Love is Like a Playing Card (J. Daniel Atlas) Chapter XIV
Sutton and Merritt quickly changed their outfits upon arriving backstage.
“Hey!” Lula waved as the mentalists appeared.
“Nice work, lady,” Merritt told her as he flipped his fedora on his head. Lula thanked him. The three walked up to the stage to wait.
Jack let out a sigh. “I’m actually nervous. I’m not even going on stage.”
“Me too,” Sutton smiled at him, reminding him he wasn’t alone. The two stretched their hands out to one another in front of Lula, giving the other a small squeeze in comfort.
“You know, I’ve heard that if you’re nervous, it can be really helpful to picture each other naked,” Lula told him. Sutton and Merritt stifled their laughs as Danny walked up between them.
“It’s actually ‘picture the audience naked,” Danny reminded her.
“No, this is new. This is a new science,” Lula told Jack. “So, I don’t know, do you wanna- we should try it.”
“Not the right mood,” Jack explained, looking off to the stage.
“I guess that leaves you and me, old buddy,” Merritt told Danny.
“What?” Danny asked. “Oh, to picture each other- No. No, thank you.”
“Hey, look- I mean, I admit, from the neck up, there are issues, but from the neck down, The David,” Merritt responded with a straight face. Sutton snorted a laugh. Danny gave her a look.
Lula grabbed Sutton’s shoulders. “I think what Sutton means to say is, she and Danny don’t need to leave things to the imagination. They are a much better pair for this experimental activity,” she winked.
Danny and Sutton looked at Lula in shock, then at each other. Thankfully, the announcer’s voice came over the speakers to inhibit their responses.
“Good morning, Octa-lites,” Merritt whispered into his headset. Owen’s voice repeated it to the audience. The audience cheered. “Now I’ve made the claim that Octa Eight was pure magic, but the truth is, that’s just one of those things I say. When, in fact, I mean something else. What else do I mean? Well, here to fill you in on some of my fabulous lies and hypocrisy, and to perform some of the most dazzling feats of magic you have ever seen, they are the world’s greatest magicians here to expose me for the fraud I truly am. Ladies and gentlemen, here are the Horsemen!”
“Showtime,” Jack whispered to Sutton as the two stepped back.
The two held hands as they watched their fellow Horsemen leap out into yet another performance without them, both sighing heavily. They heard the audience erupt into cheers.
“I better get going, Sut,” Jack told her. Sutton nodded as Jack kissed her cheek and left.
“Hello, New York!” Danny’s announcer-voice projected. “Thank you so much!”
“Hey, it’s great to be back!” Merritt told the audience.
“Have you met our newest Horseman?” Danny asked. “Lula!” Sutton winced as Danny introduced the world to Lula in the same place Henley once stood. “It feels good, right?” Danny asked Lula.
“Yeah, it’s pretty good,” Lula confirmed. “Pretty good.”
“Thank you, thank you. Uh, okay. We wanna talk to you about your privacy. Now, what does your privacy mean to you?” Danny questioned the audience.
“‘Cause apparently to Owen Case, it means absolutely nothing,” Merritt explained.
“No, actually it means less than absolutely nothing,” Lula clarified. “You see, he’s mocked your privacy. He’s scorned it.”
“Right, and we’re not just talking about the things you’ve already agreed to,” Danny explained further, “when you signed, uh, probably without reading, um, the terms and conditions of Octa’s one through seven.”
“Dylan,” Jack’s voice came over Sutton’s earpiece, “the FBI is here.”
“Oh, uh, don’t worry about it,” Danny told him. “Go to plan C4.” Sutton shook it off. She wasn’t part of that plan.
“Before we start the show, we had Owen agree to a few terms and conditions of our own,” Lula explained to the audience. “So, everything that he had once considered-”
Lula’s microphone started to crack and the sound of a speaker backfiring rang through the stage. Now, Sutton became worried.
“Yeah, everything, uh, that he once considered private,” Danny explained, trying to save the show, “is now-”
Danny’s microphone was lost now too. Sutton felt her heart begin to race. Another crack and backfire sounded, then a strange, creepy voice began to speak to the audience.