THE MAGICIAN.
chapter one
—♞—
Catalina was not having a good morning, at all. Spilling her tea, her car breaking down, and having a bad hair day were just some of the things she had to go through this delightful morning. To top it all off when she asked her brother if he could drop her off somewhere, he straight up said no and that he had 'more important things to do'. What could possibly more important than being his little sister's chauffeur?
Left with no other option because flagging down a cab just doesn't seem to be working at the moment. Catalina is forced to call her techie best friend, Reid.
"Hello?" A raspy voice mumbles from the other line.
Catalina furrows her eyebrows. "Reid?"
The young blonde cringes as the latina on the other side of the phone clears her throat. "Why are you calling me at this ungodly hour?" Reid asks.
Catalina rolls her cobalt blue eyes. "Its 3 in the afternoon Reid."
"What's your point?"
Catalina rolls her eyes again before letting out a sigh. "Can you do me a favor?"
"No."
"Oh, come on! Please! I can't flag down a cab. I've had an absolutely terrible morning. Danny's being an ass. I spilt my tea. My hair looks like a shit emoji on my head. And I have to be somewhere really important in an hour with no car. Can you pretty please just get up and drive me there? I promise we could stop at McDonalds or something on the way."
Reid groans. "Ugh, fine but only if you buy me food and stop whining."
Catalina grins and taps her foot happily. "Deal! Thank you so much, I love you!"
"Of course you do I'm lovable. Now, where are you?"
"At my apartment, duh."
"I'll be there in ten."
"Let me get this straight," Reid starts, her mouth muffled with a cheeseburger and one hand on the wheel. "You get a mysterious magical card with a date, time, and address and you just...go to it?"
Catalina nods her head. "Yeah," she says while throwing a barbecue dipped french fry into her mouth.
"Are you insane? On drugs? Drunk? Anything that could possibly mess up your logical thinking? This just screams creepy serial killer shit and right now you are basically the dumb blonde white chick who keeps screaming 'Hello?'"
Catalina rolls her eyes as the corners of her lips twitch into a small smile. "I think you're slightly over-reacting."
Reid shakes her head. "Um, no. I think I'm reacting very normally. Rationally, in fact. This is New York, Cat. Do you know how many serial killers there have been in this city and probably still are? We've had the Son of Sam, Zodiac, Jack the Leg Ripper, and so much more. Some of them undiscovered!"
Catalina turns to look at Reid with an amused smile. "Okay, two of those aren't even from New York and its Jack the Ripper, not Jack the Leg Ripper."
"Pfft, same thing," Reid tells the blonde while waving her hand, brushing away the comment.
Catalina rolls her eyes and crosses her arms. "Well if you're so worried, why don't you come with me?"
"I think the fuck not," She tells her friend while flicking a switch to turn on her blinkers. "If you want to go get yourself killed by some creep with a dumbass name go ahead, but I'm too smart for that shit. That's why there are never any Latin's in horror movies because none of us are dumb enough to go into murder woods or creepy ass houses. Nah, we leave that shit for the white people."
Catalina laughs as Reid's car stops in front of a somewhat old building.
"Well, here's your stop. Don't get killed," Reid tells her a smile on her face.
Catalina rolls her eyes again. "'Don't die, don't get killed'. Don't you ever have anything positive to say?"
"Um...If you do get killed try to get killed by a gun? I heard its less painful."
"You are terrible, you know that?" Catalina tells her through a grin.
Reid sighs in satisfaction. "I know," she says proudly before turning back to the blonde. "But seriously, be safe. I can't lose my best friend, who else will I call at three in the morning to announce Elon Musk is finally single and ready to ride the Reid train?"
Catalina laughs again before reaching over to giver her freckled Brazilian a hug. "Thanks for the ride."
"Thanks for the burger," Reid replies as Catalina opens the door and steps out of the car. "See you soon!"
"See you soon!" Catalina waves back as Reid drives away, a cab taking her place.
"Henley?" Catalina asks as she watches a red headed girl step out of the cab.
Henley looks up at the call of her name. "Catalina!" The older woman exclaims after giving the girl a once over. "How are you?" She says walking closer.
"I'm great, actually, how are you?" Catalina asks, opening her arms and leaning in for a hug.
Henley laughs. "I've been good," she tells the girl while hugging back. "I missed you! You never seem to call anymore," Henley tells her while playfully jutting out her lower lip.
"I know I know, I'm sorry," she tells her while fixing the strap on her bag. "I've been kind of busy, doing a lot of gigs lately."
Henley nods a smile on her face as she crosses her arms. "I've heard, I actually saw a video the other day jumping off a 30 ft building and landing in a small pool, very impressive."
A blush rises on the young girls cheeks from the compliment. "Thanks," she mumbles while tracing a crack in the ground with her black boots.
Henley, noticing the younger girl's slight discomfort, quickly changes the subject. "How's your brother?"
Catalina looks up with a roll of the eyes. "He's--"
"Henley?" A familiar voice to the two girls calls out.
"Speak of the Devil," Catalina mumbles.
"Danny? Hey," she says through a somewhat tight smile.
Catalina looks between the two with a small smirk. I guess, asking about him is different than actually seeing him?
"Ah, you got a card, huh?" Danny asks making his younger sister cringe at his awkwardness. She quickly pulls out her phone to try to distract her from anymore second hand embarrassment that Danny will most likely give her.
"Mm-hmm," Henley replies, avoiding eye contact with the other Atlas.
"No, no, no, it's good for you. Congratulations," the brunette male tells her before he starts speed walking towards the building. "Alright," he begins in his usual controlling 'listen to me because I think I'm the boss' voice that Catalina hates. "So here's what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna go inside. I'll scope the place out while you two wait out here. I will come back and get you guys, okay? Do not come in."
"Hey, Danny!" Henley calls out, stopping him from going in the building first. "I'm not your assistant anymore," she reminds. "Nice hair," she compliments before walking in front of him and entering the building. Catalina quickly follows her but not before stopping in front of Danny and mouthing, "She owned you." The older Atlas rolls his eyes before pushing his sister inside the building.
"So, um, actually, what have you been up to?" Daniel awkwardly asks in an attempt to start a conversation.
"I think you know exactly what I've been up to, Danny," Henley tells him, annoyance clear in her voice. "I saw all your anonymous posting on my website," she says as they reach the top of the stairs.
"You have a website. Wow! That's good. Good for you. Get the word out," he quickly tells her, making Catalina snort at his terrible attempt at trying to act like he didn't just get called out on stalking his ex-assistant. Danny turns his head and glares at his little sister who innocently puts her hands in the air.
"Oh," Henley says quietly as she sees another man in front of the door they're supposed to enter.
"Uh," Daniel says, making Catalina look up from her Twitter page. The blonde furrows her eyebrows at the sight infront of her. She opens her mouth to ask who the man with the ugly hat is but quickly gets cut off by the exact man she was going to ask about.
"Okay," the man blocking the door says. "So apparently none of us was the only one chosen. Let me be the first one to kick my ego to the curb."
"Yeah, excuse me," Daniel says before rudely pushing the man to the side.
"Door's locked," the man replies.
"Is it?" Danny asks in a condescending tone. "I'll check," he tells him, his neuroticism compelling him to not take the man's word.
"You, now, hold it, don't tell me," the man says while pointing a finger at Henley. "Uh... Helen? No, no. Henley!" He guesses.
"It's on your coffee cup," Daniel tells Henley as he wiggles the door knob.
"Thanks for keeping me honest.
That wasn't mentalism, by the way, it was just an observation. Now," he says walking towards Catalina. She lifts her head up and stares at the blue-eye man infront of her.
"You, your name is...hmm, let me see. Is it Katie? Katherine? Kyle?" He asks snapping his fingers. "Its something with a K, I can feel it."
Catalina raises an eyebrow a bored expression on her face. "Well your feeling is wrong, my name is Catalina. With a C. And, you are?"
"Merritt McKinney," He says while holding out his hand for a shake. Catalina accepts it, placing her dainty hand in his. "Catalina L. Atlas."
Merritt snaps his finger before pointing towards her. "You're the crazy chick that does all those whacky stunts."
"Yeah," Catalina says flatly. "That's me," she says before looking back at her phone, slightly miffed that he deemed the tricks she spends months planning and practicing for as just 'whacky stunts'.
Merritt, sensing her disinterest, smoothly slides back over to Henley. "You are beautiful."
"Thank you," Henley says grinning.
"That's good, that's very nice," Danny interrupts. "Very well polished, nice bit. J. Daniel Atlas. Nice to meet you," Danny introduces himself to Merritt.
Merritt raises his eyebrows before pointing to Danny and then Catalina. "Siblings?"
"Yes, and I know who you are and I just want to say that I'm not interested in you doing your mentalism thing on us. Especially when we don't know who brought us here or even if it's real..."
"Shh!" Merritt shushes him. "Hold on, I'm sensing... I'm sensing you are a control freak," Merritt tells him making Catalina quietly chuckle at how on point he is.
"I'm sorry, have we met before?"
"It doesn't take a mentalist to figure that out.You are a control freak!" Henley tells him.
"Well, I take that as a compliment," Daniel says as he nods his head.
"Only he would take it as a compliment," Henley tells Merritt pointing towards her ex-boss standing next to her.
"Okay, great, good, another compliment."
"Okay, so that's why you're no longer a couple."
"A couple? No, no," they both stutter at the same time. "We were never a couple."
"Yeah, more like secret fuck buddies because, you know, labels are so overrated now a days." Catalina says from behind them, a huge grin on her face as she looks at them.
Daniel puts a hand on the back of her head and pushes it down to face her phone. "Go back to your phone," he demands. Catalina raises her eyebrow before rolling her eyes and doing what he says. Not because he told her to, of course.
Henley turns back towards Merritt. "He used to saw me in half," she tells him, making a gesture with her hands.
"She was a very good assistant."
"But I was too fat for Danny."
"No," Danny shakes his head. "I said that one time because of the trap door."
"You built it this size," Henley says making a shape with her hands. "No one could fit through there, no one."
"Catalina fit through," Danny points out.
Catalina rolls her eyes. "Not all girls are the same, Danny."
Henley points her hand to her. "She gets it, and do you know how hard it is to stay in those tiny little costumes?"
"No, I'm the main attraction," Daniel tells her cockily.
"Okay, so he never made you feel special and, trust me, you deserve to be made to feel special."
Ew, Catalina thinks. It's like watching my Grandpa flirt with my friends.
"That's a really nice story," Daniel says nodding his head. "Hope you guys enjoy each other's company."
"No way," A tall brunette boys says in disbelief as he reaches the top of the stairs. "The Atlas Siblings?"
NOTE.
if you're a #rr and have read the original version please tell me what you think of reid and how you're liking it so far.