Prodigy - NYSM [1] (DISCONTINUED)

TWO

east evans street

Securing a flight to New York: easy. Finding a halfway decent yet still cheap hotel in New York: harder, but still easy. Figuring out where on earth this East Evans Street was? Harder than it appeared.

"Dad." Emerald tapped her foot on the ground, looking around as her father squinted at the card in his hand again before looking up the street sign ahead of them. "We're lost." She shivered as a gust of wind blew their way; did she forget to mention that it was winter? "And I'm freezing. Let's go." She tugged on Merritt's arm, pulling a whiny face.

He looked down at her, pursing his lips for a moment. "I think we should find a map." he suggested.

Emerald couldn't help but roll her eyes. "Agreed. Let's go, come on!" She resisted the urge to jump up and down like a child—but only barely.

Fifteen minutes later they secured a map, realized they were exactly two block away from where they were supposed to be, and found themselves standing in front of a rather run-down building. Emerald studied it, gnawing on her lower lip. "We've seen worse." she said, mostly to herself.

Her father nodded. "Yep. Let's go."

Inside, the building was dark and dingy, not surprising given the outside. Emerald lead the way up the stairs, looking around. "What do you think this is about?" she called to Merritt, who shrugged.

"I have no idea." he said, running a palm along the old railing.

Emerald mounted the last few stairs, finding herself facing a short hall leading to a single door. "This... Might be it." She turned, allowing her dad to step past her and approach the door.

He wiggled the handle, then thumped the wood a few times with his hand. "Locked," he said, "and unless you're stronger than I think, we can't break it down."

"So we wait?" Emerald asked, coming up next to him.

He nodded, leaning against the door, facing the staircase. "Let's see what happens."

—

It wasn't too long before something happened.

The door shut downstairs, and a woman's very loud voice echoed up to them. Apparently she wasn't scared of others hearing her. "I saw all your 'anonymous' posting on my website."

A man answered her, not as loudly, but very quickly. "Oh, you have a website? That's good, get the word out."

As soon as the last word was spoken, two people, a man with messy hair and a redheaded woman, rounded the corner at the top of the stairs to face them. They each held a tarot card in their hands.The man blinked. "Oh." he said.

"Oh," Merritt echoed, stepping forward a bit. "Looks like none of us was the only one to be chosen." He turned to give Emerald a look. She shrugged; she wasn't good at reading people the way he was. He sighed and faces the other two (couple?) again. "So let me be the first to kick my ego to the curb."