No Exit by Taylor Adams 2

The blizzard intensified outside. The window creaked
under the pressure of gusting wind. Ashley glanced to Ed for a
smirking moment (Is magic real? Really?), and Darby
watched him decide whether to play it straight or to indulge in
a little sarcasm at the expense of the armed child abductor.
Don’t do it, Ashley.
He turned back to Lars. “Yep.”
“Really?”
Ashley’s grin widened. “Absolutely.”
She felt a shivery pool of dread growing in her stomach.
Like witnessing the moments before a car accident. The
scream of locked tires, the unyielding kinetic power of
momentum: Stop it, Ashley. You have no idea who you’re
talking to—
“So it’s real?” Lars whispered.
Stop-stop-stop—
“Oh, it’s all real,” Ashley said, milking it now. “I can bend
time and space, pull surprises out of my sleeves, make people
misremember. I can cheat death. I can dodge bullets. I’m a
magic man, Lars, my brother, and I can—”
“Do you know how to cut a girl in half?” Lars asked
abruptly.
The room went quiet. The window creaked under another
howl of wind.
Darby glanced back down and pretended to doodle again
with her blue pen, but she realized with a sour tremor — he
was staring across the room at her. Lars, the chinless child
abductor with a Deadpool beanie and a child’s fascination with
magic tricks, was looking directly at her.
Ashley hesitated. His bullshit machine was out of gas. “I
… uh, well …”
“Do you know how to cut a girl in half?” Lars asked
again, eagerly. Same tone, same inflection. His eyes were still