The inside of the tent was warm in comparison to the outside. It was a tent that had reminded me of the circus I had attended when I was younger. It was large and very spacious with four different isles of long wooden bench seating. Raoul and I took the seating off to the left, and at the end of the bench that was in the middle. I separated Raoul and the man next to me, with Raoul clutching onto my hand as tight as a child would have their mother.

I exhaled deeply and tried to get my hand out of his grasp, only to have it practically crushed. He glanced down at me and smiled, causing me to smile back. Then, out of nowhere, a large gust of wind forced its way through the tent causing the candles to blow out and darken the entire place like night had fallen, even though the day had just begun.

"Welcome" a voice echoed all over the tent and it caused me to jump. Never had I heard a voice so strong and so clearly from a few rows back. "Things you've never seen will come to life." The voice echoed and on the stage fire raged, exposing a young man. He was tall, wearing a pair of khaki pants and a loose white button up top, with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. The shirt was slightly unbuttoned and on his face was a stark white mask, hiding half of his facial features. I watched him speak, but none of his words entered into my ears, as I was intent on studying him. He was vastly different from Raoul who dressed up like we were going to the opera instead of a world's fair. Raoul's hair was a fair blond while this mans was a dark brown or even a black; the man on the stage was muscular like he had been working on building things his entire life as his skin was browned ever so slightly. Raoul was tall and thin, his skin pale but always with a subtle pink hue in his cheeks. The man on the stage seemed to have a danger about him, while Raoul seemed safe and if I wasn't sure which one I liked the most.

"For my first trick" the man on the stage's voice grabbed my attention again. His accent was different than the Chicago accent. He wasn't from the east, I was sure of it, but I couldn't quite place it. "I'll need a volunteer." A box was wheeled out onto the stage "a beautiful lady, if one might be so eager."

Hands jutted up into the air with young ladies begging to be picked. I too threw my hand upwards.

"Christine, Put your hand down." Raoul leaned over and whispered into my ear "A lady does not go on stage for trickery. Who knows what this man plans to do."

I looked at him, my hand still fully up in the air "Raoul, if you wish to seek my hand in marriage then you'll have to treat me better than this." I blinked "We are not in the early eighteen hundreds anymore." I turned my face away from him and looked at the man who was sauntering up and down the aisles "Besides, if you don't then I fear we'll have an awful long courtship. A very unpleasant one at that."

My hand was suddenly snagged down and forced into my lap by the man beside me "You'll listen to me, Christine." The voice whispered into my ear forcefully "If not, I suspect we'll have a very unpleasant courtship and an even more unpleasant marriage."

"Oy!" Raoul and I both looked up at the man who stopped at our row, looking at his with his half of a face and his crystal blue eyes "Why did you go and put your hand down, Miss?" I shrugged slightly which made the man smile. His teeth were white, which made me figure that he had come from a wealthy class, wherever he was from "No one puts their hand down at my show. Come on, lass. You're automatically my lovely volunteer." He extended a hand and I went to move my hands away from Raoul, who just grasped them tighter.

I looked at Raoul and smiled slightly "I'll be fine. I promise." I stared at him, the rest of the crowd started to grow impatient and finally after what seemed like hours, Raoul let go of his tight grip on my hands. I placed a tiny hand into the magician's, surprised to find it soft unlike the rough hand I had imagined.

He led me up to the stage and then faced the audience "What's your name?"

I looked at him "Christine."

He smiled "Ah! Christine! Everyone! Welcome Christine to the stage!" He held my arm up as people clapped, except Raoul, who sat back in his chair with his arms and legs both crossed and a sour look upon his face. "Now, Beautiful Christine, please, step inside this box." He led me into the box and closed the curtain before he shut the door. "Now!" I heard him belt, in that strange accent again "when I open this door, she'll be completely gone from the box itself!"

I panicked. Where was I going to go? How did he plan on doing such a thing. Suddenly, the box felt small and I felt like I was going to pass out. I feared that he was going to send me off to a place far away, a place like Joliet or even New York City. Fear tightened around my stomach and the door opened again, he laughed and the audience laughed with him. I didn't hear what he was saying as the blood pounded in my ears. He pushed his head between the curtains and smiled up at me.

"Hi." I said in barely a whisper "You're not going to send me off somewhere, are you?"

He laughed again, a different laugh than what I supposed was his stage laugh. Instead of boisterous it was full and oddly soft "no, you're going to slip right through the door in the back." He smiled slightly "when you hear the door close, slip out. I'll open it say something…" he paused "I don't know what I'll say. I always make it up on the spot." He winked "I'll shut the door again and then you'll slip back in. That's what the curtain is for." He smiled and then opened the curtain fully to show the audience I was still there "I guess it didn't work! We'll have to try it again!" The audience clapped furiously and I could just picture Raoul sitting there, unhappy.

The masked man looked back at me and winked before the curtain slid shut and the door was shut with a bit of force. I searched quickly for the handle but quickly learned that the back of the box simply pushed back. I slowly pushed it, not to make any noise and pushed it back into place. I looked at the back of the box and ran my hand down the smooth wood, it was interesting to say the least. I heard the door open and the curtain swoosh back. The crowd erupted in a roar of cheers and clapping, it made me excited and felt like I was a young girl playing hide and seek. Hiding had always made me need to use the bathroom and this time was no exception. I giggled slightly as I heard the door shut and I pulled the handle that decorated the back door and slipped into the booth, behind the curtain once again.

In a few seconds the door opened and the curtain pulled back, he smiled at me and extended his hand, which I took as he helped me out of the box. "Christine, Ladies and Gents!" He smiled and bowed, and I curtsied before helped me back into my seat.

"Where did you go?" Raoul looked at me, his face worried "One second you were in the box, the other second you were not." He grabbed my hands and inspected them as if they were going to tell where I had been. "That… phantom didn't send you off to new York, did he?"

I laughed slightly and shook my head "No Raoul." I gripped his hands gently and rubbed a thumb on the top of his knuckles "A magician's helper doesn't reveal secrets" I smiled slightly and leaned in "but I promise, I was safe." I patted his cheek and we both turned forward to watch the rest of the show.

This man, this phantom, had been one of the best magicians I seen in a long time. I had been a magician's helper when I was younger at the circus but he was subpar compared to this genius who had incorporated fire and smoke into his act.

_

"Raoul." I looked over at the long haired boy beside me "I'd like to stay for a bit and talk to the magician." I smiled a bit, my eyes gleaming "if that's all right with you."

He shook his head "No, We're going to Electricity building. I hear that Nikola Tesla is speaking."

I nodded and walked out with Raoul, looking over my shoulder at the man standing on the stage who was talking to the young women. He looked up at me and smiled, I smiled back before his attention went to a blond. Always a blond.

In the Electricity building Raoul and I spent a great chunk of our time looking around the building, at everything the inventors had promised in the upcoming years. We listened to speeches from the electric companies, ones that I was not familiar with as my father and I still used candles around the house. We could not afford the luxuries of indoor plumbing or a stove that ran on much needed electricity. Throughout the speech (where we sat front and center) my mind wandered to why Raoul had chosen me to court. I was plain, big eyes, a button nose and lips that my mother said I had inherited from the royals. My brown eyes were nothing that anyone would like to gaze deeply into and my hair was in large ringlets that took time to do. My clothes were almost outdated and I couldn't afford the nine dollars for another dress. I wasn't something upper-class men would normally lay their eyes on.

My stomach churned. I was positive that I shouldn't be thinking things like that. I had been lucky that Raoul took to me so early in childhood, but I couldn't shake those blue eyes of the magician, the way he enchanted me. I wanted to know more about him, I wanted to know where in the world he was from and I wanted to know more about his magic tricks that I had adored throughout the show. He was mysterious and he lurked in the back of my mind like a phantom.

Authors Note: I feel like I should do a little PSA right here, right now. As I'm writing this a girl has sat in a cublicle that's officially two cubicles away from me. I can literally smell her perfume like she's sitting on my lap. There is SO MUCH of her perfume that I can't distinguish the smell and I can taste it in my mouth, it has literally made me sneeze and my tongue is officially numb and I'm not sure that's a good thing. If I was going to interview her and she came in smelling like this I wouldn't interview her. I'd give her a chance to come back after a shower and change of clothes, why you ask? Because you shouldn't wear so much perfume to where someone two cubicles away should taste it. So, ladies (and girls who are just entering that stage of their life where they want to smell good), as a fellow lady with allergies, PLEASE limit yourself to one or two sprays of your perfume; not five, not ten, not half the bottle! If you can't smell it anymore that means you're used to it and that YOU DO NOT NEED TO SPRAY ANYMORE ON. I'm sorry, this just aggregates me because it's extremely rude. I have a feeling that when I leave this computer then I'll come away smelling like her. And that's sad. Don't make other people smell like you when you're wearing perfume.