The "Fake" Magazine

The “Fake” Magazine

     Samantha starts clapping, hooping, and hollowing along with everyone else there as Marko the Magnificent finishes doing another trick. The last one of this session. At least that’s the way it looks to Samantha. After all, Marko thanks everyone for coming. Then he goes off stage to his right.

     Like everyone, Samantha gets up. But she doesn’t start to leave there as the others do. Instead, she follows Marko back to his dressing room. When she gets there, she knocks on his door. But he doesn’t answer. So, she tries it again with the same results.

     “Whoever you are I don’t want to talk to you,” yells Marko from beyond the door where Samantha is. “Especially, if you are the owner of this dump.”

     “I’m not the owner. And I agree with you. This place is a dump.”

     Samantha steps to the side of the door as it opens slightly. “That’s one of the reasons I want to talk to you. Can I come in?”

     “Why should I talk to you?” Marko asks.

     “Because I’m doing an article for Real Magic Magazine. And I know you aren’t a fake magician.”

##

     Marko clears a cluttered chair so that Samantha can sit down. Among this clutter are several magazines with Marko’s picture on them. As Samantha is sitting down in this chair, she looks at these magazines. “Yes, I know all about them. They are one of the reasons I’m here. I want to interview you too.”

     “What is Real Magic Magazine?” Marko asks. “I haven’t heard about it.”

     “I’m not surprised about that. It has been around for quite a long time. But not too many know about it. If you grant me this interview, you will be among those who will know of its existence.”

     Marko smiles sheepishly. “I don’t really care about your magazine. But I do like to talk about myself. So, I will give you that interview. What do you want to know about me now?”

     “It’s not you I’m interested in. I want to know all about your two sisters.”

     “What do you mean about that?” Marko asks.

     Samantha gets up. “Like I said before you let me in here, I know you aren’t a fake magician. But I can’t say the same thing about your sisters.”

##

     “If you want to know about Greta and Antoni, you need to talk to them. I’m not going to tell you anything about them,” says Marko after getting over what Samantha has been saying to him a few minutes later.

     “I have already interviewed them. Your brother too. But they haven’t been telling me anything that I haven’t already known about them.”

     Samantha continues to pace around this dressing room. “That is why I have come to you to tell me what they won’t.”

     “You can ask me all the questions you want about my sisters. But I’m not going to answer them.”

     “It’s best if you tell me about Greta and Antoni. But if you don’t, I can get it somewhere else.”

     Samantha stops pacing when she comes almost face to face with Marko. “It just takes longer for me to do it this way. And there is more of a chance they will find out what I’m doing.”

     “What is it that you are doing?” Marko asks. “You’re not a reporter. That’s obvious by the way you are talking. So, who are you really.”

##

     Once again, Samantha is sitting down. She looks at the clock on the wall. It has been almost a half hour since Marko asked her who she is. “You’re right. I’m not here to do a story on you or your family.”

     “I’m here because I’m a Fake Investigator. Peter, your brother, maybe a little bit of a con man because he’s an Illusionist. But he hasn’t taken anyone for any money like your sisters have.”

     “Your sisters are the fakes who I’m looking for. Not only am I here to prove they are fakes, but I’m going to make sure that they don’t take any more money from anyone else ever again.”

     Marko sits down in a chair opposite Samantha. “They aren’t fakes as you call them. What they do isn’t illegal.”

     “Maybe they aren’t with the law because they can’t stop you. But I can. And I will.”

     “The Real Magic Council wants me to stop them once and for all. Any way that I need to do it. And that is what I’m going to do.”

##

     Marko isn’t sitting any longer. He’s the one pacing now. A look at the clock there says he has been doing it for only a few minutes at the most. Suddenly, he stops pacing. “What are you going to do to Greta and Antoni?”

     “I’m going to try to get them to stop on their own. But if they don’t, I will do whatever it takes to stop them. And that includes killing them if that is the only way of stopping them.”

     “You can’t just kill them.” Marko with a shocked look on his face. “That’s murder.”

     Samantha smiles sheepishly. “It’s not murder where I come from.”

     “I don’t want to kill them. But I will if I need to do it. What they do gives us a bad reputation. I’m here to stop them from doing it.”

     “What do you mean by that? Where do you think that you are from?”

     Samantha smiles again. “Maybe showing you where I come from will help you to decide to help me with your sisters.”

     After getting up, Samantha steps to within inches of Marko. Then she waves her hands above their head. A gray smoke comes out of her palms to engulf them within it. When it disappears a few seconds later, they are gone too.

####

     A few seconds later the column of smoke reappears in a dark and gloomy place. Only this time when the smoke clears, Samantha and Marko are there. “This isn’t where I live. But I come here a lot.”

     Marko can’t believe what he’s looking at as he slowly looks around where they are. His eyes are wide open, and his jaw is dropped. “Where are we?”

     “I could have brought you to where I live most of the time. But I think this is a better place for you to see.”

     Slowly, Marko starts looking around again. What he sees are pairs of wizards and witches going at each other in one spell after another. “Who are these people? And what are they doing here?”

     “What does it look like they are doing? They are witches and wizards. And they are practicing real magic.”

     “I don’t know how you have done it. But I know I’m not where you want me to believe that I am.”

     Marko shakes his head slowly. "You are a magician like me. And you used that smoke trick to knock me out. Then you brought me here.”

##

     “I’m not a magician like you. You have the first part of that right, though. I am magic. And I have brought you here to prove it to you so that you will help me with Greta and Antoni.”

     “I don’t know how you have done this yet. But I still don’t buy what you are trying to show me.”

     Samantha’s smile gets even bigger. “This isn’t fake. Your sisters are the fakes. And with your help I will prove it to you.”

     “This isn’t really magic because there is no such a thing. I am a stage magician. And I do tricks. But that is all that they are. They aren’t magic tricks, just tricks.”

     “What can I tell you or do to prove that what you are seeing is magic?” Samantha asks.

     Marko slowly shakes his head no. “There is nothing you can say or do to convince me that this is real.”

     “Then I’m just going to need to go after your sisters the hard way. Also, known as the fun way to me.”

     “What does that mean?” Marko asks.

     Samantha smiles sheepishly. “It means I’m going to prove that magic is real and that your sisters are fakes.”

##

     After Samantha walks into a large room with Marko, they stop. Samantha slowly starts looking at the nine individuals sitting around a big table in the center of this dark room. When she gets to Greta, she stops looking. She walks toward her. “Sorry to interrupt you. Didn’t know you were in the middle of another séance. Just had a few more questions to ask you for my article.”

     “Don’t worry anyone. Greta hasn’t said any of your names and person information of her victims to me.”

     “What does victim mean?” One of the male individuals there asks.

     Samantha walks over to this individual. “It means that Greta is a fake.”

     “That isn’t true. Don’t listen to this lunatic.”

     “Greta is a fake. And I can prove it.”

     Samantha looks at the walls in this room. “Walls can be seen through if they want to let you do it.

     A few seconds later all the walls disappear to reveal a lot of electrical equipment behind them. Samantha clicks a couple of her fingers. And a fire ball appears in her palm. She throws it at some of the equipment that destroys it. Samantha does the same thing to all the equipment there.

##

     “The eyes can see, and the ears can hear. They can also record what they see and hear.” Samantha says this just before she enters the tent where Antoni is at with Marko beside her.

     Antoni is sitting behind a small table with a crystal ball and a deck of tarot cards in front of her. “I already know why you are here.”

     “Of course, you do. Have you read it in your crystal ball or in your tarot cards?”

     “Neither one. My brother and sister called me what you have done to Greta.”

     Samantha smiles. “So, are you going to be like Greta and not stop taking money from your victims?”

     “I’m not going to stop doing anything either. And there is nothing that you can do about it.”

     “So, what you are telling me is that you will continue to take money from your victims. That is what you are telling me. Aren’t you?”

     Samantha smiles as she looks at a television in the other room. It’s showing what is happening in this large tent on it. “I don’t think it’s going to be so easy to get too many victims anymore because you have just told the world who you are.”

##

     “I said that I wouldn’t kill them. And I haven’t. As you can see, they are still alive.”

     Marko slowly looks around where they are. A place that is even worse than the last one he has been with her. There are no wizards or witches practicing there. Only what appears like mindless individuals walking around in a daze.

     After a few minutes of looking, he sees his sisters. “What have you done to them?”

     “I said I was going to stop them from taking any more money from anyone ever again. And that is what I have done.”

     “You didn’t need to do it like this. I can understand now that you needed to stop them. But not like this.”

     Samantha smiles sheepishly. “You are the reason why. I tried to get you to help me. But you refused to do it.”

     “It was very hard to stop them because of you. As a result, they are here.”

     “What do I need to do to get Greta and Antoni out of here?” Marko asks.

     Samantha’s smile starts to fade. “There is nothing that you can do. They are here forever. And I mean forever.”

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