Chapter 1: The Contest
Damian took in a deep breath and watched the magician’s and illusionists at work. These kids were good, but some were better then others. Levitation, everything, but he knew, as always, there was a trick behind it all, whether he could figure it out or not.
Getting up from her chair, he went up to Allison. “Hey, how’s the trick going?” He asked her with a smile. Allison merely smiled and nodded briefly.
“All is well that ends well.” She said, putting a deck of cards back into her pocket, and looked over at the weight that was set next to her.
“And, what is that supposed to mean, Houdini?” Damian laughed aloud and noticed the weight. “Oh, don’t even think about it.” He warned, knowing that it would be very dangerous for her to try to lift over two hundred pounds.
“Why not?” she asked, looking at Damian, slightly annoyed. “I’m a magician. I can levitate this one. Nothing to worry about.” She said, glancing at it again.
“No, you’re a teenage girl who knows a couple magic tricks. That doesn’t make you a magician.” Damian said, lightly touching her hand, which was cold as ice. She pulled her hand away and he rolled his eyes, gently setting his back at his side.
“Mmm…” Allison said thoughtfully. “Sure. You could say that.”
Damian looked Allison in the eye. “What do you mean you guess I could say that? It’s true! Every magic trick is exactly that; a magic trick, and it always has a loophole. There’s nothing magical about it.” He stated, with a slight laugh. Allison didn’t say anything, just continued doing random tricks she knew from before the contest.
With a sigh, Damian walked off the stage and to the audience chair where he was sitting before. Every magician was paired up with an assistant, and he just had to be paired up with the quiet stubborn one, didn’t he?
Focusing on the chair a couple feet away, Allison attempted to get it to slide towards her. After a few minutes in vain, she finally got it to move, which baffled Damian. The chair glided towards her, until she grabbed its back with a smirk. “I knew I could do that one,” she muttered under her breath.
“H-how did you do that?” Damian asked, jumping from his seat, and realized his folly in the question. A magician never revealed his secrets.
“A magician never reveals her secrets.” Allison stated, as she knew he would. She motioned for him to come up onto the stage and as he did, wondered if she was actually going to use him as an assistant like she was supposed to.
“Ever been hypnotized?” Allison asked him when he was on stage next to her.
“No, and I don’t think I want to.” Damian laughed and tucked a strand of his brunette hair behind his ear.
“Don’t worry, it’s not that bad.” Allison assured him, turning him to face a spinning orange and black-spiraled plate. “Just stare straight into that, alright?” She briefly explained.
“The time you use your assistant is the time I least want to be used.” Damian said sarcastically. When he looked into the large spinning circle, he couldn’t move his eyes from it.
“Let’s see if I can make you perform a trick through hypnosis.” She stated, focusing on Damian’s hands. One of them slowly lifted before he looked at her, holding back laughter.
“Nice try sweetheart, but I don’t think hypnosis is your thing.” He joked, walking towards him. “Stick with making chairs move.”
“That doesn’t make sense! It should have worked!” Allison shouted in frustration.
“Yeah, I’m sure it should have, Allison. But keep trying, you’ll get it sooner or later.” He patted his shoulder and went back to her chair. He would much rather watch the magician work on her trick instead of being involved in it.
Allison sighed and sat in the chair she moved earlier, still contemplating what had gone wrong.
Letting his eyes wander, they caught something that just seemed odd about the curtain. He looked at it for a while, but when couldn’t figure out why it seemed off, tried to forget about it.
“Hey Damian!” He heard somebody call her name, and he turned to see Narissa skipping towards him.
“Oh, hey Narissa. Have you mastered any new tricks?” He asked, just curious. Since he was little, magic tricks intrigued him, but he could never pull them off.
“Nah, nothing new. Just some stuff I learned to get into the contest.” Narissa said with a smile, flopping onto the chair next to Damian. “Whoa, these are comfy!” She laughed aloud.
Damian smiled. “I know right? I didn’t think seats in a magic theatre, made to look like a haunted mansion for goodness sake, would have such comfortable seats!” He joked, and they both broke out into laughter.
Narissa looked at Allison, who looked frustrated, but continued to juggle bowling pins. “How’s Allison been doing?” She asked Damian, who just shrugged.
“Attempted hypnosis, but that didn’t seem to work and he got all quiet. He seems to do that a lot.” Damian replied, watching her juggle. “But other than that, she’s really good. How he got that chair to move without even touching it is beyond me.”
“She did? I’m going to have to have her teach that one to me!”
“A good magician never reveals her secrets.”
“Bah! Your no fun Damian!”
“Yeah, I know.”
At that, Narissa’s assistant came up. “Hey Danny,” they said at the same time.
“Hey Damian, hey Narissa. You want to start practicing for tonight?” He asked Narissa with a smile.
“See! I wish Allison were that enthusiastic!” Damian whispered jokingly.
“Allison? Oh, he’s always so quiet. He usually never talks to anybody but you.” Danny said, glancing towards Allison, who was now sitting again, obviously thinking about what to do next.
“That, my friend, is an understatement.” Damian said with a smile and laugh. “But I don’t want to be a third wheel. Go ahead and practice.”
“Nice talking to you Damian.” Danny said with a smile.
“Yeah, see you later!” Narissa winked and walked back on stage with Danny. Damian sat back in her chair, and, again, watched what everybody was doing on stage. Zoe levitated a small table, Max made illusions with a small red ball, Bryce played card tricks on his assistant Shelby, and lastly, Joon did the classical, pull-a-bunny-out-of-the-hat trick. All of it, Damian found interesting.
“Allison! Are you alright?” He asked, running onto the stage to help Allison up, who was on the floor.
“Yeah, I’m fine, but something pushed me over and now my chair is gone…” She said, looking around.
“What?” Damian looked around with him, but his eyes were immediately pulled to the curtain. Something changed about it again… It looked normal. He couldn’t quite put her finger on what made it look odd earlier, though. Shaking the thought out of his mind, he tried to see if he could find the chair, but saw nothing. “Your right… it’s nowhere to be seen…” He said, and quickly looked at Allison, who seemed worried as well.
Had she made it disappear? Just the thought sent chills down her spine, and she tried not to think about it. “Oh well. I guess I’ll just get another chair then.”
“But… wasn’t that chair some special chair that helped perform the trick?” Damian asked. He hoped.
“No. It was just an ordinary chair.”
“Really?”
“Mmhm.”
“You really don’t like keeping a conversation, do you?” Damian asked her sarcastically. Allison smiled at his joke, but shook her head anyways, tightening one of her auburn ponytails.
“Alright! Why don’t you all get some rest before the contest tonight!” Elizabeth - the woman in charge of the contest - shouted to everybody in the theatre. There was a sound of rustling paper, cards, clothes, and chatter. Allison left the room without another word, and Damian sighed.
“Just once, a ‘good-bye’ would be appreciated.” He muttered, walking towards his own dorm room.
Flopping himself on his bed, she thought about the day. “I wonder...” Damian pondered aloud, “Will Allison make the cut?” At that moment, there was a rapping at his door. “Who’s there?” He called out, not wanting to get up.
“It’s Elizabeth! Hurry!” He heard Elizabeth shout from the other side of the door.
Getting up, Damian walked over and opened the door to find Elizabeth looking at him, worried sick. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
“Do you know where Allison is?”
“N-no, I thought he went to his dorm.”
“No! He wasn’t there!” Elizabeth shouted. Damian thought about the situation and sighed.
“I’ll be right back.” As he ran off, she overheard Elizabeth calling his name, but ignored it.
Running into a small room, he felt around the wall with his hands for the loose brick. When he finally felt it, he pushed it inward, and a passageway door opened up behind him. As soon as he started walking down the hallways, he heard a noise.
“Allison!” He called out, and found her in the over-sized library. “You have Elizabeth worried sick! And she’s in charge of the whole contest! Don’t blow this!” He scolded her, sitting in a chair beside hers.
“Mmph. Yeah.” Was her only reply.
“Honestly, Allison, learn to be more positive! Come on, we have to go.” He grabbed her arm and tugged. Reluctantly, she got up and followed Damian.
“I win this contest, I’ll be more positive.” She mumbled.
“Mumbler! Speak up!” Damian joked again.
“You’re the one person who really knows how to make me laugh, Damian. Honestly!”
“Well I can’t imagine why, and I’m taking that as a compliment. Keep it moving.” He said, slightly nudging her forwards.
After finally making it out of the long hallway, Damian led Allison back towards the stage where she figured Elizabeth would be waiting. And, there she was, sitting frantically in a chair center stage.
As they approached, Elizabeth’s head jerked up, and she laughed with relief. “Oh, thank God! Where did you find her?” She asked, hugging each one.
“She was…” Damian knew she couldn’t tell about the secret library they had found, so came up with something different. “In the hall of mirrors, hidden behind one of them practicing a card trick.”
“Oh, well good. Allison, don’t scare me like that! I have to make sure all you magician’s are in place at all times, and I couldn’t find you anywhere!”
