The Last Magician

The Prisoner

Jack pushed open the door.

The hinges resisted only for a brief moment then with a low groan turned inwards. The door opened into a short hallway, lit only with the dim light from a small window on the far wall. A closed custody cell door stood on either side, once painted grey-green but now flaked and faded to just a dull metallic grey, yet both doors seemed sturdy and in somewhat better condition many others.

A faint stale smell lingered in the air. Jack knew the odour; piss.

Jack felt Amanda close behind him and turned to see her wrinkling her nose. .

“Where are you?” Jack said into the empty hall.

“Here,” a male voice said close to the door of the left cell. “In here. Come on, let me out.”

Jack moved across the hall and opened the small observation hatch in the cell door. He took an involuntary step back as the stale smell of urine grew stronger. A moment later a face filled the hole.

“Shit,” he said instinctively.

Jack gauged the cell’s occupant to be no older than eighteen. He was thin faced, with little stubble to speak of and lank hair that ended just short of his shoulders.

”Christ, you don’t know how good it is to see someone,” the kid said. ”I thought I was going to be locked in here forever. I’m starving. I’ve been here days, maybe...”

His sentence trailed off as his eyes glazed over with a dull look of fear. Jack followed the kid’s gaze to the rifle hanging on his shoulder.

“Don’t worry,” Jack said. “This is just a precaution.”

”Thank fuck. I thought... Well it doesn’t really matter what I thought. Just get me out of here will you?’


Jack did not reply instantly, nor did he make a move to open the door. Instead he turned around to find Amanda opening the hatch of the cell opposite. A wave of dread swept over him and his heart thumped through his head. A certainty gripped him that something unsavoury would be lurking in the other cell, but as Amanda peered inside and gave no reaction, Jack willed his pulse to slow.

She sensed his attention and looked over her shoulder.

“It’s empty,” she said, her relief unhidden.

Jack returned his gaze to the prisoner. The kid was definitely no older than eighteen. There were no rough edges to his features, no signs of wear and tear that came with even the first years after coming of age. A hint of stubble speckled his chin, and Jack suddenly thought of his own rough face, peppered with only a few days growth. Something as simple as that could be the best measure of time they had.

”What’s your name?” Jack asked.

The kid in the cell took a moment. Jack could see the same hesitancy on his face as he had on Amanda’s.

”It’s Kurt,” he said, his eyes flicking to Amanda and back.

”You’re not sure, right?” Jack asked.

Kurt shook his head slowly. His face became serious, and Jack saw a startling change in his features. He grew older in appearance before Jack’s eyes, a maturity rising from beneath his youthful skin. The doubt over Kurt’s age resurfaced and like so much else it became yet another unknown in their existence.

”I’m not really sure about anything,” Kurt told him solemnly. “I don’t know who I am, why I’m here, or where I am. Well, I know I’m locked in here, but I don’t know where here is.”

”I know how you feel,” Jack said. ”We’re all in the same boat here. Neither Amanda nor I can remember a great deal about anything.”


“Only little things keep coming back,” Amanda said over Jack’s shoulder.

”Mainly things of no importance,” Kurt said. “Where is everyone? None of the pigs out there have listened to me. I thought they were going to leave me in here to die or something.”

Jack exchanged a glance with Amanda. They did not need words to recognise what the other already knew.

He doesn’t know anything is wrong.

“What?” Kurt asked. “What is it?”

“No one came because the station is empty,” Jack said.

“You mean those jackoffs just went out and left me here?”

“Not quite. There’s no one outside either.” Jack hesitated as the missing shotgun and the elusive Floor Dweller floated through his head. “No one that we’ve seen anyway.”

Confusion swam in Kurt’s eyes. “I don’t understand.”

“Something has happened,” Amanda said. “Something really bad has happened and we don’t know what. All we know is that there are more things than people out there.”

Kurt stepped back from the hatch. Jack wasn’t sure what was going through the kid’s mind but he knew it couldn’t be happy thoughts.

“We thought we were the only ones,” Jack said. “Then we found you and…and someone else. Someone was hiding from us and we scared them off. I guess they hadn’t seen anyone before us.”

“Ok, hang on,” Kurt said, holding up his hands. “This is crazy! You can’t expect me to believe that everyone’s just vanished. That’s Hollywood shit. Who are you really?”

“I know it’s hard to believe but that’s all we know.”

“I’ve seen what cops do to people,” Kurt said, returning to the hatch, wild-eyed and panicked. “That’s why I can’t remember. I’ve been drugged up and now they’ve sent you two in here to fuck my mind up. What did I do that was so bad?”

“Kurt, listen to me,” Amanda said, moving past Jack. “We’re telling you the truth. We don’t know what happened or why we were left behind. All we know is that if we are here then it’s likely there are others somewhere and we need to find them. Maybe then we can find out more about what happened to the others.”

Jack felt a peculiar sense of pride in Amanda’s assertiveness. The idea she could make the whole thing sound more believable had not crossed his mind, but it seemed so obvious now. Kurt was a man, young as he may be, so naturally a pretty face would hold more sway than his own unshaven one.

The change in Kurt was instant. His features softened and a look of acceptance spread over his face.

“You mean there really isn’t anyone out there?” he asked, focussing on Amanda. “I thought they were just making me sweat it out or something. Then again, it was awful quiet.”

“Awfully quiet,” Amanda corrected him.

“No, awful quiet,” Kurt repeated, emphasising the word. “Like a really bad vibe. As though something was wrong. I guess something was wrong, but I didn’t know it.”

“Do you remember anything?” Jack asked. “Anything at all no matter how small?”

Kurt paused a moment. “Not really. I’m pretty sure of my name. I have a kind of memory about my parents and home, but nothing I could say for certain.”

“What about here? Do you have any idea how long you’ve been here?”

“The first thing I remember is coming to with a motherfu –“ Kurt paused as his eyes connected with Amanda’s. “I remember coming to with a really bad headache. I don’t know when that was though. Maybe a day or two? I know I’ve had to piss on the floor a couple of times.”

Jack nodded. The source of the smell was pretty obvious if he stopped to think about it. Where else could anyone confined to a cell have gone?

“Time isn’t what it should be,” he said. “Our watches are fried and the sun doesn’t seem to be moving much. It’s probably the least of our worries at the minute.”

“What did you say about there being things out there?” Kurt asked, directing his gaze at Amanda.

Jack replied. “We don’t need to talk about that now. There are just a few things that have changed from how we remember them.”

“And you’ve only seen one other person?”


”Well, like I said, it wasn’t quite seen. There have to be others though.”

“That’s reassuring I guess,” Kurt said. “Now can we see about getting this cell open before –“

The ground shook under their feet and a deep crack split open along the hall. A crashing of stone and timber exploded from the adjacent room.

Amanda gripped Jack’s arm. She uttered a small whimpering sound, something that could easily have been a contained scream or shriek.

“That didn’t sound good,” Jack muttered, to himself more than anyone else.

Kurt appeared wild-eyed at the hatch, his face press so hard the hole that his eyes bulged. He searched the ceiling for any signs the ceiling was about to fall, then flicked his frantic gaze to the dust billowing through the front office door.

“Close your eyes!” Kurt yelled over the diminishing noise.

“What?” Jack asked. “Why do –“

“Just do it!” Kurt roared, turning from the hatch.

Jack moved to ask the question again when a brilliant crimson light turned the room red.

Jack raised his free arm to his face, the glare so fierce he could feel its heat on his eyeballs and skin. He closed his eyes behind his hand, immediately seeing inverted flashed on the backs of his lids.

The floor took another almighty lurch underfoot and this time Jack was thrown to the floor. He landed on his side with a grunt and a moment later Amanda crashed down on top of him. He lay winded, but was able to pull Amanda into him so both could bury their faces in each other’s shoulder. It helped protect them from the burning illumination, but did nothing against the sounds of the building collapsing around itself.

The thunder of falling masonry exploded in their ears, a cacophony of grinding, crushing and destruction. Jack had time to wonder if entering the station in search of a life was about to lead to their death, then darkness fell like a bomb and silence came with it.