Fetish Magician 3: A sleepover - part five



I soon had Jenny's head cradled in her hands, so that subject to getting used to the change in balance point and point of view, she was mostly stable. I still sent Milly to accompany her back to her seat, to forestall any major disasters.

While Milly was escorting Jenny to her seat, I asked Priya if she had any ideas what she would like to do to Milly. I encouraged the rest of the audience to contribute suggestions and reminded Priya, although I did not think she had forgotten, that Milly had put a sword through her neck and another one through her head while she was in the sword basket.

It appeared that the audience were not in forgiving mood, because the mildest suggestions were beheading and putting in a box and running spikes through it and her, and ranged as far as chopping her into lots of small pieces and burning them.

Fortunately, Priya seemed to be more forgiving. And asked if she could divide Milly into three. It seemed that cooperating with Milly in the performing execution of several illusions had generated some sisterly feelings. I told Priya and the slightly let down audience that I knew of at least three dividing in three illusions, but that I also had a hybrid of two of them. I asked her to fetch the cabinet marked 'Z-plus'.

With Priya gone backstage, I invited Milly to come back to the performing area. "What do you feel about being divided into three?"

"Erm, I heard worse suggestions, but Priya's nice. If she's bring back what I think she's bringing back, it'll be a bit tame and I think people have an idea how it's done."

"Oh, yes?" I offered her the opportunity to take plenty of metaphorical rope and prepare to hang herself with it.

"I saw it on one of those masked magician things. He called it the 'three cube box' and claimed it was done with mirrors, but the times I've seen it since, it can't have been done with mirrors. It seems to be done on nearly every other show where a magician is the guest and there is a female host available to be victim, unless they are running her through with a jigsaw or using a head chopper. I think most people know that it's done by the assistant turning sideways and fitting in the gap where the middle section overlaps the top and bottom sections, and that part is painted black so that people don't notice the overlap so much."

"Ok, I guess you'd be a bit impressed if nothing of that turned out to be true of what we're about to do to you."

"Are you saying that there'll be no mirrors, no room to turn sideways and no overlap, hidden or otherwise?"

"I think we'll start with those and, if I can, other theories that anyone cares to come up with too."

"So, it's you and me against the rest and I get proper bragging rights if none of them can come up with a way that I'm not divided into three."

"If you like, but that may mean that they will need to test things along the way," I warned her.

"Ok, when do we start?" Milly asked.

"Now too soon?" I countered.

She turned to see the cabinet with Priya standing ready to open the doors. The first thing she noticed was the figure painted on the doors and the breaks between the three parts of the door being in different places from what she had been visualising.

The top section of the female figure was not much more than a mass of painted curly blond hair around a face-sized oval hole placed centrally a couple inches above the slot at the base of that door. The bottom door had, below a slot near the top edge, a red triangle painted on it to represent a skirt and below that two narrower downward-pointing triangles, lower legs, pointing at a pair of holes for feet evenly spaced between the ends of the bottom edge. I am not proud of the middle section, but I received the cabinet three days before and had barely had a chance to check that it worked and lubricate it; repainting it would have taken another couple of days, and by then it did not feature in my plan for the show, but I brought it just in case. The middle door featured a blue downward pointing triangle for a female torso, which was evident from the presence of two paler blue circles near the top edge. From the top corners of the big triangle pairs of narrower triangles indicated arms leading to hole for hands in the top right and bottom left corners as the audience saw it.

"Well that's not quite what I imagined, but I suppose that's what we've got to work with." Her resigned tone was intended for the audience. Milly turned to me and asked in a whispered, "Do you know someone with tits that size?"

I was taken by surprise that the question was not about how the trick worked. I whispered back, "No, but I guess the magician I bought it from did or he had an assistant who like to be flattered in that way." That brought a temporary smile to her lips, before she remembered that she would be inside that cabinet and had not received any instructions on what to do.

"Thank you Priya! Please open the doors and you two can have a good look and point out anything that seems relevant; like fake feet, hidden brass bands and elephants or escape hatches into parallel universes; I'm sure you know what I mean."

Priya unlatched the door catches and flung the doors open, only to need to open them again, more gently, when they bounced back, having reached the extent of the hinges. The doors opened to show a plain black interior. Priya had a glance round the inside of the cabinet, whereas Milly leaned in to check that the inside was as deep as the outside and that there were no black on black hidden boxes or hatches. Priya pronounced the cabinet empty of anything suspicious, but Milly asked about why the sides of the cabinet intruded into the cabinet where the sections met.

"That's partly so that even if the edges of the sections overlap by that much you can't be there because the intrusions will be in the way." Neither Milly nor Priya looked convinced. "The main reason is to save time and reduce discomfort. You see the edges there are guide rails for the blades, because if I just push a blade through willy-nilly there's a good chance that it won't find the exit slot in the back. And if it doesn't find the slot, I've got to pull it back out and try again, which means I'll be wasting time and you'll be cut many times."

"And why can't you just wriggle it a bit to find the slot?" asked Milly.

"That's all good with an empty cabinet or if the assistant has, as you suggested got out of the way of the blade, but in this case, because I'll be pushing the blades through you, you'll be in the way of moving the blades. It'll be like pulling a spade that has been stuck in the ground forwards and the handles of the blades are too short to give the leverage that the spade's handle would allow."

"I guess that makes sense," Milly said. "I suppose you want me to stop stalling and get in the box, right?"

"Yes, of course. It's not as if I can just divide you in three here." Milly looked significantly at Jenny sat on a sofa with her head in her lap. "Ok, I probably could if I put my mind to it, but it somewhat diminishes the possibilities for theories of how you can be in one piece while seeming to be in three pieces. I say we'll stick with plan A and put you in the box. So, please back into the box and take a comfortable stance so that your toes will stick out when we close the door." While Milly moved to follow this instruction, I asked Priya, "Did you bring all the other bits?"

Priya glanced towards the top of the cabinet where a neat stack of four blades sat and then from somewhere in the pleats of her sari she produced a bag that rattled metallically.

"Good, just pull stuff out and we'll fit it."

"What are you talking about fitting?" asked Milly.

"Just some cuffs and whatnot, so that you stay in the right place in the cabinet for this to work and so they don't think that you've escaped."

"Of course, I won't have escaped; my hands and feet and face will be visible all the time, won't they?"

"There will be a few moments when some of your visible bits will be hidden, but that will be a few seconds at most. But let's just say there are a lot of suspicious people about."

"Ok, I assume you know what you're doing," she said grudgingly.

Priya reached into the bag and pulled out a single handcuff (that's one for one hand) on a short length of chain. "Ok, that goes on one of Milly's wrists and then you feed the chain through a small hole in the cabinet and padlock it on the outside, the padlocks you'll need are in the bag too; as are the keys, but don't bring them out yet!"

Priya pulled out a padlock and dropped the bag on the floor, where it made a clunk. She soon had the cuff round Milly's wrist and made a determined effort to squeeze it as tight round the wrist as she could. Outside the cabinet she picked up the short amount of chain she had fed through the hole and snapped the padlock shut through the links of the chain. She repeated this with Milly's second wrist and finally pulled out two remaining padlocks and pair of larger sized cuffs with extra chain hanging from the ends.

"Those cuffs go round Milly's ankles and the spare bits of chain go through the small holes down there to be padlocked on the outside. You may need to adjust where Milly is standing, because the cuffs are at exactly the right spots on the chain so that her toes stick out the front with the padlocks on the third links in on both side. It'll be easier if you cooperate, Milly."

I lifted the blades down from the top of the cabinet and distributed them along the front couch of spectators so that they could assure themselves of the solidity of the blades and the connection to the handles.

"Is Milly secured in the cabinet, Priya?"

"Yes," answered Priya.

Milly decided that this answer was a bit weak, so she added, "I can't reach the padlocks on the outside or the foot-cuffs down there. And I can't reach the cuffs round my wrists, because they're on my wrists and I can't reach the cuff on the other wrist, because they are chained to the walls of the cabinet. The only way I can think of to make me more helpless would be something to hold my head in place and a gag."

"If there is a next time, I'll bring a gag." She seemed to take that more as a hint to not over-analyse the setup. I told her later that we should leave a small amount doubt or magic can seem like abuse and murder. "Priya, I think it's time to shut the doors. Just make sure the bits stuck out are the genuine article, no fake hands or feet. Don't worry about the face, I don't think anyone could fake that."

By the time I had reclaimed one of the blades and returned to the cabinet, all the doors were shut with live appendages emerging through the holes in the doors. "Ok, Priya, go and collect the rest of the blades and then you can push them through. I'll get you started with this one." I eased the blade through the slot in the base of the top door, a couple of inches below Milly's chin until I felt it touch her neck. She clearly felt it too. "Are you ready?" I asked.

"Would it make any difference if I wasn't?" she countered.

"Not really, unless you were nearly ready, in which case I might wait a few seconds. As it is take a deep breath and then let it out slowly. Then once the blade is in remember to keep breathing."

She took the requested deep breath and about half way through the exhale I slammed the blade through, which drew more response from the audience than it did from Milly. With the blade through her neck, Milly took some experimental breaths and finding that while it was only slightly harder to breathe, she could still do it. Next she tried talking. "What about the other blades do I need to do anything special for those?"

I assured her that only the first blade needed particular care, which was why I had done it, the others should be uncomplicated. It proved so, as Priya inserted the blades in the slots and down the guides until she felt the resistance of Milly's body, then she looked at me. I returned a smile and a nod and she pushed the blade through, and with only a slightly worried expression. I mimed a sword through the neck and her expression changed to one of glee as she slammed the final blade in, not even pausing when blade met flesh.

"How does that feel?" I asked for the audience's benefit.

"Ok, I guess. It's certainly not as uncomfortable as I expected, but not being able to move the bits of my body where the blades go through is a bit restricting." She moved her hands and feet at my prompting and readily identified which part Priya was touching.

I canvassed opinion on how was convinced that Milly was truly in three parts; there was a spectrum of thought from 'I don't know how, but she can't in three pieces', despite sitting next to a person clearly in two pieces, to 'I'm pretty sure that she is in three pieces, but it will take something extra to make me certain'.

I proposed to move Milly's middle sideways to show that she had been divided in three. They all seemed to agree that while it would not necessarily resolve the issue of Milly being tripartite, it would look cool. I got them to vote which way to push Milly's torso and the result was for to their left. I went to the left side of the cabinet and asked Priya to go to the right and push. She pushed and I pulled. We quickly had Milly's hands half a cabinet's width displaced from where they had started. Moving the middle section revealed one of the posts that was holding the top section above the bottom section. Between us we continued shifting the centre section of the cabinet sideways until I called a halt, because we were running the risk of the offset part falling out altogether, which was not part of my plan for this illusion; at least not at this point. We stopped once the blades on the inner section had cleared the blades on the outer section, resulting in her right hand being below where her left hand had been.

Priya took a little time to wave her arm through the gap between the base of Milly's neck and her hips and tapped the blades above and below the gap; which Milly complained felt like indigestion. Someone in the audience pointed out that it could have been real indigestion, because she had bolted four pizza slices, when they had broken for supper.

"If this was your standard zigzag lady illusion, this would be as far as we would go. Priya would check that the hands, feet and face were still the real thing and we would reverse it and let Milly out, but instead we shall move on to stage two."

"So, what's stage two?" asked Milly.

"We do it again, but without the doors on the front." I pushed the middle section back into place; deliberately pushing it half way out the other side before pulling it back, to eliminate any doubt that Milly could have squeezed sideways in the overlap between the boxes.

"Do the blades come out? Because that would be a relief."

"No, we'll just slip the door panels from the front. So, slide you toes back a bit so that Priya can pull the whole front of the section towards her. And turn your head a fraction so that I can get the head section opened."

With a look of concentration on her face, Milly pulled her toes in. I gave Priya a small explanation how to undo the catch and slide the panel with the door sideways. The open-fronted lower section displayed Milly's legs from the waist down clad in the same Indian-style baggy trousers. She moved her feet forward again so that her toes curled over the edge of the cabinet's base; it seemed a relief to Milly to have her legs upright instead of leaning forward, even if the angle was barely noticeable to the eye.

It was not long after that that she turned her face a fraction towards me. This gave me just enough room to pull the front from the top section, but it still scraped along the side of her nose. Priya went on tiptoe and looked into the newly opened section and said, "Did you know that your head and neck were resting on a sheet of metal?"

"Tell me about it!" Milly replied, her tone saying that while she was not totally unhappy about the situation, but having it pointed out was not helpful.

Priya looked at me and asked, "Is the catch for the middle panel on your side or mine?"

"Actually, it's on your side, but don't do it yet, because there is some extra setup to do. First, I've got to extend these rails." I leant down and pulled on some hidden pieces and had a pair of rods extended from the cabinet at waist height. I added another at the top of the middle section. "Then I need to fit the blinds." I pulled the roller blinds from their hiding place. I had Priya open the door to the middle, showing Milly's torso restrained as it had been before the door had been shut. I fitted the first blind horizontally just under the blades that separated Milly's neck into two pieces. The second blind I put in vertically, behind the edge of the door on the side with the rods sticking out. I reclosed the door and invited Priya to undo the catch and slide the front panel out of the frame, while getting Milly to pull back her hands to make this possible.

"D'you remember the torch we used to see where Arty's body was when we stretched her, Priya? Would you please fetch it?"

While she was gone I pulled down the top blind and hooked it to the bottom of the mid-section. Priya came back with the torch, I opened a small round portal in the back of the cabinet and directed her to put the torch in the hole and attach the cradle to hold it in place. When she switched it on, Milly's torso in silhouette was thrown on the blind at the front. I asked Milly to move and when she complained that she could not move her body much, I told her to do her best. She waggled her elbows a bit and swayed her torso fractionally, but it was enough to be visible as movement in her shadow; I told her that she had done a great job.

Priya returned to her station on the other side of the cabinet and when instructed to, pushed the central section towards me. I took the loose end of the vertical blind and held it as I pulled the same part, until it came to the end of the rails, where the overlap between the moved section and the stationary parts was non-existent. While we moved the middle of the cabinet sideways, the audience saw the shadow cast by Milly's body move sideways too.

Until I told Priya to raise the blind, the audience could not see what she could see; which was that there was a gap in Milly. With the doors in place there was the possibility of fooling themselves that the young woman in the cabinet had contorted herself, somehow, so that the visible elements appeared in the correct places. But without the door there was not the comfort of ignorance, because what they saw was a head and neck standing on a blade above a gap before there was another thin blade that capped her hips. The cautious smile on Milly's face and the occasional wriggling of her toes did not seem to owe anything to the skills of model makers and animatronics technicians.

There were murmurs from the onlookers asking each other where Milly's body had gone. I allowed these to go on for a while then I let the blind retract to show Milly's missing body, still chained at the wrists, inside the section of the cabinet hanging on the side. I cued to Milly to wriggle her body again, while I switched off the torch.

I invited suggestions as to how we had made this miracle and loosened a couple of pins behind the head section, which allowed me to lower it until it rested directly on top of her hips. I asked Marie to come up and verified that each section contained a part of a still living and breathing Milly. Marie seemed reluctant to come back to the performance area, but came anyway. A few prods of a finger, which got the expected reactions, allowing for the restrictions on Milly's movement and Marie declared the parts to be genuine. She scurried back to her seat.

Reassembling Milly was simpler, because we did not bother with the blinds. I had Priya pull the blades that she had inserted and I pulled the last one, putting a hand on Milly's forehead to hold her in place so that it connected with her neck, rather than coming out with the blade. While I was dealing with the last blade, Priya fished the keys out of the bag and released Milly's limbs so that she could step out of the cabinet and show that she was not harmed by being in three pieces.

I took the opportunity of Milly showing off her lack of scars and general intactness to move this zigzag cabinet out of the way and bring out the next illusion. I hoped and anticipated that Milly would make an excellent showing at this one too.

"Ok, this next one is a bit different, but a bit the same. It does what it does in three ways and in order to demonstrate it I shall be using two assistants and myself. So I have Milly obligated to be an assistant. I shall be using Angela's body with my head and I hope that Priya will consent to be my assistant again, unless someone else wants to try this." I waved towards the apparatus, which I had left covered in a blue sheet.