barnumsheir | IT'S ALL A CIRCUS ACT IN THE END.

Once upon a time Byron Crossguard was sat down by his father, up on his knee amid a blustery cold sky along the great plains of the United States.

"Son." Damien Crossguard said, "You are the best thing I've ever done. You're a part of me that I've left behind, The best part of me I have. I love you, no matter what happens, because you're proof that magic is real. Love your family, love your sister, and I'll know that I've done my part to make the world a better place with you. You make it better for me."

Byron had not understood most of it but he remembers the feeling, the first real memory he had - just before he went to go and meet his newborn sister. Love your family and love your sister, and you'll make the world a better place.

Byron took him at his word and made it his mission to look after his baby sister as well as honor his father and mother. Even as the carnival continued to do less and less well, even as his father's shouting escalated to punching. One night when he was six he got between his mother and his father and was knocked into the wall of their doublewide trailer. He crawled into his sister's bed crying and she asked him what was wrong and begged him for a story. He treasured that moment, telling her about the magician Harry Houdini, his personal hero. She was his partner and his assistant and the two of them learned their craft at their parents knees -but he was keenly aware that something was wrong even if he couldn't place it.

Byron doesn't remember what happened that night. He's tried herbal tea, yogis, therapy (briefly) the only thing he remembers is kicking one of the cops in the nuts while trying to get to Cat. Then he remembers court and going back to the carnival by himself, living in the trailer of the ringmaster while his sister was sent away. His education continued and his desire to become the next Harry Houdini manifested instead in a desire to get out never minding the fact that he had real talent and was getting a first class education in performance.

The carnival closed in the early 90s and byron - still a minor went to New York with the carnival ringmaster, his father's apparent best friend where he slept in a closet and poured himself into his schoolwork. Popular and well liked by his classmates he arose like a phoenix from the ashes with a scholarship to NYU. The one damper on it? The Ringmaster had produced a daughter like a rabbit in a trick - she swore it was love and Byron swore it was love and the two consumated their relationship at 17 and 19 respectively - his wife gave birth to twins and Byron knew at last what it was like to love something more then life itself. Maurissa however did not agree. she felt burdened by the children and ran off leaving them with their father. At 20, Byron applied for full custody and became a college freshman father - no time to wow his classmates, no time for himself - until he met Dana Hamish.

Byron is the first to acknowledge - to himself at least- that Dana is his soulmate. When she found out about his children she moved in and made herself their adoptive mother. Dana's own family disapproved but she demonstrated a loyalty to him from the outset. In their shitty two room apartment were some of the best years of Byron's young life. Until his daughter became sick. Driven by a need for money, Brian began performing in New York Nightclubs until he was discovered. Returning to NYU became out of the question as Byron was now studying the escape artist's trade to try and live out his dream. He made it big combining Cirque De Soleil style acrobatics with magical acts, his first show - Le chat est revenu, performed to sold out crowds for almost a year.

Byron, now Brian, drunk on fame, got his daughter the help she needed, she recovered and he found himself firmly in the spotlight. He was offered a position as a sort of in-house magician for the Pillar hotel in Las Vegas and Dana, desperate to try and remind him of what was really important followed him to the hotel and named herself his manager, trying to get him into something where he could feel truly rewarded. He performed three new shows, two were filmed for netflix, and while his children grew afraid, then distant, then cold to their father Brian Stone has been called the next Houdini. People pay upwards of a hundred dollars for a seat at his shows and he's a must for many celebrity parties - having performed in places all around the world.

Five years prior to the events of the story Brian met Christine Applegate, schoolteacher - and the two hit it off. Desperate not to acknowledge his feelings to Dana, he slept with her and Christine was soon pregnant with Tabitha, after giving birth however the strain hit them both and the two fed off each other - Christine leaving her job and moving in to Brian's penthouse where Brian introduced her to Cocaine and wild parties. When Tabitha was two, the two of them were driving along the Las Vegas desert when Brian crashed their car. Tabitha was killed - Brian bribed the police officer to lie -because he was driving drunk.

Haunted by this secret Brian's life spiraled further out of control until Dana, in a last ditch effort to save him, began looking for the sister that he lost. Now more secrets are coming to light then Brian had ever hoped for and he'll have to make a choice, between living or dying - a choice that might mean more then he'd ever suspected. Years ago he and his family made a pact to seal magic away from the world, and the price - his soul - has come due.