five magicians
The group fell silent as the guy who'd just come up the stairs approached, looking between the four of them. His gaze, however, landing on Atlas. "J. Daniel Atlas," he said, sounding every bit the adoring fan. "Dude, I've seen everything you have ever done. You're like... I- I idolize you. Seriously."
Emerald tried to contain the eye roll. She really did. But that wasn't working out for her.
The guy wasn't that much older than her, maybe by a couple of years. He wore plain, dark clothes, including a leather jacket. Not bad, if you asked Emerald.
Atlas grinned, clearly enjoying this hero-worship. "From a true fan. It's so nice to meet you," he said.
The guy nodded. "I'm Jack, by the way," he said, addressing the rest of the group as well. There were a couple nods, and Emerald waved at him.
"Question," Merritt said, drawing all attention to himself. "Did you get one of these?"
Jack smiled, and began to dig in the messenger bag at his side. "Yeah. Death." He held up the card.
Henley took that as a cue to hold up her own, though the whole group had seen it already. "The high priestess."
"I'm the lover," Atlas said smugly, and Emerald rolled her eyes once more as Henley hid a harsh remark in a fake cough.
"Well, I got the sun." Emerald said, pulling her card out of her back pocket.
Lastly, her dad showed the group his card, saying, "The hermit."
There was a moment of silence, then Jack said, So what are we... Are we waiting for someone?" He looked between Henley and Atlas, confused.
"The door's locked." The pair said in unison.
Jack smiled, a sort of lopsided grin that Emerald just knew would give her trouble, and moved forward. "Oh no, nothin- nothin's ever locked."
He knelt in front of the door, pulling a thin metal object—Emerald couldn't quite see what, she had ended up behind Henley when the four of them crowded up behind Jack—and stuck it in the lock. A few short moments later, and Jack was pushing the door open. He sat back on his heels, a self-satisfied look on his face.
Daniel stepped over him, a flashlight in hand. Emerald pulled out her phone, flicking on the flashlight app. "Hey, good job," she told Jack, smiling at him before stepping inside after her father.
"What is this place?" Henley asked, pushing open a door. She too held up her phone for light, grimacing at whatever it showed her.
She moved on, and Merritt looked in the small bathroom after she did, Emerald peering over his shoulder. "Wow. Thought our apartment was nasty," he said to Emerald, who shook her head.
"That's mostly your own fault. And it's not that bad." She nudged him so he would keep going.
"I'm sorry, you live together?" Atlas asked, swinging around to see them.
Emerald put on a bored face. "Well, considering he's my dad and I'm a minor... Yeah." She crossed her arms and did not roll her eyes. Though she really wanted to.
There was silence for a moment, broken by Jack shuddering. "Man, it's freezing in here," he mumbled as the group started to head further down the hall.
They came out into a larger front room, instinctively dispersing. They couldn't go far into the room, however, as there was a design carved into the floor. A rose and a plain white notecard lay next to it. A vase half-full of water lay not far away. Otherwise, the room was bare. "What's that?" Emerald asked.
"I don't know," came the answer, Emerald wasn't sure who from. She was busy going over to the rounded trio of windows and peering out.
"What's it say?"
Emerald turned in time to see Atlas kneel and pick up the notecard. "'Now you don't.'" he read out in a confused tone.
Henley stooped and picked up the white rose, lifting it to her nose. "'A rose by any other name...'" She took a few steps and dropped the flower into the vase. And that's when it started getting weird.
It probably said a lot about Emerald that she didn't consider the rest of this weird.
The water began to drain from the vase. Emerald got down on the floor, peering at the vase in an attempt to figure out how. She could hear the others above her, all equally wondering what was happening.
As the last of the water drained, Emerald raised her gaze to see that it had filled the carved design on the floor. She pushed herself up to her forearms, watching with interest as the design sunk into the floor and smoke came up.
"It's gas!" Jack declared, stepping back.
Merritt, who had circled around the design so he was closer to Emerald, held up a hand. "Relax, it's just dry ice."
Emerald looked up as an excited grin crossed Jack's face. "Cool."
She stood up, brushing off her clothes—who knew when the last time that floor was cleaned was?—and went back towards the windows. There was a really great view of the street from here; she could even see the front door of the building.
"Wait, what do you think this is all about?" Atlas asked, glancing around at the other four. Emerald and Henley shrugged, but Merritt held up a hand.
"Hang on," he said, appearing to concentrate. Emerald rolled her eyes again. She sure was doing that a lot today. Must be a new record! After a moment, Merritt shook his head, lowering his hand. "I got nothin."
Atlas didn't seem surprised at all; no one did, in fact. They all knew as well as Emerald did that that wasn't something that mentalism could help you find out. "Okay, thank you," Atlas said, "Thank you for the delay."
"I'm just trying to create the space for wisdom." Merritt said.
"Okay, so you're like Buddha, if he wasn't so enlightened," Atlas shot back, so quickly Emerald almost thought he had prepared the insult beforehand.
"And you're like Jesus, if he was arrogant and all his miracles were fake." Merritt said in return, and Emerald rolled her eyes once more.
"Oh, quit bickering," she said. "We have to figure out what's going on here."
Henley nodded in agreement. "Danny, be honest, did you do this?" She turned to him expectantly.
He looked offended, or something Emerald couldn't quite place. "No. Wait, did you?" The question was directed at Jack, who had been looking down at where the gas was now dissipating.
Jack looked up, a little startled, but smiling. "I wish." He glanced at Emerald, a questioning look on his face.
She shook her head. "Nope. Not me either, guys."
"Why didn't anyone ask me if I did it?" Merritt asked, looking around the room. Henley, Jack, and Atlas made a point of not looking at him, and Emerald patted his shoulder.
"Sorry, dad," she said. "Guess it's just not expected of a mentalist."
He sighed. "Oh, great." Emerald gave his shoulder a squeeze before taking a step away.
She heard a clicking noise and jumped, surprised, only to see it was Atlas flicking the lightswitch in the hall, which did nothing. Apparently Jack noticed this too, because he said, "Electricity's out." Way to state the obvious.
"Well let's check," said Merritt, who was conveniently standing under an ancient-looking light fixture. He reached up and touched one of the lightbulbs—just barely—and to everyone's surprise, it lit up. And so did something else—three blue laser-like lights, two planted in the walls of the large room and one on the back of the main door. The three lights met in the middle of the room, and took of shapes and words. The five magicians couldn't help but step closer.
"Blueprints," Henley breathed, looking at them in awe.
Emerald shared the feeling. "They're incredible," she said, a light laugh in her voice.
"Who do you think did this?" Jack asked.
Henley shook her head. "I don't know, but I really wanna meet them."
There's a moment of silence before Henley speaks up again, saying, "It's a show."
She was right, of course. The blueprints detailed a couple shows, actually, down to the minute. Emerald took a step back so she could look at the other four. She knew, just by looking at them, that they were as fascinated as she was by all this.
"So," she said quietly. "I guess we'd better get to work then, huh?"
—
1431 words.
Finally done with the introduction. I'm going to detail a little of their lives during the year we don't see, so I'd love it if you guys would let me know if there's anything in particular you'd like to see!
Also, how are you liking Emerald so far? I'm trying to make her a little different from most OCs I see in NYSM stories; do you think it's working?