Magic As A Whole

Chapter 10

"Lula I'm late" I say over the phone pacing in a public bathroom in one of the stalls.

"Late, what do you mean late? Ow!" she says then I hear a bang and her groan.

"My period is late, and I'm never late, what are you doing?" I say still pacing.

"Uh nothing, and maybe you should go get a pregnancy test I mean aren't you getting it on with Dylan?" she says and I run my hand through my hair.

"Yeah, I have some right now I'm just waiting for them to be ready or whatever, I just needed someone to talk to. And stop avoiding the question. What. Are. You. Doing?" I say slowly.

"Setting up a magic trick?" she asks more than tells me and I glare at the wall.

"And where exactly is this 'magic trick' being set up at?" I ask her.

"At your apartment?" she asks and I can tell she is being sheepish about it.

"Which one?" I ask glancing at my watch waiting for the right time to look at the tests.

"Guillotine one and it isn't for you it's for Daniel, I wanted to see what's up before we meet later, I mean you do know..." she trails off.

"Yeah I know we are meeting later, okay time is up. I'm scared what happens if I am, I don't think Dylan and I were careful last month during my birthday" I say nervously biting my lip.

"Hey, hey calm down, I'm sure when you tell Dylan he will be happy and won't freak out, or well maybe he will and be like 'what why didn't you tell me you could have gotten hurt doing horseman stuff because of how things have gone recently' or something like that" Lula says and is groan.

"Lula that isn't helping but I'm turning them over now" I say butterflies in my stomach flipping the tests I had taken one by one each of them saying the same thing

"Positive, Lula they're all positive what do I do?" I ask now completely terrified, "I can't tell Dylan he won't let me do whatever we are going to be doing for the next few months or so...If I tell him after whatever we are doing do you think he'll be mad?"

"Nah, I doubt he would be mad at you, I mean unless you put yourself purposefully into danger and he finds out that you were pregnant then he may get mad at you, but I doubt you would do anything like that in the first place, or maybe you would" Lula says and I shake my head at her rambling.

"If it involves Dylan I won't leave his side, I'd rather not get in danger but sometimes love does that to you" I say getting the tests and tossing them into the trash and wash my hands.

"Yeah, so don't worry, but I have to get back to this, do you happen to know when Daniel is going to be back by any chance?" Lula asks and I think for a second.

"He mentioned something about meeting with someone or something, I honestly think he is doing something like trying to get in contact with the Eye or something that's going to end up causing problems later, that man is just impatient sometimes. But I'll talk to you later at the place we need to meet, I'm supposed to meet Merritt and Jack there to practice some card throwing for a bit, but maybe go for an appointment to see if I actually am pregnant or not" I tell her.

"Right, do that first then I'll see you later!" she says then pauses for a second, "Wait you already have an appointment?" she asks.

"Yeah , I was worried earlier this week since I'm more than two weeks late so I made an appointment under Hailey Smith just to check, I said I was out of town for business and if I am I'll check back with my actual Doctor, but I'm sure It will be fine." I say trying to shrug it off even though I was panicking inside.

"Alright if you're sure, I'll see you later" Lula yells before hanging up and I start walking to my appointment.

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After my appointment which turned out to be right, I was really pregnant and was now really worried but I shouldn't stress as it wasn't good at all but trying to push down those feelings I made my way to the alleyway that Jack and Merritt were in throwing cards, well more like Jack was throwing and Merritt was only getting them a few inches away from himself.

"Harmony!" Jack yells out jogging over to me and I hug him.

"Jack!" I yell out as well grinning and then glancing at Merritt raising my eyebrow. "What no hug for me from you Merritt I'm hurt" I say giving a wounded look but joking at the same time when Merritt walks over and side hugs me.

"I wouldn't dream of forgoing your hug Harmony" Merritt says jokingly, "Do you know what Dylan has to tell us? I mean since you hang out with him he must tell you some things right?" Merritt asks and I shrug.

"Nope I haven't a clue, maybe we are finally going to plan something," I say lying a bit because I knew at least we were going to Introduce Lula as a new Horsemen.

As we were waiting Jack was again trying to teach Merritt to throw a card.

"It's all in the wrist, let the momentum of the card do the work for you" Jack explains while throwing a card as it goes through and old abandoned car in the alleyway.

"Mmm-hmm" Merritt says watching closely trying to memorize what Jack was doing it seemed.

"This last one I call the Stall." Jack says as he tosses the card behind him catching it then tossing it making it land on the hood of the old car.

Merritt whistles while I clap, "Not bad. Now you want to see a thing of beauty?" he asks us and I nod hoping he actually got better since the last time he did a few minutes ago.

"Yes, I definitely do" I tell him.

"I do indeed" Jack says grinning and Merritt goes to throw the card.

"Here you go. And bingo bango bongo." Merritt says enthusiastically only for the card to again go partially in the air then fall to the ground in front of the car.

"Well, it's better than the last few times you've done it" I say trying to be positive.

"That's good. No, no, no, it's good to be positive despite making zero progress in a year." Jack says nodding his head though I can see him being a bit disappointed that Merritt still hasn't gotten the hang of it.

"Yeah" Merritt says nodding his head but still smiling making me grin at him.

"Whereas when it comes to hypnotism, the student has almost become the master." Jack brags out and I roll my eyes.

"You sure about that, I think you are a bit too cocky right now Jack" I say with a shrug.

"I like your confidence, but you might say that you have the better teacher." Merritt responds with a comeback.

"Ohhh!" I say giggling at the two of them joking around.

"Yeah. You know you're right. You're right." Jack says as he tosses some cards in the air one by one still holding the deck in his hand. "Your teacher definitely doesn't know what he's doing" Jack says catching a the Ace of Spades in his hand, "By the way was this your card yesterday?" he asks and Merritt looks impressed.

"In fact it was" Merritt says.

"I thought so," Jack says before tossing it only for a motorcycle to roll in that Danny was riding.

"Not bad Jack" I say and Jack noticed Danny turning to Merritt.

"If I can hypnotize Danny before you hit him with a card, I get top bunk for a week." Jack says and Merritt shakes his hand.

"Okay, that's a deal." Merritt says agreeing.

"Hey Danny!" I yell as I walk over to him Jack and Merritt trailing after me.

"Danny, what's up, man?" Jack says walking over to Danny.

"Hey" Danny says and Jack reaches for his hand before he can say anything else.

"Stare at the palm of your hand and as your eyes change focus, you will begin to notice..." Jack says trying to hypnotize Danny but Danny cuts him off.

"Everything, because I'm not hypnotized. It's not working. Please don't become him." Danny says as we start to walk inside and I laugh at Jack's failed attempt, "I also didn't know you guys did party tricks when there weren't floozies around to impress." He inputs making me laugh more.

"Uh, I think we stopped trying to impress floozies in, like, 1937." Merritt remarks to Danny.

"Okay someone broke into Harmony and my apartment, all right?" Danny says rather frustrated and I look at him with fake concern knowing it was Lula.

"Wait, what!! Did you not lock the door Danny?" I say shoving his side and he glares are me.

"Of course I locked it, I never not lock it! But it was some amateur who knew everything about me, everything about Henley leaving, and everything about us." Danny says as we walk into the room where Lula was sitting on a table and Dylan was next to her. "That's her." He says confused.

"Hey" Lula says enthusiastically.

"Hi" Danny says leaning against the railing a bit confused.

"You've met..." Dylan stars but I cut him off.

"LULA!" I yell happily rushing down the stairs and hopping next to her.

"Yeah, Lula you've met Lula" Dylan says and I see Danny glaring at me slightly and I shrug.

"I've met her. What is she doing here?" Danny says rudely.

"I'm the new Horseman, I'm the new Girl Horseman. Whoo! Yeah! Nobody? No excitement? Jack? Anything? At least Harmony was enthusiastic " Lula says standing up off the table.

"Dylan, tell me what's going on here" Merritt says as he walks down the stairs over to Dylan the others following him.


"Well, Lula's been on the underground scene for the last decade, and I think she has some real talent, and I'd like to try her on stage to balance out the Trio" Dylan says.

"What? No, are you serious, man? After Henley left, you said I could get back on stage again" Jack says with a look of defeat on his face, "Not someone who just showed up."

"I told you I'd think about it, and I have, and I really need you behind the scenes with me for a little while longer." Dylan says putting his hand on Jack's shoulder with a sorry expression.

"Dylan, come on. I've been behind the scene my whole life." Jack responds.

"Which is a crime, might I ad. Have you seen that man's face?" Lula points out and I laugh at her describing Jack as handsome.

"Much as I appreciate the addition of some more feminity to the group that Harmony doesn't have, over and above what Atlas also provides, I think the real issue is we've been in this..."

"Yeah the issue is that we have been rehearsing for months for something...we don't even know what it is." Danny starts to argue to Dylan.

"And you're going to keep working until.."

"Until we work as a single organism. I know, I've heard you say that. The thing is, when you say that I think what you're referring to is us, not you." Danny points out.

"Listen, I'm getting my orders directly from the Eye Okay? And then I give them to you. Now, if you don't like that you're welcome to go." Dylan says stopping Danny's argument.

"No, I'm not going anywhere. But I'm...mmm. I'm taking care of myself" Danny says and I groan not wanting us to fight.

"Guy, can I just weigh in here really quickly? Because I think I see what's going on here. You guys are this amazing tight-knit family unit. I'm a new person..." Lula tries to defuse the tension"

"Lula" I say warningly.

"No, no, no, no we are anything but a family" Merritt interrupts.

"Okay, well, my mother literally knifed my father in the neck one time. So you are actually a little bit like my family unit." Lula says.

"Literally?" Merritt asks.

"But, yeah. It was an accident, I think" Lula trails off.

"Okay. So, does this mean we're actually going to do something?" Merritt asks trying to get away from whatever Lula was talking about.

"Yes, you've all heard of Octa and their playboy CEO, Owen Case. His partner, Walter Mabry, died about a year ago. You wanna know what all this has been leading to?" Dylan asks.

"Yeah" Lula says.

"Octa's hosting the launch of the next-gen cell phone. Once these phones hit the streets, they'll siphon their users' information to the black market. Meaning Octa's selling privacy to up their profit. So, the Eye has decided to expose them for it. Our mission is to hijack the show. Rehearsal's over, guys. This is what we've been waiting for. Now it's time to get to work" Dylan says as we each turn on our lights to see the blue prints.

"When is this?" I ask.

"Two months from Tuesday" Dylan responds and I glance over the information on the sheet thinking about how I know I should tell Dylan but I will after this.

"Right, just wanted to be sure, so we have about another two months to prepare right?" I ask and Dylan nods.

"Yeah just about two months to get picture perfect with your magic tricks" Dylan says and I grin glancing at Lula then Jack, Merritt and Danny.

"Well guys this is it, we ready to go and get this done?" I ask and they nod in agreement.
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Sorry for the wait, I've been busy with writing papers and studying for finals. Good news is I have only two weeks left of my semester so once it's over I can get back into writing this!