"That's...uncanny," Peter Lorde said, sitting across from Jenny in his office. He looked down at his phone, then back up at Jenny and shook his head, "just fucking uncanny. Really spooky. What made you decide on this?"
"I don't know," Jenny said, shrugging, "if you were given the chance to change your face, wouldn't you pick something appealing?" "I...I guess I can understand that," Peter said, putting his phone down and opening her file, clearing his throat and saying, "so you think you can go back to work? I'm not gonna put you on duty for any of the big animals, don't worry, you won't have to be around tigers anymore. I want you to feel comfortable and safe, all things considered." "I don't mind," Jenny said. "Jenny, your face was ripped apart," Peter said, looking confused, "and you're not scared of tigers?" "Allie was mauled, and she isn't scared," Jenny said. "You're not Allie," Peter said sternly, and Jenny shrugged, smiling. *** Molly was sitting at her kitchen table, drinking tea as Zoe stood at the stove, making pancakes. Molly shifted some papers in front of her - various blueprints and outlines for the vault - and sighed as she reached up and scratched her forehead. Zoe walked over to the table and sat down while she waited for her pancakes to cook a little more, watching Molly look over the papers. "Are you okay?" Zoe asked. "I'm stressed," Molly said, "I...I feel like there's pressure mounting on all sides of me and there's no relief. I've got Tony breathing down my neck to make something that only he could access, but then I've got Allie watching me like a hawk to ensure we have access to it. Eventually one has to give, right?" "Wouldn't know," Zoe said, "I don't have anyone putting pressure on me at all." Molly smirked and gathered her things, putting them into her attache case just as a knock came at the front door. Zoe walked past Molly and out into the hallway, opening the front door only to find Effie there on the porch, who smiled upon seeing her. "Why...why are you-" Zoe started. "Can I come in at least?" Effie asked, just as Molly scooted past them. "See you later, Zoe. Hello Effie," she said politely, heading towards her car. With Molly out of the house, Effie indeed made her way into the house, following Zoe back into the kitchen, where she went back to the stove and continued to make her pancakes as Effie sat at the table. After a minute or so of awkward silence, Zoe gave Effie a mug of coffee, which she thanked her for after taking a sip. After another minute or so of silence, Zoe finally turned away from the stove and faced Effie. "I guess I should apologize for being so..." Zoe started, but trailed off. "Avoidant?" Effie asked, making Zoe groan and Effie laughed as she added, "hey, no apology necessary, alright? I understand things get in the way. I was more worried than anything else that maybe I'd done something to upset you or something, and-" "No, it...it wasn't you. After that whole thing with my parents, I just...I guess I've had a hard time separating who I am from who I should be, and that's been very tough on me. I know I shouldn't still be worrying about it, but...it's hard when you try to ignore something your whole life only to have it finally bubble to the surface, you know, and I...I guess in a way, avoiding you, rude as it was, was my way of acknowledging my feelings in regards to it all." "Do you wanna break up?" Effie asked, and Zoe looked at her, eyes wide. "No! No no no! Oh my god, no," Zoe said, walking from the stove to Effie and reaching out, touching her face, "never ever! No, I just...I needed some distance in order to gain some clarity, you know? I'm...I'm not the kind of person who's capable of just jumping into things headfirst and figuring it all out as I go. I'm not Allie." This made Effie laugh loudly, which made Zoe feel better. Zoe ran her hand down Effie's face and blushed. "You've shown me who I am more than anyone else ever could've, and I'm so grateful and I love you," Zoe whispered, "I'm sorry that I've been distant." "You never have to apologize," Effie said, grabbing her hips and pulling her down into her lap in the chair, "I might not understand sometimes, but I'm more than willing to listen." Effie pressed her lips against Zoe's and kissed her. Zoe's pancakes wound up burning. *** "Why's it so...big?" Benny asked, standing over a small table, staring down at Molly's drafts. "I don't know," Molly said, standing beside him, smoothing out the paper with one hand, "I really want the answer to that myself. Because it's much too large for what he's planning on keeping inside it. It's just meant to hold money, so the dimensions really don't make much sense to me either. I was wondering that myself." "Well, regardless of the answer, the size actually benefits us," Benny said. Molly looked back across the room towards Allie, who was smoking a cigarette near a window so she could exhale out of it. Molly then looked back at Benny and lowered her voice. "How did she convince you?" Molly asked, almost whispering. "...well," Benny said, "let's just say that I'm not the biggest fan of Tony myself. Guy really ripped me off. Broke a very expensive contract, bought me out, screwing me out of a lot of money. An eye for an eye and all that. My girlfriend used to be a waitress at Card Shark at one point, while she was going back to school for a degree, it was supplemental income, and from the stuff she told me about how he treated his other stars, I can't say that I'm willing to forgive him anytime soon. Seems Allie is the only one who's managed to come out remotely unscathed." "I wouldn't say that," Molly mumbled, just as Allie finally joined them, hands on her hips. "So," she said, "how about it Benny boy?" Benny stood back upright, arching his back, popping his spine and exhaling. He stretched again, then started to pace. "You guys ever hear of someone named Jackson Strange?" he asked, and after a moment of Molly and Allie both slowly shaking their heads, Benny chuckled and continued, "alright, well, Mr. Strange is like us, he's a magician. Now, Allie probably knows this, but I'm willing to bet you aren't as versed in the various types of magicians, Molly, so let me regale you with what we're categorized as. Allie here is your classic illusionist. Plays to large venues at a distance on a theatre. I'm more of a sleight of hand kinda guy myself. Up close, capable and willing to trick people with everyday objects, never having them suspect it's not real. But this guy...Jackson Strange...he's a mixture of a lot of stuff but he's essentially an escapologist. Sort of a...a modern day Houdini if you will. He's one of those guys who does big grandiose events, often in public spaces, and is far more concerned with the showmanship than the art of it all." Molly, chewing on her nails, shook her head, confused. "What the hell does this have to do with anything?" she asked. "You sure you're not a Monologue Magician?" Allie asked, making Benny playfully hit her in the arm, the both of them laughing. "Mr. Strange, as it turns out, is gearing up for a new performance very soon," Benny said, "a performance in which he gets himself out of a clear plastic box suspended from the air. So, if there's only one way into the box, how does he get out of it? That's where we come to our issue. If there's only one way into the vault, how do we get out of it?" Allie and Molly exchanged a look, and then glanced back at Benny, who put his hands on their shoulders and grinned. "Ladies, we're goin' to a magic show," he said. *** After her meeting with Benny and Molly, Allie headed back to the casino, ready to crash in her loft, knowing Nick would be off work soon. She parked in the usual spot, then headed into the casino, and took the elevator up to her floor, the floor where all the suits were where those who chose to lived if they worked there. She reached inside her jacket pocket for her suite key, when she looked up and saw someone standing near her door. "Hello?" Allie asked, and then put her hands to her mouth in shock, "...Jenny?" "Hi Allie," Jenny said, smiling. "Jesus this is creepy," Allie remarked, her voice low now, "you look...just like me. It's like having a doppleganger. Do you...do you wanna come in? Have something to drink or-" "I can't, I have to go to work in a bit," Jenny said, "I just wanted to stop by and talk." Allie nodded, opened the suite door and, together with Jenny, headed inside. Jenny shut the door behind her and watched as Allie pulled her coat off, tossed it on the couch and then headed into the kitchenette, where she yanked open the fridge, reached inside and pulled out a ginger beer. She twisted the cap off and took a long drink. "You're not drinking alcohol at all anymore?" Jenny asked. "Haven't been for a while. This has been a good substitute. So...you look like...me," Allie said. "Does that bother you?" Jenny asked, leaning on the counter. "Surprisingly no," Allie replied, "they say immitation is the sincerest form of flattery and you don't get better immitation than this, so." Jenny laughed as Allie drank more of her beer. Jenny pulled her hair back into a ponytail and exhaled. "I was worried it'd freak you out," she said quietly. "After the year I've had, I don't think anything you do could freak me out, I promise you that," Allie remarked, "barring perhaps waking up to you stealing my organs." "I'll try to restrain myself," Jenny said, leaning on the counter, "...actually...the real reason I wanted to come by and show you what they managed to do was because I wanted to thank you." "For getting you mangled? You're on sick puppy," Allie remarked. "Well," Jenny continued, smirking, "yes and no. I never really felt like I was a person. I never really identified with my...well...my identity. I always had trouble figuring out who I was, what it was I liked, what I genuinely believed. I always felt like an alien or something pretending to be a human woman. But now I...I get to pick what I look like, and start over like a fresh slate. It's kind of...freeing, in a way." Allie admitted, to herself at least internally, that this was by far the strangest turn of events she couldn't have seen coming from this situation. She had accidentally pushed Jenny into a tiger pit, getting her mauled and leaving her needing intense facial reconstruction. And now here she was...thanking her? "Well, you're...welcome?" Allie asked, ending on an inflection, which made Jenny blush and run her hands through her own hair anxiously. "I guess I just wanted you to know that not everything you do results in bad outcomes," Jenny said quietly, looking up shyly, catching Allie's eyes, adding, "sometimes, probably more often than not, you create more good in the world than bad. I know you've been having a hard year, from what little Nick has told me, and so I...I just thought someone ought to tell you that you're not as bad as you might perceive yourself to be." Allie wanted to cry. Had this come from Zoe it would've been nice but somewhat hollow since she was so close to the situation, and had this come from Molly it would've been an almost outright lie since she knew how uncomfortable Molly was with everything. But to come from Jenny...that really threw her for an entire loop. That caused her to really believe it, because Jenny...well, Jenny had no reason to lie. Allie watched as Jenny stood up straight and headed for the front door, excusing herself for work, before she rushed around and hugged her from behind, pressing her face into Jenny's back. Jenny, taken somewhat by surprised, blushed and patted Allie's hands. "thank you," Allie whispered. "Don't mention it," Jenny replied. *** "What are you doing?" Agent Tropper asked, plopping a few papers stapled together onto Agent Siskel's desk. She looked at the papers, then looked up at him and furrowed her brow. She grabbed the papers and looked at them, then sighed and leaned back, brushing her bangs from her eyes. "Figured this would come up," she said. "You're asking for Claire to be released?" Agent Tropper asked, "Seriously? And you didn't even ask how I might feel about this? Why would you want her on the outside again? Has she not proven herself a public health hazard to you yet, or do you need more evidence? Maybe some more bodies hidden in walls?" "Claire is the best tool we have at our disposal," Agent Siskel said, folding her arms, "we have a direct line to Allie here and we're not utilizing it. We let her out...we give ourselves options. We know the two are chummy. We know Meers has come to visit her. We know she helped Meers get the tomb back. After what Nicole gave us, yeah, we have a lot of evidence, but we need something more than just papers and numbers. We need something concrete. Something far more substantial." Agent Tropper began pacing back and forth, rubbing his hands over his face. "...so...so you're going to let a woman, a woman who, might I reiterate, stuffed numerous bodies in the walls of an abandoned apartment building, back into the general public all because she might...might...lead us to a magician?" Agent Tropper asked, and Agent Siskel shrugged; he threw his arms up in annoyance, but knew he couldn't undo what she'd set in motion. Finally he pulled a chair from a nearby desk over to the opposite side of hers and seated himself. "You think I'm nuts," Agent Siskel said. "I never said that." "You don't really have to," Agent Siskel said, "but Becca...if this goes south...I don't know that I can pull you out of that fire. You're gonna have to live with the consequences of this decision. I just...I hope you're aware of that." "I'm well aware, Roger," Agent Siskel said, "and rest assured, you won't be held remotely accountable for my actions. But she's not just a tool, she's not just a killer, she's not just a criminal or a cult leader. Claire Driscoll is the one thing we really really need right now." "Which is?" Agent Tropper asked, raising an eyebrow as Agent Siskel finished drinking from her water bottle and grinned, capping it. "She's a weapon," she replied. *** She knew this wasn't her route now. She knew that she no longer had to check this area. But Jenny still felt strangely pulled towards Domino's cage, and as she strolled up to the industrial fence atop its enclosure and looked down at the beautiful white tiger pacing in the dark of night, sniffing for this and that, she couldn't help but feel a tremendous sense of...cumraderie. She and Allie had both been mauled by this tiger. She and Allie looked almost identical now. Jenny stood there, barely illuminated by the one singular overhead light that filled the area, and she smiled. She was sure of one thing, and that was that she was finally more sure of who she was than she had ever been before. Who knew what getting mauled by a tiger could do for your sense of self worth.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
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
Categories |