The Magpye: Circus by CW Lynch Read Free Book Online Page A

it was part of
some old trick, a moveable trap door. Able's mother said Marv was
the type of person who always knew where the nearest door was. Able
had never understood what she'd meant. Just another thing his
mother said that he could remember, even though he couldn't
remember her face.
    Things his mother had said ...
why had only the trivial and stupid ones stuck? He remembered
arguing. Arguing in the middle of a fire-fight, that was her
alright. He remembered another voice too. He couldn't call to mind
the words that were said, just the voice. Just the voice telling
him something that gave him a sick, empty feeling in his stomach
and that made him run, made him run oh so fast. He remembered being
angry, even in the middle of the chaos and the fire. He remembered
thinking that he didn't care now if the circus burnt to ashes
because the circus was nothing. The circus was a lie. Everything
was a lie.
    Able remembered reaching the
caravan, scanning around for any sign of someone watching him. He
was alone, the attention of the strangers centred somewhere on the
other side of the big top. He remembered crawling along the ground,
unhooking the latch on the secret door. He remembered climbing up
into the cool, quiet silence of Marv's old caravan. Marv had left a
lot of his magic props behind, stacked up on every available
surface. Posters were on every cabinet door, all Marv's old
glories. Memories, all stacked and stored and pasted up on the
walls. Able wished he had a place like this now, a place full of
his own memories. But now, just like then, what would he do when he
got there?
    He waited, listening to the
sounds outside, trying to peek out through the boards Marv had
fixed across the windows. Through the gaps, the circus was nothing
but fire and shadows, black silhouettes against the raging flames.
They were burning everything. Why hadn't they torched this caravan
too? More gunshots outside. How long had he hidden there, whilst
his friends were murdered? How many of them died wondering why
nobody came to help? Had his mother died, wondering if her son had
made it out? She was another one of which there was no trace, her
existence wiped away so cleanly that she hadn't even left a stain
for Able to find.
    He remembered the trap door
opening behind him, remembered steeling himself. This was it, this
was the moment. And after that... nothing.
    A shape, a figure. Man? Woman? Able didn't know. Whispers,
anger, secrets. Then the box, Marv's magic box. Tip it over, get
inside. “ We'll be safe, trust me, we'll be safe.”.
Had Able said that? Had he? She? Gunshots. Bullets coming through
the walls, trails of firelight behind them in the darkness of the
magician's caravan. The figure falling, the magic box toppling
down. Trapped.
    This was how Able Quirk died
and Magpye was born.
     

GRACE FARAWAY
    Cane King threw the phone
across his office and watched it smash against the far wall.
    "Problem, Mr. King?" asked
Taylor, filling the silence whilst his boss calmed and restored the
polished veneer that so few saw crack, let alone fall away
completely. King ran a hand through his blonde hair, took another
deep breath.
    "That was Victor Chase," King
eventually replied, his voice full of venom, sinuously twisting the
mob boss' name. "He says I owe him a warehouse. And some kids."
    "I'll make some calls," replied
Taylor, reaching for his mobile phone. "Make sure the story gets
lost."
    "I don't care about the media, I am the media," spat King. "Killing the story there doesn't end it,
not something as big as this. Vic Chase has got a big mouth, he'll
tell the other bosses. Cops will tell other cops. He burnt it to
the ground, Jack. People are going to notice and maybe people are
going to start to think that you can go up against me and get away
with it after all, that maybe they should pull on a mask and burn
something of mine down. It starts on the streets, Jack, not in the
papers."
    "So, what about your plan?"
    King sighed. "Exactly. My