Katherine

The roar of the crowd was growing louder. I fiddled with the edge of my dark blue dress as I stared into the mirror, mentally preparing myself. I took a deep breath and watched my reflection as my expression of sadness turned into a wicked look. Show time. I thought and pushed myself from my chair backstage and went to join the crowd.

All these people, I thought, here to see my father. My father and I were a team; a package deal. He stands onstage, and with his charming abilities, he wins the crowd over fast. He performs magic tricks for a living. He doesn't posses the power of real magic, but his dumb stunts are enough to fool each village we travel to. His shows bring in quite a chunk of money, but I am the real gold digger. I am merely just the pretty face to our operation. While the people are hypnotized by my fathers powers, I slip anything of value from their pockets. I am only caught a few times, but no one could ever stay mad at the cute sixteen year old. All I had to do was look at them with my bright blue, scared eyes and they let me go without a word.

Today, however, I wasn't sent out to pickpocket just anyone. I was hunting for Sebastian Beaudet. Sebastian Beaudet had to be the most disgusting man alive, but he was filthy rich. He wasn't hard to find in the crowd of poor villagers. He dressed in a grey suit and I noticed him put his gold pocket watch into his front jacket pocket. His greasy white hair was slicked back and he had stubble along his chin. The wrinkles on his face from old age made him look permanently angry. When he smiled his teeth were a sickening shade of yellow and his laugh caused his belly to shake. When he laughed it was harsh and made me want to cringe away. But I didn't, I had a job to do.

The show was starting and my father stepped onstage. He was a kind looking man. His face and high spirits led everyone to trust him. When he smiled it seemed as if his entire face shifted and lit up with joy. His hair was once black as night, like my own, but the curly mop now had highlights of grey in it from his aging.

"Ladies and gentlemen," his voice was loud and demanded attention, "I am Richard Smith, The Magician." Several people in the crowd began whistling and clapping. "I have a special trick in store for you today." His bright smile sparkled and everyone leaned forward in anticipation. "First, I will need a volunteer!" Almost everyone's hands shot up, all eager to be a part of the show. He took a few seconds to scan the crowd, then, of course, he picked out the prettiest girl he could find. His volunteer stepped onstage in a skimpy black dress, her fiery read hair tumbling behind her. "What's your name, darling."

She gave him a flirtatious smile, "Annabelle."

He took her small, delicate hand in his own strong one. "Well, Annabelle, want to see some magic?" His eyes twinkled when she nodded eagerly and he led her to a table center stage. She lay on the table and he covered her with a blanket. "Today," he said, addressing the crowd, "Annabelle will fly." The audience began murmuring and he started speaking gibberish. Annabelle then started to lift from the table as he moved his hand in an upward motion. The crowd shouted and whooped in amazement as Annabelle "flew".

I tried not to roll my eyes in disgust as the gullible people gave into our trap. This is my chance. I started weaving through the crowd once more and walked up behind Sebastian. I placed my hand on his shoulder and leaned in behind him, close to his ear. "Strange trick isn't it."He turned around slowly and I saw by the look on his face that when he took one look at me, he had fallen into my trap. "I know you can see how it's done, you're smart. You're Sebastian, right? I wonder why they are stupid enough to fall for it, but not you."

He looked me up and down several times making me want to run away and hide, "Who are you?"

I smiled and stepped closer to him, his foul breath making my want to vomit. "Did I forget to introduce myself? I'm Katherine...," I smiled a little, "Katherine Smith."

Hello everyone and welcome to my story! So, this chapter is EXTREMELY short and I swear future chapters will be much longer, but I just wanted to introduce the story with this chapter and that's why it's a bit short. It shouldn't be that big of a deal because I plan on adding new chapters weekly. Please read it and it will get better as the story progresses so leave me some feed back on what you think so far. PLEASE criticize my work because I am new to this and would like some tips and things like that.

Thanks again for reading! xoxo