"Thank you Patrick. I am Katlyn Brown, and we're live at the Orpheum theater, with the Magician, who was most gracious enough to let me interview him during his show!" The reporter smiled, the stage lights shining off the bronze highlights in her long, wavy brown hair. She moved her microphone towards the Magician to allow him to speak.

"Thank you Miss Brown," the Magician said warmly. "I'm so glad to do this, actually. One of the reasons I rarely let people film my performance is that everyone suspects camera tricks." Behind him, a large projection screen lowered from above the stage, and turned on, showing him and Katlyn in the center, between two inset boxes of the local news anchors. The words "Live with The Magician" flashed on the kyron.

“Please, call me Katlyn. So this projection screen?-”
“Yes, Katlyn, both the audience here, and everyone watching at home is seeing the exact same thing, live.” Behind the Magician, the stage crew started wheeling out a box onto the stage. “Oh, and there’s one more person we need to meet. Laurel, come over here!” The Magician called off-stage.

A woman with short blonde hair in a bob cut, wearing silver boy-shorts and a halter top, strode over to the reporter and the Magician. “Katlyn, meet Laurel Davis. Laurel, you know Katlyn from KRON, right? She’s going to help me strap you into the box.”
“Hi, Kat, nice to meet you!”
“Hello Laurel- wait, I’m what?-”

The Magician led her over to the box, with Laurel following. It was red, about six feet tall, a foot and a half wide, with eight holes evenly spaced up and down the front, in two rows. It stood on a low platform on rollers, leaning back slightly. The Magician grasped the lid by one of the holes. “Here, Kat, just open that side, please.” The reporter grabbed the side and pulled with the Magician. The front split and swung open down the middle, opening to the left and the right to reveal the inside was also painted red, and maybe a foot deep.

Laurel slipped off her shoes, and stepped up into the cabinet, turning around and waving, before pushing her arms out through holes in the sides.

“Katlyn, see those leather straps? Could you please use those to strap Laurel down, and double check that they’re secure? Here-” The Magician took her microphone, and the reporter bent over to strap in the assistant’s ankles, then pulled on the straps, hard.

“They’re secure,” she said.
“You’re pretty quick, Kat- have you done this before?” The audience laughed, along with the news anchors watching the same scene on the TV screen. Before Kat could get embarrassed, the Magician continued. “All right- two more at her shoulders, so she can’t get her arms out. Good- then one more, around her neck. Not too tight! We don’t want poor Laurel turning purple!”

Katlyn finished, and checked the straps. “All secure!” Laurel smiled and wiggled a bit to show she was right. The Magician closed and latched the doors, leaving a very clear view of his assistant through the numerous holes, along with her arms sticking out the sides of the box.

“So what’s this box do?” the reporter asked, taking back her microphone.
“Well, let me show you,” the Magician said, and turned the box to the side, leaving a clear view of Laurel’s arm sticking out the side. Half way down, a large groove was cut out of the side, giving the audience a good view of Laurel’s thigh. Below the box, and stretching up to the top and bottom, were pistons and rods, and cylinders and blades, all connected to some thin tubing.

Katlyn bent over and looked all around it. “Well, I certainly don’t see any room to hide under there! But I’m not sure what the rest of it’s for…”
“You know, maybe I should just demonstrate instead,” the Magician said, and turned the front of the box back towards the camera. Laurel wiggled and waved, still secure. “Here Kat, take this button- but don’t press it yet. You’ll want to stand back- and watch closely, because it happens quickly.”

The reporter took the button, attached to a set of wires that ran back to the base supporting the box, and crossed over to stage right. “Okay, Pat and Rebecca, I’m going to press this mystery button now.” The camera zoomed in on the box. Laurel waved. Then a loud warning buzzer sounded, and Katlyn yelped.

The hydraulic rams at the top and bottom activated, pushing the lower half of the box completely inside the upper half, the grooves on the side becoming channels to allow the assistant’s exposed arms to remain outside the box. They reached down to try and feel the bottom, now much closer.

As soon as the holes in the top and bottom lined up, the four pistons behind the box rammed upwards through them, then withdrew, leaving four hollow tubes penetrating completely through. The arms of the girl inside spasmed outwards. A second later, a long blade that reached the entire height of the now-compressed box was also rammed up from the back, followed by two more blades, one on either side, aligned horizontally. The arms went limp.

On the TV monitor, the two news anchors watched, mouths gaping. Patrick blinked and spoke first. “Well, that was impressive. I know what we and the audience saw- but how about you, Katlyn? From your angle, can you see if that’s really Laurel inside there?”

“No it’s not, Pat.” Without cutting away, the camera pulled back, showing Laurel, in her shorts and halter top, holding the microphone. “But it might be someone else!”

The audience started applauding as Patrick and Rebecca’s jaws dropped. Laurel ran up as the Magician and a stage hand tilted the box forward and lowered it onto a dolly. The camera showed the thin rods and pistons on the base, no room for anyone to hide, then zoomed in on the box, the four tubes piercing it, taking up most of the space, and further subdivided into four more sections by the blades, a pair of arms still sticking out the sides.

Laurel handed the microphone to the Magician, who bent over, close to the box. “Katlyn, can you hear me?”
“Yes?” answered a muffled voice from inside the box.
“Wave for our audience and viewers at home!”

The woman’s arms on the box started moving, one waving, the other giving a thumbs up. Laurel spun the box around to show it from all angles, then stuck her arms through the hollow tubes from the back out the front.

“How are you feeling in there, Kat?”
“Um, just a little cramped… Maybe a lot cramped!”
“I guess we should get you out of there, then?”
“Yes, please!”

The Magician and his stage hand turned the box to the side, and pulled out first the blades, rapping against them to show them being solid, then the cylinders, tossing them to the side. Then they pulled up on the top of the box, expanding it back to where it had started. Halfway through, the groove appeared again, showing Katlyn’s tight, short, navy skirt and dark stockings as it was pulled back up to full height. The Magician turned the box towards the camera again. Through the holes, the reporter’s body was plainly visible.

The Magician unlatched and threw open the doors. Inside, strapped the same way as she’d strapped Laurel, stood Katlyn, looking none the worse for her adventure. She smiled and wiggled as applauds filled the theater. The Magician began unfastening the straps, as from the TV monitor, the two news anchors clapped.

Rebecca, the red-headed anchor, commented, “Sure glad that wasn’t me! Pat?”
“I wouldn’t have fit inside even when it was full sized, Becky!” They laughed. “Katlyn- are you all right? And how did he do it?!”

The camera zoomed in on the reporter, her ankles still in the process of being released, as she shook out her hair and took the microphone from Laurel. “Thank you Patrick, I’m fine. But all I know is I pressed the button, heard the buzz, and the next thing, I was in here! So I really can’t tell you! Maybe Laurel knows?” She pointed her microphone to the assistant standing beside the box.

“Katlyn, the boss here’s been cutting me in half, in quarters, and even in twenty-sevenths for years now!” She laughed and looked at the camera. “I’ve been squished, impaled, vanished, turned into a cat, and burnt to a crisp, and, honestly, I can’t tell you how he does it either!” Laughter and applause filled the theater.

The reporter stepped down and turned to the Magician. “Please! You’ve got to tell me the secret!”
The Magician chuckled. “Well, if you stick around for the rest of the show, Miss Brown, you might figure it out!” He turned to the camera, “And Pat and Becky, why don’t you and your viewers all come out and see me here at the Orpheum. It’s even more impressive in person.” He smiled. “I can tell you one little secret, though…”
“Yes?” Katlyn raised a conspiratorial eyebrow.
“Laurel’s single,” the Magician said in a stage whisper, back to the camera, “And her twitter name’s @mgicasistlaurel!”

“Boss!” Laurel cried, and slugged the Magician in the shoulder.

“I’m Katlyn Brown, here, live, at the Orpheum with the Magician and his assistant, Laurel Davis!”
“And that’s not my twitter name!”
“Of course it is, Laur!”

“And we’ll be back with the weather after a word from our sponsors!” said Patrick on the TV monitor, and in the studio, and in the TV monitor behind him in the studio, and…

And for those of you streaming online, we’ve posted a link- you can check out The Magician, Live, Part Two, Supplemental at fav.me/d9qa360 for more details on Katlyn’s predicament!