So, I don't know why, but this is something that I wrote for an assignment a while ago, and I decided to turn it into a story.

"Come closer."

The voice was not loud, but the acoustic engineering of the central, circular stage carried it to every ear in the massive auditorium. The automated lights above flared in a bright, cold blue, a sudden punch of light accompanying a heavy, resonant musical note that vibrated through the floorboards.

A video feed, focused only on the sharp, symmetrical lines of her chin to her nose, purple lipstick a stark slash of color, played on a dozen screens surrounding the stage.

"Closer still."

The single musical note struck again, a low, ominous thrum. The lights snapped from blue to a warm, predatory gold.

"Because the closer you are..."

The note returned, deeper this time. A lip of glowing gold light traced the very edge of the stage, drawing all eyes inward.

“…the less you see."

The final, heaviest note of the sequence hit, rattling the teeth of those in the front row. Thick fog rolls out onto the stage as a central platform slowly raises itself upwards, carrying with it, the main event. 

She strolls out onto the stage, the fans practically screaming their heads off, to a loud techno sound track. These people paid to be played for fools tonight, she thinks. 

“Alright, tonight you all paid to be fooled. You all paid to see things that aren’t real. To look like idiots? Am I correct on that part David?”she asks the audience.

The man sitting in the front row, suddenly leaps to his feet. “Uh, yeah. I-I guess.”

“Ok, now that I’m all warmed up, can I have someone from the audience come up here?”

All across the room, hands shoot up like rockets.

“How about the woman sitting in- Hold up. Seat C16!”

The woman stands up. A spotlight seemingly materializes out of the air and shines on her.

“What’s your name sweetheart?” asks Kimaya.

“Solice,” she exclaims.

“Well Solice, it’s your lucky day! Come join me up here. You are going to help me with this trick,” says Kimaya. “Alright everyone. I have a deck of cards here. It is just a standard deck of cards. Four kings, four aces, and most importantly, four jacks. Now I’m going to hand this deck of cards over to Solice, and she is going to do two things. First, she is going to make sure that there are no weird cards in the deck. Second she is going to take the Jacks out.”

Solice turns each card over in her hands and removes the jacks and gives the to Kimaya. 

“Alright,” Kimaya says. “How about it? So I am going to put the deck on this table. What table I hear you ask? This one.” 

She removes her cape and shakes it out like she’s preparing to place it on a table like a table cloth. She drops it and it just floats there.

She takes the jacks and puts all four of them face up on the table. Then she takes the deck and puts it face down on the table. Then she piles up the jacks and places them on top of the deck.

“This one is going to the basement,” she says as she takes the top card and places it on the bottom of the deck.

“This one is robbing the vault,” and she places him in the middle of the deck.

“This one is going to the second floor,” and she places him in the top half of the deck.

“And this one is the look out so he stays right here. Oh dear, the lookout sees the cops coming. He signals everyone to get to the top of the building,” Kimaya says dramatically and then she taps the top of the pile. 

She flips over the top four cards revealing they are all jacks

The audience cheers.
 

Forty minutes of calculated deception followed. Kimaya was the Architect of Focus, her movements a mathematical equation of stolen watches and holographic decoys.

 But as the finale approached, the professional felt her mask begin to crack. The lights dimmed to a ghostly white spotlight for the final act: The Empty Embrace.

"For my final trick," she whispered, her voice catching, "I will show you the only thing more powerful than a secret."

She flicked her wrist, activating three magnetic micro-projectors. They knitted together a hard-light hologram of her mentor. He stood five feet away, his digital eyes crinkling with the warmth she hadn't felt since he died.

The music shifted to a hollow pulse. Kimaya began the synchronized dance, passing her High Priestess Coin back and forth with her light-made phantom. To the audience, it was a miracle of engineering; to Kimaya, it was torture. Every time her fingers "touched" his, she felt only the cold air.

As they stepped together for the final hand-off, the smell of the silver flash powder—a sandalwood blend her mentor had invented—hit her like a physical blow. Her world-class dexterity vanished.

She looked into the blue light of the hologram’s face and saw not a trick, but the finality of his absence.

"I can’t," she breathed.

The High Priestess Coin slipped from her trembling fingers. It didn’t teleport; it simply hit the stage with a hollow, silver clang that cut through the music. 

The hologram flickered and died, leaving Kimaya reaching into empty air. In the punishing silence of the spotlight, the world’s greatest illusionist stood exposed, realizing that no matter how many people she fooled, she couldn't trick her heart into forgetting the weight of who was gone. 

Losing him was the only Unthinkable she couldn't outrun.

This might continue later, but I have no clue