I woke up the next morning at 6am. Not by choice, really, I was anxious for the meeting at East Evan Street. I reached over to my phone and turned on my morning playlist. While deep in thought, I got up out of bed, and wandered over to my dresser. I pulled open drawers, and pulled out a pair of ripped black jeans with white splatters, a black Fall Out Boy tank top, and a My Chemical Romance jumper sweatshirt, along with some underwear, socks, and a bra. I walked into the bathroom, and closed the door.
About 20 minutes later, I got out of the shower, dried off, and got changed. I rambled through my makeup bag, pulling out concealer, powder, blush, black eyeliner, mascara, gold eyeshadow base, and a few brushes. I applied in the same way I did every day; eyeshadow on top, thin, almost non-existent layer or eyeliner on top, thicker, smudged eyeliner on the bottom, mascara on all lashes.
While doing this, thoughts flew through my head. Will other people like me be there? Why me? What do they want? Is this a trap to get me mugged? Is a crazy fan trying to kidnap me? Should I bring my gun? The list of questions goes on.
After I finished with my makeup, I opened my mirror and looked at my jewelry. After a moment of looking and contemplating, I closed the mirror. "Nah, not today," I muttered. I walked back out, and grabbed the TV remote, and turned on the TV, which was in the corner of the room. I looked through my movies on Amazon, and eventually turned on The Devil Wears Prada. I know, I'm not much of a chick-flick person, but hell, I haven't watched it in a while. As the movie played, I paced around my room, grabbing a black pelt, my gun license, and my small handgun & holster, which were hidden in a safe in the wall, behind a guitar hanging on the wall.
After the movie finished at around 9, I walked into the kitchen. "Pancakes or waffles? Pancakes or waffles? Pancakes or waffles..." I asked myself over and over and over as I decided what was for breakfast. "I had waffles last time. Pancakes it is."
After I finished making my pancakes, I went into the living room. The sun shone through the window, causing the wooden floors to be warm where the sun hit them, which felt nice. I sat on the couch, set the plate on my lap and my coffee on the end table, and turned on Easy A.
After the movie finished up at almost 12, I washed the dishes and put them away, all while talking to myself, listing off the things I had to do around the house in case I have company. Probably not, but still. Just in case. "Clean off the pool table, dust, vacuum the bedrooms, put beer in the fridge," I rambled off to myself. "Wipe off the bar...I think that's it. No, wait, clean the bathrooms. There, that's it."
So I set off to the basement. The stairs down were in the living room, and once I went down, there was a room on the left and one on the right. The one on the left was my computer room, where I recorded and edited. The other room was the bar, that had 2 bedrooms and a bathroom attached to it. The bar was red granite, and shaped like a boxy fedora. Behind the bar was shelves built into the bar, some cabinets, a fridge, and 2 TVs, which were controlled by the same remote, a Harry Potter Wand Remote(I'm kind of a nerd, I know). There was another, much larger TV next to the bar, a black leather couch across from the bar, and a pool table on the end of the room.
After almost 4 hours later, I finished with everything I was supposed to do. Everything was clean, and I was ready for potential company. That's when I realized it was almost 4. "Shit!" I exclaimed, and I ran to the shoe room, grabbing my keys, the tarot card, my phone, and a pair of Fall Out Boy Converse, and ran out the door to the car. I put my shoes on as I drove, at stop lights and such. Once I reached the building, I parked in front of it. It was 4:37. Perfect, I was early.
I looked in the rear-view mirror. "Good God, is that what my hair looks like?!" I asked myself. I looked around the car, looking for a comb or something, a hat even. I found a brush in the glove box, and quickly ran it through my still-slightly-damp hair, before exiting the car, tarot card and phone in hand, and locked the doors. I don't trust anyone in this city. I entered the building. The interior looked old, smelled old too. I didn't mind, it smelled like my first apartment. There were pipes sticking out of the wall, and a set of stairs. I climbed them, and slid the car keys into my pocket, along with my phone. I walked down a short hallway at the top of the stairs, and at the end was apartment 6A. I stood in front of the door. I noticed on the door knob was a small eye engraved on the side. This was it. I grabbed the door knob, and twisted. Locked.
"The one day I don't bring my picking tools," I muttered to myself, slightly pissed. I heard quiet footsteps behind me, and I quietly and quickly flipped the top off of the gun holster.
"You got one too?" a voice asked. I turned around, to see a man wearing a hat standing behind me. He was pale, bald, and about 2 inches taller than me. He too was holding a tarot card.
"Mhm," I said, showing him.
"Well, apparently I wasn't the only one chosen, so I'll just throw my ego to the curb," he said in a tone I couldn't read.
I smirked a little. "Well, my ego might have to follow yours. Don't want it anyways, it's been a bitch these last few days. It's been fighting with my emo."
He laughed a little. "Oh, Merritt McKinney."
"Helena Jackson," I replied.
"A pretty name for a pretty girl."
"Okay, the flattery can stop please."
"Fine, don't take my compliment."
"So, Mr. McKinney. What is your position?"
"Mentalist. You?"
"I'm a YouTuber who's an illusionist. I also do cardistry, sleight of hand, occasional mentalism, you know, fun stuff."
"Very fun. YouTube, eh?"
"Mhm. Gaming, reviews, and a lot of collaborating. Didn't you have a TV show at one point?"
"I did. Never really took off, though. How many subscribers?"
"Almost 5 million."
"Well congrats."
"Thank you. Oh, door's locked."
Then we heard the door downstairs close, and a man and a woman were arguing. "So, actually, um, what, what have you been up to lately?" the man asked, stuttering quite a lot. Not a bad voice, I thought.
"I think you know exactly what I've been up to, Danny, I saw all your anonymous posting on my website," the woman replied, annoyed.
"Oh, you have a website, that's good, good for you, get the word out," the man said, as they turned around off the staircase, and saw me and Merritt.
"Oh," they said in unison, awkwardly.
I took a split second to take in their appearances. The woman was tan, with fiery orange hair and a slim figure. She was wearing a white shirt, a beige overcoat, a brown and white scarf, dark jeans, and black boots. She had a brown purse and a duffel bag, along with a card and a Starbucks cup that read the name Henley.
Then I looked at the man. Medium length, brown hair, a bit of facial hair growing on his cheeks, chin, and upper lip. He wore a black and white stripped sweater, a black coat, jeans, and black shoes. He too was carrying a duffel bag and a card. Please don't let him be like my exes, I thought. He's kinda hot.
The man, who I assumed was name Danny, walked towards us. "Excuse me."
"Door's locked," Merritt and I said.
"Is it, I'll check," he said, and jiggled the door knob.
"Now don't tell me," Merritt said to Henley. "Helen?"
"It's Henley, it's on her cup," I said.
"Just an observation. Second observation, you are beautiful. Both of you," he added, eyeing me as I leaned on the staircase, arms crossed.
"Thank you," Henley said.
"That's very, very nice, very well polished," Danny said. Merritt turned to look at him. "J. Daniel Atlas," he introduced, and held his hand out to shake. Merritt went to shake it, but flipped him off instead. I smirked. I liked this Merritt guy. "Very nice. I know who you are and I just wanted to say I'm not interested in your little mentalism thing, so-"
"I'm sensing that you're a control freak," Merritt said.
"I'm sorry have we met before?" Atlas asked.
"It doesn't take a mentalist to figure that out. You are a control freak," Henley cut in, stepping forward from behind Atlas. Dammit, I thought.
"Well, I take that as a compliment," he said smugly. I really started to not like this guy.
"Only you would take that as a compliment."
"Okay, great another compliment."
Merritt looked at me. "You must be feeling so left out," he whispered.
I shrugged. "Nah. I'm just making mental notes so I can tell everyone later."
Atlas and Henley finally noticed me hiding in the corner. "I'm sorry, we totally forgot about you," Henley apologized.
"It's alright," I said. I was about to introduce myself when Atlas cut in.
"Wait, aren't you that Miss Jackson from YouTube?" he asked. "Yeah, yeah you are. I watched that video you made with Carson Smith on th-th-the two different ways to wake up. That was funny."
I felt flattered. "Well thank you. So, you two clearly know each other."
"I was his assistant," Henley said. "He used to...saw me in half."
"She was a very good assistant," Atlas said.
"But I was too fat for Danny."
"I said that one time-"
"One time or not you still fucked up, man. You don't tell a woman that," I cut in.
"It was because of the trapdoor."
"You built it this small," Henley said, making a small rectangle with her hands. "No one could fit through there, no one."
"Rebecca fit through," Atlas said, and Henley rolled her eyes in anger. "Rebecca fit for years."
"Don't worry, Henley, you're not fat, not at all," I assured her.
"Thank you," Henley said, her face seeming to light up. "I like her."
I gave a cheeky grin, and put the bottom of my hands on the bottom of my chin in an innocent way. Did Atlas just smirk at me? I thought.
"Okay, so he never made you feel special," Merritt said. "And trust me, you deserve to be made to feel special."
"Oh good God," I whispered to myself, pinching my nose bridge. Why do I have a feeling I'm going to be the mom of the group?
"No way," a quiet voice said. We looked up to see another man. This man was short, maybe a centimeter or two taller than me. He had brown hair, tan skin, and innocent facial features, if that makes sense. He was wearing a black leather jacket, jeans, black shoes, and he had a satchel and a card. Kind of an adorable guy. "J. Daniel Atlas? And Helena Jackson?" he asked, stepping towards us. "Dudes, I've seen everything that you've ever done. I-I-I idolize you both. Seriously."
"Ah, a true fan," Atlas said, shaking the man's hand. "Pleasure to meet you."
I walked over to them to shake his hand too. "Good to meet you," I said, smiling shyly.
"I'm Jack, by the way," he said.
"Question, did you get one of these?" Merritt asked, holding up his card.
"Yeah, yeah, death."
"The star," I said.
"The high priestess," Henley added.
"The lover," Daniel said. Henley coughed over the words "3 minutes," which made me grin. Atlas didn't look amused.
"Hermit," Merritt finished.
"So what are we-are we waiting for someone, or- why-why're we-" Jack began.
"Doors locked," we all said.
"Oh, no, nothin', nothing's ever locked," Jack said, smirking. He walked through us, and grabbed some picking tools from his pocket. Atlas looked at me, and gave me a look saying let's see. I nodded. Jack kneeled down in front of the door, and a second later, it popped open.
"Nicely done," I complimented.
The apartment was nasty, made my first place look like a fucking mansion. We all pulled out a phone flashlight or an actual flashlight(cough*cough*Atlas) as we searched the place.
"What is this place?" I heard Henley ask, as I led the group inside, with Atlas right behind me.
"Oh, wow, thought my apartment was nasty."
"Man it's freezing in here," Jack remarked.
We entered a main room, which had a shape engraved into the floor, a note, and a white rose. "What's that?" Henley asked, as I picked up the note.
"What's it say?" Merritt asked.
"Now you don't," I read, with Jack and Atlas looking over my shoulder.
Henley picked up the rose. "A rose, by any other name," she said, as she walked over to a pitcher of water which I hadn't noticed, and dropped the rose in. Water flowed from the bottom.
"Woah," Atlas said.
"Guys what's happening?" Jack asked.
It started filling up the engraving, as we looked on in amazement.
The engraving dropped, and dry ice smoke started to rise from the cracks.
"It's gas," Jack said, sounding worried.
"Relax, kid, it's just dry ice," I assured.
"Wait what do you think this is about?" Atlas asked us.
"Hang on," Merritt said, and he seemed to be concentrating. "I got nothing."
Wow, thanks for the delay Merritt, I thought.
"Okay, thank you. Thank you for the delay," Atlas replied. I don't like that we have the same train of thought.
"Just trying to create the space for wisdom."
"Oh, so you're like Buddha if he wasn't so enlightened."
"Oh, and you're like Jesus if he was arrogant and all of his miracles were fake."
"Okay, lovebirds, get a room," Henley snapped. "Danny, be honest, did you do this?"
"No, wait did either of you?" Atlas asked me and Jack.
"I wish," Jack said.
"Sadly no," I added. "To be honest, I thought I was here for some crazy person to mug me."
Atlas grinned.
"Why didn't ask me if I did it?" Merritt asked. I tried to hold in a laugh.
"Power's out," Jack said, flicking a light switch.
"Well, let's check," Merritt said, and he touched a light bulb in a hanging lamp above him.
Instantly, projectors from all over the room started projecting into the ice smoke. They were blueprints of some sort. We all gathered around them in a circle. Jack was on my right and Atlas was on my left.
"Blueprints," Henley muttered.
"They're incredible," Atlas said.
"I've never seen anything like this," I added in amazement.
"Who do you think did this?" Jack asked.
"I don't know, but I really want to meet them," Henley answered.
"It's a show," I said. "Looks pretty elaborate. It could take a year to set up, maybe more."
"I wonder what this'll lead to," Atlas muttered.
I walked around the gas, and peeked outside the window. In the midst of all of the bused and taxis, I saw a few police cars. "I don't know if here is the place to talk about this."
"Why do you say that?" Merritt asked.
"2 reasons. 1) I feel like if I stay here another minute I'm going to get some sort of disease," I heard Jack laugh a little. "And 2) we just met up and broke into an apartment. Don't you think that if someone saw us they'd draw up some suspicion? We're not the only people in this building you know."
"Good point," Jack said. "Where'll we go? I know my place is way too small."
"My place is in LA," Henley added.
"We could go to my place," I offered, as I walked over to the nearest projector. I saw a flash drive sticking out of it. "It's big enough, and it's clean. As long as you wouldn't mind going to New Jersey."
"I'm in," Jack said. The others nodded.
"Great," I said, and I pulled the flash drive out of the projector. The others walked over to the rest of the projectors, and returned with flash drives. "We can view them on my computers at home. But we should get out of here first."
"To the Enterprise?" Jack asked excitedly.
I smiled at him, and nodded. All of my subscribers knew that I called my car the Enterprise, as in the USS Enterprise from Star Trek. "To the Enterprise."
"What's the Enterprise?" I heard Atlas whisper to Jack.
A/N: Sorry if I use "you" instead of "I". I just wrote a fanfic that's in second person