"Who knew hiding a body would be so difficult?" Zoe asked, lying upside down on Allie's couch in the penthouse. Allie was pacing, chewing on her hair, nodding at anything Zoe said.
"The thing is," Allie said, turning on her heel and pointing at Zoe, "it's not that it's hard, it's about doing it so it's undetectable. We have to get him into the other sarcophagus but somehow convince nobody else to look inside it once we do. We have to get someone to move it for us, someone we trust, someone we know won't open it even by accident." "What about Molly?" Zoe asked. "I don't want to drag her into this any further, she's a good person," Allie said. "I'm a good person, and you dragged me into this," Zoe said, turning right side up on the couch, looking at Allie. "He dragged you into this, not me, okay? I need that distinction to be very recognized," Allie said, "I could ask Nick. I trust Nick, and he wouldn't question me if I gave him explicit directions." Zoe sighed and checked her watch, running her free hand through her frizzy hair. Allie stopped in her place and lowered her brow. "I'm sorry, am I taking up your time?" Allie asked. "No, no, I'm just curious what time it is. I'm getting kind of hungry, maybe we could get some lunch up here," Zoe said. "That," Allie said, pointing at her, "is not a bad idea, actually. I could certainly order us up some room service. I know I always think more clearly after I eat." "I actually have problems with my blood sugar, and if I don't eat regularly I could have a seizure," Zoe said. "I didn't know that," Allie said, landline in one hand, her other hand firmly on her hip. "Not a lot of people do, it's not exactly something I prefer to parade around," Zoe remarked, lying back down on the couch, "...how about we just...seal it? We just straight up seal the thing? I mean, it's a prop, right? People expect it to be empty or hollow or whatever, so why not just seal the damn thing up? They do that to actual sarcophaguses." "Sarcophagi," Allie said. "What?" "The word is sarcophagi," Allie said, "The plural, that's what you meant." "Thanks teach," Zoe said, making Allie smirk. "Yeah, hello?" Allie asked into the phone, "This is Allie Meers. Can I get some room service up here? Just send up the entire lunch menu. Thank you very much." Allie hung up and sighed, leaning against the wall and running her hands down her face, groaning loudly. Zoe shut her eyes and put her notebook over her face, letting her arms hang down behind her head, off the couch. The girls were tired. They'd been doing this for 3 weeks in a row, and they desperately needed a break. The new casino wouldn't be opening for a while still, so they had plenty of time to figure it out, but until then, they couldn't let themselves get stressed out over it all. "How about after we eat, we just...go downstairs and gamble?" Allie asked. "Now that's a plan I like," Zoe said. *** Sitting together at adjoining slots downstairs after eating, each one pumping quarters into their machines, the girls felt a bit of relief and tension lift from them. Zoe put her soda to her lips and sipped, then wiped her arm on her sleeve and popped another quarter into the slot. "You know," Zoe said, "if you'd asked me when I was hired to work with you what I'd be doing in a few months, it certainly wouldn't be any of this, I'll tell you that much right now." "I'm just happy you stayed," Allie said, "...a lot of people don't. I was beginning to think I was the problem. I mean, I know I'm part of the problem, but I don't think I'm the whole problem." "I don't like being left either, or leaving. It's bad enough not being able to really talk to my parents anymore, so it's nice to know I have my sister, and you," Zoe said, as Allie eyed her; she'd mentioned her parents briefly in passing before, and this made Allie all the more curious. "So, if you don't mind me asking, what exactly happened between you and your folks?" Allie asked. "God, where do I even start?" Zoe asked, "I guess I should say that after seeing you perform that night, I became even more invested in doing magic than I had been prior, and so I started performing at my family events. One time, when I was 14, I did my cousin's birthday, and..." A pause. Zoe sighed deeply, shut her eyes and continued, a bit more sullenly now than before. "...and I needed a volunteer so I asked a younger cousin who was really into what I was doing to help, and I...I thought I'd learned the trick right. I thought that I'd, like, prepared enough and stuff, but I had never tried it with another person, and that was my mistake. It was just supposed to be a little fireball." "oh fuck," Allie whispered, putting her hand over her mouth, knowing what was coming. "And before I knew it," Zoe continued, "it was out of control, and their clothes and hair were on fire and...they were pretty okay in the end, thankfully, with only minor burns, but...my parents never wanted me to do magic again. For a short time even I didn't want to. But then I remembered what'd happened to you, and that only made me feel like I could understand you even more because we'd both now been involved in something awful during a show." "Zoe, I am so sorry, that is just-" "They won't really talk to me now, and my sister took me in because they won't let me come home," Zoe said, a few tears rolling down her cheeks, "but, I mean, that's okay I guess. I like my sister anyway. But, I know what it's like, to be a criminal in one way or another in someone else's eyes. I feel like I'm just bad luck, and bad things keep happening to the people around me because of me." "You are NOT bad luck, Zoe," Allie said, "What happened then wasn't your fault and what happened with him wasn't either." "You said it yourself. You did it FOR me," Zoe said. "I mean, sure, yes, but he was a problem in my life long before you showed up," Allie said, "You just happened to be worth doing something about him. I...I never managed to protect myself from the shit he got me hooked on, the shit he supplied me with regularly, and I never cared enough about myself to try anyway. But I wasn't about to let him take away from my best friend." Zoe smiled and looked at Allie, her hand on Zoe's shoulder lovingly. "Thanks Allie," she whispered. "We're partners, okay? We have to look out for one another, no matter the cost," Allie said. No matter the cost. Even if the cost was too high to justify, as they'd find out. The girls finished their drinks, picked up their jars of coins and headed back to the bar, seating themselves on stools while they waited for a plate of nachos to split and more sodas. Allie was making small talk with the woman beside her, when she noticed Zoe was staring at the TV bolted in the upper corner of the bar. Allie looked at her, then at the TV, then back at Zoe. "Hey, what is it?" she asked. "Look at this," Zoe said. Allie asked for the remote, and when she was handed it, she turned the volume up so they could hear. There was a woman in a suit standing outside an apartment building somewhere, with police cars and an ambulance parked behind her, just barely in frame. They came in mid sentence. "...they're saying now that there's 23 bodies hidden somewhere in the vicinity of this apartment complex," the reporter said, addressing the camera directly as she pointed to the building behind her, "The owner of the building, one Miss Claire Driscoll, is the culprit behind the slayings, who is now in police custody. She is one of the most successful female serial killers we've seen to date. From early reports, it seems that Driscroll managed to hide the bodies inside of walls, after sealing them in plastic collapsible coffins she got from a friend with a plastic extruding factory. More details will be released as they come to light. I'm Kim Dwyers, for-" Allie pushed the mute button as she and Zoe slowly looked at one another, and smirked. *** Molly was sitting in her kitchen eating a sandwich and doing some preliminary sketches of the new casino when she heard her doorbell ring. She sighed, stood up, wiped her hands on her outfit and headed to the door to answer it. Standing there were Allie and Zoe. "Oh," Molly said, smiling a little, "hi guys. What're you doing here?" "So, we need some supplies for our upcoming performance at the new place," Allie said, "Can we come in?" "Yeah, of course, I'm having lunch so just follow me into the kitchen," Molly said, shutting the door behind them and beginning to return to the kitchen as she asked, "what kind of supplies?" "Well, we figure you're an architect, so you must know how things are built," Allie said, "We wanna fill one of our props up with trinkets from the casino and our lives, kind of like a time capsule, and then seal it and lower it into the base of the casino so it won't be dug back up, you know?" "That's a neat idea," Molly said, sitting back down, picking up her sandwich and taking a bite. "Yeah," Allie said, seating herself across from Molly now, continuing, "so we figured you'd know how to do that sort of thing. You have all kinds of sealants, right? You know, you put bricks together, lay a foundation, shit like that, so what do you propose we use?" Allie asked. The way she'd explained it to Zoe was simple: if they get Molly to help them without her realizing she's helping them, she cannot be held accountable. After seeing the news report, Zoe's plan of somehow sealing the coffin up made perfect sense, and now all they needed was a professional to, with no awareness of the fact that a crime was being covered up, help them in their hour of need. Molly was that person. But Zoe didn't feel exactly great about it. Molly was a perfectly nice, normal lady who just wanted to build places for a living. She felt guilty for dragging her into their mess, and especially so against her judgement and knowledge. She felt like, if she was going to be involved, she should have the right to know, but she also knew Allie was right in the sense that if she knew, she'd either - best case scenario - decline to help or - worst case scenario - potentially report them for what they'd done. Now, standing in the kitchen, Zoe once again felt like she did when she'd accidentally set her cousin ablaze. Here she was, right back where she started, using someone without them knowing the consequences of their actions, or really, the consequences of working with her. "Well," Molly said, "what you're really going to want is..." And just like that, Molly was in, even if she didn't know it. After leaving Molly's, the women drove for a bit, went through a drive-thru and then parked somewhere high up on a scenic spot that overlooked the entire Vegas strip. Sitting in the car, Zoe couldn't help but feel simultaneously sick and enraptured. What had her life become? Just a few short months ago she was nothing more than a helper, an assistant, and now she was a full fledged partner involved in covering up a murder, a murder that was done in her name nonetheless. Life sure was weird. Sitting there, drinking their slushies together, Zoe felt like she was lucky at least to have a friend who really had her back. "You promise this is going to go fine and nobody will ever find out?" Zoe asked. "I can promise anything you want," Allie replied, making Zoe smirk, as she continued, "but yes, I think it's safe to say that, at the moment, we're out of the woods. Once the sarcophagus is fully buried, the woods will also be razed behind us and something else, likely a new high rise high rent low quality build apartment complex, will be built in its stead." "...and what if we're found out? What do we do then?" Zoe asked. "Listen, you have no claim to what happened. You weren't even in the room when it went down, okay? You can call yourself fully innocent, and I would take all the blame. Besides, I'm the one with a reputation, and a questionable one at that these days, so it'd be totally believable that I'd committed this crime. It's not like my drug problem was exactly a well kept secret. Nobody would be particularly shocked, I think," Allie said, "Zoe, no matter what happens, you will not go down for this. I promise you that much above all else." This made Zoe feel a bit better. She was almost as innocent as Molly, in a sense, and Allie was helping her swallow that horse sized lie, even if she nearly choked on it. "You know," Zoe said, sipping her slushy, "Vegas is really beautiful from far away." "Yeah, it is," Allie said, leaning her chair back and looking through the sunroof, as Zoe followed her lead; she went on, "when I first started out, I used to come up here a lot, and then after the accident I used to come up here with Nick all the time, and now, here we are. It's not like it's a very secret spot, but...I feel like I can appreciate it more than others. People like to say these big cities are the blame for the horrible shit that happens within them. New York, LA, Vegas, all cities are excess and greed, but...the city is just that, a city. It isn't sentient. The problem is the people. We often forget that." "Yeah," Zoe said, "...yeah, I guess you're right." Allie clinked her plastic slushy cup against Zoe's and smiled. "Here's to pulling off a disappearing act," Allie said. All Zoe had ever wanted to do was magic. All she'd ever wanted to do was magic with her hero, Allie Meers. "Look where dreaming gets you", she thought.
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ABOUT
Allie Meers is what she dreamed of being since she was a little girl...a successful Vegas magician. The only problem now is she can't make all her problems disappear; Allie grapples with her strained relationship, crippling addictions and FBI agents on her tail, all while trying to stay at the top of her career. Archives
December 2023
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