The Magician

Chapter 1, Andrew

Chapter One

Andrew

I was walking down the hall. Just walking down the hall, I hadn't done anything to disturb them. Yet they came up to me, pushed me against the wall and broke my glasses in two as they usually did. The smallest of them, who was ironically their "leader", stepped forward.

"Hey magic boy, any tricks for us today?" he said to me.

He was a small squirmy little rat-faced thing. His name was Niall Fay. He called me "magic boy" due to my small way of making a living, I was a magician. Not the sort of stupid pick a card, pull a rabbit out of a hat magician. I was a professional, I was a master of illusion. The idiots I was supposed to call classmates didn't see it so. They just thought I was a stupid little boy who was living the dream of a five-year-old.

"Leave me alone", I said to Niall and his thugs,"I need to study".

"Oh does Harry Potter here need to study, well alright then if you just give us a little bit of your time we'll be done in no time". Here we go again, I thought.

I went to my apartment after that to get a bit of peace and quiet. I took out my books and began to read. We had a field trip coming up and I wanted to be prepared for any surprise questions or quizzes that they might have. We were going to the National gallery in two days time and I was very excited. I loved art, to think someone could just get colours and put them together to make such an amazing, beautiful creation is just amazing. Sadly I was not that skilled myself. I stuck to subjects like advanced science, astronomy and physics, much simpler. Anyway, when I finished my reading I went back to the street.

I lived in a small apartment above a studio on O'Connell Street. I performed and practiced some of my more daring tricks in the studio. There was one trick I had practicing for a long time and hoped to unveil it soon. I called it "The Grand Stampede". It was a big trick in which I intended to perform outside on the street. I would have three horses lined up beside each other and I would begin by riding on the middle horse. I would then proceed to magically appear on each of the horses backs as I rode up and down the stree, and in conclusion I have my friends cover me and the horses in a large sheet, and when the sheet was lifted, the steeds would be gone and I would be alone.                        I had all the science figured out for it, all the maths was right, there was just one thing missing, the money. As you can imagine there's not as much of a demand for amateur illusionists as there once was, so money was of a slight shortage. But with a little help I hope to unveil "The Grand Stampede" to the world!

I walked down O'Connell street. There were always a variety of people on the street, all going in different directions, to different destinations. Like different trains, going to different stations. I passed the McDonalds were I usually got my lunch, it was busy, as usual, but there was an eerie air about the place. the news was playing on a tv in the corner and there were a few people gathered around it. I walked into the fast-food establishment to see what all the fuss was about. I saw a man huddled over in a cloak on the screen. He looked old and pasty, pale, like he hadn't gone outside in years. A caption on the screen read,"Boat transporting oil destroyed by ravaging whirlpool". I watched a bit more and it said that the old man had been the only survivor, who was found unconcious on a large piece of driftwood. Weird, I thought as I walked away from the McDonalds.