Hen Night: part 2


"Alright, I'm convinced you really sawed me in half. Now put me back together!" Tanya demanded.

"Why should I?" I asked.

"Because I don't want be cooped up in this box for the rest of the evening." I was relieved that she did not say that she did not like being in two pieces.

"Ok, we can sort that," I said. I reached over and pulled out the foot stock and released the catch holding the lid shut. "Try sitting up!" I instructed. Tanya looked puzzled. "You know, like you were doing a sit-up, so try not to use your arms." There was a tap as the box lid lifted briefly and then fell back.

"That feels weird; like I'm sitting and lying down at the same time."

"I know," I commented. "Ally, take a good grip on Tan's ankles and pull, but stop before her arse falls off the end of the table."

Ally gave me a questioning look, then did as I had asked. Soon Tanya's lower half clad in gauzy harem pants was sitting on the end of the table and she was staring at her hip. She reached out to check it was real and flinched as she felt herself poked in the thigh with her finger. Above the waistband stood about half an inch of belly and this was topped off with a plane of skin that totally matched Tanya's skin tone, because it was her skin.

"That was not the end I was worried about being cooped up. It's just that the view from down here is a bit limited," complained Tanya.

"I know, but I wanted to demonstrate that you aren't stuck in the box, before I disappear for a little while to get something you'll need once we get you out of the box. So girls, keep Tanya entertained, while I go find something."

I went off and quickly found the first of the three things I needed, so that Tanya could be mobile, once out of the box. As I set off to locate the other two things, I could hear whoops and shrieks of laughter; it sounded like the other girls had taken it upon themselves to prove conclusively that the legs sitting on the end of the table were Tanya's legs, by tickling them mercilessly.

When I returned, I was pushing a wheel chair. On the seat was a platform holding a pad of soft foam rubber. It did not take much to unlock, the upper box and lift out Tanya's upper body (it was a lot lighter without her hips and legs) and place her on the elevated foam rubber pad.

"This isn't what I expected, but I suppose it'll have to do," moaned Tanya; not exactly a model of gratitude. "How am I meant to get about?"

"Well, you could try using it like real wheelchair users do, push the wheels with your hands; I could probably find a pair of gloves, so you don't wear your hands to shreds."

She gave me a look that insisted I come up with something better. I was feeling uninclined to help her further until she exhibited more thankfulness, not only for supplying her with some wheels, but also not being dead from being sawn in half.

I tried to ignore her for a while, by turning to the subject of what kind of illusions Karen and Ally wanted to be involved in and did they want to be in a suitable costumes or have their outfits adapted. While this discussion was underway, Tanya kept moaning about her situation until Bridgette got fed up and piloted her lower half behind the wheelchair and pushing it away, pointing out as she did so that her legs did not have ears to hear Tanya carping about her situation. Tanya used her motorised legs to push Tanya's upper half most of the way across the workshop and away from the costume area. I picked up her legs and put them back inside the box, mainly so we didn't trip over them. By the time Bridgette's legs returned, Karen had volunteered to be cut into three and Ally tried to go one better and asked to be cut into four.

I told them both that they would need to strip to their underwear or find a costume left their legs and midriffs bare. They rushed off to find such outfits. I went off to find if any of the zigzag cabinets that Bernard had left behind were are good for Karen. The first two I rejected as too like what Karen would expect, then I had, what I thought was a brilliant idea and soon found exactly the thing; Bernard had yet to try it with any assistant except me, but the times we had tried it had felt weird, even by magical standards, but the visuals were spectacular.

As I rolled Karen's doom into the performing area, Tanya was back, but in much more contrite mode; it appeared that on her return journey Bridgette had nudged some of the cabinets along the way onto the return path, thus making Tanya's return more troublesome. After an apology, I offered to give her something to make manoeuvring the wheelchair a bit easier. When she gratefully accepted, I retrieved her legs from the box I had stuffed them in and slipped them into the harness on the back of the chair; now all she had to do was walk where she wanted to be and all of her would get there.

Ally and Karen returned in their costumes; Ally had chosen a sexy schoolgirl outfit, while Karen had gone for cheerleader. Karen fitted in her costume like it was made for her, because it had been hers, until she gave it to us, when I asked if she had a spare outfit from when she was a cheerleader; call me jealous, but she does not seem to have put on more than a couple of pounds since we all left school.

Karen looked at the cabinet I had placed for her illusion, while I unreeled the power cable and connected it to one of the many power outlets hidden under panels in the floor throughout the workshop. It was not what she expected, but she was game to give it a thorough looking at before committing to enter it.

What she saw was an upright cabinet made of metal and glass. The metal frame contained rows of LEDs which twinkled and pulsed, once I had plugged it in, giving it a futuristic look. "It doesn't look like a normal zigzag illusion; don't they cut here and here," she said placing her hands at mid-chest level and waist level. "And I can't see how the middle bit slides to the side."

"That's concealed in the crossbars," I lied. "Bernard says 'Less visual clutter, more visual impact'," I added to give my lie some weight.

"And are those things, at the sides, the blades."

I returned to the others and lifted out one of the blades. It was heavy, because it was all glass, except the metal handle. I got them all to tap it and convince themselves of its solidity. I replaced it and opened the sections of door in the front; first the main door, which went from mid-thigh height to neck-level, then the bottom section that only reached down to shin level, leaving feet and ankles visible without the need to look through glass, and finally the head section, with its framed hole to show the face of the occupant. With the doors open my friends crowded in to get a good look at the interior, not that they could not see everything with the glass doors shut through the slightly mirrored glass walls. I handed the two parts of the glass stocks that I pulled out to Bridgette and invited Karen to enter the cabinet.

"You're sure this is safe, right?" she asked.

"I've done it six times and besides felling a bit weirder than some, it feels good and looks super."

"Ok," she said then asked the other girls to wish her luck; I suppose if you are going to believe in magic, believing in luck is a natural next step (or vice versa).

With a little coaching she was soon inside with her thighs, just below the ra-ra skirt, backed into the semi-circular dips in the back part of the thigh stock and her neck in the stock up there. Bridgette returned the front parts of the stocks, which I fitted trapping Karen inside.

I closed the top and bottom doors, which locked with magnetic locks and prevented the stocks from being opened by the occupant. At this point I stood back and told my friends to verify that the body in the cabinet was Karen's and had not been substitute with any fake parts. Karen spent a few uncomfortable minutes being poked and prodded, until I called a halt and closed the main door.

I asked the girls to step back a few paces to make sure they all got a good view and went to pick up the blade that I had showed them. I fitted this into the slot above the thigh stock and pushed it in a few inches, until it was an inch from Karen's thigh. Because of the guide slots in the frame I was able to move to get my weight behind it. Without warning I leant heavily on the metal handle and pushed the front edge of the blade through Karen's thighs. She yipped twice then sighed. I knew what that was about; the yips were for the contact and initial penetration of the blade edge (once for each thigh) and the sigh is the surprisingly relaxing rubbing of the glass plate against the four thigh stumps.

While Karen recovered from the realisation that the magic was real, I went to the other side and demounted the other blade and had it located in the guide slots that side so that it would traverse the cabinet just under the neck stock. This blade required less force, but experimentation told me that a quick initial cut and a slow finish produced the best feelings. I did this favour for Karen. As the blade slipped into its final position, Karen was wide eyed with the feelings I had induced.

"Are you ready for the next part?" I called.

The girls said 'Yes', but Karen just nodded.

I stroked a hand down the cabinet frame activating a series of hidden switches.

I also stood back to admire the synergy of magic and technology. The first thing to happen was the pattern of the flashing of the lights on the frame, took on a more frenetic pulse, then the inside lights began to pulse. The pulsing of the interior gradually faded as the glass around the central section became opaque; Bernard had explained to me that the glass there was photo-chromic, like those sunglasses that react to bright light.

Soon we saw the glass became clear again, and the inside of the cabinet was once more revealed, but nothing else. In fact, the entirety of Karen's body from neck to mid-thigh was conspicuous by its absence. "Whoa! That feels really strange!" commented Karen, while the rest of her friends goggled at the sight of her head separated from her thighs by nothing but space.

It took some moments for Karen to get sufficiently used to the feelings of having her middle vanished and take in the dumbfounded looks on her friends' faces. "Hey, what? You lot look like you've seen a ghost."

I kept quiet; interested to see who would be first to give Karen an explanation of what they had just witnessed. In the end it took a second appeal for some details before Ally said, "You know volunteered to be divided into three." Karen nodded. "Well, what happened next was, one of those three parts vanished."

Thoughtfulness flickered across Karen's face, "I'm guessing that it wasn't my legs that vanished." Then there was a brief look of frustration, before some expression of contentment took over. Afterwards she told me that she had been concerned that she could not feel her body with her hands wherever they had vanished to, but then something had taken some kind of hint and was massaging her body and she could feel the pleasant feeling that was generated without feeling the actual massage.

I opened the main door and allowed the girls to check out the empty cabinet interior and see the skin over the stumps of Karen's thighs and neck through the glass of the blades.

I reclosed the cabinet and pushed it to the side of the arena we had created. "Aren't you going to get some means of moving about, like the others did?"

"Sorry, no. But there are only two more 'punishments' to do. Then we can get some sleep."

There were some blank stares. "First, we 'punish' Ally for her part in persuading me to let you come and have a look at Bernard's workshop and then my punishment for giving in to your persuasion."

I walked off to find the instrument of Ally's division, while they speculated what I had in mind for Ally; from what I could hear most were betting on a realer version of the mismade lady illusion, but I had a different idea. I also had to have my own 'punishment' readily at hand, so that once Ally was chopped up, I could quickly get my illusion underway and then we could all get some rest.

I moved my illusion close, then wheeled in a waist-high trolley covered in bits and pieces. I parked this centrally in the cleared area and lifted the tray of stuff from the upper surface of the trolley. I lifted my knee under the tray and it sprouted legs that had been folded underneath and could put it down near at hand.

"Alright, Ally, It's your turn. Just lie on the trolley and cooperate and we'll have you in four pieces in no time."

Ally seemed surprised. "This isn't what I was expecting. I assumed it'd be one of those tall cabinets where I would end up with my face where my hips should be."

"You know what assume did?" I queried, trotting out one of Bernard's favourite phrases. In response to the blank looks, I completed the saying, "It makes an ASS of YOU and ME."

I let whatever reaction come before continuing. "This one is a variant on an old illusion called the centre cut, which Bernard has tried on me a few times. It works great, but he has yet to think of a way to fit it into his show." This description did not do much for my audience, so I decided to plough on. "Like I said, Ally, all you have to do is lie here and go with the flow and you will have a unique experience." I patted the flat top of the trolley.

Ally approached the trolley with evident trepidation, but not seeing anything dangerous built in boosted herself to sit on the trolley. "How would you like me?" she asked.

"Put you head that end! there's a pad for it. Then get comfortable with one leg out straight and the other bent at the knee! For the moment cross your arms under your boobs and I'll tell you what to do with them later. That's good! Feeling nervous?"

Ally flashed me a nervous smile. She was the only one who had not known me for years and she was about to allow me to use sharp blades on her body; She had every right to be nervous.

"Don't worry! I'll let you flip the switch on my illusion." She did not know if that was a good thing.

I lifted the largest thing from the prop table which was a box frame made of narrow square steel tubes. I was covered in various slots and sockets and despite looking like a single item, it had catches and releases that meant it could be come apart in the ways that would be needed later. Placing this onto the trolley over Ally was no trouble. This left Ally mostly within the frame, except for her head, her right leg from the calf down and her upraised left knee. It took a matter of seconds each to secure the frame to the tabletop, but times eight points of attachment, meant it took nearly half a minute, for me on my own; one of the reasons this illusion had not made it into a show yet; in a word, 'pacing'.

I got Cassie and Bridgette to come and help fit the assorted bars to the bare frame and then I fitted a stock at each end, over Ally's neck and right calf; these were quicker because they followed guide slots and locked into place with a click. Most of the remaining panels were as quick to fit, but again there were too many of them to make the entire process quick and audiences get suspicious if too many assistant crowd round a prop. The tricky ones to get in place were the ones that trapped Ally's upraised thigh, the one that trapped her left wrist above her waist; the one over her right upper arm, which I guided out the side of the frame above the vertical bar just below bust level was thankfully easy.

"Now that nobody is going to see the blood if I mess this up horribly," I commented, "It's time for the blades." Ally's face took on a worried frown. "Lighten up, you did volunteer."

"I guess," said Ally, doubtfully, "but I did not expect to be put into a reject illusion."

"Consider it experimental, instead of a reject."

"I don't think that sounds any better."

"Stop worrying! I know what I'm doing." I slammed a pair of blades through the slot above her waist. I was slightly worried by her lack of reaction as the blades slipped through the gap between her exposed left hand and left thigh. As I looked at her face, it showed a determination to not react negatively to initial prick of the blade or to the more exotic feeling as the blade passed through her middle. I smiled at her and got an unsteady smile back. "How did that feel?"

"It started out like I expected, except I didn't really expect to feel anything, then it felt very nice after that, but not like you were pushing a blade through me."

"For the next pair I need you to lift up your left foot, so I can get at that slot." As the lower part of her left leg stopped being an obstacle, I dropped the blades into the opening over her right thigh and left them there resting on her flesh and then fitted the final pair to rest on the base of her ribs the other side of her left hand from the pair through her waist. My next move was to thump my fists down on the handles of both pairs of blades simultaneously, diving them through Ally. The smile on her face moved from being apprehensive to aroused.

"Now you are divided into four pieces, Ally. Are you feeling ok?"

"Well, I wish I could be totally sure what I'm feeling. I feel good, but it doesn't feel right; like my body is trying to tell my head something is wrong, but it feels good enough that my brain is ignoring it."

"Yes," I replied. "I know exactly what you're talking about. When I get to my piece of magic, I'm going feel that feeling too, but even more than you are at the moment. Shall we move onto the next stage?"

"Next stage?" she queried. "Isn't dividing me into four sections enough?"

"Surely, if you were expecting to have your body rearranged in a mismade cabinet, this has got to seem a bit tame unless I move bits of you about."

"I guess you're right, but please be gentle; I don't want to spoil how oddly pleasant it feels."

I slipped a few bolts and catches, then pressed on the hip section. It slid sideways towards our spectators until her left leg was in the position where her right would have been if she could have raised it. I came round from behind the trolley and pulled the section of trolley top with box mounted and a left leg sticking from the box completely from the trolley. I placed the box on its lower blade on the end of the sawing table, so that Ally's foot rested on the floor, then I whipped off the box panels, to show the short plaid skirt Ally had put on as part on the sexy schoolgirl costume sandwiched between the blades.

I returned to the trolley and demounted the section with her waist in and her left hand visible through a hole in the lid. This I placed on top of the other section of the sawing table. This left a gap of about eighteen inches between the blade at the base of the section from which Ally's head and arm sprouted and the top blade of the section with her right leg protruding from it. This gap was spanned by two narrow steel tubes that had provided support for the sections that were no longer there.

I returned to the trolley and gave it a turn so that the others could see all round and giving Ally the chance to see how I had arranged her missing parts.

I parked the trolley where Ally could turn her head to the side and see what would next transpire. I rushed off to bring in the illusion I planned to use on myself.

It was easy to move, because of a push handle sticking up from the end of the low platform.

Most of the platform was occupied by a low coffin shaped box of clear plastic, between it and the push handle was tall clear plastic tube with a door in the side. The tube stood on a wooden box and there was a set of steps up to the door. As I plugged the device into the power, I said, "This is something Bernard has discouraged me from trying, but I thought it was time to give it a go. So once I've tried it, we'll all get some sleep and I'll restore you all in the morning."

I spooled out another lead, which had a large red button on the end. This I put into Ally's left hand. "When I say 'Go!' press the button, but not before," I instructed Ally across the arena. My next move was to strip off my dress and underwear and mount the ladder to enter the cylinder. I stood on a ring round the inside of the cylinder and shut the door.

"Are you ready, Ally?" I took the movement of her head to be a nod and commanded, "Go!"

I heard a click as I saw the button pressed and there was a whine from the box under the transparent cylinder and some blades below the ledge on which I stood, straddling the width of the container, whirred into life. I watched and waited, while the intent of the machine became apparent to my audience. As they realised that I was standing in a giant blender, the sections of the ledge suddenly flattened against the tube wall and I dropped with a whoop into the blades that quickly devoured my legs and body, turning them into thick soup. The last sight I saw as the first of many blades sliced through my head was my group of friends, each divided into two or more parts each, looking on in horror at my liquidisation. While each blade that passed through me pricked each time it did so, the intensity of pleasant feelings from each pass grew. Then I fell asleep in a cloud of euphoria.

----------

Cassie watched Kate, who was hosting what amounted to the after-party of her hen night, drop into the whirling blades of a giant blender and be torn to shreds, resulting in a puddle of red stuff in the bottom of the cylinder when the whirling of the blades stopped. Her first thought was, 'serves her right for chopping my head off.'

When she looked round it seemed the rest of her friends had fallen asleep. Then she remembered that Kate had said she was the only one that could replace her head in its usual position, which was not strapped to a shelf sitting on the hip of the wedding dress costume she was wearing.

She did not have time to panic, because she could hear the phone ringing. This gave her a plan. She would find a phone and call for help. Who to call for help at this time of night, she did not know, but she needed to find the phone first.

The returned to the main part of the house and easily found the phone. She picked it up and lifted the handset to where her head usually was.

"Hello? Who is this? Can you help me?" she said before working out that it was placed wrong. She tucked the phone between her waist and her ear and tried again.

A concerned male voice answered. "I hope I can help. Who are you?"

"I'm Cassie," she said. "Who are you?"

"I'm Bernard, Kate's husband. You're the bride-to-be, right?"

"Yes, and it's all gone horribly wrong."

"Try and keep calm and tell me about it!" Bernard's calmed Cassie, who had been on the edge of panic.

"Well, we came back and chatted for a bit. Then we heard about your workshop and badgered Kate to show us. When we were looking round, I got my head stuck in the stocks of a guillotine and Kate chopped my head off."

"I heard that much from Kate when I called earlier. Have you got your head back?"

"Kind of," offer Cassie, "if you count it being strapped to waist of the bridal costume I got put in afterwards. I would rather have it back on my neck though."

"So, what happened next?"

"Kate said that you had said that she should punish us all for interfering with your stuff. So first Bridgette got sawn in half in a vertical cabinet, then Tanya got sawn in half too, but in a box on a table; she got transferred to a wheelchair with a harness on the back for her legs, so she could get about. Then Karen got divided into three in a glass and steel cabinet covered in twinkling lights."

"Let me guess! Her middle was vanished." Bernard interrupted.

"That's right, how did you know?"

"I built it, with a bit of help from a couple of crafty friends of mine. It's the only one in existence."

"Oh," said the headless bride, "Should I continue?"

"Please do!"

"Next Ally was divided into four sections while lying on a trolley king of thing."

"And what did you think of that?"

"Um," Cassie was uncertain what to say, given she was probably talking to the inventor of that piece of magic too. "It was interesting and amazing, but it did seem to take a long time to get to the meat of what the illusion was for, even when me and Bridge helped a bit."

"I'll bear that in mind," commented Bernard, not seeming put out by this assessment of a pet project of his. "I'm guessing there's more." He encouraged.

"The only thing after that was Kate got into a giant blender which Ally switched on then she fell into the blades. I don't know how to describe what happened next. But before she did it, she said she'd be doing it and then we'd get some sleep, then she would restore us."

"So, how are the others feeling about this?" asked Bernard.

"I don't know, because about the time the blades of the blender stopped they all fell asleep. I'm the only one awake, that's why I answered the phone. I thought I might be able to get some help."

"Well, the good thing is you're talking the right person. The bad news is that I can't help you until the morning; this is going to take a bit more magical power than I anticipated."

"What am I meant to do until then?" then edge of panic returned to Cassie's voice.

"I suggest you get a good night's sleep; like the rest of them are getting."

"And how do I do that with all my friends in multiple pieces and our hostess a blenderful of soup?"

"I suggest you go upstairs and to the third door on the left (that's our bedroom), unstrap your head and rest it in the basket on the dressing table so you can see the bed and then lie down and go to sleep. I'll ring back in the morning, when I'm ready and give you the instructions on what you'll need to do to get things back to normal. You ok with that?"

"It doesn't sound like the best plan I've ever heard, but I guess it's the only one we've got. Will the others be safe?"

Bernard paused before answering. "They'll be perfectly fine. I'm most worried about you, so be careful and I'll talk to you in the morning."

"Ok," said Cassie as the line went dead.

----------

Cassie woke to the sound of the phone ringing on the bedside cabinet. She watched in surprise as her body picked up the phone and put it to the space above her shoulders. It took a little while to remember that her head was not on the pillow, but in the basket on the dressing table and to transfer the cordless handset to where it was useful.

"Hello?" said Cassie, her voice sounded rest, but not fully awake.

"Good, Cassie. I was afraid you'd had an accident, when you took so long to answer." Bernard's voice showed some relief.

"I don't think so," replied Cassie, "unless you count my head not being attached, still."

"That wasn't an accident; Kate did that deliberately. I'm guessing that after the shock and the inconvenience, you are finding it quite pleasant."

Cassie considered this for a few seconds. "It's not as bad as I first feared; but then again, what I first feared was body going one way, my head going another and lying in a pool of blood until I died. It's not easy being headless, but it does open some possibilities."

"Ok, that's good. Shall we get you going on getting everyone back in one piece?"

"That sounds like a good idea. Do I need to strap my head back to my waist?"

"It might be safer, but not entirely necessary, if you're careful."

"That's good to know, because it was quite a fight to undo those straps, especially as I couldn't see what I was doing. So, I take my head and the phone down to the workshop, right?" suggested Cassie.

While Cassie carefully made her way back to the scene of carnage that was the workshop, Bernard gently quizzed her on more details of the magic that had been done the previous night.

"I'm there. What do I need to do first?" asked Cassie.

"The first thing you need to do is to find somewhere to place your head, because you are going to need both your hands free to do what needs to be done. I suspect that on top of Bridgette's legs would be as good a place as any."

Cassie moved a couple of glasses to the side and placed her head facing the performance area they had cleared last night. She then moved the two wines bottle beside her head and propped the phone in the space between them and her ear. "I'm sorry about the delay, but I thought that I would need to hear you and talk to you while I did things and it took a while to balance the phone by my ear."

"No problem. Now I need you to open the tap at the bottom of the blender, only after you've removed the lid from the box in front of it."

"Ok, remove the box lid, then turn on the tap," repeated Cassie. She wanted to be sure she was getting the instructions right, because she had a feeling that if this did not go right, she might be a headless bride at her wedding; while she thought that it might something to smile about in hindsight, she knew that it would be intensely embarrassing at the time.

The lid of the coffin-like box in front of the giant blender came away easily. Turning the tap was more difficult because she was remote from the action and her body got in the way of seeing what she was doing. She let out an involuntary sound of disgust as the red goop from the base of the blender spirted and dribbled into the box forming an inch deep layer of goo in the bottom of the box.

"I guess, it looks a bit messy," commented Bernard.

"I think it might have more to do with knowing that the sludge dripping into the box is Kate. Well the tap seems to have stopped dripping," observed Cassie.

"Good, and does the inside of the blender look clean?"

"Well, there are some streaks down the side."

"I was afraid of that. You'll need to wash the last few bits of Kate into the box. Go over to the sink and get a bucket of water and sloshed through the door in the cylinder!"

"Won't that dilute Kate or something weird like that?" queried the bride's head.

"No, if anything it'll rehydrate her a bit, because if I know Kate's tendency to over-party, she need some rehydration."

The task of fetching a bucket of water and pouring it into the blender to wash out any stubborn bits of Kate proved easier said than done, but the tap soon dripped clear water.

"Now, for the magical bit. Put the lid back on the box, then find some cloth to cover it completely."

Replacing the lid was quickly achieved, but finding a cloth proved more challenging. Finally Cassie dragged a huge expanse of gold-flecked red velvet across the box.

The cloth barely had time to settle before the lid underneath was lifted and pushed aside. Kate stood up from the box wrapping the velvet about her naked form.

The magician's wife looked around at her divided friends, who at that moment began to wake up.

Cassie transmitted the message that Bernard wanted a word with her.

----------

While we had breakfast, once I had reassembled my friends and we were all back in our normal clothes, we agreed that while the night before had been very memorable we would never tell anybody exactly what happened.

The word Bernard had with me was to never do unsupervised magic ever again.

When he got back from Paris, he looked over the video recordings of the magic I had performed and said he was impressed by my creativity and showmanship. This resulted in him teaching me more of the magician side of the magic and now I do private shows for hen parties with Bridgette and Ally as my assistants.