Now You See Me: Daniel Atlas

Chapter Three: Settle In

As Carly continues to inspect the projections with everyone else, Henley finally speaks up.

"Well! We're going to need a place to stay," Henley starts to plan. "Probably here in New York."

"Not mine," Daniel says quickly.

"My apartments open," Carly turns towards everyone and shrugs. "I got two extra bedrooms, a couch and an air mattress. Plus a roommate but she mostly stays at her boyfriends anyway."

"Carly's it is!" Henley squeals.

While everyone files out of the room, Carly reaches up and pulls out a USB drive that was plugged into one of the cameras. She then leads the group to her apartment and buzz them all in. After three flights of stairs, Daniel starts to complain, but by then they already made it to her door.

Carly quickly starts to think up a story for all these new people for when Jaelyn comes back from her shopping spree. After giving a mini tour of the place, Henley claims a bedroom while Merritt calls the couch. Daniel and Jack play rock, paper, scissors for the bedroom. Daniel obviously lost and was obviously upset by the outcome.

Running into her own room, Carly starts the download from the USB before pulling out her phone and leaving her bedroom again.

"I'm ordering pizza, what do you want?" She yells to everyone. After hearing an array of orders, Carly puts in for one large pepperoni and one medium Hawaiian. As they await for their food, everyone goes to their separate spaces to get settled in. Going back into her room, Carly starts to sift through the downloaded files.

Arthur Tressler, Etienne Forcier, Credit Republicain de Paris, Las Vegas, New Orleans, 5 Pointz, and so much more was listed and how to accomplish these very specific scams. It was thorough and thought out and would take over a year to complete everything. Carly quickly starts the printing process just as the doorbell rings.

Getting to the door, Daniel stands uncomfortably close behind her and watches as the door opens to reveal the pizza boy and her roommate behind him.

"Guess who I found!" Jaelyn exclaims. "I already paid, but I needed him to carry the pizza because my hands are full."

Jaelyn giggles and waltz inside, not entirely caring for the group of people. Carly follows her with the pizza and starts to divvy things out in the kitchen before calling for people to come and grab some food. Everyone takes a seat in the living room, Jaelyn facing me as she takes a bite of her pizza.

"Okay, now explain what's happening," Jaelyn says with raised eyebrows.

Carly quickly explains that they all met at the same place and are all some pretty well known magicians and illusionists, so they wanted to see if they'd be able to start up their own group together to help project one another into the industry. Jaelyn nods agreeing and not questioning anything.

"As long as y'all stay tidy, I don't mind," Jaelyn says with a smile before taking another huge bite of her pizza.

Throughout the night, everyone talked and got to know more about each other. They learned that Henley was Daniel's old assistant and they liked to argue, A LOT. Merritt was really funny and loved to joke around with others. Jack was just like a shy puppy. He occasionally said a joke and got the group to unwind. After about two hours everyone starts to get sleepy and Carly checks the time. 9:52pm. Everyone starts to head to their separate rooms or places to get ready for bed. Carly puts on some purple shorts and a white tee before walking out and grabbing Daniel and bringing him into her bedroom.

"Whoa, I'm really not that interested in you." He says once they both get behind a closed door. She just glares at him and hands him one of the packets she made for the group with all the information that was given to them. "What's this?"

"It's from a USB I got from that nasty apartment," Carly says and takes a stand next to him to look at the documents. "It's all the info we need for this show to work."

"Wow this is amazing!" Daniel says and thumbs through it all. He then looks over at Carly, their faces too close for either of them. "How long will all this take?"

"About a year or so. I figured we should first get Tressler to be our benefactor than it should all fall into place from there," Carly explains and he just nods looking back down at the packet. Her face goes red, but she doesn't try to hide it. "I'll give the others their packets in the morning. We can strategize then."

"Okay, well goodnight, Carly." He starts to leave with the packet.

"Goodnight, Daniel," Carly whispers back as he closes the door behind himself. Once the door is shut, Carly's hands slap her cheeks as her face gets hot again.

What a strange feeling?