Eli peeked through the curtains and out to his audience. The crowd was small, just the way he liked it. There were seven people in total, six women and one guy. He would’ve preferred the gender ratio to be a bit larger than that but still he was looking forward to trying out his latest trick.

“Ladies and gentleman,” Eli projected his voice. “Welcome to tonight's performance. Now given it up for Eli… The Extraordinaire!” Eli did a simple teleportation trick and he was on stage a moment later.The audience gave a quiet applause as Eli bowed.

He took this moment to take in the crowd. The first person he noticed was a woman with blond hair which was tied up in short tails on both sides of her head. She was the only member of the small crowd that didn’t applaud and as far as Eli guessed she was a skeptic. ‘Good’ he thought I like messing with those.

Next he noticed a woman with short sandy brown hair, wearing a blue top and purple track pants. What caught Eli’s attention about her was that she was whispering to her friend, a woman with long dark brown hair wearing a dark blue tank top and tanned jeans, about how the trick was done. Eli scoffed and subtly shook his head, there was no way she could guess that this wasn’t a trick and magic was quite real.

The other four audience members Eli survey were, a young couple, who seemed to already be fascinated with the show, a shy girl also sitting at the back though she wasn’t a skeptic like the other lady with blonde hair, and a third brunette who looked like she could be his assistant.

“Thank you, thank you…” Eli over exaggerated the applause. “Boy I have a show for you all tonight. There’s a new trick I’ve been working on and I will be performing it tonight. The best part of this trick is you all get to be my volunteers!” Eli extended his arms out as 7 boxes appeared on stage, one by one. This got a gasp out of everyone. Including the skeptic in the back. “Now how about you all join me up on stage and introduce yourselves.”

The Sandy hair girl and her friend were the first to walk up on stage. “I’m Penny and this is Jean,” she introduced the two of them. “I’m really curious to see how your mismade boxes differs from everyone else's”. Jean gave Eli a huge grin as the two of them walked to their boxes. Penny helped Jean into her box before she got into her own. Eli watched the couple with skepticism, they seemed too familiar with this.

The next person to arrive on stage was the woman who looked like an assistant. “Hi, I’m Lisa,” she shook Eli’s hand before hopping into her own box. Eli figured she had done this before just not the magical variety.

Now the couple were up on stage. “I’m Amanda and this is Mark,” the woman introduced herself and her red hair boyfriend. Eli sensed something strange about this couple, but he wasn’t sure what it was. At least these two didn’t seem all that familiar with these devices.

“I’ll be there in a minute,” Eli said as he waited for the last two volunteers. One was a skeptic and one was shy shy so he would have to encourage them onto the stage. “Come on miss, don’t be shy, there’s no audience now, in fact you’re probably more likely to be watched down there than up here,” that got her to move. “And you miss, what better way to prove there’s no such thing as magic than to take part in a magic show yourself?”

“I’m Jillian,” the shy blonde said as she hurried passed Eli and stood in front of her box. Eli got the sense she wasn’t exactly here by choice, perhaps a friend encouraged her to come. Though if they did, they weren’t here themselves. The woman was clearly alone.

“I’m Alexandrina,” the skeptic introduced. “You’re right by the way, I couldn't think of a better way. You might regret it when I post your secret on my blog though.” Eli gave her a polite smile as he lead her to the box. Eli realized he had judged her incorrectly though, it’s not that she was a skeptic, she just didn’t believe in magic but something happened recently. Something that made her need to prove that magic wasn’t real.

‘You’ve come to the wrong place,’ Eli thought as he closed the box around her. He walked over to Jillian and placed her in the box. ‘I wonder why you’re here.’ Next he secured Mark and Amanda into their boxes. ‘What I’m I missing with you two?’ He wondered.

“Everyone all set?” Eli asked as he spawned 14 blades out of thin air. “Good, now let’s get started,” the blades flew into the boxes severing all seven members at the top of their hips and the base of their neck. Everyone one of them had squeaked as they were cut into three pieces but Eli wasn’t finished there.

“Usually with this trick I would either leave you in three parts or make a few swaps between a few of you,” Eli said as he went to each box, opening the head compartment only. “This isn’t going to work like that, all of you are going to play a game to earn your torso and lower halves back, though with any game, you can lose and I’ll even be adding a few extra things in the piles to shake things up a little,” Eli explained as he grabbed each person’s head out of the box and placed them on a table.

Eli’s smile faded as the reaction he received for leaving the volunteers as heads was well received. If Eli didn’t know any better he could easily assume Penny, Jean, Lisa, Mark, Amanda and Jillian had all been in this state before. In fact the only one reacting negatively towards it was Alexandrina.

Her face was one of shock as she let out a high pitch scream. Eli was certain she would run away if she was able to. “So those heads at christmas… they were real? Magic is real?! No… no… it can’t be, it’s some kind of trick, an hallucinogen or something.”

“Oh hehehe,” Jean giggled. “It’s always so much fun when people discover magic for the first time.”

“Whoa, this is kinda cool,” Amanda said to Mark. “I’m only used to one of us removing my head. It’s so much weirder when a stranger does it.”

Eli looked at the six other heads. “Everyone’s done this before? Except poor Alexandrina?” He asked, still cradling her head.

“All the time,” Jean grinned.

“Amanda and I like to take each other apart,” Mark confirmed.

“Magicians do this to me often,” Lisa said.

“My friend Rixxy puts me through a fair bit,” Jillian said softly.

Eli put Alexandrina’s head down. His disappointment was clearly visible. “Fine! Let’s just get on with the next part of the trick,” Eli waved his hands and the boxes disappeared. “Let’s see who should go first?” Eli asked himself.

“Penny how about you?” Eli came to his decision as five boxes reappeared. “Now one of these boxes contains your torso, the rest might contain other people’s torso’s, nothing or something not quite human…” Eli grinned as the boxes floated around and shuffled.

“So, why did you shuffle them?” Penny asked.

“Because it’s the box shuffle trick,” Eli informed her. “So I shuffled the boxes.”

“Yes, boxes that just appeared, I don’t know what they contain and you didn’t show me which box contained my torso, so isn’t this more a pick a box over box shuffle?”

Eli groaned, “Just pick a box then….”

“Third on my right,” Penny came to her decision.

Eli grabbed the box and put Penny’s head on top of it. “Sorry you don’t get it revealed until after everyone goes and we move onto round two,” Eli said.

The next few people went through picking the boxes in no time at all. Eli didn’t even shuffle them anymore, he just spawned five boxes and asked each person to pick one. He then did the same with the lower halves.

The only person who didn’t seem too keen on playing his game was Alexandrina but she quickly played along when Eli informed her that it was alright not to play but as a result she’d be left as a head.

“Okay now for the unboxing,” Eli said with a smile as he put each head back in its own box and attached them to the boxes chosen. He placed the magical blades in the boxes again and went to pull them out. All but one pulled free, the one that didn’t was the blade connecting Amanda’s torso and lower half.

“Oh my Amanda, it looks like you got one of the dead end torso boxes,” Eli said with a smile. “Let’s see what you got,” Eli approached Amanda and opened the lower box first. “Well it looks like you would’ve gotten Penny’s lower half if you had selected the right torso box,” Eli commented as he waved that box away. He then opened the last two boxes together and out came Amanda, with her head attached to a red furred dachshund.

Amanda walked on her stubby little legs, almost tripping on her long hair. She turned around in circles as she tried to examine her new body. “What have you done to me?!” Amanda squealed.

Eli just walked by the dog lady and smiled, that was the reaction he wanted from her earlier. “I guess we should check on Penny, considering we know she doesn’t have her own lower half,” Eli said as he opened all three boxes at once.

Penny looked down at her mismatched body and was quite surprised, she now had Jean’s lower half, which wasn’t something entirely new, what was new however was the plastic torso she had in the middle. She now had the torso of a mannequin. “Well this is rather interesting,” Penny observed as she tried to move her arms, but failed.

“I guess we go with Jean next, for the same reason I picked Penny,” Eli said, walking over to her box. Jean gave him a grin, as the box opened. All of a sudden Jean found herself at the bottom of the box, her head was attached to a spring what went into a jack-in-a-box. That wasn’t all though the Jack-in-a-box was attached to a Roomba.

“This is so cool!” Jean said as she charged her way out of the box, her head leaning back. She came to a sudden stop, before she crashed into Amanda, sending her head flinging forward. The spring rocked back and forth for a little while, dazing Jean.

“Someone’s having fun,” Eli said as he stepped past her and approached Mark’s box. “I guess since I don’t have a lead from that… rather interesting change I’ll just get the last of the couples out of the way,” Eli said as he opened up the box containing Mark.

Mark stepped out of the box, with all too familiar legs but he had a torso that wasn’t his, nor Amanda’s. “These feel heavier than Amanda’s,” Mark commented as he looked down at his new cleavage. He didn’t touch however as both Amanda and Alexandrina were staring at him.

“My breasts!” Alexandrina called out. “Out of everyone that could’ve gotten them, it was the guy?”

Eli looked at Mark, there was a reaction he was used to getting from guys yet Mark wasn’t giving it to him. “Aren’t you going to say something about your groin as well?” Eli asked.

Mark looked down at his legs once more. “Yeah, they’re Amanda’s so what? I wear them all the time.” Mark then tried to pull his left arm off. “Hmm…” he tried to pull off his head as well. “Okay it looks like either mine and Amanda’s abilities are with our body or we can only affect each other,” Mark observed before walking over to Amanda. He kicked off her shoe and pinched her left ear with his toes, and pulled it off. Next he grabbed her tail with his toes and tried to yank it off. “Okay mine and Amanda’s parts can only detach each other and on one else. Huh, you learn something new everyday.”

“What are you two?” Eli asked in disbelief. “No matter I guess we go reveal Alexandrina’s new form now.” Eli approached her and opened up the box. “Oh my that is quite interesting, I guess I should’ve checked the way the box was facing first.”

Alexandrina looked down and saw that her torso was a back and on her back she felt smaller breasts than her own. She tried to move her arms forward but the went backwards instead. “What have you done to me?” she screamed at Eli.

“I swear it was an accident,” he smiled as he walked over to Jillian’s box. “I guess you’re next seeing as miss backwards has your legs,” Eli commented as he opened up the box revealing a rather interesting centaur.

Jillian was wearing Mark’s torso but below the waist was an entire horse’s body. Her interest in animals kicked in immediately as she began to check her horse body out. “I hope the poor horse’s head is okay, and the poor dog’s too,” Jillian said as she looked down Amanda. “Hmm, I wonder what my dietary requirements are now, a horse and person are far from similar.”

“I guess she likes it?” Eli said unsure. “Lucky last,” Eli said as he opened up the box for Lisa, revealing that she was just a head. “Well that’s anticlimactic….” Eli stated. “Now I wish I ended with Jean, Amanda or Jillian.”

Eli then turned around and looked at the mismatched people as they adjusted to their new forms. “I’d say this has been fun, but it really hasn’t, Alexandrina was the only person that reacted the way I like,” Eli stated. “Of course this is now the end of the show and there’s a little matter of payment. You see everyone will remain as they are unless I get two thousand dollars from each of you by next week,” Eli laughed. “Enjoy your new forms until then.” He then vanished.

“What an asshole!” Jean yelled out as Eli vanished.

“What are we going to do? I don’t want to be a dog for a week,” Amanda said.

“I doubt Alexandrina wants me to have her chest for that long either, fortunately we could remove my head from this body and place your head on it. That way Alexandrina doesn’t feel as bad and you don’t need to be a dog.”

“What would you do?” Amanda asked.

“I guess I could chill being a head for a week, Lisa doesn’t seem to mind.”

Mark and Amanda then began to talk about how they were going to raise the money to pay Eli at the end of the week, when Jean rolled over to them.

“Or instead of doing all that, we could get Penny to fix us,” Jean suggested. “She and I often go a little crazy with magic, we’ve gotten out of way crazier situations than this. Besides looking at her now, she doesn’t seem impressed with Eli’s performance methods.”

“I’m trying to think of something, Jean,” Penny informed the group but with my mannequin arms I’m a little limited in what I can do.”

“Mannequin arms come off don’t they?” Lisa asked. “And we’ve got these two that can remove parts from each other.”

“Excellent thinking Lisa,” Penny praised her. “Okay Jillian, use Marks arms to take Amanda’s arms off Alexandrina, then someone remove these plastic arms and give me Amanda’s they should attach and I’ll be able to undo all of this. At least in theory.”

The group did as Penny instruced and were amazed it actually worked, Amanda’s arms attached to the mannequin’s body and Penny now had full control over them.

She looked in the back stage and found that Eli hadn’t moved the other boxes very far, so after some time had passed everyone was back the way they were before, including the dog and horse, everyone that is, except Jean.

“Are you sure you want to stay like that Jean?” Mark asked.

“Oh yeah, it’s a fun form, besides Penny has my body so she can fix me up when I’m ready,” Jean gave Mark a reassuring smile.

“I guess I should take these two to a vet or something and then tell Rixxy how the performance went,” Jillian said she guided the horse and dog out.

“I never want to go through anything like that, ever again!” Alexandrina said as she grabbed her belongings and fled.

“That was really cool up until the who trying to exploit us thing,” Lisa stated. “By the way Mark and Amanda, you two have an interesting ability, I’d be curious in learning about it some more.”

“Sure, we’ll be happy to tell you how it works,” Amanda stated as she walked out with Lisa.

Mark stayed a moment longer and saw that Penny and Jean weren’t in a hurry to leave. “So what are you two going to do now?” he asked.

“I’m going to report this to the appropriate authorities and then when Eli comes back next week, I’m going to watch him go down.”

“Ooh, I’ve got an idea,” Jean said with a smile.

“Let’s hear it then.”

Eli appeared where he left his volunteers in their changed forms however something none of them were here.

“Maybe they like their new forms,” he amused. “Either way their allotted time is up and none of them are here so they are staying liked that.” He was a little disappointed though, as returning them to normal would’ve provided him with a decent amount of income.

Eli shrugged it off though as he went to leave. His foot came into contact with a familiar jack-in-a-box, which he swore wasn’t there a moment ago. He wondered how the box suddenly appeared out of nowhere until he remembered it was attached to a roomba. “Ah, hello Jean. I didn’t see you there. I hope you’ve got the money I requested otherwise that box will be your home for a very long time,” he said as he picked the box up and placed it on a nearby bench. Jean didn’t respond however and it took Eli a moment to work out why. “Good to see you’re taking your new for so seriously,” he praised as he began to turn the handle on the side of the box.

"I bet you're wondering what's going on...." Jean sang in tune. "The answers really simple.... Penny knows magic herself… And undid the damage… A week has past and we’ve set a trap... Magic cops arrest this weasel" Jean's head popped out of the box, narrowly missing Eli. “Wee!” Jean cried with a smile on her face as her head sprung back and forth.

Eli tried to teleport away but something prevented him, the next thing he knew he was surrounded by magicians in blue robes. There was no wear for Eli to run and at the end of the room he saw Penny giving him a dirty look, Penny and someone he hadn’t seen in a human form for a rather long time.

“Judy!” Eli cried out as he saw her.

She was still wearing her red dress she had worn when he had set her free by turning her into a dove. Looking at her now he regretted that, he forgot how lovely her long thick, wavy blonde hair was, or that beautiful face, or how that dress complimented her sexy long legs. Looking back on it now, he wouldn’t have turned her into a bird, he would’ve turned her into a statue instead.

“Judy!” He screamed her name again in a cry a child would make if someone stole or broken their favorite toy. “Judy… Judy…. Judy….!” He screamed again and again as the robed officers took the crazed magician away.

Judy stood their stiff for the longest time, holding Penny’s hand in support. When he was finally got the tall woman hugged her. “Thank you so much for everything you’ve done Penny,” Judy began to weep. “If you need anything, anything at all. Feel free to ask… anything at is except an assistant for a magic trick.”

Penny looked at Jean, “It’s okay I’ve already got one of those.” Jean gave the two of them a rather large grin.