Lainey and the Magicians (First Draft)

Chapter 8

 The second person appeared like something out of a shaded-in realistic drawing with their short dark hair and brown eyes. Armor stretched down to their feet with a dark cloak wrapped around at the neck. Both of these figures were recognizable to Lainey.

"Lainey Paris, we're here to help you." 

 Suddenly, Lainey could speak again. She wouldn't give in. Some kind of bond was keeping her in place, and she was tongue-tied. What would she say? Everyone always said that your life would flash before your eyes before you went through a traumatic experience. Right now, the thousands of doors and the two figures were trauma to her. She didn't want to reach down for the memories she'd pushed out of her mind long ago when she'd been wandering around the streets of Salt, Arizona, doing all she could to stay alive after she'd been abandoned. It made her recall when Chris had broken up with her during a stand-up comedy act and he made thousands of dollars off her anger at his remarks. She was the person who suggested that he tried comedy in the first place as a secondary career to his other activities. She shut her eyes at the thoughts. Christopher Tom wouldn't be on her mind right now. 

 Not even her past with indie records and Lantis of the band Haz could be a priority in this mess. Stepping toward Lainey, the first figure's presence lit her insides on fire. She didn't want to know who it was. She didn't want to understand who it was. She'd seen it in enough lifetimes, enough years, to stop herself from looking at the shattered pieces of the past. Inside the distant past, she thought that she was being virtuous, kind, and loving. She thought that it was right to steal jewels from an unjust government and to be a 'light in the darkness.' When she'd joined the magicians while she had been rich, she always thought that it was just like being whisked away in a fantasy novel into another world for greater purposes. 

 When Lainey was twelve years old, she had gone off the deep end and ran away from home for a week in Vegas with some of her friends from school. That was were she had unknowingly met her first magician dark lord who had been selling potions to people inside a fancy casino lobby and she bought some of the potions for her Halloween decorations for her new room in the Shira District, a wealthy district in Vegas, owned by companies from the tropical island in the North Pole called Minapo. Anyway, Lainey couldn't believe her past. The second figure was a few inches away from her face. Did they say anything else?

  Her shock kept her from paying much attention. However, she wouldn't let that happen. She would observe her way around and find a way out. She stepped backward. She may even have had to play the game for this one. They could have been tricking her magically, but she did know that was in a place with thousands of doors. She'd never got to the point in her training when she'd been a magician for two years for these doors to be relevant. If there had been something she'd missed, the energy must have gripped her to the point of almost no return. "We brought you here because we wanted to have a discussion away from prying eyes."

 "That doesn't make any sense because there are pumpkin heads scattered around the area with candles. What, are the pumpkin heads made out of wax or something?" Lainey inquired, moving her hands toward the pumpkin heads that were next to the candles. "If this is what I think it is, how can you still be sure that there are no prying eyes to hear our conversation? Even then, I'm willing to consider coming back to the magicians," Lainey lied. She had to use what she had been taught, what she had used many times before to trick people out of their money and out of certain things for her life as a magician who doubled as a member of Emerald's gang. "I'm afraid that some anti-magician might have hidden some devices inside this room. In fact, there are thousands of doors and they could be waiting to jump out." And yell surprise, Lainey thought to herself. Her 17th birthday was coming up next October. Hopefully, she'd be on Mars by then and have started a new solitary life. 

 The second figure deviously grinned at her. He must have thought that she was clever. "We've taken all the necessary precautions to avoid any unnecessary surprises, but we don't want Pumpkin to hear what we have to offer you." 

 Why were they doing this? This was a trick. This was the middle-aged magician who'd she met one time in Vegas and a few times off and on during her run as Shadow Rider. Lainey frowned back at the second figure. For the life of her, she couldn't remember his name. She kept her hands at her sides. "Okay. What is it that you have to offer me?" Besides some stupid potions with powerful properties, she thought to herself as she asked. 

 "We want to offer you a chance to be able to hack the mainframe, and you can have whatever else you want. You don't have to accept this offer, but you can consider it. If you accept, you can proceed to try your best to reform things. Many of us are in unrest involving having Pumpkin as our leader and the goals of our organization have strayed too far from its roots. We've become warmongers and villains. We're no longer heroes like we always thought that we were, and many of us applaud your bravery for leaving in the midst of darkness. You just hadn't thought of all the possibilities, Shadow Rider."

"If I come back, the new Shadow Rider would be my rival and I don't want to use dark magic to my advantage," Lainey remarked. Riders were supposed to be dark and they had dark magic affinity, which could bring disastrous effects on the mind of a human rider. 

"You wouldn't have to be a Rider, but you'd be welcomed back into the fold and given a second chance. They just wouldn't know that you're reforming on the inside if you're careful enough not to lose out all your secrets in one gulp." The second figure said back.

 All magic use was tracked by the Magicians. How would she know if these people weren't being tracked? Why would they offer her this? What did they expect would happen? For a second, Lainey wanted to say yes and be able to reform the organization. She could lead the magicians and bring the greatness that she believed that the organization was destined for. How did these people know her so well? Everything sounded good to the heart, but how could she be sure if they were being honest? The second figure grabbed her hand. "You can trust us, Lainey." The second figure's body suddenly shifted! He became a different person in front of her with a yellow mask with cut out triangle eyes and a wide-opened triangular mouth. "In fact, we'll even consider being commanded by you." The first figure shifted as well from Lainey Paris and became an almost twin to the second figure. 

 "Why did you freeze me before you brought me here?" Lainey asked the first figure.