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precious, stretched out moment and they hang in the air, legs out, leaning into gravity somewhere under the moonlight. For that one brief moment, it feels like anything is possible, that Jon can find a girl he likes, become a famous guitar player or a graphic designer (his second choice), anything, anything at all.
    The possibilities are endless.
    And now Jon finds Michelle strange and new and attractive and as he thinks that, he falls in love with her. Perhaps it is her laugh or her smile or something in her eyes. Whatever it is, Jon falls.
    Jon decides in that very moment that he wants to spend the rest of his life with her. She has barely spoken more than a few words but there is something in the air, something about her, that makes Jon’s heart beat faster when he looks at her.
    It’s a strange, weird love but it’s true.
    “So you’re on holiday already?” Jon asks, his voice breaking a little. His heart makes the words fall like water from his mouth and they sound strange to him, like someone’s playing him a recording of his own voice.
    “Yes. Well, no, we still have to go to school tomorrow but it’s not like we’ll be doing anything, just filling up the time.” says Michelle. She sighs and he worries that she can read minds or knows exactly what he’s like inside and how nervous he suddenly is.
    “I wish I had tomorrow off, instead of this test. I’d stay home and smoke cigarettes and read comic books all day,” says Jon.
    “You read comic books?” Michelle asks, stifling a laugh. Emily punches her arm again, and Michelle turns around and tells Emily to shush.
    “Yes, I read comic books,” says Jon. He likes her. Maybe she likes comic books.
    “I read comic books,” says Michelle, smiling at Jon through the cigarette. And then she winks at him.

Chapter 5
    Now
    A pack of razor blades, unopened.
    Jon has finished his magic show at the club, to raucous applause. He didn’t see her during the performance but Emily is in the crowd, in some fancy cream bodice-hugging Victorian dress she no doubt has pilfered from a museum. He finishes puking into the toilet in the back room and pauses in the bathroom. The walls are covered in graffiti and thin and he can hear people discussing how he pulled off his tricks.
    “It’s a series of lasers and Kerako® Tangi-Surfaces, the whole place is rigged with them and all he does is trigger them off a standard midi-controller he has sewn into the inside of his clothing. There’s obviously also some kind of hallucinogen in the drinks or pumped through the vents. Simple really,” says the disembodied voice.
    Jon allows himself a smile. They have no idea just how simple it is. He comes out the side entrance, wearing a black shirt and jacket, blue denim jeans; different clothes so that less people will recognise him from the stage. Emily knows this is where he escapes from and runs up to him and hugs him because no matter how many times she sees his illusions, she’s still impressed every time. And she knows that what he has to feel to make it all work kills him a little inside, even if he won’t let on. Some part of her wonders how much of him is left to kill but she doesn’t say it. She never says it.
    “Hey, sexy lady.” One of the drunk patrons bumps into her, his lower face green with absinthe and his eyes wild from something else. She brushes him off with practiced ease.
    “Don’t ignore me, bitch. You wouldn’t want to ignore me,” says the fat, filthy random. He comes back for more and now his hands are on her breasts while she’s trying to shove him away. He’s leering at her, ignoring Jon, who is at this very second standing right beside her.
    Jon doesn’t mind what other people do to him. Other people are scum and he does his best to ignore them and let them happen to themselves. But now, someone is bothering Emily and Emily is one of the two people in the world who actually matter to him. For a moment, this dirty, drunk fool has broken