I’ll skip the play by play of the conversation I had with Cyrus while Dos the Hellhound came down from his trip. I’ll just give you the footnotes. The same footnotes I relayed to my roommate Cooper later that night when I got home.

1. He was a professor that taught at a University for Magic.

2. The man I had bested in 3 card monty was a mysterious figure in the magical community that appeared each year to test potential students.

3. That black card was proof I’d passed the first test to get in. The white card meant a fail.

4. If I wanted to join all I had to do was meet them back on that train in exactly a week’s time.

5. Hellhounds like eating human souls like a addict.

6. Oh, and the final thing, Magic is real.

Cooper sat on the bed, her eyes were wide. I stood there out of breath as I had just blabbered out the whole experience in the matter of less than 5 to 10 minutes.

“And what? Then they just left?!” She said.

“Yeah. Well. The Hellhound guy, Dos. He tried to bite me, but the professor guy told him off. I think he was still a little high.”

“From the Soul biscuit…” She reiterated.

“Yes. The dog biscuit containing a human soul.” I said. She continued to stare at me.

“Are you sure you didn’t drop acid?” She finally said.

“Yes! You think I have spare money for drugs?” I yelled. “This was the guy we’d heard about giving out fortunes to anyone that beat him. I swear on my parents graves, I’m not making this up, Coops.” I slammed the black playing card on the bed. She picked it up and flipped it over. She ran her fingers across the card. She looked back at me, her facial expression deadly serious. She knew that was the most extreme level of commitment. I never swore on on my parents unless I wasn’t screwing around.

“Okay. I believe you saw what you saw.” She said handing me back the card.

“Buuuut?” I asked.

“But real magic, Auggy?” she said and I stood up frustrated. “There’s gotta be an explanation for it.” She continued. “No one else who beat this guy we’ve heard of got anything but a bunch of cash. Listen, maybe there was a gas leak? You said you were napping on the train, maybe you hadn’t fully woken up? Like you were still partly dreaming. Maybe, that guy was just super hairy and that was like a special brownie you gave him?” She started to roll over and put her covers up around her. It was clear she was wrapping up the conversation. “We’ll figure it out in the morning, Augs. Just sleep on it for now.” I huffed and stomped into the kitchen, which was still the same small room, but the floor was tiled.

I knew what I saw. Despite the absolutely lunacy of it being true, I knew it had to be. Something deep down inside told me it was.

I spent the next week or so in a bit of a malise. I would go to work running 3 card monte with Cooper and working on various other scams in the background. Truthfully, my heart wasn’t really in it. I couldn’t stop thinking about that offer. I’d done some research online, but I didn’t find anything concrete that seemed to lend credibility to the offer. I found the original post in the chatroom I’d heard about ‘The Vagrant’, a card shark that rides the late night train and gives you a lot of money if you win the game. The same night I’d come home and posted my experience with winning was the same night I got banned from that same chatroom. I was so frustrated. That money was going to help me dig myself out from my family’s debt.

Finally the day of the invitation came. Cooper and I had spent the day together running monte. I was getting less and less focused as the time ticked away until the appointed time and she was beginning to notice.

“Shall we call it. It’s nearly time for you to go to your invitation isn’t it?” She asked me. We were packing up our stall and the plan was to move to our final location of the day. I was surprised. Cooper was just as broke as I was. She almost never gave up the chance to get some extra cash.

“What? No, We’ve still got one more spot to hit today.” I said.

“Come on. You’ve been somewhere else all day. You were so busy staring at the time earlier you nearly missed my last signal earlier.” She huffed. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a wad of cash in a clip and silver wristwatch that I’d lifted from a business man in the crowd earlier.

“I still saw it didn’t I?” I said. She still didn’t look impressed. “Sorry. I’ll focus. I promise.”

“Okay.” She said reluctantly. We continued packing up our gear.

“Well, Well, Well. Fancy seeing you too here.” A gruff voice called out to us across the park. Both Cooper and I turned to see a group of three men walking towards us. I immediately felt the blood in my veins turn to ice.

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“Finnal, we were just leaving.” Cooper said hurrying to clear up.

“Come on guys, put your gear down and stay a while. I think I fancy a game or two, Yeah?” The man in middle, Finnal, called out. His two goons nodded. He was a good foot shorter than both of them. He moved over and took a seat on the bucket we used as a stool.

“We’ll get your money, Finnal. I just need a couple days.” I said as I moved in front of Cooper. Finnal chuckled and licked his lips.

“See the thing is, situation’s changed. You know, market conditions, cost of living and all that.” He said grinning at me baring his teeth. One of his front teeth was solid gold. “Interest rate has gone up, buddy boy. And payments come due early.”

“That’s not fair, I’ve nearly paid you back in full. I’ve never missed a payment.” I said pleading with him.

“This ain’t a charity kid.” He said and nodded. Suddenly the goon on his right grabbed Cooper’s back pack and began turning it upside down. I moved to intercept, but an arm clotheslined me sending me sprawling on to my back. I heard Cooper scream and dazed I tried to get up and saw the scene in front of me. One of the Goons had Cooper pinned to the ground and she trashed and tried to break free. The other gathered our earnings for the day from our bags and was handing it to Finnal who was sitting there just flipping through it and counting it. That same Goon quickly moved over to me and began patting me down and found the wad of cash, the watch and also the black card I’d gotten from the Vagrant. I tried to get up, but the Goon put a foot on my chest. I could hear Cooper screaming. I turned my head to see if I could see here, but I couldn’t. She needed my help. This was my fault they were here. I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes. I saw through my watery eyes the goon handing my things to Finnal who had stood up now. He looked at them and then he took the Black Card. He paused for a bit to study it and then tried to throw it away.

“Don’t!” I yelled and he stopped and looked down at me. I must have looked pathetic, tears in my eye and my face twisted with fury. He laughed and squatted down holding the card up in front of me dangling it in my face.

“What? Is this important to you? This card?” He said mockingly. He took the card and still laughing he tried to rip the card in half. He kept laughing, but the card didn’t budge. His smile and laugh faltered a little and he tried a little harder to rip it. It didn’t even flex or bend. He tried even harder and his face started to turn red. He huffed out frustrated when it stayed in tact. He turned to face the goon who had me pinned down.

“Rip this for me will you?” He said slightly out of breath. The Goon cocked an eyebrow and tentatively took the card. He too tried to rip the card and was met with the same resistance.

“Come on you big oaf. Tear that shit up.” Finnal egged him on. The Goon tried even harder and he couldn’t make it budge. Fortunately for me this meant his focus lapsed and he wasn’t putting all his weight on my chest anymore. I took that exact moment to react. I put all my strength into my arms and pushed the goon off me making him lose balance and he fell onto his back. I didn’t wait for him to recover before I delivered a swift kick to his jaw knocking him unconscious. The Goon who had Cooper pinned down looked at me and his knocked out partner and Cooper took that moment to react as well. She delivered a swift kick to his balls and followed that up with a brutal headbutt to the front of his face shattering the goon’s nose. Blood sprayed out across Cooper’s face who managed to squirm out from under the hulking man as he writhed in pain. She too delivered a swift kick to the Goon’s head and he collapsed into a heap on his front. She continued to kick him as he lay there and I left her to it instead turning to face Finnal. He was only just realizing what was happening fully, it had all happened in less than a few seconds that now the odds were not in his favor anymore. He reacted in a way that I didn’t expect. He didn’t run. I’d expected him to lose his nerve without his backup but his face had twisted in one of amusement.

“Oh you’re dead. You’ve actually got some real stones to screw with me, kid.” He pulled out a switch blade and flicked it open. He then took a stance that made me chuckle. He clearly had seen one too many action films and was imitating a knife fighting stance he thought looked right. I tried to hide it my smile, but I Cooper didn’t have that same level of decorum. Cooper laughed.

“Do you know who you’ve messed with?” She said. “Even I can tell you don’t know how to use that thing. I’m so over being stepped on by people like you.” She spat some blood on to the floor, I wasn’t sure if it was her own or from the Goon with the broken nose. “Just fuck him up, August.”

Finnal took the first movement, but he’d over extended his arm and his footing was terrible. I dodged my head to the side feeling the wind of the blade as it passed my ear. Then in a swift motion I grabbed Finnal’s arm and bent it downward quickly. He screamed out in pain and dropped the switchblade. It hit the cobblestones below and I used my foot to kick it far away from us. Then without breaking momentum I swept his back leg out from under him and followed him down to the ground below. I felt his arm dislocate from his shoulder socket and I was sitting on his chest and pinning him down. He howled in pain.

“I’ve wanted to do this for years now.” I said and I absolutely laid into the man hammering him with my fists until Cooper had to pull me off him and his face was a bloody mess.

“That’s enough! You’re going to kill him.” She said and I hadn’t noticed she was crying and shaking. The adrenaline had clearly begun to fade for us and the gravity of the situation began to dawn on me. I took Cooper in my arms and she started to weep. It was dark out in the park and the only sounds were her crying and the gurgling sound of Finnal as he coughed out blood from his lungs. I heard him whisper.

“When I tell the guys about this, you’re dead and your bitch too.” I heard him say through a mouth of smashed teeth. Something in the back of my mind just snapped. I let go of Cooper who tried to grab on to me as I moved away.

“Don’t.” she said.

“It’s him or us, Cooper.” I said. She looked at me and she was terrified. I picked up the knife I’d kicked away and gripped it tightly in my blood covered hand. I turned to head back to him, but I froze. There squatting over him was someone I didn’t recognize. He wore a sharp tailored 3 piece black suit and I almost couldn’t see him if the street lamp wasn’t outlining him against the darkness. His features seem severe and sharp. I could see his nose was sharp and he adjusted a pair of glasses they slid down it as he looked downwards.

He was looking down at Finnal who wasn’t making anymore noises. I looked wide eyed at him and felt a sense of panic that Finnal had stopped breathing. Considering what I had just resolved to do, that feeling surprised me. The Vagrant looked over at me and smiled. He stood and straightened himself. He stood at around 7 foot. He spoke clearly to me.

He said his voice measured and without inflection. “Seems like you’re in quite a pickle aren’t you?” He looked directly at me.

“Shall we have a little talk?”