Smoke & Mirrors

by Doctah WAAwee

The Not-So-Dark Magician.

The sound of cheering people saturates the room. The screams of shock and amazement almost reach a point where they form into a viscous liquid, a sea of surprise, astonishment, and wonder.

The man center stage drinks this non-existent liquid. It is something that thrills him, that feeds his very soul. His tan skin sweating because of the euphoria of the crowd, his brown eyes pinpricks because of the stage lights, his jet black hair matted to the back of his neck, forming hairy, sweat laced stalactites on the back of his head. The looks of shock, confusion, and utter bafflement to him is better than any five star meal this planet can offer.

As he bows and the crowd goes silent, he prepares his final trick for the night. He kicks a pair of handcuffs to the crowd and puts a feather in his pocket.

A man catches the cuffs and cheers.

"Don't let your wife catch you with those." The magician said.

The crowd laughs.

"Alright ladies and gents, time for my final trick of the night! May I get a volunteer?"

Most of the crowd raised their hands. Ranging from innocent, but ironically the hardest to trick children to old men that could either bore you, or fascinate you with tales of their glory years.

The magician decided to challenge himself.

"How bout..." he threw a card he had stashed away to the crowd, and it landed in between the middle and ring finger of a 10 year old girl "you?"

The girl squealed and ran, much to her parents disapproval, towards the stage.

"Now now little one, slow down. You wouldn't want to get a scrape out would you?" The magician waved his index finger and made a 'tsh, tsh, tsh' sound.

"Sorry mister, I was just so-" the girl stopped when she was met with the same finger that was waved.

"Don't fret none, now-" with a flick of his wrist three lollipops appeared between his four fingers, the girl gasped "grape, lime, or cherry?" she snatched up the cherry flavored treat. He chuckled "We think alike, you and I, cherry is my fav too." The girl smiled. But the man frowned.

"Oh no..."

The girl became worried "what's wrong mister?" she asked.

"I just wondered...what if we're...too alike?" The magician gasped, and so did the little girl and the entire crowd, because the magician...

Just spoke in the little girls voice!

"Oh, oh no! Where's my voice!?"

"I'm over here! Next to the table!" The original voice of the man said. The magicians lips didn't move at all, and the voice sounded like it emanated near the table.

"Quick little one, as nice as your voice is I wouldn't want to have it forever!"

They both walked over to the table. The magician cupped his hand, opened his mouth, and moved his hand towards his mouth. He pretended to swish something in his mouth and then swallowed.

"*Ahem* testing, testing one two...okay we're good!"

The crowd clapped once more in awe of what he did.

"Okay, now-" the man took his sleeves from his tux and ripped it off "nothing up my sleeves" he folded them and put them on the table.

He then took the table cloth and quickly slid it off, the sleeves stayed "nothing under the table" he took his sleeves off the table to reveal a pack of cards, it was a black box with a hazy looking S, and a clear, mirror like M combined into each other, the girl was still sucking on her lollipop.

"How did that get there?" she asked.

"Magic."

The man took the cards and shuffled them...to put it lightly, the tricks and things he did with those cards cannot be put into a one word summary.

After he did that, he spread the cards face down and stated the magician's catch-phrase, and a very effective pick up line.

"Pick a card, and don't show it to me"

The girl picked a card.

"Now, memorize it and put it back into the deck."

The girl did what she was told, she finished her lollipop.

"Need somewhere to put that stick?" The man asked. The girl nodded. He took out a nice silk handkerchief that had the same S&M logo on it that the cards had and put it on the table. The girl put the little stick on the handkerchief.

"Now..." the man shuffled the deck and spread them out face up the table...

"It isn't there!" The girl exclaimed.

"Are you sure?" the magician asked. The girl looked at the cards again.

"Yes! It isn't there!" She affirmed.

"Well, let me think for a sec-" he clapped his hands together "I know were it is!" he took the stick that the girl put on his handkerchief and began to peel it. The girl and the crowd gasped in shock...

The card was in the lollipop stick!

"Ha...how-" The girl started, but she was interrupted by the card suddenly bursting into flames.

"Oh...looks like that card didn't have long for this world...a moment of silence for the lost..." The man said.

The lights in the room where starting to act weird, the man smiled.

"That card is in a better place though...look up."

The girl and the crowd looked to see...

The ace of spades formed out of the lights of the stage!

The crowd was ecstatic, the cheers threatened to deafen the poor magician.

"AMIAS DOLUM LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! WASN'T THAT AWESOME!?"

The announcer screamed his praises to the magician, he took his final bow and left the stage.

The magician left and headed straight to the bar, he ordered a sarsaparilla and began his after show cool down.

'Another day, another trick, another smile.' He thought.

"To me!" he raised his cup and began to drink the oh-so refreshingly cold drink.

"I can drink to that." Said a feminine voice. He turned to see a...VERY attractive women. She had a tight black dress on, on the verge of skimpy and moderate. It showed enough to make someone interested, but not enough to judge her off the bat. The simplicity of it all was what made it so sexy. She had light caramel skin and her lips had this subtle shine to them.

"You were impressive out there."

"I can say the same to you."

The girl laughed "cute" she held out her hand "the names Eve."

Amias raised his eyebrows. "Ohh, the temptress" he met her hand with his, gave it a shake, and left a little surprise in her hand. She smiled and looked at the card he left in her hand.

"Amais Dolum: Smoke and Mirrors Inc." She read out-loud. She looked to him, piercing him with her deep hazel eyes. "I didn't even feel you do that."

"That won't be a problem if we get to know each other."

The women laughed again. "Someone's got lines, okay I'll bite."

"Want to have a little dinner? I know this great restaurant down the road, and after that I'll bring you home."

She raised her eyebrows "how did you know I didn't use my car?"

"You just told me Eve."

She just stared at him. He laughed, and she smiled.

"Don't think your gonna get lucky tonight."

"I'm a patient man. I've come to respect the fruit that takes time to ripe, makes it that much sweeter. Let's just hope that this fruit doesn't make God cross with me."

They exited the building and went towards a sleek black Corvette, it also had the S&M logo on its hood.

"Impressive."

"I agree." Amias opened the side door for Eve "after you, my lady" he said.

"And here I was thinking Chivalry was dead." Eve said with a smirk.

They both went into the car, Amais started it up, and they were off.

Eve saw a brown card on the floor. Curious, she picked it up and flipped it over...

"Dark Magician?" She asked. Amias nodded.

"A few years back I was a yu-gi-oh nerd, one day I grew out of it and sold all my cards...except that one."

"Why?"

"Ehh, just couldn't let him go. Won too many duels with the dude, so I keep him around...I usually have him on my person during shows as a good luck charm. I hope that doesn't come back to bite me on the ass."

The conversation ended. The only sound that was heard was the road passing them by.

"Did anyone tell you that you have a uncanny resemblance to Beyonce?" Amais asked, breaking the silence.

"Many people, but I-" She stopped when a bright flash of light blinded both Amias and herself.

The car started to go out of control, the light was getting so strong that they couldn't even see their own hands.

"W-What's happening!?" Eve started to panic.

"I-I-I Don't know!"

"This better not be some trick to impress me!"

"I-I-It isn't I-"

Darkness...

Pain...

That was the only thing going though Amias's mind as he regained consciousness.

He was laying down, his clothes shredded, his body weak.

He was fading in and out of consciousness, but he managed to perceive the fact that he was in a forest.

On the exterior he was almost still, but in his mind he was panicking. How did he get into a forest almost naked and possibly bleeding?

What happened to Eve? Is she alright?

With all his might he tried to turn his head, hoping to find the woman he met at the bar. After what felt like an eternity of searching, he found her...

His heart dropped.

She was a mess, bleeding profusely, her dress non-existent, blood caked her beautiful dirty blonde hair...

He wanted to scream her name, but his chest and lungs hurt too much to utter a word.

"Well, isn't this our lucky day!" His thoughts were interrupted by a voice that sounded a little too excited to find two possibly mortally wounded people in need of critical care.

"Gals, we got a live one here!" The voice sounded again, Amias slowly turned his head, expecting to see boots because of the weight in this girls footsteps...

What he got though was a...horse.

A yellow, blue maned, rosy-eyed, horse....wait.

With a HORN. A unicorn, a talking unicorn.

Before he had a chance to scream, a gag was found in his mouth. He squirmed, tried to get away, but the horse somehow made him still. The horn on her head producing a blue aura.

Several other ropes found their place on his body, within 3 seconds he was completely immobilized.

"And what a LOOKER it is too, that skin color sure is a rare find. That outta double its price! We'll get a FINE lump of bits in Canterlot. Seems to have quite the muscle, it'll be able to survive without food for some time..."

Amias's eyes grew wide, 'price', He was gonna be sold!?

"What about this one? It's alive, but barely." Another voice said. The yellow one turned her head.

"Put her out of her misery, we got enough females on the caravan, don't waste your magic on it, just give it a good buck."

Silence...Amias knew that they were gonna kill her, the only good thing was that his line of sight was-

*CRACK!*

The sound of something being struck was heard...and the gurgling that followed with it will forever scar Amias.

"It ain't dead!" The murderer said.

"Hit it harder then!" the yellow one said.

*CRACK!*

*CRACK!*

*CRACK!*

...

The silence was deafening.

"We don't want this one here to be spooked, we might have just killed it's mate, blindfold it." Yet another voice said.

"Yes ma'am!" They blindfolded Amias, and started hauling in his immobile form into the caravan...

"Starlight! Make sure you wash your hooves before going inside! Don't want any human staining the hallways!"

"Yes, Miss Rainsuger!" The voice dubbed Starlight said.

None of the mare's noticed the tears pooling on Amias's blindfold.

Author's Note:

This is just an experiment. I've been interested in this type of story ever since I read "Chains" and ever since I saw the movie "Now You See Me" I've had this idea floating in my head.

Comments

[omega-ze-wargod]

that got dark pretty damn fast

[Ignis Mortis et Doloris]

1. Imma follow this shiz.
2. Shit just hit the fan.
3. 24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m9smscyoe61rzhv5ho1_250.gif

[IkioStar]

....Why do I get the feeling that I have become quite angry? ...Hmn...Quite a quandary....