The PRL Event: CZS Prelude 3
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“Are you nervous?” Alia asks. She and Kevin are preparing to leave their house for the beach where they will perform their first official magic show. Kevin had been muttering to himself, triple checking that they had everything they needed, and Alia can’t remember ever seeing him so worked up before.
“I just want this to go well,” Kevin explains as he closes the last bag. “If we do this right, we can be set, Alia.”
She shakes her head slowly. “I don’t know why you’re so obsessed with money all of a sudden. I’m not pressuring you to make us rich or anything…”
Kevin waves a hand to dismiss her concern. “Neither of us came from money. We’re simple people and we can get by, cause that’s what we know how to do, but wouldn’t it be nice if we had more than we needed for once?” Kevin isn’t being completely honest. He hopes to make enough money for the two of them, of course, and he felt that duty because he seriously envisioned a future for the two of them free of the perils that Alia had gazed in the sun, but he also hoped that he could make amends for all the lives he had altered, including his own family that he had not seen in years.
“You don’t owe anyone anything,” Alia says as she leaves the house for the car.
Kevin sighs and follows.
The sun has set by the time they make it to the location on the beach where they meet Conner. He is just as nervous as Kevin, it seems.
“I don’t think outside was the best idea for an exclusive event,” Conner explains. “People really won’t need a ticket or anything to see you if they’re in the right place.”
“Just for this first one, I thought distant spectators wasn’t a horrible idea.” Kevin explains. “It can help drum of interest for the next one.”
“Well, I’ll take you to the spot so you can get started and I’ll go get the paying customers.” He handed Kevin a wad of money. “That’s six thousand.”
Kevin shakes his head. The pressure is real now. He turns to Alia who has a sick look on her face. Even in the dark, Kevin can see that her face is pale, like it is drained of blood.
“Are you OK?” He asks.
“This…I’m OK, I think.” Alia’s mind is foggy, and she can’t be sure because of the mild heat of the evening, but it feels like she has a fever. It had come on so suddenly while Kevin talked to Conner.
“You sure?” Kevin asks.
Alia tries her best to push it all aside long enough to assure Kevin that she would be there for him and the two follow Conner to the spot on the beach where they start to set up.
“I’ll be back in about thirty minutes, that cool?” Conner asks.
Kevin nods him off and turns his attention to Alia.
“I hope my nerves didn’t get to you,” he says.
“There is something wrong with that man.” Alia says as she watches Conner walk away.
“You don’t trust him? You think he’s setting us up for the CIA?”
Alia shakes her head. “No, I don’t think that at all. And he seems like a wonderful person. I would love to see his work, if it is as vibrant as his mind then he is a very talented artist.”
Alia had never met Conner before and Kevin never told her that he was a painter, but the Alia has ways of knowing things.
“There is something wrong with him, though.” Alia continues. “It’s growing in him,” Alia closes her eyes tightly, “and I don’t think he’s the only one. I didn’t sense it until I met Conner, but he has unknowingly spread something very dangerous around this community. Or it started with him, and now it’s out.”
“Do I need to be worried?” Kevin asks. He doesn’t try to minimize her concern. The look on Alia’s face now is the look that Kevin knows to pay attention to earnestly.
“No, I don’t feel anything in you. But, Kevin, this is serious. People are going to die.”
Kevin is trying to manage his panic. Of all times for Alia to snap into one of her serious visions, this was the most inopportune, and he struggles to take this threat seriously while ensuring that their show will go on.
“Is anyone in immediate danger? Can we get through this show and then tell Conner what we know, maybe get him some help?”
“Yes, let’s do this. I sense that help will be here soon enough. But Kevin, you should know, this isn’t the future power, I’m not seeing where this goes. I don’t know how this resolves. I don’t even know what it is. I’m afraid we’re gonna have to be crime fighters again soon, though.” Alia stands close to him and puts a hand on his cheek. “You’re gonna have to be amazing.”
Kevin holds her hand at his cheek, then kisses her. There’s no time to be afraid or apprehensive. Kevin can hear Conner approaching with a crowd that settles in a circle around them. Kevin is enjoying the embrace with Alia and he imagines an old record player that plays a slow and nostalgic French song. The audience is stunned from the start watching the Amazing Elroy and his Mind Reading Companion loving each other in the center of the circle they create around them. And when everyone has settled and is cooing at the couple, Conner stands next to them and taps Kevin’s shoulder, “You guys ready, or? “
Kevin asks for an introduction and Conner turns nervously to the crowd. “Ladies and gentlemen, the Amazing Elroy.”
Kevin kisses Alia one last time and the two put on a show that makes them an instant sensation.
Immediately when Kevin and Alia finish, Conner dismisses the crowd that is eager for a talk with the magician. He promises to disseminate information about future shows, and when the beach is clear, Alia turns to him in earnest.
“Conner, you have something terrible inside of you, and Kevin and I are going to help.”
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