I excused myself from the conversation with Ted as soon as it didn't seem too suspicious.

My head was a mess, a jumbled confusion.

Someone associated with Lebec had delivered the dumpster.

Before, I'd found this whole magick world thing to be something of a game that might keep my mind off the fact that I'd been fired the evening before. But now, in the soupy humidity of the Nightsbridge morning, I had a better understanding of what it really was.

An opportunity.

My mind fixed on the theatre, specifically that For-Sale sign nailed to its wall.

I had a good idea there were opportunities to be had in the magick world and money to be made.

Working as a vanisher has to pay better than a cocktail waitress, right?

I walked back home in a daze, not bothering to go the longer, more circuitous route that would take me by the theatre. I didn't want that to muddy my thoughts even more than they already were. There was something about what I was doing, something about making this decision for myself and not relying on chance for once, but doing it on my own, that was terrifying. If something went wrong, it would be my fault. It wouldn't be luck's fault, it wouldn't be chance's fault, it wouldn't be fate's fault, it would my fault and mine alone.

You’re probably thinking a bit dramatic, huh? In the moment that's how it felt, how I felt.

I'd never taken something into my own hands, never made a decision on my own that didn't rely in some small part on luck.

Once I made it back to my apartment, I looked around. I didn't know when I'd be coming back. I didn't even know if I’d be coming back.

I pulled off my sweaty shirt and tossed it in the corner before stripping down. I hopped in the shower and made it count.

Are there showers in the magick world? They have to have those, right? They don't just all smell, right?

I didn’t think I could handle a bunch of smelly wizards.

Is that even what they’re called? Wizards? Maybe they’re called magicians? Lebec mentioned witchstones. Maybe they’re all called witches.

I wasn't entirely sure, and my mind kept spinning out to orbit the different things I didn't know, filling in blanks with facts that may or may not have been true.

Once I was out of the shower, I opened my closet and pulled out a pair of shorts and a T-shirt. It was going to be a hot one and I didn’t know what the rest of the day held in store for me. I went ahead and also grabbed a sweater, just in case we would be inside.

We meaning me and the magick world.

I let out a giggle and bit my lip. It seemed too good to be true, and that part right there, the realization that it seemed too good to be true, brought forth a familiar voice in my mind.

Don’t get your hopes up.

I finished getting dressed and headed out to the parking lot. I looked at the address on the card Lebec had given me. I typed it into my phone, was given a route to the other side of Nightsbridge, of course, and got into my car. I turned the key in the ignition and the car coughed to life immediately.

Don’t get your hopes up.

Pulling out of the parking lot, I waved at someone I knew, trying to pull back some of that excitement, some of that happiness I’d felt in the apartment before hearing my aunt’s voice in my head.

It didn't work.

I drove in silence to the address Lebec had given me, my eyes darting everywhere but the road before me. I didn’t want to think about how it would feel if there was nothing at the address. That seemed like something that would happen to me.

Given an invitation to something secret, something magickal, only to show up and it be an empty lot? Or a hole in the ground? Yeah… that sounds about right.

The image of the hole in the ground sparked another thought.

Is Lebec going to kill me? I mean, he absolutely can. There’s nothing to stop him.

I pushed this out of my head.

“No,” I whispered in the quiet car. “That's not how it's going to happen. You're going to show up there and Lebec’s going to be waiting for you. He's going to lead you into the magick world.”

As I rounded the final curve that led to the address, I sent up a silent prayer.

My prayers are rarely answered, and I frowned at what I saw.

Before me, in the middle of an empty lot, was a storage shed.

I parked my car right next to it. The shed was barely six feet wide by eight feet long. My apartment was slightly larger, square footage-wise, than the shed was.

I stared at it. A dusty shed in the middle of a gravel parking lot wasn't my idea of magick.

Something Lebec had said the night before came back to me. “So much of the entertainment available has made them believe that wands are necessary for the application of magickal spells…”

As I sat in my car and remembered what Lebec had said about sticks, I wondered if joining the magick world was a mistake.

If it’s not like what they show in the movies and in books, if it’s something outside of that, it could also be something much worse.

I chewed my lip.

What if that’s it? What if that’s why no one in the stick world knows about it? What if it’s kept from the stick world because it’s so terrible?

I stared down at my steering wheel. The faded plastic looked all too much of the stools in Luke's.

How much worse can the magick world be than what my life already is?

Cocktail waitress for almost all my life, quitting almost every job I’d ever had. Negative bank account. Rent past due. Father gone. No living relatives.

I was no one and nothing and nobody in the stick world cared that I existed.

I swallowed hard, trying to keep the tears back. I took a deep breath and stared at that storage shed, praying with all of my heart that inside was some method that would give me enough money that I could buy the theatre. So I could have it back. So I could have some piece of my father in my life again.

Don’t get your hopes up.

Without another thought, I turned off my car, opened the door, and walked up to the shed. Little plumes of dust puffed up with every step, covering my shoes in chalky sediment before I even made it to the door.

There was a little slot above the handle like those you see above door handles in hotels.

I stared at the slot; I hadn’t been given a key.

I chewed on my lip and pulled out the card Lebec had given me, considering.

It's heavier than a regular business card. Is that because it’s actually a key? To this door? Is the entire magick world dependent on hotel-style locks?

I swallowed.

Only one way to find out.

I slipped the card into the slot and turned the handle. There was a click and the door opened.

I tried to pull the key back out, but the slot in the door ate it. It disappeared inside like cash into an ATM.

“Welp, guess I'm not getting that back,” I mumbled, pushing the door all the way open and stepping inside.

Did I examine my surroundings before I walked in? No.

Did I pay attention to the door as I walked in? No.

So, of course, it slammed behind me and I found myself surrounded by darkness.

It would be so easy for Lebec to kill you right now…

That was the thought I had before I saw that, at the center of the storage shed, something was glowing. Something edged in pale green light.

I stood still, waiting for my eyes to adjust, not wanting to bump into or to trip over anything.

You also don't want to bump into anyone else who might be in this shed with you.

I swallowed as my pulse beat against my eardrums in the silent shed.

Hexana, stop.

After I took a deep, calming breath, I moved forward towards the green glow. My eyes weren't going to get much better than they currently were. As I stepped closer, the glow began to burn brighter. At the center of the shed stood a glowing rectangle almost as tall as me.

Have you ever gotten into bed at night, turned all the lights off, laid there for a little bit and then turned your head towards your closet only to realize that you’d left the light on inside?

That's what this was like. There was a door at the center of the shed and green, glowing light outlined it.

As the glow edging the doorway grew brighter, it illuminated the interior walls of the shed.

Covering the inside of the white walls were glistening black symbols I couldn't make out. The symbols looked like circles with lines through them. Dots, constellations, rings. Strange squiggles bisecting entire galaxies.

I glanced down at my feet and realized the same strange symbols were drawn onto the painted white floor. I glanced up and saw that there were more symbols on the ceiling as well.

“The magick world,” I whispered. “Magick.”

I reached my hand out to the door, feeling for the knob but not finding one.

I panicked.

There had to be a knob. It was a door, right?

My hand touched the cool surface of the door, moving across it from left to right and then from top to bottom. There was no doorknob at all. I pushed on the door and nothing happened.

Frowning, I walked around to the other side and saw what the problem was. What I had been looking at, what I had been pressing my hands against, was a solid piece of wood.

On the other side, though, was a simple doorframe. No door.

The glowing green light was originating from within that doorframe.

I stared through a doorway within a simple shed at the center of an empty lot.

Holy shit. It’s real.

I stared into the magick world.

Taking a deep breath, I chewed on my lip for half a second, and made up my mind.

I stepped across the threshold and into the magick world.