Words have consequences; that’s my best explanation for how Priya ended up in my workshop in a party dress.

“I do magic,” I’d casually mentioned at the party.
“What, like card tricks?”
“No, not card tricks. Bigger stuff.”
“So you’re saying you can saw someone in half? I don’t believe you- prove it!”
I pulled out my iPhone to show her a video.
“Hey,” she smirked, and pushed the phone away. “I don’t want to see something edited. That’s not proof.” She brushed her long fingernails up my forearm. “Can you saw me in half?”

Next thing I know, we were both in my workshop, and she was eyeing my props with feigned suspicion, lifting coversheets to peek at tables and boxes. “So, how are we going to do this?”

I smiled. “I’ve got something new I’ve been working on.” I pulled back a curtain from the wall. She looked at the swords on the wall with a raised eyebrow.

“I thought you were going to saw me in half.”
“Sort of, Priya- but saws can be faked. I want you to pick out the blade I’ll be using for the illusion, while I set the rest of it up.”
“Okay.” She twirled, and her dress flared out. I tried to not let the view of her bare back distract me while I readied the cabinet, making a few minor adjustments for her height.

Eventually, she selected a long, curved scimitar, and swung it inexpertly a few times before bringing it to me. “Will this work?”

I smiled. “It’s fine. Now- get in the box.”
“Are you telling me what to do?” She feigned indigence.
I smirked. “Get in the box.” I pulled the cloth off the cabinet, and opened the doors.

She looked the box over. It was a bit taller than she was, and just wide and deep enough for her to fit with a little room to spare. The back and sides went all the way from top to bottom, though there holes in the sides for her arms. The doors only went from the top to about her mid-thigh level, and were attached to the sides and swung open frontwards. They had hinged panels at face level, which I’d also left open. The stylized image of a woman was painted on the front.

She looked at me and smiled, and stepped into the cabinet, then turned to face me.

“All right, Priya, here we go.” I closed the doors, leaving the hinged panels open so she could watch me.

“Well, this is certainly unusual. Oh- wait. If you’re going to cut me in two with a real sword, I shouldn’t take any chances.” She pulled her face away from the hole, moving a bit inside of the cabinet, then put her face back in place, and smiled wickedly. Her dress slid down her legs, over her calves, and pooled at her feet, still wearing heels. “Could you take that? It was expensive.”

She lifted one foot, then the other, as I removed her dress from the cabinet, and hung it up for her, then she stuck her arms out the holes in the sides. “Now, no peeking! I’m ready!”

“Don’t worry, the cabinet doors are locked.”
“So you’ve trapped me here? What shall I do?” She shrugged with her arms.

“Just stand there, and watch.”

I picked up the scimitar, and turned the blade to face upwards, then slid the tip between her knees into the channel in the back of the cabinet.

“What? You didn’t tell me you were going to saw me that way!”
I gave her an evil-looking smile, and pulled the blade upwards until it touched the bottom of the doors on the front. The magnets I’d put in the ends held the blade in place as I stepped back, and looked around the side. The scimitar’s tip emerged a full foot from the back of the cabinet, and the blade sat between her thighs.

“Words have consequences, Priya. You did say you wanted me to cut you in half.”

She gave me a grimace, one eyebrow raised. “Fine. Do it then.”

She tilted her head forward, watching as I drew the blade upwards, the sharp edge rising towards the silhouette of the woman painted on the cabinet. Priya’s body was a close match behind it, and she shrieked a bit as the scimitar touched the stylized cleft of the painting.

“Should I stop? How does it feel?”
“It's just- it surprised me. It's an intense tingling.”
"Hmm. Interesting. That's good to know."
"What do you mean?"
"Like I said, I've been working on this- I've never actually tried it before."
"What?!"
I moved my hands back to the blade’s handle, and drew it upwards, moving it forwards and back in a sawing motion. She gasped, then leaned forward to keep watching, biting her lip.

“Hey!” she yelped as the sword neared the bellybutton on the silhouette. I paused and she gasped for breath. "I think I just felt my panties snap. The elastic on them, I mean."
"Well, that must mean you're actually being cut, right?"
"No- it just means I'm naked. I think. I can't see if they really did, and I'm tingling too much to feel them!"

“Okay Priya, I’m going to continue.”
“Do you have to? I like it right there.”
“You wanted to be sliced in half, so that’s what I’m doing.”
She waved her left hand and grasped my forearm. Her fingers were warm against my skin. “All right, do me quickly then.”

I disengaged myself from her grasp, and drew the blade upwards, swifter, rocking it up and down a bit to help the slicing action. Soon it was between the silhouette’s breasts.

Priya’s eyes were wide as she looked at the steel that was plunged through the cabinet, and her chest. I pulled a cloth off a mirror, and turned the cabinet to the side so she could see the blade emerging from the other side, completely piercing the cabinet- and her body within.
"That certainly looks neat, but all I feel is a tingling up my body. How do I know I'm really being sawn?"

“Just trust me. I need to close the panels to finish. Any last words?”
“Um, goodbye?” She smiled at me, and pulled her head back as I closed the small doors and covered her face. She waved her arms and wiggled her bare toes in the heels, and I changed my grip on the scimitar’s handle, allowing me to draw it upwards, through the silhouette’s face, then out of the top of the box, finishing slicing my volunteer completely in half.

I don’t think she expected it, though, when I slid the two blades through the cut I’d just made- she shrieked again, and her hands shook wildly.

I pulled the two halves of the cabinet apart, and stepped in between them. Then I opened the small panels, both at once, and stared at the sight in the mirror, as she stared back, both halves of her.
“Well, there you go, Priya- sawed in half, no editing, no camera tricks. What do you think?”

Unable to say anything, she just waved both her hands, and blinked in amazement.