Shuffled

Loosely based on my fave “Secret Magician Performs Clearly Improbable.”

Carlie’s hand ran across the hip again, feeling, wondering.  She couldn’t detect anything wrong, but she had a hard time reckoning what really happened.  Did it really happen?

It was a magic show, one of the hundreds she attended over her lifetime.  Was it hundreds?  She didn’t remember.

She knew about magic, knew how the performers made the impossible seem real.  Still, she couldn’t help but watch, fascinated.

This magician adopted the persona of “The Masked Magician,” an old mystery about the magician who basically told how a lot of the magic tricks were done.  Still, Carlie couldn’t help herself.  She watched as what should be easily explained happened in impossible ways.

As the show wound to a close, the magician made an announcement.  For his last trick, he’d need the help of two young ladies.  But they weren’t any random girls; they had to have specific measurements.

As he said this, Carlie’s heart leaped into her throat.  She fit the bill exactly.  She raised her hand and stood.  It wasn’t like her to do this, but her curiosity got the better of her.  As she and another girl she didn’t know walked up to the stage, accepting the magician’s helping hands, two tables were wheeled out by stagehands.

A quick look told Carlie they’d likely be audience examiners of a double sawing, but different this time.  She knew the tables, the boxless sawing.  As the magician prattled off the usual patter, asking them each their names, Carlie learned the other girl’s name was Allie.  The magician’s assistants, instead of leading them to the tables, led them backstage.

That was unusual.  As she and Allie talked, the assistant handed them both a costume, both identical.  That was going to get even more unusual.

The girls slipped on the costumes, and the assistant led them both back onstage.  There wasn’t much to the costumes, both showing a lot of skin, but Carlie understood the applause as the magician introduced the trick “The Shuffle.”

Carlie’s stomach dropped as the magician announced they would be on the tables.  She swallowed hard, not sure what to expect.

The first trick Carlie ever saw was a double sawing.  The trick amazed her until she knew better, made her really love magic.  She’d never wondered about being in the trick herself, though.

As the assistants helped them both onto the tables, Carlie looked over to see Allie with a worried look on her face.  Neither of them knew what to expect.  They didn’t know what to do.

The magician brought out what looked to be razor-sharp blades, a set for each of them.  Carlie gasped, trying to keep her breath even.  Would this work?

The magician went to Allie first, who started a protest before he slid the blades into her.  They went right through her as she grunted.  Carlie watched, concerned but not worried, as she saw Allie’s smile appear with a wondrous grin.  She was feeling something extraordinary as the magician pushed her halves apart.

As Allie giggled, Carlie took some comfort.  If it really was working, she’d finally know what it’s like to be in two.

The magician slid her blades into her, and Carlie felt many emotions all at once.  It felt good.  Very good.

Carlie knew the blades had cut her in half at her waist.  She felt the blades in her.  But there was no pain at all, only pleasure.  So much intense pleasure.

As the magician pushed Carlie’s halves apart, the pleasure intensified.  Carlie racked her brain, trying to think of something similar.  It took her only a moment before she knew.  Eating chocolate while making love.

The magician rolled their halves around until he was standing in the middle of them.  There he was, standing where their bodies should meet, but they didn’t, not then.

That’s when he announced why it was called “The Shuffle.”

The assistant reappeared with two others, and they all took a half along with the magician.  The four of them wheeled their halves around completely at random.  Carlie tried to keep track, but the randomness made it impossible to know.

As the magician called for them to stop, he asked the question.  Would they know if they had their own legs or the other ones?

It frightened Carlie a little.  She didn’t know about Allie, but they both felt so good it didn’t matter.

The magician placed Carlie’s upper half with a set of legs, eliciting another wave of pleasure as he slid the blades out.  Being rejoined sent an almost-orgasmic sensation through her body, but was it all hers?

As she and Allie were both helped up from the tables, she knew.  Allie didn’t know either.

So she was left wondering.  Was it her original legs that held her up and walked her around?  Would she ever know?