The Third Movement

by Neil Patrick Harris

  It is difficult to say exactly what happened next.

  Some of the kids said it was an accident.

  Others were certain that it was done on purpose.

  Regardless, the fire spread quickly, moving from the makeshift stage to the stacks of dusty boxes. After that, flames leapt to the ceiling and devoured the wooden joists that held up the floor overhead.

  Sandra and Lyle and Dante were able to escape the basement through a secret door into the bootlegging tunnels. Bobby, Mick, and Kalagan managed to make it up the stairs to the first-floor hallway. Once there, they encountered chaos. Guests were rushing about, trying to escape as the fire and smoke overwhelmed them. Kalagan split off from the other boys, running up another flight of stairs, shouting that he needed to find his parents.

  Bolting toward one of the windows, Mick tripped. A burning piece of the ceiling fell. It trapped him as flames crawled up his back toward his neck. Then there was darkness.

  Bobby had thrown a blanket over his friend, putting out the blaze. The two boys limped out into the night, pain flaring across Mick’s damaged skin.

  The lodge burned for hours, even as the Mineral Wells Fire Department put up a valiant fight to extinguish it. By dawn, much of the structure still stood, but it had been charred beyond recognition.

  So had the young magicians’ friendship.

  Quiet lingered among the Misfits. They glanced at one another for several seconds until Theo finally asked the obvious: “What happened next?”

  “I spent months in the hospital, recovering from my wounds. I had several surgeries and grafts, and I basically had to learn how to move again.” Mick paused. “Kalagan managed to get out of the burning building… but his parents, who worked there and were trying to help the guests, did not. He was sent to an orphanage. He kept sneaking out to come back to Mineral Wells, though. He and Bobby remained close, but Kalagan blamed Dante and Lyle for what had happened. For escaping and leaving us alone in the basement. He never forgave them.”

  “And you?” Theo asked. “Did you blame Mr. Vernon for leaving?”

  Mick sighed. “I don’t believe what happened was an accident. He played a part. Afterward, I wanted nothing more to do with magic or performing. The members of the Ring all grew up and moved on. Or so I thought. Kalagan has let his anger transform him. I would suspect that Dante Vernon allowed his own guilt to do the same. He’s spent years trying to correct his mistakes… and now it appears he’s trying to do it through the six of you.”

  “Mr. Vernon has a lot of faith in us,” Theo said, trying hard to believe it.

  Leila nodded, wiping tears from her cheeks. “My dad loves us with all his heart.”

  Mick turned to Theo. “Joining your friends on stage this evening undid everything we’ve accomplished in the past couple weeks, Theo. Kalagan’s spies are watching. And now they know that your group is as strong as ever.”

  “Maybe that is a good thing, Mr. Meridian,” said Theo. “We cannot fight back unless we are strong. Emily knows that better than anyone else. She is the one who took down Tyler when he threatened us during rehearsal.”

  “But she fought Tyler alone,” said Mick. “And she has trained and practiced and gotten better, alone. I suggest you all do the same.”

  “We’re the Magic Misfits,” said Ridley, clutching Top Hat in her lap. “We do magic. That’s what we practice. And it can be just as powerful as fists.”

  “But Kalagan knows this. He will only use it against you. You and Vernon.”

  And again silence.

  Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock went the clock on the wall.

  Theo finally managed to catch Emily’s eye. “I thought we were friends,” he said quietly.

  She returned his gaze. “I thought you would understand,” she said with no emotion.

  Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock went Theo’s heartbeat, keeping time to a music that was no longer playing.

  As he turned away, the ground suddenly shook underneath him. Half a second later, a blast sounded. It was so loud that the last members of the crowd remaining on the town green covered their ears instinctively.

  Theo watched as the great glass windows at the front of the magic shop exploded outward.

  TWENTY-THREE

  Pieces of the stone facade littered the sidewalk and the street. The crowd ran for cover as the Misfits watched the building implode. There came a great cracking sound as the slate roof caved in, and the front of the building leaned precariously backward into a crater where the floor of the shop had been moments earlier.

  “The bootlegging tunnels,” Leila said breathlessly. “The one beneath the shop must have collapsed!”

  “You think this was an accident?” Carter shouted.

  “I don’t know! Stop yelling at me!”

  “Kalagan,” Ridley declared. “He knows those tunnels run through the town!”

  Theo swallowed hard, then glanced at Mick and Emily, who looked as horrified as the rest of them. Then he remembered the anagram from the Grand Oak’s poster for Wendel Whispers’s show.

  “Magic Misfits crumble,” he whispered. He thought of the cigarette butt he had found earlier that day. The writing on the filter had read: Good choice, Theo. He was not supposed to have performed with the Misfits. He turned to his friends. “The poster was a warning. We did not listen.” He needed to see the shop. “Stay with the animals,” he called back to Ridley.

  As Theo ran into the street, he heard footsteps behind him. Soon Carter and Leila had joined him. “Poppa,” Leila whimpered. “He’s supposed to be at work. I need to call him.”

  Stopping at the curb, Theo could see into the building through a cloud of dissipating dust. “I do not believe your telephone exists anymore.”

  Sirens rose in the distance. The Mineral Wells Fire Department was on its way.

  “What do we do?” asked Carter.

  Theo looked around for his family. But he couldn’t make out any faces from the crowd. Everyone had moved to the safety of the far side of the park.

  “Hey, you kids,” a voice said from nearby. “It’s not safe here.”

  Standing in the entry of the shop next door stood a figure dressed all in black. With growing fear, Theo understood that this was the same man who had been listening in on the Magic Misfits’ meeting that morning, the same man who had run off and turned into a coatrack dressed in Mr. Vernon’s clothing. Theo felt Leila squeeze his left hand as Carter took his right. Together they backed away. “You hear me?” he called out again. “This is the last place you want to be.”

  With a black-gloved hand, the man reached inside his cape and withdrew a small black stick. Each end of it was marked white. It was a traditional magic wand, like the ones Mr. Vernon had displayed in a glass jar at the front of the store.

  The store that was no more.

  The man was moving the wand in such a way that Theo felt he could not tear away his gaze. Then, with a flick of his wrist, the man transformed the wand into something else.

  Long and sharp, a blade glinted under the streetlights.

  “Run!” Theo shouted to his friends.

  They bolted around the corner.

  The sky was black now, and starlight sprayed fully across the heavens. Theo raced with Carter and Leila as the street inclined. He nearly tripped over the cobblestones but then found his footing and kept on.

  The streetlights on this block had gone out with the blast. The trio ran past darkened storefronts. Footfalls echoed from behind them. The man was not far away. Theo tried to not think about the sharp instrument he had seen in his clenched fist.

  “Which way?” asked Leila, breathing heavily.

  “Whichever way is away,” Carter answered. “He’s too close for us to lose him.”

  Theo grabbed their arms and yanked them into an alleyway that had appeared ahead.

  Brick walls pressed in on them, and the slit of the alley’s exit grew larger as their sprinting brought them closer. Looking over his shoulder,
Theo saw movement at the alley’s entrance. The blur of a shadow.

  The three burst into a wide darkened parking lot. The backs of several stores and a few homes had created a secluded area. The electricity was still out. The silhouette of a church steeple rose up high overhead.

  “This way.” Theo pointed toward a stone path around the side of the church.

  Racing footfalls echoed across the asphalt behind them. It did not seem to matter where they might hide. The figure was anticipating their next steps.

  And he was only getting closer.

  Carter reached into his pocket. He snapped his fingers, and a glint of fire lit the night. He hurled the flash paper back at the figure. It flew through the air like a falling star and landed at the man’s feet. The figure jumped over the embers and continued his pursuit.

  Leila wiggled her shoulders and slipped out of her straitjacket, her black shirt allowing her to blend into the night. Halfway down the path beside the church, she turned back and flung the jacket at the figure. The arms seemed to wrap around his face, as if they had minds of their own. For the first time, the man slowed—perhaps even stumbled.

  Leila veered off the path, dragging the boys into a patch of forsythia bushes. She motioned for them to stay quiet. Crouching inside the brush, the three watched the man struggle with the straitjacket only a few feet away.

  Within seconds, he whipped it off and threw it to the ground. He stooped to pick up his top hat. Finally, he noticed that the kids had disappeared. He stopped in the middle of the garden path, glancing in all directions.

  Theo held his breath. Leila clutched his arm. Carter covered his mouth. Were Ridley and the twins okay? Theo wondered. What about Emily and Mick?

  The figure fixed his gaze on the shrubbery. He stepped onto the grass, only moments from discovering their hiding spot.

  From around the corner of the church, Theo heard a voice whisper, “Let us split up. Carter goes that way. Leila takes the other. And I will circle around the other side.” Goose bumps rose on the back of Theo’s neck. It was his own voice!

  Then he realized it had to be Emily. She was imitating him, throwing her voice to confuse their pursuer.

  The man took the bait. He bolted back to the path and raced around the corner where the fake Theo had spoken.

  Carter and Leila stared at Theo with eyes like moons. Emily, he mouthed. Helping us. He nodded toward the parking lot from where they had come. Carefully, they crept out of the forsythia and padded quietly through the grass, listening for the sound of footsteps. But none came.

  They were nearly halfway across the parking lot, heading for the safety of the alley, when a singsong voice called out from behind them, “I’m Darling Daniel. Who are you?”

  Turning back, they saw the dark figure standing only a dozen or so feet away. Frozen in place. The world started to spin. Theo felt like he was part of a magic act that he had not volunteered for.

  “Leave us alone!” called Leila.

  “You don’t want to mess with the Misfits!” shouted Carter.

  “I’m Darling Daniel,” echoed the voice of Mr. Whispers’s dummy. “Who are you?”

  “We are the Magic Misfits!” Theo yelled so hard his throat hurt. “And you are going to pay for what you have done!”

  A new voice came from the frozen figure. A familiar voice. “I’m Dante Vernon,” it said. “What… have… I… done?”

  “Dad?” Leila asked.

  “That is not your dad,” Theo reassured her.

  A spark flashed at the base of the man’s cape. Flames erupted there, hurrying upward before engulfing the figure entirely. Theo, Leila, and Carter clung to one another in horror as they watched the man burn.

  Laughter sounded off the buildings that enclosed the parking lot.

  And Theo realized that it was only a trick. A misdirection. A bunch of clothes hanging from a coatrack. Again. The longer the trio remained distracted by the spectacle of the blazing man, the more time the villain would have to set up the next illusion.

  Whatever was coming could be deadly.

  “Come on,” he said, tugging at Carter’s and Leila’s sleeves. But when he turned, he smacked into something hard.

  No, not something, Theo realized. Someone.

  Looking up, he saw the black brim of a top hat blocking out the stars. “Kalagan!” Theo choked out.

  Strong fingers closed around his arms.

  “Gotcha,” the man said, and began to chuckle.

  TWENTY-FOUR

  Leila and Carter screamed and ducked away.

  Kalagan pulled Theo close, spinning him and hugging an arm across his chest. Something pressed into Theo’s throat just beneath his chin.

  “Wh-what do you want from us?” Theo stammered.

  “I want you all to… disappear,” said a low, scratchy voice, completely unlike the other voices they had already heard from him. “You’ve made a bad choice, Theo.”

  “Let him go,” Carter pleaded. He held out his hands to show he had no tricks up his sleeves.

  “Please,” Leila added. “He’s just a kid.”

  “Just a kid,” Kalagan echoed. “You kids have already done immense damage this summer. My plans—”

  From across the lot came a jumble of footsteps and the sound of spinning wheels. They stopped abruptly on the opposite side of the burning coatrack. “Theo!” Ridley screamed. Then her face darkened as she focused on the man in the top hat and cape. “You… you villain! If you hurt him, I’ll… I’ll…”

  “You’ll what?” asked Kalagan, amused, his throat filled with gravel. “You’ll squirt me with water from your wheelchair?” He turned to Carter and Leila. “You’ll slice me with your cards and then tie me up with dental floss?” He glanced past the blaze and called out to Olly and Izzy. “You’ll tap-dance me into oblivion?” His laugh coughed from his throat like a steam engine gaining speed. “How very cute. You kids have no idea who you’re dealing with.”

  A new voice came from behind Theo and Kalagan: “Neither do you.”

  Before Theo could think, he heard a wallop and a crack and a shriek that nearly burst his eardrums. He was pitched forward, the end of the wand-knife scraping his skin. He scrambled away from Kalagan, then turned to find Emily Meridian standing over him, her hands raised in a martial arts position.

  Kalagan rolled out of reach, then scrambled to his feet, putting all his weight on only one leg. He winced in pain. “You’ve made the mistake of your life.”

  Theo whistled, loud and long, trying to distract Kalagan and call for help at the same time. Kalagan looked confused, but only for a moment, giving Emily time to motion for Theo, Carter, and Leila to join Ridley and the twins on the opposite side of the fire. “I doubt it,” she told Kalagan. “These Misfits are stronger than you’ll ever know.”

  He raised his wand and pointed it at her. “Stronger than your father, I hope.” He touched his neck where Mick’s scar would have been.

  The comment caught Emily off guard. It was all the time he needed. He charged toward her, no longer limping, his blade glinting orange from the fire.

  There was a fluttering overhead. Theo did not wait. He whistled the signal, and his doves dove down toward Kalagan. Their white wings flashed wickedly as their claws scratched at his face. He screamed and tried to duck away.

  You see, my friend, Theo had taken Mr. Vernon’s advice to heart: A magician must prepare for all possible outcomes. In between music sessions with his siblings and spying on Wendel Whispers with his friends, Theo had been practicing this trick with his beloved doves. Ever since he had tried a version of it on the bully Tyler some weeks ago, he’d known he needed to hone the command for the future. And the birds were carrying out his orders perfectly.

  Emily ran, circling the fire, and joined the Misfits.

  Kalagan groaned and flailed as Theo’s birds continued to attack. Finally, he grabbed his cape and spiraled his arm, swirling the fabric to create a barrier between himself and the doves. They scattered
up toward the rooftops. A moment later, the cape fell in a heap to the ground.

  The man had vanished again.

  Fear must have been keeping Theo upright, because now his knees buckled and he collapsed to the asphalt. Emily caught his shoulders before his head could hit the ground. Carter and Leila and Ridley and the twins circled him. He stared up at them, and then past them at the stars, where once he had dreamed that he could fly. His neck stung where the wand had scraped him, but when he held his hand there, his palm came away dry. Thankfully.

  Worried voices overlapped. “Is he okay?”

  “Did he faint?”

  “We should go get help.”

  “Let’s carry him out of here.”

  Someone called to them from nearby. “Children!”

  A figure in a dark cape and a top hat emerged from the alleyway.

  Kalagan was back! Theo tried to sit up, but his body refused to move.

  Leila leapt to her feet. “Dad!” she called out, and dashed toward him. This was when Theo noticed the white hair peeking out from under the brim of the hat. Leila threw her arms around Mr. Vernon and squeezed him with all her might. “You’re all right,” she said over and over, until finally he held her away and glanced to the others.

  “Yes, I am.” He kissed Leila’s forehead. Then, meeting Theo’s eyes, he asked, “But are you?”

  Emily used her shoulder to help prop him up, then bring him to his feet. Ridley came to his other side so that he could hold on to her armrest. Her face was drained of color, and her eyes were wet. “I think so,” Theo answered woozily.

  “Mr. Vernon!” Carter exclaimed, running over to their mentor. “The magic shop is gone!”

  Mr. Vernon’s face was grave. “I know. My train arrived shortly before it happened. Thank goodness the Other Mr. Vernon is up at the resort. But that’s not important right now. Come along,” he said, waving for them to follow him into the alley. “We need to get all of you checked out. There is a swarm of ambulances by the park.…”

  Theo stopped listening as they headed back toward the town green. He could not help but think that the man who had hurt him was still watching from somewhere in the darkness.