He had made a train disappear, I supposed that a bull should be a piece of cake after that. I watched curiously as the girl took a screwdriver and shut the bull closed. Subsequently, an a.s.sistant handed her a torch. The girl hesitantly bent over and touched the torch to the surface of the furnace the bull was on. "Thank you for your service," Earle Desmond said. "You can go back to your seat and enjoy the rest of the show."
The girl slowly stepped away, looking back a couple of times over her shoulder in confusion before finally stepping away. Sebastian and I were seated towards the back, but I could see that the girl was uncomfortable.
Maybe what Sebastian had said was right. While I knew that he couldn"t come to a solid conclusion until he spoke to the magician one on one, he was good at reading people at a distance… it was his job.
It took a couple of minutes until the bull started to grow hotter. A faint noise came from the thing. I scrunched my brow and leaned closer to Sebastian.
"Did you hear that?" I asked. He nodded, looking equally confused.
"There wasn"t anything inside the bull. Could it be water inside?" It could be a situation like the pressure cooker, but then the sound would have to come out of somewhere. The mechanism could be the same. Fire, sealed shut metal and a small opening through which the pressure was released. But where was it?
"Do you think it is the mouth?" Sebastian contemplated.
"It is a cool trick, but I don"t see the fascination with it." But then the tone changed. The bronze was turning an odd shade, completely heated and the bellows of the bull started to permeate through the air.
The stage was littered with microphones, so the sound was louder than antic.i.p.ated. It was deafening. At first, there was confusion and then some hesitant claps.
There was no grand gesture, no bull turning into a live one or any of the show-stopping tricks that Earle usually used. I quickly took out my phone and put in his name.
"There can"t be enough water to make that much pressure in that ma.s.sive bull..." I trailed off. There was something at the back of my mind that I just couldn"t place my finger on. A few more minutes and smoke started to flare out of the nostrils of the bull, it rocked back and forth with vigor.
It was a faint memory of something I had read in the past.
The crowd was now going wild. They seemed to think it would be a complete transformation, and if I wasn"t so intent on recalling the memory, I might have thought the same.
Usually, I remembered relevant material, but for some reason, this had slipped out of my mind. Had I seen this trick being performed somewhere?
The bull.
The bull.
The bull.
Where had I seen a bronze bull?
"You"re right. If it isn"t water, how is he doing it?"
On the stage, the magician was laughing, talking about his life, and the things he had done. He was talking about the great changes he was going to make and it just didn"t make sense to me.
What is going on?
"There"s someone inside the bull," I found myself saying. I jerked up to my feet and tried to stumble over the people.
"Evie?" I could hear Sebastian. I turned to him, trying to pa.s.s by a particularly irritated woman. I was in no mood to apologize to all these people.
"There"s someone inside that bull!" His face scrunched, and as I was about to turn, I saw the realization dawn on him.
There was a bubble of misplaced warmth in my heart. I didn"t wonder much about it, but his faith in my speculation was somewhat moving.
Not the time to think about it, Evie.
The whispers grew. Word caught on like wildfire, and before I knew it, I heard the emergency bell go on. As my eyes zoomed in on the magician on the stage, I saw him backing away.
"Don"t let him go," I screamed to no one in particular. I received odd looks as I went, but the panic had set in. All the procedures taught to these people in school went out the window. There were too many people rushing towards the isle at the same time, stumbling over one another.
I felt my breath catch. Doom washed over me as I was engulfed by the herd of people trying to escape. Those sitting ahead of me had blocked me off completely.
From far away, amidst the cacophony and the sounds of panicking people, I heard his voice. It was faint, but my name was clear on his lips. I tried to peak over the crowd, trying to see where the man was. The bull still blazed, the bellows grew horrifying.
As pushes came to shove, I felt the horror take over.
I covered my face with my hands as best as I could. I was considerably shorter than most of the men that surrounded me. The women seemed unbothered and only wished to push their way past, as well. The heat of their bodies and the restrictions placed on me took over.
In a blanket of haze, I heard the voices in my head resurface.
The heat was blistering. I couldn"t feel a thing except for the need to breathe and the flesh on my body burning. As I opened my eyes and pushed my hand out, I could see the blisters on my skin forming, almost melting off my bones.
I choked and gasped, trying to escape. This… was this what h.e.l.l felt like?
A scream slipped out of my lips. But who would listen? No one could listen.
Help me.
Sebastian?
Mr. Butler?
"Evie..." I heard.
Submerged in the water that was my consciousness, the voice seemed to be over the surface, searching for me, panic evident. I wanted to reach out, but I didn"t know how. There was no s.p.a.ce. No s.p.a.ce at all. Where would I go?
Sebastian?
"Evie?" Closer still.
Evie, concentrate. You are not trapped. There are people simply surrounding you. Calm down. Breathe.
I wrapped my arm around myself, each hand touching the opposite shoulder and tried to follow the rhythm.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
It"s okay.
It"s okay, Evie.