Patrick Nineteen: Watch Your Back

Friday was here, and I was under the stage of the Pantages with Emmanuel, getting ready to test the trapdoor platform. My security detail, Francis, whom I had hired recently, was patrolling the hallways, and had been since we got here, making sure no one went in or out of the underneath part of the stage. I had begun protecting myself at shows with my bodyguard in an attempt to prevent a repeat of what had happened at the Starlight Theater seven years ago. Seven years? Had it really been that long since I was at the Starlight? I didn't want to say it 'felt like yesterday' but I had never expected time to go by that quickly. I had been performing here for about three months now, and so far, everything had being going smoothly. This was the first time since going back to work that I was going to be performing my buried alive illusion again, and I wanted to make sure it wouldn't end up like it had last time. It helped that the rig for the platform at the Pantages was multiple times thicker than the one at Starlight, so it wouldn't be so easy to tamper with.

"Ready?"

I nodded, and Emmanuel pulled the lever that opened the trapdoor. We had put the coffin for the buried alive illusion on it as a test run to check if everything was working properly. In hindsight, I should have done this when I first started working with trapdoors, but I couldn't change that now. I was just lucky I lived to learn from my mistakes. We heard a click and the door opened, revealing the box, which was coming down on the platform like it should, gently and slowly. Unlike last time, one of the three of us had been under the stage the whole time we were setting up for my show, so we would have seen someone try to mess with my equipment. If something happened this time, only one of us was to blame. After one more run through of the order of tricks I was going to do for the night, it was showtime.

I performed a few parlor tricks, such as turning my wand into a bouquet of flowers, then handing them to a lady in the front row, as well as sawing Ephemera in half and then successfully putting her back together. After a little more misdirection, I built up to what the crowd had been waiting to see tonight. My buried alive illusion. I waved my hands around, generating some little blue energy balls in my left palm, and then revealed the coffin I was going to be placed in, the one that Emmanuel and I had tested earlier. I stood on top of it, and Ephemera spun it around, showing the audience that it was one solid piece of wood with no secret openings.

I stepped off of the coffin and Ephemera opened it, spinning it around once more to show the audience it was just a regular coffin. Then I got inside it. Ephemera shut the lid and then I heard her hammering it closed. I also heard some gasps from the audience, and chuckled to myself. I listened for the knock on the lid that Ephemera always did to let me know the curtain had been put down, as that was my queue to start my escape. I felt the box start to move as it was being lowered. Once I got down to the bottom of the stage, I popped open a panel that contained the trick handle for the lid. Ephemera had indeed nailed the lid shut, but what the audience didn't know was that the actual lid was thicker. The fake lid had just enough space for nails to be put into it, but it wasn't deep enough to actually nail the coffin shut. After getting out of the coffin, I shut it, climbed onto the top of it, and signaled Emmanuel to raise it back up. All this happened in a matter of less than two minutes.

After my grand finale, the audience applauded, and I felt amazing, having successfully pulled off the illusion without any complications, until I saw Katya's face. She looked sad, as if she was longing for something. People began filing out of the auditorium, and I started packing up my stage props. I was getting quite fast at cleaning everything up, and with Emmanuel and Ephemera there to help, we were done in no time. I felt like celebrating, so I invited everyone to come with me to a late dinner. Emmanuel and Francis said they were going to drop the equipment off first before going to the restaurant, which I agreed was a good idea. I went over to Katya and helped her out of her seat, giving her a hug as she got up. We walked out of the auditorium, and just as we were entering the hallway, someone tapped me on my shoulder.

"Too bad I wasn't successful at that last attempt on your life. You better watch your back, Hunter."

I turned around, but no one was there. Someone was trying to kill me? I knew that competition wanted me off the scene because I had an illusion that was the most unique in town right now, and that was why my equipment had been sabotaged, but they had wanted to go so far as murder? I secretly hoped Katya hadn't heard that because the last thing I wanted to do was quit my magic career. I loved it, and I had never let fear stand in the way of anything I did, which was the reason I was so successful. I knew I was a threat, especially for Jaxson Santorini. He wasn't exactly unpopular, people still liked his stuff, and his face was on billboards all over town, but he wasn't the newest act around anymore. As far as I know, he was still at the Starlight, and me being at the Pantages was probably something he despised. Of course, I had no evidence to convict Jaxson of anything, even though I was fairly certain he was the one behind the threat. I knew he was jealous when I got a gig at the Starlight, as if I was intruding on his territory. I wondered why if he was so famous, he'd never been offered an upgrade to the Pantages, but I'd be willing to guess his attitude rubbed people the wrong way. He was a great magician, but his people skills were horrendous.

I took a walk with Katya to The Plaza after dinner. The city lights were gorgeous, and I had managed to put that death threat out of my mind for the night. I stayed in my theater clothes because I was having a lot of fun, and I wasn't about to let the wierd occurrence damper my mood. Katya and I sat down on a bench to spend some time together.

"Patrick, your show was great, but what did that person mean when they said 'their last attempt at your life was unsuccessful?' Do you have enemies? I'm scared."

Fuck. She heard that. I looked at Katya, trying to make her feel less scared, but I didn't really know if that was even possible. She had already almost lost me once, it's no wonder she was afraid.

"Ahh, well... Jaxson Santorini has always been my main competition. He didn't like it that I got so popular at Starlight. I have a feeling he might have been the one who tampered with my equipment that night."

"How are you going to stay safe, Patrick? He's threatening you again, obviously."

"I have my security detail, he's good, he's ex-military. I can tell him to make sure Jaxson stays away from anything I own. Francis always goes with the truck to pick up and drop off the equipment."

"What about while it's in storage?"

"I've got a secure location that's always locked up. I'll be okay, Katya."

"I hope so, I just... I can't go through that again, thinking I'd almost lost you. I love you."

"I love you too. That's why I hired Francis, and I'm way more careful about my equipment, and who I let hang around it. I've learned from my mistakes, and I can keep myself safe. You can trust me. I don't want to be in that situation again either."

Katya nodded, and smiled, briefly looking away from me for a split second. I couldn't tell if her smile had reached her eyes or not, but something in the back of my mind told me that it had not.