Now You See Me 3:

CHAPTER TWO

New York City

11/30/18 5:45 PM

     “I still can’t believe how he treats me! I go and save his life, admit that he is our leader, and what does he do, he shoots down every idea I come up with!”, Said Daniel walking quickly. WACK! “Hey, watch it man!” said the teenager who hit into Daniel’s shoulder which made the fake glasses that he was wearing fall to the ground. Daniel stooped to pick up the fake glasses and mumbled something about how stupid teenagers are nowadays. After adjusting the glasses on his face, and fixing the hood on his head, he noticed a building with a sign on it that read, JESSI’S MAGIC. Daniel cocked his head and squinted his eyes. “That’s funny” thought Daniel. “I don’t remember that place looking so worn down.” Daniel straitened his head, relaxed his eyes and walked to the door. Daniel opened the door walked in. A little bell rung when he opened the door which made Daniel quickly glance up at it. There wasn’t much to the place just a small stage a few steps forward, a small table and two chairs. He walked a few more feet when all the sudden, a girl started falling towards him and Daniel caught her by the arms.

     “Whoa, careful there.” Said Daniel helping the girl to her feet. (Daniel had forgotten to disguise his voice while saying this.) After the girl heard this she quickly spun around and said,

     “You’re Daniel Atlas!”

     “I’m sorry But I don’t know who that is” said Daniel nervously, again forgetting to disguise his voice.

     “Right. Rule number one of disguising yourself NEVER say that you don’t know who Daniel Atlas is, EVER.” Said the girl putting a box of stuff on the small round table.

     “That’s actually good advice.”

     “Thanks. Oh, I’m Jessica, by the way.” Said Jessica sitting in one of the chairs next to the table. Jessica, is a very smart girl of twenty-five, but she has O.C.D. and she is always tripping over her feet.  Jessica is wearing a thin military designed T-shirt, light blue jeans, and high-top converse which fits her slender body. She has pin strait red hair dyed black at the tips. She has a small nose, but all her other facial features are normal sized. Her eyes are a dark violet blue color and her skin is very light.

     “Jessica? That’s a nice name” said Daniel siting in the chair across from Jessica. “so, do you tend to do that a lot?”

     “Do what?”

     “Trip over your feet.”

     “Oh, yeah, all the time.”

     “Well then that’s strange.” Said Daniel bringing his eyebrows together.

     “Why?” said Jessica tilting her head.

     “Because, you’re a magician. And that requires a lot of subtleness.”

     “Oh well that’s actually funny because when I’m doing magic, I never trip up in any way at all.” Said Jessica scratching her head.

    Daniel cocked his head. “Really how so?”

     “Well, I guess I learned this from my old job.  When I perform, I can focus so much that it’s like I become a different person.”

     “That’s—interesting”

     “Can I ask you something?”

     “Sure.”

     “Well I know that you probably get these questions asked a lot but what’s your favorite magic trick that you’ve ever done, or if that’s too hard, what was the first magic trick you learned?” said Jessica rolling a coin in between her fingers.

     Daniel moved his chair closer to the table and blinked rapidly a few times. “Well this might be a shock to you, but no one has ever asked me that before” this made both people let out a half sigh half laugh.

     Jessica let a huge smile cross her face and put the coin on the table. “You’re kidding?”

     “No actually I’m not.” Said Daniel grinning. “But to answer your question, my favorite magic trick must be—me stopping the rain, and as for what the first magic trick that I learned was, I don’t remember it whatsoever.” Again, both people laughed.

     “Well I know that even before you were a Horseman you were pretty famous, and there’s been a lot of media coverage on you.  However, I can guarantee that I had no idea what your favorite trick is. The truth is that’s my favorite trick too.”

     “You’re kidding?”

     “Nope”

     Daniel ran his hand through his short hair “Wow.” A grin than went across his face. “Ok, now it’s my turn to ask you two questions. One, who’s your favorite Horsman? Two what was the first magic trick that you learned?” After this he leaned back in the chair.

     Jessica also leaned back in her chair. “Ok fine. Well, my favorite Horseman is obviously you, and as for my first magic trick—I can show you.”  She then took a deck of cards out of the box in front of her and placed the box on the floor. Jessica shuffled the cards. “Now being a master at sleight of hand, you will most definitely know how I am doing this but here it goes.” Jessica fanned out the cards. “Pick a card any card. Now once you do I want you to look at it and that give it back to me.” Daniel picked one looked at it and gave it back to her. Jessica then put the card in the middle of the now stack of cards and shuffled. After this, she slid all the cards on the table and closed her eyes. Then with her fingers barely touching the cards went over them. She stopped, smiled opened her eyes picked a card and asked, “Is this your card?” holding up the seven of diamonds which was the card that Daniel had picked. 

       “Wow that’s impressive” said Daniel.

     “Thanks” BEEP, BEEP. Daniel looked at his watch and started to get up.

     “Ah sorry about this but I have to go.”

     “Oh, it’s fine” said Jessica waving her hand.

      After getting up from the chair Daniel stopped. “Say I’ll tell you what. If you give me your favorite card in a deck autographed, I’ll give you one from me.

     This time Jessica blinked rapidly shocked by what she just heard. “Your joking right.”

      Daniel sighed, “like I already told Dylan. I don’t joke.”

     “Oh well sure.” Jessica autographed a card and handed it to Daniel. Daniel did the same.

     Daniel cocked his head “The seven of diamonds?”

     “Yeah is there a problem?”

     “No, it’s just that’s my favorite too.” Daniel didn’t wait to see Jessica’s reaction. He turned on his heels and speedily walked out.

    

     A few weeks went by while Dylan planned on how to steal the hard drive. During this time Daniel and Jessica had met two more times. The second time was just like the first and the third was too, but something happened before Daniel left. He kissed her. Now it wasn’t a long and romantic kiss but still he kissed her. Jessica didn’t mind. By the third time they hung out she realized that Daniel was just a normal person like everyone else. All that was different was that he could do magic tricks.

     Jessica and Daniel were now meeting for a fourth time by some bridge in a quiet part of New York City.

     “Hay there.” Said Jessica quickly kissing Daniel on the lips. Jessica is wearing a grey jacket, light blue jeans, and high-top converse, while Daniel again is wearing a black jacket, regular blue jeans, and a pair of sneakers. Again, they talked. Daniel talked about past magic shows and Jessica talked about her job along with a few mentions of her old one. This made Daniel ask her something.

     “Jessica, what was your old job?” the smile that had been on her face vanished instantly and only after a few false starts was she able to say anything.

     “Well, this is definitely something I didn’t want you to know but—I stole—for a living.” After this there was a long pause which made Jessica uncomfortable.

     “How good were you?” said Daniel looking at Jessica.

     She gave a slight laugh “I was the best.”

     “So, if you were the best, why did you stop?”

     Jessica took a deep breath. “I stopped because the people that I was stealing for weren’t any better than the people that I was stealing from.”

     “So, you didn’t mind the stealing you minded stealing for other people?” said Daniel looking confused.

     Jessica quickly explained. “No. I would never steal for myself ever in my life. Now the getting back at the big companies I did enjoy, but what would’ve made it better was giving the thing I stole to the police.”

     “Oh! So, you’d want to do what I do?”

     Jessica laughed a little. “Pretty much.” 

     “Well then there’s no problem.”

     “There isn’t?”

     “No.”

       “Well alright then.” BEEP, BEEP. Daniel looked at his watch.

     “Oh, sorry I have to go.”

     “Don’t worry it’s fine.”

     Daniel quickly kissed Jessica. “Yeah, I’m – I’m sorry, but I’ll see you soon.” Daniel than disappeared into the crowd.

     Jessica stared at the crowd of people “yeah, see you soon.”