Hey, everyone! Long time no see, huh? After leaving this story as archived for ages, that has finally changed! I have returned to this site and story after my brief hiatus being spent on Wattpad. I'm now deciding to take a break from that and go back to here. I was incredibly pleased to see that people were enjoying this fic despite me archiving it after writing three incredibly short chapters, so I decided to start working on it again! Sorry to those of you who really wanted to see the next chapter, but this is just me combining the past three and improving it. Don't worry, though, a new chapter is on its way! Thank you so much for all the support for this story, it means so much to me! xxx

CHAPTER ONE - SLEIGHT OF HAND

"You, sir! I bet that you can't beat me at my own game! Three cards, if you can find the Queen of Hearts then you get 20 dollars!" The businessman turned on his heel, taking in the sight of the young street artist who had hollered at him, waving a 20 dollar bill with an impish grin on her face. The man sighed, checking his watch. His shift wouldn't begin for a good fifteen minutes, so he had plenty of time. He might as well humour the girl. "Come on! Three cards, and you already know what they all are! It's an easy win!" The man shrugged, carrying himself and his briefcase, taking a seat across from the woman who sat at a table.

"A fine decision, sir!" Though the man had already begun the transaction, she still maintained her salesperson-like appeal, a bright grin on her face. Almost too bright, like she was either intelligent and knew how to hide it, or incredibly stupid to suggest such a wager to a stranger. How was she still in business? Was this her first day? Was she secretly a millionaire?

The man squinted at the woman sat across from him suspiciously. She had one of those faces which blended into a crowd easily, though was incredibly striking with a second glance. She had bright green eyes that met his imploringly, and she flicked her gaze downwards to instead focus on the deck of cards in her hands. She picked out three, laying them across the table with their faces revealed. The man glanced at them, before frowning.

"The Queen of Hearts isn't here," he stated monotonously. The woman chuckled slightly, holding up the said card.

"Sorry about that, it's just a little joke that I like to play. Here." She replaced the card in the middle with it, and the man watched her closely, to see if there was any sleight of hand. But no, three cards lay on the table. The Three of Spades, Queen of Hearts, and Nine of Diamonds. "Now, there has to be at least a little challenge to this game, so let's place them face down." The brunette woman flipped all of the cards and wasted no time in swapping their places with a practised ease. They began to blur with the speed at which they were switched, but the man could still tell where the Queen of Hearts. He smirked to himself; this was going to be the easiest 20 dollars that he had ever made.

Finally, the street artist stopped switching the cards and sat back in her seat, her arms spread invitingly.

"So, which one do you think that it is, sir?" The businessman smirked, pointing to the one on the far left. It had to be. There was no other way. The woman grabbed the card, turning it over slowly. The man watched with bated breath, secretly nervous for the results. She flipped the card to reveal its face, the Queen of Hearts staring up resolutely. With great reluctance, the woman placed the 20 dollar bill in the man's outstretched hand. "Well, sir, that's a real shame about how it turned out, but at least you're a twenty richer! Thank you very much for playing, and have a nice day!" The woman extended a hand, which the businessman begrudgingly shook. The woman was enthusiastic and patted his arm a few times.

The man was eager to leave and headed off at a quick pace. The woman picked up the three cards, returning them to its deck and shuffling them. As he turned a corner, the businessman checked his watch to see how slow he could possibly allow himself to walk back to work. He was surprised to see nothing but his bare wrist staring back at him, a faint outline from where his expensive Rolex had been.

Letting out an enraged roar, the man spun on his heel to go find the woman who gave him twenty dollars. He ran back around the corner, only to stop in his tracks. The woman had disappeared from her place at the table, along with all traces of her. Well, wasn't that brilliant? At least he had twenty dollars. He huffed in annoyance, glancing at his surroundings to see if she was possibly hidden amongst the pedestrians. After a few minutes, the man came to a conclusion. She was long gone, and he had just been robbed.

Laura Haddoway didn't stop running until she had put a sizable distance between her and the scene of the crime. Seeing that she only had a deck of cards, a watch, and herself to carry, she made considerable ground in a short amount of time. She would be long gone by the time the man had even realised anything was wrong. By the time she could feel a burning sensation in her lungs along with shortness of breath, she found herself at the pier, too far away for the man to give chase, in the case that he had seen where she had run off to.

Laura doubled over, fighting to catch her breath. She received a few odd looks from passersby but ignored them. After a few minutes, her breathing had returned to normal and Laura examined what she had managed to steal today. She winced internally at what she had decided to call her career. Stealing. Theft. Robbery. Crime. For the sake of her morality, Laura tried her best not to think about how unethical she was on a day to day basis. After all, at least she had a solid reason. Her intents were still true. Laura turned the watch over in her hands, silently noting the maker and how that would fetch a hefty price from the pawn shop that she went to. They may not exactly be fair, but they didn't ask questions.

To try and calm her nerves, Laura grabbed the deck of cards that were currently in the right pocket of her coat, taking them out of their pack and beginning to shuffle them. She flicked through the cards, each one seeming familiar from the way it fitted in her hand so comfortably. Running her thumb fondly over the dull edges, Laura remembered when she had first been given her mother's old deck of cards on her seventh birthday. It was her who had first ignited Laura's passion for magic and tricks, and Laura smiled slightly at the memory. She continued to look through the deck until she paused on a card. It most definitely didn't belong in the pack- though it was the same size as the cards, it bore no resemblance to them and Laura didn't recognise it.

Picking it out from her cards, Laura turned it over in her hands. On one side, it had a detailed illustration of one of those things that were dragged by horses back in the Ancient Greek times. At least, that's what the picture vaguely looked like. Laura racked her brain to try remember what they were called. Chariots! Of course, "The Chariot" was neatly inscribed at the bottom of the illustration, and Laura frowned at the design. It was clear that it wasn't a playing card, but what was it? She would have to do some research later and try to get to the bottom of this.

Turning the card over, Laura saw an illustration of an eye, along with an address and date:

March 29th
4:44 PM
45 East Evan Street
New York

When Laura got back to her apartment that night, she went straight to her laptop to research what she had found today. Let alone, how it had even managed to get there. There was an address and date, which meant that somebody was behind this. Were they working alone? Was this some elaborate ploy to abduct young people living by themselves into a sex worker trafficking ring? Thoughts and warning bells whirled in Laura's head, and she tried her best to sift through them in a logical manner and try syphon out the ridiculous ones.

Who was responsible for this? Laura had no idea. It had just appeared in her deck of cards. She hadn't seen the card when she had first set up for the day, and the pack had stayed firmly in her back pocket as she ran. Otherwise, it had been in her line of sight, so she was confused as to how it had even appeared there in the first place.

If someone had managed to get it into her deck of cards that easily without being detected, then could they break into her apartment the same? Laura was terrified of the thought and pushed it to the back of her mind. That was unprecedented, unnecessary, and still a perfectly valid concern. What if somebody broke in? Considering Laura's salary, she hadn't been able to afford the fanciest of places and had had to settle for a small square room above a family-owned supermarket. Laura could barely fit a small single bed in here, and her landlady was incredibly strict about payments. Yet still, Laura managed quite well.

Perched on the edge of her bed, Laura balanced her laptop across her knees and began to type into the search bar. Card, The Chariot. A few moments after pressing enter, search results began to pop up immediately, Laura scrolled down through them, picking out a common factor. The Chariot seemed to be a tarot card, so what on earth was it doing in her deck of playing cards?

According to a website dedicated to tarot cards and their meanings, the Chariot represented control, willpower, success, action, and determination. If this card was intended for Laura, this clearly must be a mistake. She didn't own, and never had, any of these qualities. Though she had a nasty temper, she was good at keeping it in check. Most of the time, at least. She had been fired from her last job as a waitress because she snapped at an old man who had groped her, so there went control and willpower.

If Laura's current career path was stealing the watches off of unsuspecting men, then success was hardly a word that she knew. Glancing guiltily at the stack of cash on her table, Laura tried to quell the surge of guilt she felt. This was all for a good cause, and she was going to make her deposit tomorrow. At least she had determination, to do what she could in order to gather this much money in time for payments. Even for the price that the expensive watches fetched, it was difficult to keep up, along with her living costs on top of that.

And action? Laura almost snorted at the thought of it. It was completely out of the question. These days, she barely had time for a second glance, let alone a potential relationship with someone. She simply couldn't.

Laura also looked up what the eye on the back of the card could mean. She pored over several sites, though they were all completely bogus and of no use at all. As for the address, Laura looked it up on Maps and could see where it was. A street corner, busy. The building itself was an apartment complex and looked like it had missed several maintenance checks. Then again, it was hardly better than her living situation. She decided to see the address in person the next day, just to make sure. It seemed an unlikely venue to orchestrate a kidnapping, but this was New York, and she could never be too careful.

Setting her laptop aside, Laura settled into bed and lay, unmoving, as she waited for sleep to overcome her. After several minutes, Laura still lay on her back, with her hair surrounding her head like a dark cloud, staring at the ceiling. Sighing in defeat, Laura accepted that this would be a sleepless night, and shifted onto her side instead. She tossed and turned, still trying to lose consciousness somehow. After all, she had important errands to run the next day.

Eventually, Laura had managed to fall asleep. It was rough and she woke up feeling more tired than the night before, but she had still slept. Swinging her body out of bed, Laura recoiled slightly at the ice cold floorboards and tiptoed her way over to the table where her keys and phone sat. Her jeans from yesterday were folded over the back of a chair, and Laura shrugged off her sleep shorts and into them as she got ready for the morning. Checking the percentage on her phone, Laura shrugged at the 54% and shoved it into her back pocket. She headed over to her fridge, opening it to see what was inside. A carton of orange juice and two eggs.

Laura grabbed all of the contents of her fridge and headed over to the stove. Grabbing a pan and setting it to low heat, she cracked open the eggs and left them to cook. Laura opened the carton of orange juice, raising it to her lips and wincing at the acidity of the liquid. At least it was cold. Laura flipped the eggs in the pan, letting the other side cook. She made a mental note to buy some more food since all that was left to eat in her apartment was pot noodles.

Once the eggs were done, Laura grabbed a fork and ate her breakfast, finishing the meal in the few minutes. She dumped the pan in the sink, promising herself to wash it later, slid on some shoes as well as a jacket and grabbed her belongings as she walked out of the door.

The brunette shivered slightly at the chilly early morning air, tightening her jacket around herself. Stuffing her hands into her pockets, Laura's right hand clenched around her keys as a precaution. Maybe she was a little paranoid, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Laura could feel the weight of the cash in her other pocket, as she tried her best to avoid touching it. She wasn't sure as to why, but some instinct was telling her not to stuff it into her wallet. Laura tended to trust her gut, as it had managed to keep her out of trouble for all these years.

Veering left on a street corner, Laura continued on her way. She could see another person up ahead, so she crossed the street. She didn't want to risk getting into anything, not today. Laura kept her head down, turning another corner. If she were looking up, she probably wouldn't have walked straight into the unsuspecting stranger.

"Shit, I'm so sorry!" they yelped, their arms settling on Laura in some attempt to steady themself. Laura glanced upwards to see who she had bumped into, and was met with the face of a man staring back at her. He was taller than her, with an attractive face and voice to match. His dark eyes seemed to be staring directly through Laura, though they also appeared soft at the same time. Mentally chastising herself for getting caught up in a stranger that she would never see again, Laura merely shrugged. She had more important things to do.

"It's my mistake, really. I wasn't looking where I was going. I'm so sorry for bumping into you." She flashed the man a smile, before gently nudging past him. Second glances be damned, she had to get going. It was a shame, though, for if she had decided to look back again she would have seen the handsome stranger staring at her retreating figure with a slightly disappointed look. She would have also seen him eventually turn his attention to her wallet, which he had swiped during their incredibly brief conversation. Finally, she would have seen him open it and glance at her in confusion, because who the hell carried a wallet with no money in it?

After a few more minutes of walking, Laura had finally reached her destination. With her hands shoved in her pockets, Laura shifted her weight from foot to foot as she stared up at the sight before her. A solid iron gate sat before her, the tops glittering wickedly with their sharpened points. Laura found it rather amusing, though. It's not like the Shady Acres Care Home would be in desperate need of such security. Who would want to break into a care home for the elderly, and which patient was in any state of health to attempt to escape?

The main gates stood proud and tall, the sign "Shady Acres Care Home" plastered at a height several metres above Laura's head. Glancing at the rusting chain and padlock wrapped around the gates, Laura sighed as she leaned to her side to press the buzzer at the gates. Security wasn't exactly the best, but this was the only available option that was close enough to where Laura lived. As she pressed it, the buzzer crackled to life.

"Name, please," a bored male voice stated monotonously.

"Laura Haddoway." After a long pause, the man on the other end spoke again.

"Yeah, you're on the list. Someone'll be down soon." The buzzer stopped, and Laura was back to shivering slightly from the chilliness and hopping from foot to foot. Surely enough, after a few minutes a guard started to make his way down to the gate.

She sighed, straining to open the gate, which was only there for the sole purpose of being intimidating. Finally managing to wrench it open, she trudged up the worn dirt path, tactfully evading the patches of mud. She finally reached the entrance, pushing the much less heavy door open with her shoulder. She walked into the centre, heels clicking on the clean floor as the smell of old people and disinfectant hit her in a wave. A bell attached to the door tinkled daintily.

She approached the reception desk, and the cranky woman on the other side didn't even look up. Pushing a clipboard with a bunch of forms on with a pen attached, she seemed much more interested in the magazine she was reading.

"Name and purpose," the receptionist muttered monotonously, idly flicking through the magazine, already sounding very bored with her job.

"Laura Haddoway, here to see Elaine Haddoway. Maybe find the meaning of life while I'm at it. How are you, Jacinta?" Laura grinned slightly, tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear.

The receptionist, Jacinta, suddenly dropped her magazine. Her eyes widened as she saw Laura standing there, a grin breaking out on her face. "Laura Haddoway? Well, I haven't seen you in months! How are ya, darlin'?" Her enthusiastic country accent broke through, and she leaned over the desk to give Laura a hug.

"Oh darlin', you're lookin' absolutely swell! You must have a man by now!" Jacinta's hands were clamped around her arms with a death grip, and there was no escape. She tried to weasel her way out of answering.

"I... y'know... don't really have time for that right now. With everything going on," Laura muttered uncomfortably, squirming in Jacinta's grasp. The receptionist cooed sympathetically, giving Laura a pitiful look.

"I'm so sorry, darlin'. O' course not, I shouldn't've asked," she muttered ruefully, her eyes sorrowful.

"Speaking of... how's she doing, Jacinta?" The receptionist hesitated slightly, her face breaking into an uncertain smile. You know, the one that people make when they have bad news but don't want to say so.

"I... think it's best that you see for yourself, darlin'," she whispered. "I'll set up Consulting Room Number Three for you both." Jacinta sat back down, releasing Laura finally and tapping a few keys on her keyboard. "Go ahead, sweetheart, I'll send Elaine in," she smiled slightly, and Laura nodded numbly.

She made herself at home on one of the chairs in the sparsely decorated room, and reached in her inside jacket pocket to once again stare at the tarot card. Why would it be to do with her? The date on the back of it, March 29th, wasn't until another week. She was going to stop by at the place later, though. Just to make sure this wasn't some elaborate plan for a kidnapping.

Laura frowned once again. Yet why go to such extremities, just to catch one person? There was a time, a date, an address. And why was it magic themed? It's not like stealing the valuables off of strangers was exactly seen as magic, but apparently, that's what she's being noticed for. Unless... they knew about what had happened... Yet Laura has done nothing like that for ages!

She idly flipped the card in her hands, examining the illustration of the eye. 45 East Evan Street. 29 March. 4:44 PM. Who would want to contact her? Why? Her questions whirled around her head, and she was so deep in thought that she didn't hear the door open.

"Laura?" an ageing woman shuffled into the room, her wrinkles making her face look wise, deep, thoughtful. Laura's head swivelled to meet the face of the woman who just came in.

"Mom?" Laura jolted up into a standing position, immediately hiding the tarot card from her view instinctively, then padding across the room towards her. Laura's mom enveloped her into a hug, a comforting yet frail hand pressed against the back of her head.

"What's keeping you up, darling? You have school tomorrow! It's already 10:30, so hurry up and finish your homework!" Laura smiled sadly, remembering how she had graduated from high school a mere two years ago. She glanced at the clock shown on the wall. 9:15 AM.

"Of course, ma. I'll go to bed now," Laura said softly, kissing her mother's cheek. "I'll see you after school." Her mom smiled, a faraway look in her eyes. After a few seconds, she snapped out of it.

"Sweetheart, what are you doing up so late?" she whispered softly. "You know you have school tomorrow, go to bed pumpkin." Laura sniffled slightly, hastily wiping away at a tear that had escaped.

"I'm going to make some tea..." Elaine Haddoway whispered slightly, tottering away uncertainly. "Hello, Laura. It's so nice of you to drop by." She paused at the door, before humming a tune and disappearing down the hall. Laura sat, numb at this shocking realization. Her mom had gotten worse, and there's no cure. Out in the hallway, Laura heard a nurse coo and start to lightly guide a patient to the cafeteria.

Rising with the rigidity that could only be achieved with numb insides, Laura felt detached as she reached for the handle, turning out and stepping out into the hallway. She didn't even know she was crying until Jacinta ran up to her, engulfing her in an embrace as she sank into a chair, sobbing.

"Darlin', it's gonna be fine. Don't worry, e'erything'll be fine and dandy." Jacinta gently stroked her head, whispering sweet promises which they both knew were untrue. After a few minutes, Laura's breathing was starting to slowly return to normal, and Jacinta finally unwrapped her arms.

"You OK, sweetie?" she whispered, gripping Laura's hand. After a shaky nod, Jacinta finally nodded and reluctantly returned to her place behind the reception desk. Laura rose, her eyes incredibly puffy and she sobbed slightly as she walked back outside. She pulled out her phone, getting directions to the address on the back of the card. It was fairly close to where she was right now, so she decided to just check it out briefly. She tried her best to stop crying, for the moment at least, as she made her way over to 45 East Evan Street.

Laura had seen the address. It was just a standard apartment. Near a busy road. 4:44 was a busy time. It was unlikely that she was going to be captured. Very, very unlikely. It was currently March 29th, 8.06 AM. Laura was laying in bed perfectly still, eyes trained on the ceiling, hands folded over her stomach. The sun was gently worming its way into her apartment, dancing closer towards her body resting on the bed. The only sound was Laura's steady breathing and the distant shouts of the couple living a floor above her. There were a few yells and thumps, a scream and the sound of a door slamming before Laura decided to get up.

Her feet hit the floor, and she instantly recoiled. The floor was ice cold. Softly walking over to her wardrobe, she shrugged on some clothes and a jacket, deciding to get breakfast outside her apartment. She still had several hours to spend, but there really wasn't much to do today. Laura really wasn't sure what to do. She grabbed her keys and phone. She shrugged on her jacket and wiggled her feet into a pair of shoes, then heading out of the door.

After an eventful day of wandering around and doing absolutely nothing, Laura found herself standing across the street from 45 East Evan Street. It was 4:37 PM. She hesitated, sucking in a deep breath before taking brisk, measured steps, crossing the street and pushing open the door into the apartment complex. Laura couldn't spot anyone else on this floor, so she hoped that there would be some indication that she was on the floor that was intended for her.

Just when she was about to start climbing the stairs, Laura whirled around to come face to face with a guy about her age. He was dressed in all black, with short cropped hair, a gorgeous face, and a cocky smirk which suggested that he knew he was good looking. Laura recognised him immediately as the man that she had bumped into a few days ago. It appeared that the guy hadn't remembered her.

His eyes flicked down her figure once, and a lovable lopsided smile spread across his face as he held up an ornate playing card that looked similar in design to hers.

"You don't happen to have one of these cards, do you?"

so yeah uh apologies for this not being an actual update, but it's a wee bit new and improved hope you all like it x