Woohoo we've hit the allusive double digited chapters! For once, I'm not going to blame my updating absence on my lack of free time...instead I'm gonna blame my writer's block and the inability of six straight seasons of Glee and continuous reruns of NCIS on Netflix to cure said writer's block. Now, anyone who knows me knows I'm a stickler for following my update schedule, but I'm making an exception this time because...well because I can! I write the story and the schedule, thus I'm fully entitled to change it, too! After all, college can be a drag so I might as well bring a little magic into it *winks playfully*
And now let me thank some people whose displays of appreciation work like magic to bring a smile to my face:
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Disclaimer: I'm twenty (as of January 28th), I'm single, I'm working on a degree in Communication Studies and Theatre, and I'm living in a tiny overpriced dorm paid for by my parents. Do you really think I have enough juice to own this story?
*Friday, February 28, New Orleans, Louisiana*
"Fifteen minutes to curtain! I repeat, fifteen minutes to curtain!"
Daniel continued pacing casually around the backstage lounge as he thumbed through his deck of cards, seemingly unaffected by the announcement. Merritt and Henley shared a look of confusion and concern.
"Maybe he's gone deaf," Merritt whispered loudly.
"My hearing is just fine," Daniel corrected nonchalantly without even turning to look at Merritt.
Henley placed her little white rabbit on the couch cushion next to her, stood up, peeled off one of her black and red leather gloves, spun Daniel around to face her, and laid her bare hand against his forehead.
"Henley...what are you doing?" Daniel asked, his voice tightening from the unexpected contact from his ex.
"Checking for a fever," the redhead replied as she continued to feel Daniel's forehead and cheeks. "It's the only explanation for you being so uncharacteristically calm right now." Daniel gave Henley a dirty look as he swatted away her hands and took a seat in one of the brown leather chairs. "You're not blind, so obviously you can see that Jack and Ember aren't here yet. You're not deaf, so you heard that we're supposed to be on stage in less than fifteen minutes. How are you not panicking?!"
"Even my head's starting to hurt from trying to read into your state of delusion," Merritt chirped.
Daniel chuckled in twisted amusement. "Why would I panic? I have faith in those kids."
"You do?!" Merritt and Henley exclaimed simultaneously.
"Well...I have faith in the bugs I left in their costumes," Daniel corrected with a smirk as he held up his tracking device.
"You didn't," Merritt challenged with a mischievous grin.
Daniel shrugged. "Couldn't resist. At least that way I only had to bang on one door to find the two of them earlier."
Merritt's grin grew even wider. "They were together?"
The corner of Daniel's mouth quirked up in confirmation.
"Please tell me you left the audio on!" Merritt begged, earning himself a smack in the arm from Henley.
"Sorry to disappoint, Merritt," Daniel apologized, not sounding sorry at all, "but I only bugged them to keep track of where they are, not what they're doing. In fact, I couldn't care less why they're distracted, just that they are distracted."
"Danny, invading our friends' privacy like that is low, even for you," Henley retorted.
"Maybe," Daniel acknowledged with a shrug as he glanced down at his tracker, "but it won't matter because we're not going to talk about it starting in five seconds."
"Why? What's happening in five sec-" Henley began to inquire.
"Sorry we're late!" Ember exclaimed as she and Jack burst through the doors to the parlor.
"-onds," the redhead finished lamely before returning to her seat on the couch.
"We're so sorry, Danny!" Ember apologized breathily. "I was helping Jack find his, um-"
"Deck of cards!" Jack jumped in.
"Deck of cards, eh?" Merritt questioned innocently as he stood up and moved toward a squeamish Jack and Ember. "Did they happen to be in your pants or did you just put them in there so you wouldn't forget?"
The youngest magicians' faces flushed bright red as they simultaneously noticed that Jack did indeed have a, uh, pretty full deck hiding below his belt that was clearly in need of some...shuffling.
"So," Merritt continued as he moved to stand between Jack and Ember and draped his arms over their shoulders, "are you kids gonna tell me what actually happened behind the curtain or am I gonna have to start reading your minds?"
"Depends," Ember replied coyly. "Do you want the back of your pants to light on fire in the middle of the show?"
Merritt released an exaggerated sigh and plopped back down on the couch beside Henley. "Well that's one source of entertainment I'll never have. Henley, do me a favor and visualize your most adventurous sexual experience."
"Stay out of my head, you perv," Henley replied in a snippy voice.
"Well, no, if I stay out of your head, I'm never gonna get into your pants."
Right," Henley brushed off with a roll of her eyes as Jack and Ember sat down on the other couch, relieved that they were in the clear for the time being.
"So let's stick with this exercise. And it helps if-"
"Pardon the intrusion," a velvety voice spoke up. The Horsemen looked up to see the familiar figure of Thaddeus Bradley darkening their doorway. "I just wanted to wish you good luck tonight."
"What, so you can try to expose us later on your little website?" Jack challenged as he kicked his feet up on the table.
"And on demand," Thaddeus added with a smirk.
"That's not gonna happen," Henley scoffed.
"Oh no?" the former magician pressed. "Operating on a special plane because of The Eye?"
The Horsemen exchanged anxious glances and fidgeted in their seats in discomfort.
"I heard it's a lovely place," Thaddeus continued. "Lots of starshine and moonbeams. Make any magician's wish come true. You've come a long way, much further than anyone would have expected of a bunch of wannabes and has-beens."
"Oh!" Merritt cut in as he pulled himself off the couch and picked up his blazer. "If by 'has-been' you're referring to me, I just wanna say I'm flattered, because I always considered myself a never-was. Uh, do you mind if I do a quick read on you?"
Thaddeus shrugged. "By all means."
Merritt quickly rubbed the bridge of his nose before he began to pull on his blazer. "Uh, okay, I'm, uh, picturing a little boy. He wants to be a great magician someday. And though he's good, he's not quite good enough. So he ends up at the bottom of the entertainment food chain, feeding off of those who have the talent that he never did. Tell me, am I getting close?"
Thaddeus remained silent, refusing to admit anything, and turned to leave.
Daniel hesitated for a moment before he stood up from his chair. "Oh, wait. Be-Before you go. I'm just, uh, I'm working on something new. Do you have a second?" Thaddeus blinked, which Daniel took as a yes. "Okay, uh, name a card."
Thaddeus clicked his tongue and glanced at the Horsemen. "King of hearts."
"Knew it!" Merritt jumped in as he pointed at Thaddeus before reigning himself back in.
"Okay." Daniel stared down at his deck and snapped his fingers, but nothing happened. He proceeded to shake the deck and even blow on the top cards, yet still nothing. The illusionist lowered the deck and looked at Thaddeus...bashfully.
Thaddeus tried and failed to swallow his smirk. "It's up your left sleeve."
"Is it?" Daniel asked innocently. He tugged on the sleeve over his left wrist, looked down, and then held it out for his four colleagues to check.
"Mm mm, no," Henley confirmed with pursed lips as the other three shook their heads in agreement.
"No. No, I don't see it up there. You know, why don't you, uh, check your unnecessary velveteen pocket there?" Daniel proposed as he pointed at Thaddeus' blazer pocket. Thaddeus looked down at his breast pocket and then skeptically raised his eyebrows at Daniel. "Yeah."
The aged magician rolled his eyes and reached into his pocket to find a playing card hidden inside his purple silk pocket hankie. However, instead of the king of hearts, all Thaddeus found was a message:
SUCK IT
"Ooh," Henley echoed challengingly while Ember and Jack fist-bumped and Merritt smirked in amusement.
"Anyway," Daniel spoke up, "thank you so much for coming by, but this is kind of a talent only area, so..."
Ember waved her fingers mischievously while she mouthed the words "Bye bye!"
Thaddeus emptied his face and voice of all emotion as he flicked the card away. "Break a leg."
"Hey, you break something, too," Merritt replied, refusing to let that debunker have the last word.
As soon as Thaddeus was out of earshot, Daniel spun around to face the other Horsemen. "Okay, well that was a good five minutes wasted," Daniel spat out. "Now we'll have to go twice as fast in order to get everything done on time."
"Danny, don't you think you're being just a bit-"
"Save it, Henley," Daniel dismissed. "I've given you all your pre-show tasks-"
"Chores!" Ember coughed into her fist.
"And I expect them done in the next five minutes so you better get a move on it," Daniel finished snippily.
*{O}*
"The falcons have taken the bait," Henley hissed into her wireless mic as she peeped out from behind the curtain separating the off-limits wings from the seating area. "I repeat, the falcons have taken the bait."
"Jack, go tell the guys running the spotlights that I want a light on the falcons' nest on my cue."
Ember rolled her eyes. "The 'falcons'? Seriously? Remind me again whose brilliant idea that was?"
"That would be me," Daniel growled into the mic.
"Oh..." Ember trailed off like she was embarrassed. "And remind me again why we agreed to it?"
Laughter echoed over the sound system and Ember could practically hear Daniel grinding his teeth in frustration.
"She's got a point, Danno," Merritt chimed in. "I mean calling the feds 'falcons'? Aren't we giving them more credit than they deserve?"
"I was trying to be subtle in case some idiot working the sound system put our mics on speaker before the show started," Daniel argued. "Speaking of which, I want everybody backstage in thirty seconds! Twenty nine...twenty eight...twenty seven..."
The other four Horsemen immediately dropped what they were doing and bolted back down the hall, down the stairs, etc.
"Three...two...one," Daniel finished, looking up from his watch to find the rest of his team either winded or doubled over and gasping for breath.
"The next time...you do a countdown...like that..." Ember panted (she had been all the way up in the rafters checking on Henley's wires for later)," I'm gonna take that mic...and shove it up your...whew!" The platinum blonde was too exhausted to finish her threat.
"Yeah, sure, whatever," Daniel brushed off as he checked the time and grabbed a stagehand. "I need four bottles of water and a makeup artist." The stagehand rushed off.
"Why do we need a makeup artist?" Henley questioned, still looking flawless because she had been just around the corner when Daniel called them to the stage.
"Oh that's for Ember," Daniel chirped.
Ember, who was still breathing raggedly, found the energy to lift her eyes off the floor and look at the arrogant illusionist.
"What can I say? Red's not your best color," Daniel patronized.
Ember's eyes narrowed and, well, let's just say it's a good thing Jack and Merritt were strong enough to hold her back or else she would've succeeded in her attempt to claw Daniel's eyes out.
"One minute to curtain! One minute!"
As one last act of childish pettiness, Ember did a quick stomp at Daniel to psyche him out, which worked because he flinched. The Irish girl smirked victoriously before allowing the makeup lady to quickly add some ivory powder to Ember's red nose and cheeks and then proceeding to find her spot on the pitch black stage.
Suddenly, the lights in the audience dimmed and the outlines of five rectangles protruding from center stage lit up (AN any spatial descriptions are from stage right or stage left, meaning from the Horsemen's perspective).
"ARTHUR TRESSLER PRESENTS, JACK WILDER..."
The spotlight lit up on the outer left rectangle. Jack was wearing black pants with a matching buttoned-up black vest over a white collared shirt. He also had on, at least for now, an open black blazer with a red pocket hankie.
"HENLEY REEVES..."
Another light snapped to life on the inner right rectangle. Henley decided to dress like one of the guys tonight in her fitted black pants, tight black blouse, and cinched black blazer with elbow-length sleeves and sequin detailing. In addition to her red pocket hankie - which was hidden by her loose red curls - Henley also had black pumps with red soles, red lipstick, and red and black leather gloves.
"MERRITT MCKINNEY..."
A third spotlight shone on the outer rectangle to Henley's right. Just like Jack, Merritt had on the black slacks and white dress shirt. However, instead of a vest, Merritt was wearing a black velvet blazer to match his black velvet fedora, which in turn had a red band around it to match his elaborately folded red pocket hankie.
"EMBER JINX..."
The inner left rectangle next to Jack lit up to reveal the young fire dancer. As usual, Ember was dressed in the least...restrictive outfit. She was wearing black shorts over black fishnet tights with a cropped black collared vest and a fitted black tank top that stopped just above her belly button, revealing her short-bar red bejeweled belly button ring. To match her red-pocket hankie, Ember also had on red fishnet fingerless gloves (the left one stopping at her wrist and the right one stopping a couple inches below her elbow), a red choker, red hair ties around her high side ponytails, and red lip gloss. Other than that, the Irish girl also found the time to add some black nail polish, eyeliner, and mascara. Ember had planned to wear heeled boots, but she broke the heel during one of her rehearsals and had to switch out for some lightweight black combat boots.
"AND DANIEL ATLAS!"
As expected, the egotistical illusionist got to stand front and center for his spotlight. Daniel had on the uniform black pants, white shirt, black dress shoes, and red pocket hankie, but his buttoned-up blazer was not velvet like Merritt's nor did it have a vest underneath like Jack's.
"THE FIVE HORSEMEN!"
The people in the crowd roared in excitement and anticipation.
"Thank you!" Daniel greeted. "Before we begin, we'd like to single out two people in particular. A man and a woman to whom we'd like to dedicate tonight's performance."
"FBI Agent Dylan Rhodes and the lovely, if somewhat inexperienced, Interpol Agent Alma Dray, everyone," Henley continued.
Another spotlight shone exactly on the spot where Henley had seen Dylan and Alma arrive just minutes earlier, nearly blinding the two of them. The crowd booed furiously at the agents, some even going so far as to flick popcorn (because anything more could be seen as harassing government agents, which could be grounds for arrest).
"Yeah, Agent Rhodes has personally vowed to 'nail us'," Jack informed the audience.
"And we encourage him to do so," Merritt jumped in, "if he has the brains and the fur."
"We're right here, Agent Rhodes," Ember teased with a flourish of her arms. "You got the evidence or the clackers, come at us!"
The audience applauded the Horsemen's courage, which served as a segue for the magicians to move into their real introduction.
"What is magic?" Daniel asked as he backed up to the middle of the stage where the other four magicians were already lining up. "Our argument, nothing but targeted deception. So I want you to look. Look as closely as possible. Because the tricks you are about to see may not seem connected. But we assure you, they are. Is what follows one hundred different tricks? Or is it one giant illusion?"
The lights flickered and flashed behind the five performers, causing the audience to cheer enthusiastically. Suddenly, Daniel snapped his fingers behind his back and Ember took that as her cue. She detached a button from her vest and flung it to the ground, engulfing the Horsemen in a cloud of fog. When the smoke cleared, the only person left on stage was the infamous Merritt McKinney.
"Psh! Smoke bomb?! Really?! You couldn't come up with a more creative exit?!" Merritt jokingly hollered into the wings. "Well, now that the amateurs are outta the way, who's ready for some real entertainment?"
The crowd whooped in excitement.
Merritt let out a satisfied chuckle. "Just as I suspected. Now, we're gonna need twelve courageous volunteers!"
Hundreds of guests raised their hands, but Merritt "randomly" picked twelve who he knew could hold their own against Dylan and a crowd of feds. That is, he picked a mix of men (both fit and heavy) and women (muscular and/or wearing the type of clothes that would make feds even more hesitant about fighting off a woman). The ushers and stagehands brought the volunteers up on to the stage and arranged them into a straight line.
"If you haven't experienced mass hypnosis, you're about to. And sleep. Down, down. Sleep, sleep. Completely sleep. Good, good. Sleep, sleep." Merritt proceeded down the line, pinching each volunteer on the right shoulder and barely waiting for the head to drop before moving on to the next one. Once he was sure he had done his job, Merritt paced back and forth in front of the the line to deliver his instructions, stopping from time to time to tap some shoulders to reestablish the connection. "When you hear the word 'freeze', you are all football players! And your job is to tackle, dismantle, crush, tear limb from limb...the quarterback! You will know who the quarterback is. He will be the one saying that word: 'freeze'. And...wake!"
The volunteers all snapped back to attention, drawing even more applause from the audience.
"Alright, all of you huddle up! On the count of three, we say 'Kill the quarterback'. Ready? Put your hands in the middle. One, two, three..."
"KILL THE QUARTERBACK!" the twelve volunteers exclaimed as they flung their hands in the air.
"Get on back to your seats!" Merritt ordered as the volunteers scurried from the stage in a stampede of clapping and hollering. "I got a feeling I'm gonna be seeing you soon! Now, up next, they haven't performed as a pair in a long time and they never thought they would again, but as they say, there's a first time for everything. Ladies and gentlemen, Daniel Atlas and Henley Reeves!"
The audience applauded as Merritt backed up to the trap door at the back of the stage. All of a sudden, the lights shut off, providing the chance for Merritt to disappear. Seconds later, two more spotlights snapped on the raised box suddenly sitting at the middle of the center rectangle.
"And now for one of the oldest tricks in the book!" Henley called out as she and Daniel walked toward the box from opposite wings.
Thanks to help from Ember, Henley was able to change into a more feminine costume during Merritt's act. The redhead had kept on the heels, the gloves, and the top, but she switched out her fitted black pants for a flattering black leather skirt that stopped just a few inches above her knees. Henley had also exchanged her original blazer for another black blazer, this one with coattails stopping right past her skirt and a leather collar. However, the most noticeable change about the escape artist was the fluffy white bunny in her arms.
"Danny, if you wouldn't mind opening up the box and showing everybody that it's completely empty."
For once, Daniel actually did as his ex requested. The illusionist lowered the front side of the box and waved his hand around it to demonstrate that the box was indeed empty.
"I'm gonna take sweet little Fluffy here and put her inside this mystery box," Henley explained as she lowered the rabbit into the closed box.
"And now, you will say the magic word," Daniel instructed.
"Uh, Abracadabra?" Henley replied playfully.
"Yes," Daniel agreed as he whipped a standard black and white magician's wand out of his jacket, "and I will wave this magic wand for no reason." Daniel casually tossed the wand over his shoulder. "And then," the illusionist opened the top and front of the box to reveal its emptiness, "Fluffy has magically vanished before your very eyes."
The audience gasped and applauded while the ex-lovers pretended to be shocked at the white rabbit's disappearance.
"And now we are gonna debunk a few magic myths this evening," Henley announced once the crowd settled.
Daniel looked up at Thaddeus' seat and smirked as he lowered the mirror hiding the bunny from sight.
"We all know that Fluffy is, in fact, alive and well. And Fluffy has miraculously appeared!" Henley reached in the box to pick up her pet.
"As has the mirror which makes the box only appear as though it's empty," Daniel continued as he twirled the reflective glass between his fingers.
Everyone in the auditorium (except Thaddeus, his assistant, and Dylan and Alma, of course) clapped for the illusionist and the escape artist. Meanwhile, Daniel laid the mirror on top of the box and slipped into the shadows to prepare for he and Henley's finale as the stagehands to carried the box and table offstage.
"Now, we've all heard of pulling the rabbit out of the hat," Henley spoke up as she casually strolled up the stage. "But has anyone heard of pulling a hat out of a rabbit?"
Fluffy squeaked as Henley held the bunny forward and 'transformed' it into a top hat. The audience cheered and Henley waved the hat in front of them with a grand sweeping gesture before curtsying dramatically.
"I'll take that, if you don't mind," Daniel interrupted as he strutted out on stage, snatched the hat from Henley, and placed it on his head.
Henley grimaced. "I think you should leave the hats to Merritt."
"What? You don't like it?" Daniel asked in an offended voice. "Fine, you keep it." The illusionist flung the hat at Henley's feet, which set off a puff of smoke and made Henley 'disappear'.
The crowd gasped.
"Ah yes, the old 'disappearing' act. Just like with Fluffy, we know that Ms. Reeves is alive and well somewhere in this building. And as many of you probably guessed, that hat had a smoke bomb sewn into the lining that activated when it hit the floor, causing Henley to fall through," Daniel crouched down where Henley had been standing and knocked twice on the stage floor, causing a person-sized hole to open up, "this trap door."
Meanwhile, underneath said trap door, Ember was helping Henley with a quick costume change. Daniel was currently blowing giant bubbles to fill the stage, which meant Ember had about two minutes to get Henley out of her leather skirt and leather-trimmed blazer and back into her pants and short sequined blazer, not to mention the invisible harness.
"Done!" Ember panted.
"Awesome! Tell Danny I'm on my way up and to start blowing my bubble!" Henley called out as she ran up the stairs to the main stage.
"You do realize there are so many jokes I could make about that, right?" Ember yelled after the retreating redhead. "You're just lucky Merritt didn't hear that!"
"Au contraire, my little leprechaun," Merritt responded over the mic. "I'm compiling a list as we speak and it'll keep us entertained all the way to New York."
Ember chuckled before pressing the button on her headset that went directly to Daniel's earpiece. "Danny, Henley's coming your way. She'll be there in about fifteen seconds. She said to start," Ember snorted under her breath, "'blowing her bubble.'"
Daniel heard the rapid clicking of heels approaching the curtain and switched to the special bubble mixture for Henley. He expanded the bubble until it was just about Henley's height, which is when the redhead rushed out from behind the curtain and jumped into the bubble. Daniel stepped back so he wouldn't get kicked as Henley began flipping and twirling inside her bubble, guided up to the highest levels of the Savoy by her harness. At the same time, while the audience was too busy watching the lovely escape artist floating above their heads, Daniel snuck off to the seats underneath the main chandelier. As Henley flew around in her bubble, she kept an eye on the marks on the ceiling, waiting for the exact spot to unhook her harness so Danny could catch her. When she found her mark, Henley stretched out, arching her back gracefully to hide the hook holding her up, and then unfastened her wire. The clips zipping back up to the rafters caused Henley's bubble to pop and the redhead to plummet from the air. Henley screamed and the spectators cried out in alarm before the beautiful magician was rescued by none other than J. Daniel Atlas.
"Huh, I guess you have lost some weight," Daniel admitted in a whisper as he shifted Henley's body in his arms.
"And I guess you haven't lost your handsy habits," Henley teased with a grin as she waved to the nearby crowd.
The audience hesitated at first, still recovering from the terror of watching a woman seemingly plunge to her death, but eventually they gave the two exes a standing ovation (even Alma, despite Dylan's disapproving glare).
"Talk about a showstopper!" Jack commented in a loud voice as both the spotlights and the crowd's attention shifted back toward the main stage. "Not to mention a heart-stopper. Thank you, Daniel and Henley, for that remarkable illusion, but perhaps for the sake of our audience we should switch to something a little tamer like," Jack whipped out a deck of cards, "card tricks."
The guests laughed and sat back down in their seats.
"There are two pencils out there!" Jack announced as he shuffled his deck. "Hold 'em up high. Let me see 'em."
"Here!" a woman near the front announced as she waved her pencil in the air.
"Yeah!" another woman yelled, this one farther back and slightly less perky.
"You right there in the front, what's your name?" Jack questioned.
"Nicole Benoit," the woman called out.
"Well then, Ms. Benoit, would you care to pick a card?"
"Um, two of hearts."
"And to the young lady back there, who are you?"
An usher brought a microphone to the woman in the back so she wouldn't have to scream her lungs out to be heard. "Hannah Meyers."
"If you would be so kind, Ms. Meyers, could you please step out into the aisle and hold your pencil out in front of you? Not right in front of your face, though."
Hannah nodded in understanding and followed Jack's directions.
"Ready, ladies?" Jack asked.
"Ready!" both Nicole and Hannah yelled back.
"The rest of you guys, I'm gonna count down from three and I'll need some help. You ready for that?"
"READY!" the audience shouted.
"Okay then, here we go! THREE, TWO, ONE!"
Jack thumbed about half the deck out toward Nicole, who smiled giddily as a signed two of hearts, out of all the cards flipped in her direction, landed right on her pencil. Then, Jack picked a random card, wound up, and flung it right at Hannah's pencil, slicing the top half off in the process.
"See, entertaining and safe," Jack noted with a grin as he flipped the deck from one hand to the other. Suddenly, right as the pickpocket had tossed some cards in the air, they all lit on fire. "Or maybe not," Jack admitted as the cards' charred remains fluttered back into his palm. "Uh oh! I see flames! You know what that means..."
As if on cue (wink wink nudge nudge), Ember appeared on stage in a blinding inferno.
"Never one to settle for subtle," Jack joked. "Ladies and gentlemen, Ember Jinx!"
"Oh don't you go taking your bow already, Mr. Wilder ," Ember teased. "I'm not through with you yet."
Jack smirked and the audience oohed at the undeniable...fire between the two.
"Come on, Jackie, give a girl a little challenge," Ember continued with a wink.
Jack chuckled. "If you insist, Ember."
With remarkable speed, Jack flung card after card across the stage at his, um, yet to be determined. Ember spent the first minute or so spinning and flipping like a gymnast to dodge the cards, but suddenly, she got a mischievous glint in her eyes. Ember snapped to attention and began catching the cards rather than just ducking them. Once she caught about five in each hand, she spread them out like fans and threw them at Jack. The pickpocket flinched dramatically, waiting for impact, but before they could do any damage, the cards burst into flames just inches away from his body.
The crowd jumped to their feet and applauded as Jack and Ember walked to the center of the stage, joined hands, and bowed together.
"You didn't really think we were done, did you?" Ember questioned mysteriously.
Jack pulled on his vest and playing cards shot out of his breast pocket and rained down on the two of them. Ember snapped her fingers and all the cards lit up like wildfire. The spectators had to look away from the brightness of the flames, and when the blaze died down enough for them to look back, Jack and Ember had vanished, leaving nothing behind but the a few ashes and causing the audience to clap even louder than before.
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WE WILL NOW HAVE A BRIEF INTERMISSION. HOWEVER, BEFORE YOU LEAVE THE AUDITORIUM, PLEASE LOOK UNDERNEATH YOUR SEATS FOR A BLANK PIECE OF PAPER, A PEN, AND AN ENVELOPE. ON THAT PIECE OF PAPER, WE WANT YOU TO FILL OUT YOUR CURRENT BANK BALANCE."
Meanwhile, underneath the stage, Jack and Ember were giggling like schoolchildren at the success of their act.
"Cut it a little close with those cards this time, Emmie," Jack commented with a joking smile.
"Oh please, I had it under control the whole time. After all, I wouldn't want to damage that adorable face," Ember teased as she pinched Jack's cheek playfully, causing Jack's smile to grow even brighter.
"Yeah yeah, you both get gold stars, now can we get back to work please?" Daniel dismissed petulantly over the microphone. "We've got three envelopes to track down and some bank accounts to hack."
Okay I started this over spring break two months ago but between skiing and puking from a stomach virus, I ran out of time to finish. Also, being a communication studies major and theatre minor sucked my creative writing juju :(. Anyway, I'm officially on summer vacation now but I still cut this chapter a little short (I wanted to go all the way to the New Orleans chase scene) so I could put it out sooner. I love y'all, hope you'll take the time to review, and bid you adieu for the next two weeks tops!