okay. I've been ready to go forever, now. You're the one who kept your ass on that couch." I said as Cindi pushed me out the door.

(((O)))

The streets were crowded –Cindi and I found out as we walked down them – and we had to push our way through. As we continued to walk, I couldn't help but notice the many bright lights. Every sign that I passed flashed different colors, every second. My eyes lit up and I smiled as I realized that there were a lot of choices, when it came to carefree fun. But that smile was wiped off my face when I looked around.

I had lost Cindi. My first thought was to call her on her cell and I began to dial her number. It wasn't until my phone died that I started to panic. Usually this situation wouldn't have bothered me to this degree. But I was standing alone, in a busy city –not only a city but, Vegas- with a dead cell phone. The only thing that I could do was walk around and hope that I would somehow find my curly headed friend. But I only found myself even more lost and constantly shoved. I finally came to a break in the crowd and let out a loud sigh.

As I pulled myself together, I noticed something strange. An overwhelming feeling came over me. My eyes scanned the crowd and the first thing that I discovered was a group of people cast away from all of the chaos. And out of curiosity, I made my way over to it. I pushed my way to the front to see what had gotten everyone's attention. That's when I saw him, a man stood in the middle of the crowd. He was tall; his long dark hair had red streaks in it. But it was his eyes that I found mesmerizing. I needed to find out who he was.

"I can't believe that we're going to see Criss Angel perform! The Criss Angel, Mr. Illusion himself!" One of the girls beside me shrieked quietly. She was pretty, only a foot shorter than I with red hair. Now if only she'd wipe all of that tacky junk off her face, she'd be stunning. I looked back to the man who held the audience's attention; I had an answer to my question. His name was Criss Angel, an illusionist.

"May I have a volunteer from the audience?" He said and many people started to go wild. I hadn't been paying close attention, but enough to know that he was going to levitate someone. If anyone, I thought that he would've picked the girl beside me, she was beautiful and a huge fan. I looked away from the girl as he made his way around the circle, his eyes scanning the crowd. And then they landed on me and he stood still.

His eyes held mine and I just stared into them. We remained that way for a moment, before he took a step forward. It wasn't until the crowd began parting –creating a path for him- that I realized he was walking towards me. I wanted to turn away as I grew nervous. He held out a hand to me when he was standing directly in front of me. I looked at his hand before looking into his eyes, a small smile settle on his lips. I hesitated, but placed me hand in his, never looking away. Silently he pulled me to the middle of the circle.

I didn't hear a word he said as he turned his attention back to the crowd. He finally turned back to me and said "Relax."

I just stared as he spoke a bit more, but I was slowly falling away from everything. My eyes began to flutter shut and I felt as if I was in a drunken state. I finally closed my eyes hearing one more 'relax' before everything fell away. I could no longer hear the sound of cars that had been passing by before. Or the murmur of the crowd as everyone walked among the streets. Everything was black. Meanwhile, I had no idea that I was floating in mid-air.

Soon everything started to disappear into a blinding white light. Before I knew it, things began to materialize in front of me. My eyes were slowly beginning to open and I heard the sound of applause. I looked up to see Criss's face above me, I was in his arms. He smiled at me before standing me up, but hanging on to my waist as I found my balance. The crowd began to shrink as people started to leave.

"So what did you think?" He asked me.

"…It felt unreal, but amazingly freeing." I said quietly. He stared at me for quite some time. But he shook his head a bit before introducing himself "I'm Criss Angel."

"Ph-." I started to say but then I heard my name. It was faint but I knew it was Cindi who was calling me. I turned to leave, but Criss pulled on my arm.

"Where are you going?" He asked.

"My friend…she's looking for me." I made another attempt to follow Cindi's voice, but his grip on my arm was tight.

"Not until you tell me your name."

"Phoenix." I said, expecting a puzzled expression, but instead I received a small laugh.

"Phoenox, why is that?"

I smiled at his reaction and explained simply "My eyes have a red tint to them."

He stared at me, but not because of my unique name. His face held a look of interest. Our connected gaze was broken when his name was called. He looked away and turned. I took this chance to find Cindi and when Criss turned back to me, he was disappointed when he noticed I was gone. I looked back once more at him, but he was gone also.

"Phoenix!" I turned, to find Cindi rushing towards me "Where were you? Are you okay? Did anything happen to you? Speak to me!"

"Chill, Curly Q. I'm fine. Nothing happened to me, I just got…distracted." I said thinking about my encounter with Criss Angel.

"Well, I'm still keeping you in close sight." She smiled "Now come on. I found this awesome club and the best part is many, many cute guys."

"Okay." I said laughing. But after meeting the illusionist, I felt as if no other man would catch my attention other than him.