“And now, to make my assistant disappear!” Zachary said as his assistant, an older girl in her twenties, but dressed very skimpily, stepped into a human sized box. “Raeppasid!”
The box vanished in a puff of smoke as Zachary smirked. It was a simple parlor trick but it drove the audience wild. “Raeppaer!”
The box returned in another puff of smoke as Zachary went to open it. As he did, a teenage boy with red hair, yellow t-shirt, red shorts and sandals fell out of the box.
“Hiya, buddy!” Eddie Bloomberg said as he looked up from the ground as Zachary just facepalmed.
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#8
JAN 14 |
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“Devil's Due” Part One
Jay Young and Seren were walking down the streets of L.A., just looking for something to do while they waited for the rest of the Teen Titans to return from a trip to Dakota. Walking behind them was Vince Kennedy, who was trying to look inconspicuous despite his smoky form.
“Cigarette's will kill you, kid,” a man said as he walked past them.
“I'm getting hungry,” Jay said as his stomach started rumbling. “Any of you guys hungry?”
“I could use some nutrients,” Seren told him as Jay looked around and saw a restaurant called Jigsaw Burger.
“Let's eat there!”
Jay, Seren and Vince walked into a darkened restaurant and approached the register, where a screen was sitting with a sign that told them to place their order.
“Uh...I'll have cheeseburger and small drink with fries,” Jay said as he looked at Seren. “What do you guys want?”
“I, too, shall have the grinded carcass of a cow, a beverage and mutilated potatoes,” Seren added.
“I'm good, thanks,” Vince replied as the screen lit up with the image of a white puppet with black hair and red dimples.
“Your order is accepted, but first we're going to play a little game,” the puppet told them. “When you walked through the door, you were all injected with a nano-virus that will eat away at your flesh in twenty-four hours. In order to receive the antidote, you must order from our extra value menu. Choose Wisely. You have thirty seconds.”
“Okay, make our meals a #4, then,” Jay told him.
“Your order will be right up,” said the puppet as a wrist device was attached to Vince's arm. “When the device explodes, your order is ready. Have a nice day.”
“What are you doing here, Eddie?” Zachary asked as he got ready for his show. He hadn't asked Eddie to follow him back to his dressing room but he did anyway.
“I came by to see the show,” Eddie told him as Zachary stepped into the bathroom to get dressed. “And I was hoping that–”
“I'm not hiring you,” Zachary told him from behind the closed door. “I don't get why you keep following me from city to city. Don't you have a life?”
“Well...no,” Eddie told him. “My parents don't really want me around and there's no one else to take me in, so I've just been living off of the inheritance I got from my aunt while I try to break into the entertainment industry. But I've seen you perform and you're the greatest! Just imagine if I joined you! I could be your assistant and–'
“The last time I gave you a chance, bad things happened,” Zachary told him from behind the door.
“So, a little town ended up having a little bad luck–” Eddie said as Zachary opened the door and looked out at him, half dressed.
“53 people ended up getting AIDS!” Zachary shouted.
“Really? I thought it was less than that,” Eddie told him as Zachary came out of the bathroom, still working on the belt to his pants as he pushed Eddie toward the door.
“Goodbye, Eddie, enjoy the show, but that's all I want you to do,” Zachary told him. “And after tonight, I don't want you following me on the road again. I want you to stay in L.A., got it? If I see you on my next stop, I'm sending you to Jerusalem, got it?”
“Yeah, but–” Eddie said as the door was slammed in his face. Zachary slid down against the door, breathing a sigh of relief when his cell phone rang.
“Hello?”
“Hiya, buddy! Can I sit in the front row and watch you perform? And where's your next tour stop? Is it in Jerusalum? Is that why you're sending me there before hand?”
Zachary tossed the phone away and rushed back toward the bathroom, hoping that by the time he finished getting dressed, Eddie would be gone.
“This city bores me,” Seren said later as he walked down the street with Jay and Vince.
“I'm glad that wrist device exploded with confetti,” Vince said as walked behind them. “Loud noises tend to scare me. Or they did when I was human.”
“You guys sound like you need to have some fun,” Jay told them. “Let's take in a show! Look, Zachary Zattara's doing a show tonight. I heard that he's related to that magician Zatanna. I saw her doing a live show on TV when I was younger. I wonder if this guy's as good as she is?”
“Magic? It sounds intriguing,” Seren told him. “Does he use it slay demons? Or perhaps perform mystical feats of superhuman ability?”
“I think he just pulls rabbits out of hats or something,” Vince replied.
“Come on, guys, it'll be fun!” Jay told them. “I'll go get the tickets.”
“He seems to be a little...over eager,” Seren said as he looked at Vince.
“Yeah, well, the guy's finally getting to have a life,” Vince replied. “Can't blame him for being excited. He's like a puppy.”
“So people put him in a sack and toss him into the ocean?” asked Seren as Vince just stared at him. “I've saved many a puppy from that fate.”
“...that's fucked up, man,” Vince told him.
Zachary was preparing for the start of the show as he summoned several doves to fly out of his hat. They flew up into the rafters as he tapped his hat to summon them to fly back inside.
“This is such a stupid parlor trick, but it drives them wild,” Zachary told himself with a smirk. He hated doing simple parlor tricks, but people paid big money to see him do it.
Backstage, Eddie snuck into Zachary's dressing room in the hopes of finding a way to impress his idol. He started looking through the drawer and found an old book with a pentagram on it.
“Necronomicon for Dummies,” Eddie said as he read the title. “I'll bet this has a lot of great spells in it! If I can learn some of these, it'll impress Zach enough to let me join his show!”
Eddie slid the book under his shirt as he left the room.
Jay, Seren and Vince entered the building and headed toward their seats to enjoy the show. No one seemed to care that one of them was a floating cloud of smoke in a trench coat.
“So, you think the others are having fun in Dakota?” asked Jay as he read the brochure about the upcoming show.
“Possibly,” Vince told them. “I should have gone with them. I used to live there before I died.”
“Really? Why'd you stay back, then?” Jay asked as he looked up from the brochure.
“Would you want to go back to the place where your life changed forever?” asked Vince.
“No,” Jay told him with a sigh. “I'd just as soon never set foot in Australia again.”
“Of course that means you know we're going to have to go now,” Vince whispered to Seren as the lights dimmed and the show started.
Zachary Zattarra stepped out onto the stage as the audience started applauding. He bowed as he removed his top hat. “Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the world of magic!”
Zachary tapped the top hat as the doves flew out as the crowd went wild. Everyone except for Seren.
“Bah, I see birds every day as they fly out over the ocean,” Seren told them.
“Yeah, but he made them come out of his hat!” Vince told him. “This guy must be one of the world's greatest magicians!”
“He's easily impressed,” Jay told Seren as they heard birds starting to screech. They looked up as all the doves started bursting into flame. “Never seen that trick before.”
“What in the world,” Zachary said as he saw the remains of the doves fall onto the stage.
Backstage, Eddie was flipping through the book. “They were supposed to turn into eagles.”
“All part of the show, folks,” Zachary said as he put his top hat back on his assistant stepped out onto the stage. “For the next trick, I'll make my lovely assistant disappear!”
Eddie flipped through the book to find another spell. “Oh, this is a good one. Zachary will really notice me if I pull this one off.”
The assistant stepped into the cage as Zachary said the incantation to make the box disappear. The audience went wild as Zachary smirked at the group of people who were eating these parlor tricks up. He turned back and made the box reappear, but when the door opened a wild cougar jumped out looking for prey to eat.
“Seriously?” asked Zachary as the cougar jumped toward the audience. “Ezeerf!”
The cougar stopped just short of a child as Zachary levitated it back into the box, muttering the word to make it disappear again. “Uh, we're going to take just a quick break, folks, be right back!”
“I don't think this is part of the act,” Jay told the others. “That cougar was too close to that kid. Let's go find out why this guy's act is going psycho.”
Zachary stormed backstage and saw Eddie holding his book of spells. “YOU!”
“It's not what it looks like, I was just trying to help enhance your act–,” Eddie said as he backed away.
“You were trying to get my audience killed!” Zachary shouted as Eddie flipped through the book again.
“I can do this, I swear!” Eddie shouted. “All I need is the right spell.”
“You nimrod, the Necronomicon is a book of evil!” Zachary shouted. “You're not supposed to use the spells inside of it!”
“But what about this one?” Eddie said as the Titans rushed backstage. “It's a spell for unlimited power. If I had that, I can really help you with your act.”
“Eddie, put the book down before you–” Zachary said as he reached for the book as Eddie read the incantation.
“Alright, Magic Man, what's going on out there?” Jay asked as he got closer, just as a circle of flames engulfed him, Zachary and Eddie, leaving just a pile of ash on the floor.
Vince just looked over at Seren. “Well, Jay's dead. Think the others will be upset?”
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To Be Continued
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