Carol was enjoying the show, the magician was entertaining and the fact that he was good-looking too was a help. Her friend Melody was less enamoured of the show or the magician; she did not fancy the magician in the least and was a bit scandalised by the minimal outfits of the girl assistants and dancers. Even Melody had to admit the magic itself was of a high standard and some unusual finishes; such as the assistant who went under the guillotine side-stepping off-stage carrying her head; she was seen soon after without the handicap of headlessness.

Towards the end of the first act, the magician asked for two volunteers. Carol immediate raised her hand; she wanted to get a better look at the magician and try to slip him her number, if he looked as good up close as he did from the fourth row.

After speaking to a few of the other volunteers, the magician spoke to Carol, asking her the question that he had asked all the other potential volunteers. "What is your name? And why have you volunteered?"

Carol spoke loudly, because she was aware that some of the others had be barely audible. "My name is Carol. And I volunteered because I thought it would be a bit of fun." She gave him an unmissable heavy wink.

"Are you with someone?" enquired the magician.

"I came with my friend Melody, here." she pointed in the direction of her friend. "I think she should loosen up and enjoy life a bit more."

"Ok, Carol, come on up and bring your friend with you; We'll see if we can't make this fun for her too."

Carol took side steps along the row dragging a less than willing Melody on her wake. Melody was surprised to be invited onto the stage, but felt the jealousy of the other volunteers, whose place on-stage she was not enthused to take up.

During the short introductory interview in front of the curtain the audience discovered that Carol was a masseuse with a local chiropractor and Melody was a florist in town who had been friends since their later school years; they also had no experience with assisting magicians.

"And one final question, before we get started on the magic. Which one of you is the more naughty?"

The two women, who had known each other for about twenty years, looked at each other and without a word spoken both indicated Carol as the more naughty one; as if the audience could not tell from Carol's low-cut, short on the leg little black dress with three inch heels and Melody's cream blouse and cardigan with her shin length check skirt and sneakers.

"Good, then we have the role of each of our volunteers sorted out. I take it you have been referred to as an 'angel' or a 'devil' in your times; it is now time to make that true. Melody, I'm going to transform you into an angel, so we won't need to tamper with your lovely blonde hair. And Carol you are going to become a she-devil which will involve a little more stuff, but you did volunteer so I reckon that will be fair."

The curtain swished opened revealing the stage scattered with various bits of as yet covered equipment and the magician's two assistants each in a black body-hugging leotard and fishnets waiting to assist.

"I suppose we had better decide what is needed for each costume. We start with the angel; what parts do you consider belong in an angel costume? Any suggestions Melody? And, of course, I would welcome ideas from the audience."

Melody with a little prompting offered wings, a halo and a white robe. An audience member added a flaming sword to the list, but the magician said that aside from the hazardous nature of such an artefact, it was associated with one specific angel and he could only transform Melody into a generic angel.

Carol was offered a similar chance to influence what her transformation into a devil would include. With help from the onlookers, she came up with horns, bat wings, red skin, hooves and a tail with a triangular point. The magician pointed out that this description more suited a demon rather than a devil, but he was willing to go with it.

While the magician had encouraged his volunteers and the rest of the audience to make suggestions, his assistants had been dutifully writing the ideas on flip-charts (including the flaming sword, which had then been crossed through).

"Ok, now that we have the requirements for each costume written down, it's time to get started. And to avoid confusion we get you into the main part of the costume and then work on the details afterwards. I hope you ladies brought your handbags, because I may be a good magician, but even I can't conjure something from nothing. Melody I need you to find me something white in your hand bag, and Carol, you should get something red out. after that please remove your shoes; my assistants will look after them and your handbags."

It was the work of moments for Carol to slip off her heels and hand over her handbag, once she had taken out a lipstick. Melody took longer hampered by her long skirt and needing to undo the laces on her shoes. From her handbag she took a handkerchief.

The assistant that had helped Carol took the opportunity to bring onto the stage a pair of hoops with tubes of fabric attached; these were connected by a bar. She spent a little time laying these out so that the fabric was neatly piled on the floor, with the hoops side-by-side. The magician used the chance to talk to Carol some more while Melody was removing her footwear, then asked Melody a few questions, while her assistant rushed into the wings and returned with a pair of round plinths consisting of two round tubes in circles joined by a few straight bars and a board in one of the circles to stand on; these she placed in the centres of the hoops.

The magician invited Carol and Melody to stand on the plinths. He also asked Melody to hold her handkerchief in her right hand above her head, while Carol was told to hold her lipstick in her left hand above her head.

The magician stood between them and raised the bar, which lifted the hoop and curtain arrangements to partially covering the two volunteers. It soon became apparent that the curtains were not long enough to completely hide the volunteers from toes to upraised hand; in fact their toes became visible before their head disappeared from view.

Soon the magician was holding the bar as high as he could reach, yet the hands of the volunteers were still visible, as were their legs. This was not a surprise for Carol, although some people noticed that they could not see the hem of her dress, despite the height of the curtain hem. More noticeable was Melody's bare legs, even though she had stepped up on to the rostrum wearing socks and a chequered shin-length skirt.

"Ok, ladies, please turn to face away from the audience," instructed the magician.

Both sets of bare legs turned to face away from the audience and the upraised hands turned with the bases. The magician winked at the audience, then tipped the bar he was holding aloft. This resulted in the curtain on the lowered side coming down to about Carol's elbow, while the raised end lift to cover Melody's hand for no more than a second and raising the hem to give the audience a glimpse of her buttocks. He then tipped it the other way, hiding Carol's hand and showing a slightly longer view of her buttocks.

After the tipping manoeuvre, the magician asked the volunteers to face forward again. While they were turning it became evident that they were no longer holding the lipstick and handkerchief in their hands. With them facing forwards again, the magician lowered the hoops.

Neither volunteer was wearing what they had stepped up their plinths wearing. Melody was wearing a white dress that revealed a small amount of cleavage, a narrow gold belt and behind her was a cloak of a sheer white fabric; her face showed her astonishment at the transformation, with a slight nervousness at having more than her usual amount of cleavage on show.

Not many people were looking at Melody, because Carol's transformation was breath-taking. Her low-cut little black dress was gone along with any underwear that it might have concealed; she was totally naked, but also she skin was now scarlet. This was not only astounding for the totality of the change, but also the fact that moments before her bare legs had been a normal flesh colour.

Carol's initial reaction was to clamp a red arm across her chest and the opposite hand to her crotch, which she discovered was shaved, even though she knew it had not been moments before.

The magician allowed the reaction from the audience and his volunteers to subside, before he said, "Don't they look good as the basis of good angel and wicked devil costumes?" The spectators voiced their approval of the sentiment.

Carol realising that there was little that she could do about her nudity, beyond running away, which would have left he naked in a less controlled environment; at least here there was some prospect of getting her clothes back in the not too distant future, but maybe further into the future than she might prefer. She relaxed both physically and mentally and determined to enjoy the ride, so allowed her hands and arm to slip to a more comfortable pose, even if it was more revealing.

Melody was a little surprised to see her friend naked, but not entirely astonished that she seemed to be taking it in her stride, because she had been told tales of visits to nudist beaches and topless sunbathing in the back garden. Seeing her friend relax, caused her to relax a bit too.

The assistants went back to the flip-charts and ostentatiously ticked 'white robe' on Melody's and 'red skin' on Carol's.

"I hope you don't mind, Melody, but we have a lot of work to do on your friend," said the magician, "so we'll be ignoring you for a little while; unless you'd like to help out."

Melody wondered what kind of help the magician might want that she could give, but looked to her friend who gave her an encouraging smile. "I might as well help with whatever tortures you plan on inflicting on Carol; especially as she dragged me up here in the first place."

"Good, because that will give Greta," the magician indicated the assistant manning the 'Angel' flip-chart, "the chance to prep the last couple of stages and speed things along a bit."

"Ok, Susie, what's next for Carol's transformation?"

The assistant at the 'Devil' flip-chart, announced "Well, we have hooves and a tail that does not have some corresponding element in the angel."

"Ok, Thank you, Susie. Carol, would you like to go for the tail or the hooves first?"

Carol had not expected to be given a choice. "I don't know, whatever's easiest, I guess."

"Thank you. In that case, it's hooves first, because that needs you to sit down and sitting with a tail takes some practice." Some of the audience noticed Susie nodding her agreement with this statement, as if she knew from bitter experience.

The group was soon arranged with Carol on a stool diagonal to the audience. In front of Carol the magician quickly set up a stock on a free-standing frame, similar to a head chopper, except this had two smaller holes instead of the one larger hole. He lifted the top of the stock out and invited Carol to put her shins into the cut-outs, thus making sense of the sitting.

In the mood of cooperation, that she hoped would lead to the earlier return of her clothes, Carol lifted her legs to rest her lower legs in the places requested. She noticed that the device had been placed at just the right distance that the knobs of her ankles were on the other side. She did not get to think about this because the magician slid the upper stock in place and secured it in place with a couple of metal plates and some wooden pegs. Carol tried to tug her feet back, but only succeeded in rocking the frame slightly.

Susie dropped a cushion on the floor and invited Melody to kneel at the upstage end of the stock and support her friend's feet.

The magician produced a blade a little longer than the stock was deep and slotted it into the top. The audience saw the expression of worry that crossed Carol's face as the edge of the blade touched her shins.

“Melody, have you got a firm grip on Carol's feet?” the magician asked.

Melody increased the tightness with which she was cupping her friend's heels before saying, “Yes.”

“Good!” replied the magician and with no further warning leaned his entire weight on the handle that topped the blade, causing the whole assemble to rapidly slide through the stock and Carol's ankles. The audience gasped in shock at the action, then gasped again when the feet Melody was cradling rose in her hands, evidently detached from Carol.

Susie was on hand to take charge of the loose feet and exchange them for what looked like a pair of tin-cans painted black. Melody was instructed to hold these against the vacant holes in her side of the stock with the painted white lines facing up. After a little fiddling and adjustment she was holding the cans in place. The magician withdrew the blade and called for Melody to pull the tins from the stock and hand them to Susie.

What emerged from the cans looked like the hooves of a goat; it was quickly apparent, when the magician raised the top part of the stock, that these attached to the ends of Carol's legs and the red fur above the hard part of the hooves blended into the red skin of her ankles and calves.

Susie tossed the cans into the wings then went to the 'Devil' flip-chart and, with a big flourish, ticked the word 'Hooves'.

The magician invited Carol to stand. He helped her stand once the hooves were on the floor, which she was grateful for, because she felt a bit unstable initially; she had gone from barefoot to hooved, which felt like wear heels at least four inches high, in less than a minute.

While Carol clumped about at the rear of the stage to become accustomed to her new feet, the magician took Melody forward to introduce her and the audience to the equipment she would be using to give Carol a tail. The first item was a narrow three foot long tube of soft leather with a triangle of hard leather stitched on the end. The second was a rod about three feet long mounted into a simple handle with a crosspiece so that it resembled a sword. The first order of business was to check that these items were nothing more than they seemed. This was followed by the magician helping Melody to slide the rod into the tube of the tail.

The magician called Carol over, who was now walking with confidence and making less clatter when her hooves hit the stage floor, and had her stand sideways to the audience facing Melody who held the leather sheathed rod. He instructed Melody to put the hardened leather point of her weapon against Carol's belly button and point it downwards at an angle towards the base of Carol's spine. There was a short period of adjusting to make the alignment as close as practically possible.

“Push!” commanded the magician. Melody pushed gently and Carol took a half step backward. “Melody, you'll needed to push harder than that; and Carol if you could try not to move.” After resetting positions, the command came again.

Melody jabbed the rod forward and Carol looked surprised as she made an 'Oof!' sound. Then length of the rod between the two volunteers had shortened and the red triangle on the tip was no longer visible; presumably somewhere inside Carol's belly. Melody did not seem to have any trouble pushing the rod further in, until a little under a third of it had impaled Carol, then there was resistance and Carol again stepped back under the pressure.

“Carol, please try to stay in place and Melody you're going to have to push harder to get the tail to emerge. At least, I can see that the tail is going to come out from the correct spot, so we don't have to start again.” Both friends were glad to hear this.

Carol braced and Melody pushed and suddenly Melody stepped forward as the rod with its leather covering emerged over the scarlet curve of Carol's buttocks and it slid through with little resistance until the handle was against Carol's abdomen.

The audience cheered the appearance of the red leather from the base of Carol's back. It stuck out at a rigid downward angle.

“Now, we can't leave Carol with a steel sword through her belly, so Melody please pull it back out. Try to pull it out straight, because your friend will find it uncomfortable if the blade gets too out of line.”

Melody removed the rod that pierced Carol. For a few moments, the tail hung down behind Carol's legs as its rigid core was extracted.

An expression somewhere between worry and curiosity showed on Carol's face. As the tip of the sword exited her belly button, she felt something that she had never felt or imagined before; she had a tail. She twisted round to look at it and then twitched it.

The magician asked Melody to check out Carol's new tail. Melody declared that while it seemed to be the same shape and texture as the leather replica that she had helped put the rod into, it lacked the seams and stitches and she could not find where or how it joined onto Carol's back.

“That's because it's part of me now,” said Carol, who used her tail to playful slap away Melody's hand as she tried to stroke down the back and onto the tail, in hope of feeling a join.

Susie returned to her flip-chart and ticked 'Tail' with relish.

“Time to sort out headgear for each of you; Melody first, because it's simpler, but we'll have some fun with it.”

Susie, the assistant, placed a chair in the centre of the stage, but succeeded in making it obvious that  she was hiding something behind her back. The magician told Melody to go and sit on the chair, then called Greta to 'bring on the halos'.

The other assistant reappeared from backstage carrying a square black cloth bag which she handed to the magician. “Because some people can get funny about these things, we have a selection of halos to chose from. Do you have any particular opinion on what colour an angel's halo should be?”

“I can't say that I've thought about it, but instinctively I know that it should not be black or red. I assumed halos were white.”

“That's a relief,” commented the magician, “because we've only got white ones, but they are in different shades of white. I have 'cream', 'apple white', 'ice white' and 'ivory'.” From the bag he pulled a set of cards with the names of the colours printed on. He handed these cards to Melody. “Don't tell us which white is your favoured shade of white, just pick the card with the name on it, and put it face down on the chair and sit on it; the rest can go face down under the seat, ok?”

Melody considered the cards for a moment, then slipped one under herself and dropped the rest under the chair. “Now, Carol, Take this bag and hand one ring to me, one to Susie, one to Greta and keep one for yourself, then drop the bag on the corner of the stage, over there out of the way.”

Carol accepted the bag and pulled a ring out to hand back to the magician, then handed another to Greta, who had moved to left rear of the stage. She handed a third ring to Susie as she passed on her way to the front right of the stage, where she pulled out the final ring and dropped the bag by the curtain concealing the backstage area.

“Ok, now for the fun bit; Halo Hoop-la.”

Susie revealed what she had been hiding. It was a sink plunger with a loop of elastic attached to it. She place the rubber cup on Melody's head and drew the elastic down to under her chin to hold it in place.

Some members of the audience giggled at the indignity imposed on Melody, but after an initial twitch of her head and an admonishment from the magician to hold her head still, she sat upright and stiff. The magician threw his ring which landed on Melody's head having caught on the plunger's handle. He then invited his assistants and Carol to try. Each ring ended up on the plunger handle.

“Now, Melody think of the shade of halo that you decided on and we'll see what happens.”

“Ok,” responded Melody. Moments later the topmost ring resting on her head began to glow.

Susie stepped forward, unhooked the elastic from under Melody's chin and withdrew the plunger from within the pile of rings, then it tossed into the wings. With more care, she pulled the three rings from under the illuminated one, which stayed in place a few inches above Melody's head. These rings she tossed to Carol, announcing the colour of each.

Carol confirmed that the rings she caught were of the colour announced, then picked up the bag and put them away.

“That would indicate that you chose the ivory halo,” stated the magician. “For the doubters, please show the card that you have been sitting on.”

“Yes, I chose 'Ivory'.” said Melody as she stood and retrieved that card from the chair, and showed it had 'Ivory' printed on it. While she did this the glowing ring floating above her head stayed in place and moved as if it were held place by a pair of invisible sticks strapped to the side of her head.

While the audience applauded the magician's predictive ability and the new addition to Melody's angel costume, Susie and Greta cleared the chair from the stage and returned with a sturdier chair on a platform with something standing above the platform behind the seat.

“Ok, Carol, what kind of horns you would like for your devil?”

“Urm, I didn't think that there would be a choice. I assumed that you'd give me whatever horns you had.”

“Like with the halos, I have a variety on hand, in case someone has serious opinions on the subject.”

“Have you got those like you find on a baby goat,” Carol demonstrated by putting her hands to her forehead with her forefingers pointing upwards and the rest of each hand in a fist. “Oh! Or maybe, something like ram's horns.” She described these by tracing her forefingers in a backward spiral around her ears as if she might be showing a set of Princess Leia ear buns.

“Ram's horn or small goat horns? We have both.”

“I might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb (or would that be a ram?). I'll go for the ram's horns.”

“Good choice, if you'll pardon the pun; especially as they come with a bonus that I don't think I heard anyone suggest as a demonic or devilish feature. But we'll keep that as a surprise.”

Standing behind the chair on the platform Greta lifted a pair of curling horns and quickly pressed to the bases of the horn to her temples, to give a general impression of what they might look like if worn.

“That's exactly the kind of thing I had in mind,” said Carol.

“Good! If you wouldn't mind sitting in the chair and we'll get them fitted.” Melody was moving to the side of the stage to not be in the way of the audience seeing whatever was going to happen next. The magician spotted this and added, “You can help us, Melody, besides we could do with the extra light.” A few audience members tittered at this.

While Melody returned the centre, Great and Susie were worked to restrain Carol. Susie was fasten straps round Carols ankles and wrist that held her to the chair, while Greta was fitting a framework around her head.

“Is this all really necessary?” Carol asked.

“Of course, it is. We wouldn't want you moving at the wrong moment and the horns being wonky or, perhaps worse, loose.”

It was obvious to Melody, that her friend was not completely convinced by this explanation, but was accepting it as part of the show, and did not complaining further for fear of appearing whiney.

“You may be wondering how we plan to fixed the horns to Carol's head. Some of you might be thinking glue, but sadly that won't work; with the heat from the lights and perhaps a bit of nervousness, she will be perspiring, and I have not found a glue that will stick horn to sweaty skin reliably, that does not require some nasty solvents to unstick them. So tonight we are going to go with a simple mechanical approach that has been proven to work since Mary Shelley wrote her story. We are going to bolt the horns on.”

Greta held up a rod about foot longer than the width of the cage holding Carol's head. She pushed the end of the smooth rod into a short tube that lined up with a point about an inch above Carol's right ear, so that one threaded end was inside the tube. The other threaded end stuck out towards Melody.

“We will start by making a hole to put the bolt through.”

Carol's face took on a more worried expression, despite not having seen the installation of the rod to the side of her head-cage.

“We could use a drill, of course, but that would leave us with the problem of what to do with the splinters of bone and gooey stuff that that would create. So we will go with a simple nail-like device.”

Melody looked visibly surprised when Greta handed her a large wooden mallet.

“So, Melody all you need to do is hit the end of that rod. And before you think of lightly tapping it, I'll tell that it can be a little painful for Carol as it passes through skull and brain, until it passes out the other side. So, for Carol's sake, it would be better to give it a good hurt hit so that it goes through in one go; then Carol will hardly feel a thing.”

Melody tried not to think about how hammering a rod through her friend's brain would prevent her from feeling anything. She raised the mallet and did her best to strike the end of the rod cleanly. Carol gave a slight squeak, which Melody was glad to interpret as surprise, rather than pain.

Greta pulled out another rod and inserted into a second tube about inch forward and below the first.

“Naturally, one bolt isn't going to hold the weight of the horns in place. Unless the bolts are done up unbearably tight, they are going to work loose and the horns will sag. It would be a dereliction of duty to allow that.”

 At Greta's prompting, Melody hammered the second rod through her friend's head. Carol did not seem to flinch. Greta began attaching something to the threaded ends of the rods at Melody's end; it looked like a simple rod with a moulded hand-grip. At the other end, Susie was fixing something cylindrical to the rods.

“I did mention that the fixings for the ram's horns comes with a bonus. We'll show what this thing does once it is installed. Melody would you do the honours? Just grab the handle and pull; not too fast.”

Melody decided that rather than ask questions she would go with the flow. She took a grip on the handle and tentatively pulled. Despite the obvious set up of the equipment, she was surprised that the cylinder at the other end of the rod moved as she pulled on the handle.

“Hey that tickles!” complained Carol, as Melody experimentally pushed on the handle to see if the cylinder on the other side of her friends head reacted as expected. A side-effect of this was that even the most conscientious doubted could not help but belief that there were rods through Carol's head.

“Please, just pull on the handle,” requested the magician, “at least until it stops.”

Following the instruction Melody pulled. The cylinder did not stop or add any extra resistance when  it touched and began to enter Carol's secured head. To the audience that cylinder appeared to disappear into the volunteers head as there was already a hole for it. The cylinder stopped moving at about the point where most people would have estimated that it was central inside Carol's head. Greta detached the rods that had been driven through the volunteer's skull leaving a pair of short threaded studs sticking out; there was a matching pair on the other side.

“While Greta and Susie remove the scaffolding and bolt the horns on, I'll show Melody and the rest of you what that thing is for. Melody come and look at this.” The magician held up something that looked like a TV remote. “You see, now we have control of Carol's eye colour and how brightly the glow.”

The remote that he was showing Melody had a button at the top right with the standard 'power on/off' symbol. Below that was a knob with a colour wheel around it and a white mark on it's rim. At the bottom were two rockers with plus and minus sign at top and bottom; one labelled 'Brightness', the other 'Intensity'.

The magician pressed the on/off and Carol's eyes glowed bright red. He demonstrated the effects of the various controls and then handed the remote to Melody to select what colour and intensity her demonic friend's eyes glowed. Melody chose an vivid blue for Carol which made her eyes stand out against the red of her skin.

While Melody had been choosing, the magician and his assistants had released Carol, who's first priority, having stood, was to check her tail still worked properly having been sat on it for the past few minutes.

The magician gathered his volunteers close to the front of the stage, allowing the audience to get a good view of what had been achieved towards their transformations into an angel and a demon.

Melody was in a white dress and had a halo floating above her head. Carol's skin was red and was all visible, because she was naked. Her feet had been replaced by goat-like hooves, her head had a pair of horn curling from her temples around her ears and eyes that glowed blue. She also had a thin, but prehensile, tail with a flat triangular tip.

The magician turned the audiences attention to the flip-charts which had all the items ticked except the one for wings. “I think it's time for these ladies to get their wings,” he announced.

Susie pushed another platform onto the stage. This one had four upright poles rising from it to about shoulder-height. Following her was Greta, carrying  what looked like a couple of capes; one black and the other white.

“Let's get you girls situated then we can position your wings and set about attaching them.” The magician guided the friends to the platform and asked them to stand face-to-face between the upright posts. “If you could get between the posts, face-to-face, that would help a lot.

The friends looked at gap between and assessed the difficulty of getting into it. It was quickly obvious that this would be no easy task as the gap seemed narrow. Melody had the additional concern that if things were not planned properly, Carol might tread on her bare toes with her hooves. With much squeezing, the friends succeeded in getting between the posts. At this point Melody became aware of how exciting her friend found her naked situation; being able to feel Carol's erect nipples pressing into her breasts, also made her realise how thin the fabric of her dress was. The magician's two assistants helped with some final adjustment, 'so things lined up properly'.

With the volunteers tightly squished between the posts the Greta handed the black cape to Susie. Together the opened out the capes to display them to the audience. The white cape was feathered and in the shape of a doves wing (if doves were human sized) and the black cape resembled the wings of a bat, appearing to be made of fine leather with ribs from the top corners.

Susie fitted the black wings over the two poles at Carol's back, while Greta hung the white ones over the post that pressed against Melody's shoulder blades.

“This bit comes in two stages. First the fixing.”

Suddenly each volunteer noticed that the assistant behind their friend was holding a long spike. The audience had seen the assistants stoop and unclip these from the backs of the upright poles, but the volunteers had not. The friends had little time for surprise, as the assistants lined the spikes up which the left shoulder-blade of the volunteer they were behind.

The assistants pushed on the spikes and the volunteers felt the wing behind them being pressed against their bare left shoulder-blades. Then there was a pricking sensation, quickly followed by a warmth. It was then that each volunteer realised that what they could see happening behind their friend was also happening to them. The audience saw the spikes penetrate; they also knew when the weapons passed out one of one volunteer into the other by their reactions. Seconds later, the tips of the spikes emerged from the right shoulder blade and extended a foot beyond.

“Now comes the final bit. Connecting the wings to the ladies' nervous systems so that they can work them.”

The assistants briefly flourished a pair of shorter thicker spikes, before applying them to their volunteer's left shoulder-blade, but a little lower than the first pair. This time the spikes were angled to towards each other, instead of straight across. As the spikes began to penetrate, they started to glow. The intensity of the glow grew as the spikes were pushed deeper, although much of the glow was hidden inside the volunteer's bodies. There was burst to brightness between the volunteer's chests that indicated that the spikes had met.

Greta stooped to turn a handle at the back of the platform, while Susie went backstage. The effect of turning the handle was to move the posts constraining Carol and Melody apart. Because they were connected to the wing-capes they were drawn back from each other until they were separated by a couple of inches. The audience could see the three spikes bridging the space between them.

“And now to seperate them.” Susie returned from the wings carrying a large sword. By the strain she was showing, it appear to be very heavy. She handed the blade to the magician. He seemed to have less difficulty wielding it.

After a few sweeps with the sword, that convinced the audience that it was the heavy weight that it appeared to be, the magician raised the sword in a way that made it obvious that he planned to swing the sword through the narrow gap between his volunteers, to break the connection between them.

The expressions on the faces of the volunteers turned to terror as the blade began to fall; they knew that the slightest deviation from the intended path, would mean that one of them would be injured.

As the sword passed between the volunteers there was a snicking sound as the spikes penetrating the volunteers were snapped by the momentum; this was not heard by most of the audience, due to the screams of vicarious terror from other audience members. Everyone heard the thud as the sword hit the platform below, millimetres from Melody's toes, and stopped there with the rest of the sword supported by the section of blade that cleaved into the platform.

The magician stepped forward around the platform and invited Carol and Melody to come forward to receive the adulation from the crowd. Instinctively, they stood several feet either side of him and when the applause began to lessen, they opened their wings, causing the clapping and cheering to redouble. It double again, then the friends to two steps forward and took flight, with remarkable grace given the relatively small space. When they returned to the stage, the interval was announced.

During the interval the angel and the devil were the subject of a great deal of attention. At the beginning of the second half, Melody and Carol were invited to sit on stools at the front corners of the stage, on the excuses that their wings would block the view of audience members behind them and so that Carol did not have to sit on her tail. While they sat there, they commented on the show as it continued. Melody was frequently heard to express her amazement at the magician's feats and her concern over Susie's and Greta's predicaments. Carol leaned more towards the snarky comments and suggesting how a trick was done, allowing the magician the chance to prove her wrong.

----------

At the end of the show, the magician thanked the volunteers and presented them with a bag each containing the clothes that they had been wearing when the show had started. When they asked about being changed back to normal, they were told that they would wake up in their usual forms in the morning and that the items that had been used in their transformations would become costume items; as a parting thank you gift.

Unfortunately, the friends did not make it home; a drunk driver crashed into their car causing them to crash into a wall. The police were mystified to find two bags of clothes on the back seat of the car and no bodies. Since then there have been sightings around the town of an angel and a devil walking hand in hand or flying close to each other; these sighting are particularly common around Halloween, when small groups of trick-or-treaters have claimed to have been advised by 'a lady in a white dress with wings' to not forget road-safety or 'a red lady with wings and hooves' how to prank households, usually in a way that was likely to be of minimal annoyance to the people being pranked.