Magic Short 13 - Knife throwing

Marvin's act had been risqué, but it did not matter so much, because he was performing for friends who had grown up together, so knew each other intimately. His act so far had included vanishing the hostesses clothes and insisting that he be allowed to saw her in half before he returned them, while to her shock and the rest of the party's amusement he did it in a see through box. He had hypnotised two of the men to take down their trousers and become erect so that a female bare-chested hypnotisee could stand on them. One couple swapped places and clothes from a pair of boxes on stage.

Marvin announced that his final act required a brave volunteer. After some encouragement from  Marvin and her peers, Vanessa reluctantly stepped onto the stage.

"Ok, Vanessa, do you have any idea what you have been volunteered for?" Marvin had no illusions that Vanessa would not be up there without the help of peer pressure and the lack of people that she did not know.

"Not a clue, but I'm guessing as your final act it will be spectacular in some way. I hope it is colourful or amazing, in fact anything but dangerous."

At this point, Harold, Marvin's brother, acting as his stage crew, brought a small table on which lay a pile of knives.

For a moment Vanessa looked relieved, so Marvin asked her why.

"I think I've seen this one before. Is it the one where the volunteer puts her head in a box, and the knives are shoved through slots in the side of the box, and when you open the box there is no head in the box, only knife blades."

"Do you think that would be spectacular enough? Particularly compared to what I've done so far this evening?" asked Marvin, directing his question to Vanessa, but by a gesture encouraging the audience to make a contribution at this point. They seemed to be of the opinion that such a simple illusion would not cut it as a finale.

"I guess not," Vanessa finally answered, made nervous by the implication that the knives would be for something more exciting or terrifying than a dagger head box.

Harold pushed an upright board onto the other side of the stage and erected a couple of supports at the back so that it stood a small angle to the vertical.

"Now do you have an idea what we will be doing?"

"No, not really, but I think I want to be as far from the knives as possible."

"Before you go, why don't you check that these knives are real and solid?" offered Marvin, holding out a blade for Vanessa to inspect. "I've got three types of knives; this type," he said as he handed it to Vanessa, "a solid blade in a solid handle, both solidly connected and resembling a woodsman's knife from the nineteenth century. This other type, which might be described as stilettos, a narrower blade mounted in smaller handle." He handed one of these to Vanessa and accepted back the bowie knife.

The audience were amused by their friend's fearful reaction to even handling these knives. Some had put two and two together and felt that they knew the direction of travel of this introduction.

The magician accepted back the stiletto and handed over a final knife. "This last type of knife is not usually use for this act, because with the short blade, two inches long, and the rectangular guard where it merges into the handle, they are much more difficult, which I will explain later."

Vanessa handed the third blade back to Marvin and hoped that this would be the closest she had to be to the blades during whatever was to follow.

Marvin replaced the blades that Vanessa had looked at with the others on the table. He took the opportunity to mention that there were a dozen of each type of knife.

Marvin took Vanessa's hand and lead her to the board. The face of the board was covered in self-adhesive vinyl and had been outlined with black PVC tape; long experience told Marvin that a board covered in knife marks was not going to help him persuade his volunteer to stand in front of the board, especially as some of the knife marks under the vinyl were not where anyone would be happy to see them.

As they crossed the stage Marvin complimented Vanessa on her dress; a stretchy sheath dress going from the level of her armpits down to mid-thigh with narrow straps over her shoulders; a look slightly spoiled by the visible presence of bra straps that the dress' straps could not hide. He made particular mention of the purple colour, which he said was wonderful, because it meant that she would show up very nicely as she stood against board. Marvin was at this point sure that peer pressure and generally not wanting to appear to be a party-pooper would be all the psychology that he would need to get Vanessa to go through with what he planned.

"Ok, Vanessa, I think you have guessed what I plan on doing, so the question I have to ask is would you like a blindfold?"

"You're going to throw those knives at me aren't you?"

Marvin gave an affirmative nod.

"In that case, I'd like a blindfold, just in case. I'll try to do it without a blindfold, but if it gets too much I'd like to have one I can put on. Promise me that you won't be putting on a blindfold yourself."

"I can promise you that I will not be wearing a blindfold at any time during this demonstration." He took a blindfold that Harold was holding out from the area at the side of the stage and passed it to Vanessa. Vanessa gripped it as her life depended on it.

With the blindfold in Vanessa's hand, Marvin continued, "To make this a little easier for me and for you, I'll need you to stand in a particular position. You see those black marks coming up an inch from the edge of the board; if you could stand so that they are covered by your ankles that would be great. They may be a little wider that is totally comfortable, it will ensure that you are stable and less likely to move suddenly. Then to help keep the rest of your body still, I would like you to hold your arms up to the top corners of the board. Ok?"

Vanessa put herself into the position requested. "Is that, ok?"

"Excellent. You can relax for a short while, but if you could get into that position when you are asked, that would be great." He walked back across the stage area to the table stacked with knives.

"Time to take up the position," Marvin said and Vanessa spread her legs a little and reached up and back for the top corners of the board, so that she was leaning against the board. Before she had finished getting into position there was a thud as Marvin made a sudden move and the knife that had been in his hand appeared quivering in the board between Vanessa's right calf and the tape marking the right edge of the board. Before Vanessa could screech her surprise and shock a second knife had made the short journey to the board and landed nearly symmetrically with the first.

The sudden realisation that this was actually happening and did not appear to be a trick, but that Marvin was launching potentially deadly missiles in her direction, made Vanessa go rigid with fright as the third and fourth missiles sailed in her direction. To her they seemed to slowly rotate as they traversed the width of the stage at a break-neck snail's pace. These two landed into the board at mid-thigh level a little nearer the edge than her thighs.

The duration of the flights of the next two blades was spent regretting not resisting being volunteered and thinking how she wished he was doing something less dangerous, more magical and sexier; she could almost feel the sweat beading on her forehead and began to dread the moment when a droplet would roll into her eye and make her flinch.

As the seventh and eighth knives began the short trips to the exposed board surrounding her perilously exposed flesh. Vanessa released the board's top corner and dabbed her forehead with the cloth she had been provided as a potential blindfold. The second blade thudded into the board opposite its partner, both at shoulder level.

Marvin paused and shouted that she should not have moved and demanded that she return to the prescribed posture. Vanessa finished dabbing her forehead, before returning to the pose she had been told was required.

"Now, you need to stay as still as possible for the last four of this set of knives," announced Marvin.

Vanessa's reply was a small and unsteady smile, more to avoid seeming afraid to her friends in the audience than because she was happy with the situation she was coming to blame them for putting her in.

The smile slipped and fell from her face when the next blade hit between her up-raised right elbow and the top of her head. She felt the urge to turn her head to look at this new arrival, to see how dangerously close it really was, but the flash of the next one already on its way took her concentration. She desperately hoped that its trajectory was not directly at her despite appearances. This knife thudded into the board above her head, but she could not tell where between the crown of her head and the top edge of the board it had landed. The audience could tell that the knife had barely missed that top of her head and took in the breath that they would need to scream if it turned out that the next two knives got more than closer.

The penultimate blade took its place on the board between Vanessa's ear and her left elbow, if her long straight black hair had not hung naturally down her back and been hair with an extra upwards or sideways volume, it might now be missing a chunk.

She did not get time to consider this; Marvin changed his stance and she watched in horror as the last of this handful of knives seemed to head straight towards her body deviating neither to the left or the right. The audience saw her head whip downward and she tracked the deadly blade to its landing spot directly between her parted knees.

Marvin came forward and took Vanessa to the centre of the stage, this had the triple function of giving the audience a chance to see that Vanessa was none the worse for her ordeal, it was a chance to deepen the hypnotic suggestions of 'don't panic; it will be ok' that he had been instilling in the entire audience throughout the show, and more importantly, it gave Harold the time to remove the dozen knives from the board, leaving it with what would seem to Vanessa a reassuringly wide area without knife marks in the middle of the board.

"How was that for you, Vanessa? Because I found it a bit more stressful that usual when you decided to move your arm and mop your brow."

"I was terrified, but it was exciting too," Vanessa said and drew expressions of similar sentiment from her audience of friends.

"Do you feel you could bear some more excitement like that by helping with the second stage of this act?"

A call of "I'll do it if she won't" came from the audience. Marvin identified the caller as a busty woman in dungarees and a flannel shirt; a style of dress entirely unsuited to what he had planned. He whispered a few hypnotically encouraging words to Vanessa and then re-asked the question in a more leading form. With every appearance of enthusiasm she strode across the stage to place her back against the board and her arms up to the corners of the board. As Marvin returned to his table of knives and reminded his volunteer that her legs should be apart by little more than shoulder-width.

With a fan of stiletto daggers in his left hand, he turned to check that Vanessa's position was good enough; he almost hoped that he would have the opportunity to cross the stage and adjust her posture with his right hand, while giving her the chance to get more nervous and excited by seeing once more at close quarters the daggers that would be coming at her. He decided that she was as near perfectly stood as he could hope for, took the first dagger from the fan.

"For this part of the demonstration, it is even more important than last time that you remain as still as you can. So, if you need to move, let me know and I'll stop throwing until you are ready to be still again. Do you understand?"

Vanessa nodded, but noticed Marvin's frown. "Yes. No moving without letting you know first."

"Good. Are you ready?"

She moved a hand to scratch the back of head, then replaced it and said, "Yes, I think I'm ready."

"For these first two, I would like you to close your eyes," said the magician. "Then you can open them if you feel you want to, ok?"

Vanessa made a small movement; that of closing her eyes. Her brave smile did not seem to be as secure might be hoped, but she went rigid.

Marvin tossed the dagger in his right hand and then launched it towards the board. The first Vanessa knew of this was the thud uncomfortably close to her left ear, which was simultaneous with feeling a sliver of cold metal pressing against her left cheekbone. She had very little time to think about what this could mean before an equally loud thud assaulted her right ear and and a similar sliver pressed against her right cheekbone.

Vanessa cautiously opened her eyes.

"I suggest you keep your head as still as you can, because, unless you have a knack that very few have, the blades against your face may cut you if you move suddenly."

She considered how to respond. Nodding her head was out, as was speaking. She raised her right thumb as an indication of her understanding and acquiescence to the situation. This impressed Marvin as very few volunteers had the control or wits left to do more than smile and feel the sharp edge of the dagger press harder against their cheeks. Vanessa despite her hypnosis induced ability to remain totally still, as he needed, still had the ability and intelligence to frown slightly, thus reducing the contact between her skin and the blades' edges.

The next minute produced a flurry of eight blades, each of which she felt touching the side of her body through her dress. This is not what the audience saw; they saw each dagger snagged a small piece of Vanessa's dress, pinning it to the board she leant against. Each pair of stilettos were symmetrically placed at the hem of the dress, the top of her hips, the base of her ribs and at the top edge of the dress, marginally below her armpits.

With two daggers left, Marvin asked Vanessa to lower her arms to being horizontal, straight out to her sides. Vanessa complied with a caution befitting someone fearful that a wriggle in the wrong place with be punished by a blade cutting her.

Vanessa found it hard to resist flinching as the next two blades came at her with no apparent sideways movement, that could be judged during the fraction of time that they flew. They landed a second apart and seperated by thirteen inches either side of the base of the neck. She could feel edges pressed against her shoulders. The onlookers could also see that the points, that penetrated the thin layer of vinyl and into the board, pinned Vanessa's shoulder straps to the board too.

Marvin crossed the stage and yanked out the blades confining her face and stabbed them into the board above her wrists. "Maybe you would like to try stepping away from the board."

With her dress pinned to the board at the top and sides, Vanessa soon discovered that she was not able to step from the board. "What have you done to me?" she asked; her tone suggested more curiosity than any negative feeling about being unable to leave the board.

"Perhaps, you can slip out of your dress, by raising you arms and then squatting down. But, please be careful of the knives just above your wrists and the ones either side of your neck."

Duly warned Vanessa moved her arms inwards before raising them beside her head until she could feel the daggers pinning her shoulder straps brush her upper arms. Cautiously she bent her knees and found that her body slipped down while her dress stayed in place.

As she lowered her body her chin soon reached where her cleavage had been and she turned her head sideways. She continued to slide down inside her dress until she was sitting on the stage in front of the board, when she could duck her head from under the hem of the dress. She then carefully brought her arms out too.

Marvin offered her a hand to get up, which she accepted, and then guided her to the centre of the stage once more. Her figure was excellent, but if she wanted to make it as a model there would be Photoshop tweaks that would need to be made. Her underwear, while elegant and sufficiently covering, did not match; her bra was underwired and mostly made of red lace, while the knickers were a black G-string, with the rear string failing to show between her butt cheeks, when Marvin led her into a turn for the audience. Many of the women in the audience were envious of her figure, but relieved that they had not undergone the process of revealing it. The male contingent had seen what was on display at beach parties and summer barbecues, but still appreciated seeing it again.

"That was stage two; how do you feel about it?" asked Marvin.

"It was more terrifying, but more exciting, but I feel sure that a magician has many easier ways of getting a lady out of her clothes."

"That is true," stated Marvin. "But many things that are easy are not worth the effort. Watching you wriggle out of your dress was a treat for us all." On cue Vanessa's friends made known their agreement with Marvin's sentiment.

While Marvin and Vanessa talked, Harold turned the board round showing a side covered in virgin vinyl. He also placed a cloth on the floor in front of the board.

"I think we are nearly ready for the most dangerous part; stage three." Marvin watched Vanessa's expression transmute from the excitement and exhilaration of having survived the first two stages, to trepidation at the upcoming third stage. "Not any more dangerous for me or you, but more dangerous, than watching from down there, for the two friends you choose to help us out. So, I need you to choose two of your friends to help out for a short while."

Vanessa stepped to the edge of the stage, where she found it difficult to make eye-contact with any of the men. "Frank and Ferdy, come and help, please. I feel sure that he's not really serious about you being in any danger." With evident reluctance the two named men made there way to the stage.

Once on stage, Marvin set them on either side of the board and positioned Vanessa in the middle of the board; again leaning against it, but this time with her arms by her sides. As Marvin headed for the table with the remaining dozen knives lay. He picked up one of the short-bladed knives and explained that they required more skill to throw, because, with the short blade and the hilt guard, they needed to hit the board straight to stick in, otherwise they were likely to bounce off in any direction.

He asked the men to pick up the cloth and stretch it across under Vanessa's chin, so that it draped down covering Vanessa's body with a little spare on the floor. He asked them to gather the excess cloth at the top so that a thick band of gathered cloth passed across Vanessa's throat. He next asked that they hold the gather top in one hand and the edge a foot down the hanging part and pull them tight across Vanessa's upper torso, assuring them that there was enough give in the cloth to avoid any risk of strangling Vanessa.

As the men got themselves organised and took up the tension, two knives flew across the stage and embedded themselves into the board about an inch outside Vanessa's shoulders. This shocked the men because they had not been warned, which caused a smile to spread across Vanessa's face. The arrival of the knives pinned the cloth stretched across Vanessa's shoulders.

Marvin asked the men to stretch the draped section of the cloth across Vanessa at waist level, while supporting the bunched up section. Quickly the stretched cloth was pinned snugly across Vanessa's hips making the outline of her torso clear under the fabric that covered it. This was repeated at ankle level, with the side effect that Vanessa's whole body was easily discerned under the thin fabric, but immobilised. Vanessa was asked to spread her legs as far sideways as they would go, which was nearly to the blades pinning the cloth near the base of the board. In a surprise move, that caused Vanessa to emit a shocked screech, knife number seven was pulling the cloth tight at mid-thigh level, between her legs.

Marvin asked the men to raise and stretch the top section of the cloth and with another thud, the eighth knife impacted the board less than an inch above Vanessa's head. This had the effect of pulling the cloth tight over Vanessa's face.

"Are you ok, Vanessa?" asked Marvin.

"I guess so, I can't move much, but I haven't been suck with a knife and I can breath. So, I think I'm ok." Vanessa's voice was a little muffled, but definitely coming from under the cloth and in time with the visible jaw movements.

"One last duty, gentlemen, before I return you to the safer area of the audience, please check that Vanessa is still under the sheet and not going anywhere, unless she is released." Before they took their leave Frank and Ferdy took the chance afforded to check with more than necessary thoroughness that Vanessa was trapped under the stretchy cloth, causing her to laugh when tickled and protest mildly when they outlined her body with their hands. The last thing they did was raise the loose section below the lowest pair of knives and show Vanessa's low-heeled shoes.

Marvin returned to the nearly empty knife table and picked up the final four knives. "Are you ready for the last four knives?" he called.

Under the affirmative cheers from the audience, he heard Vanessa telling not to string it out for too long.

Moments later he launched all four at the board, where they hit the area outlined by the previous eight blades. This was accompanied by a brief scream.

Once they had got over the shock of the initial implications of what had just happened the audience noticed that the fabric stretched across the board was now flat. Marvin strode across the stage and ripped the sheet from the board showing that Vanessa was no longer there, but that her underwear was neatly pinned to the board by the final four knives.

From the back of the room, Vanessa came forward with an arm across her chest and a hand not quite covering her groin. "When do I get my clothes back?" she asked.

"Come up here so you can take your bows for being such a perfect volunteer then we'll see."

Reluctantly Vanessa remounted the stage and joined Marvin in bowing to her friends, then the curtains shut, leaving her alone with Marvin and Harold.

Harold held out Vanessa's clothes to her. "We're sorry for the damage to your clothes, but omelettes and eggs, you know." He then passed a hand over each knife hole leaving it pristine and undamaged.

"I thought Marvin was the magician," commented Vanessa.

"We both are," said Marvin, "but Harold is a bit shier than I am, but if he had an assistant he might come out of his shell, or he and his assistant might have a lot of fun rehearsing; think about it."