In the final hour of the ladies only charity night, Verity circulated performing small tricks for groups of women. She also arranged that all ladies that had assisted her throughout the evening be at the the performance area for the finale. This mostly consisted of speaking to her assistants that had been doing duty as extra waitresses and assigning them to get a non-waitress assistant to the turn up at the right moment.

The magician did her best to get the last item for auction to go for a decent price, but it seemed that a year of discounted Indian takeaways did not catch the imagination of the crowd.

“And now for the final piece of entertainment from me. This time instead of me doing something to one of you, I shall be getting those that I done things to to do something to me. But because I don't think any of them can do magic and it is a bit redundant to do magic to myself, this will be more like an escape attempt.

“So, please welcome back to the stage, Sandra escorting Charity, our headless fortune teller.”

There were a scattering of applauds as Sandra unhooked a section of the rope and guided Charity through the gap. Charity was tentative about moving because she was carrying her own head and balancing a crystal ball between her shoulders where her head should have been. Having re- hooked the boundary, the waitress led the colourfully dressed volunteer to the area behind the Magician/MC.

“And now, our embodiments of good and evil, Angela and Davina; or is that Davina and Angela? Escorted by Debora.”

From a different section of the crowd emerged a pair of young women, one with a white cotton top, angels wings, a halo and red latex trousers, the other wearing a red latex top, and white cotton skirt, black leather wings and pair of horns in her hair. Their entrance was enabled by a waitress, who escorted them to stand beside Charity.

“Next we have Briony, who bravely did the fire walk, with 'unforeseen' consequences, along with Ann.”

A skeleton with a woman's face, ducked under the border rope, quickly followed by another waitress. From the clacking of Briony walking across the wooden dance floor, it seemed that she had decided to ditch her shoes for the impact of going barefoot with her bony feet.

“Then we have a trio of sisters that helped me perform my modified zig-zag illusion, Dorrie, Molly and Katie. They are accompanied by Amy, who is my other assistant that was supposed to be part of the magic, but got missed out.”

The women, evidently dressed for a night out, were let onto the dance floor by another waitress. These four joined the growing group standing behind Verity.

“Next we have Tiffany, who accidentally got caught up in the magic; she's one of the usual waitresses here, but if she wants to be an assistant, we should talk after. She is brought on by Chloe, who we tried to run through with swords and drown, before pulling her through a hole too small to get through.”

Chloe, still dressed in the white dress she ended up in, used one hand to open her and Tiff's way onto the performance area, because her other had a grip on the other waitress' wrist; not quite dragging the reluctant, but not actively resisting, waitress to join the others behind Verity.

“And finally, we have Francis and Cheryl. Now Francis knows what it is like to be in her daughter's skin.”

Verity went to the edge of performance area to collect the two women; the younger dressed in a bunny-girl outfit and her mother dressed in a snakeskin catsuit, that had appeared on her after her daughter had been transformed into a snake. The pair were added to the group in the centre.

“You will be wondering how I am going to organise 15 people to help in an escape. Watch!

“First Tiffany and Chloe can go and fetch what I shall be escaping from. Debora can fetch the means of tying me up. And finally Ann can fetch the curtains that will cover some of my escape; don't want to give away too many secrets tonight. The rest of you get to choose two of you to tie me up; don't worry, the rest of you will not be uninvolved, you will handing items to the tiers-up so that they don't waste the precious time of this lovely and generous audience.

“Here comes what I shall be escaping from.” Verity directed the audience's attention to where Tiffany and Chloe were pushing the large tank of water that had been used earlier in the evening. The only difference that anyone could determine was that the padlocks that held the sliding top closed now hung open in their places.

While the audience had been taking in the return of the tank of water, Molly had volunteered herself as head-tier-up and selected bunny-girl Cheryl to be her deputy. The rest seemed happy to leave this task to the assertive young woman.

“One more thing before we get started! Amy could you pop backstage and fetch me something to sit on while I am being tied up and you find the instructions written on a note pad too.”

The assistant costumed as a waitress that had not been involved earlier, due to Tiffany, the non-assistant waitress, being unintentionally captured by the audience to take part in a magical act, went on her errand.

The water tank was parked in the centre of the performance area. Ann returned from the wings carrying poles from which hung a cloth; with some help from Dorrie and Katie, this was deployed to surround the tank. A trolley covered in an assortment of restraints was parked in front and Amy returned with a wooden stool in one hand and a notepad in the other.

“Ok, now we come to the final dishing out of roles before I ask Amy to read out the instructions that I have written for you. Davina and Angela,” Verity referred to the sisters that had their bottom halves swapped, “you can be in charge of sliding the lid open and shut. Amy, we've already said, is going to be reading the instructions that I have left. And finally Sandra, Chloe, Debora and Ann will be the ones to lift the curtain once we get to that stage. Are we all clear?” It seemed that the named members of the group were sufficiently confident of their roles that they had no questions.

Dorrie put her hand up and asked, “What do the rest of us do?”

“That's easy; you just follow the instructions that Amy reads, if they refer to you. Don't worry it won't be anything difficult or dangerous.”

In response to nods that the rest of the group understood and accepted that they were involved if only peripherally, Verity sat on the stool and said, “Time for me to shut up. Over to you Amy.”

Amy stood to the side and opened the notebook. “Everyone: Collect an item from the trolley of restraints,” she read. After a moments thought, she asked, “Does that include me?”

Verity seemed to pause to consider, before saying, “Normally it would, but as we accidentally acquired Tiffany along the way, I think we can be forgiven having you only doing the reading, but if you could make sure that those already given roles in this get to be in position in good time for later that'll be greatly appreciated.”

“Ok, I think we need to get you forming an orderly queue with those assigned roles near the front. It says here, Tie me up using the items selected from the trolley. So, I think that means Molly and Cheryl will be using the items you have all picked to tie Verity up in whatever way they fancy. If you could hand over your item to whichever one is available and those with roles go to their positions and the rest move to the side so that the audience can see what's happening, OK?”

Soon Verity's arms were tied behind her back with two sets of cuffs at her wrists and another at her elbows. “Might I suggest that you don't neglect tying her legs and head as well,” said Amy. This prompted Katie to return to trolley and drop her set of handcuffs and pick up something that looked like a red ball with an number of leather straps attached. When she lifted this to show to Amy, she got a thumbs up.

Molly had also taken the hint and by using a strap to fix Verity's left leg bent shin-to-thigh and then Cheryl used a shackle to connect Verity's ankles.

The magicienne looked over her assigned reader of instructions and ask, “Who's side are you on?”

Amy had an answer. “I'm on the side of everyone having as much fun as possible.”

It took a minute or two, but soon each selected restraint was fitted, although the gag that Katie had found turned out to be a head harness with patches between some of the straps to cover the eyes. They enlisted Amy's help to fit this.

“Now, let's see where we've got to.” Amy reopened the notebook. “Ok, 'lid people', I guess that's you two, Angela and Davina; remove the padlocks and pull the lid open, but not so far that it comes off the tank. Be ready to push it back into place and lock it with the locks.”

“Sandra, Chloe, Debora and Ann stand at the corners of the tank and be ready to lift the curtain. When the lid is open, Charity, place your head on the lid and the crystal ball resting in the hole in the lid; it says here that it will make it obvious if Verity uses that hole to get out. Briony, guide Charity to the rear of the tank. The rest of you, except the two who actually tied Verity up, take places around the sides and rear of the tank. Everyone, be prepared to place your hands on the tank once the lid is slid back into position.”

“Is everybody in position? Ok, Tiers-up, you will be picking up Verity and dropping her into the tank, then Angela and Davina will be closing and locking the lid, and, apparently, I will climbing onto the tank and reclining on the lid while everyone puts hands on the tank. Once everyone is touching the tank, the curtain-raisers will raise the curtain by lifting the nearest corner with one hand and still touching the tank with the other. It says here that if anyone feels anything happen with the tank or sees anything they think is suspicious, they are to call out and the curtain-raisers are to drop the curtain. Is every one clear?”

All the women clustered around the water tank agreed that they knew what they were supposed to do; the one who looked least certain was Cheryl, who seemed unsure whether she wanted to be a party to potentially drowning the magician, but she said that she would play her part.

“Alright, let's do this!” shouted Amy.

Molly took hold of Verity doubled-back legs, while Cheryl lifted her shoulders. Once the magician was off the stool Molly kicked it out of the way. The pair raised her and rested her on the rim of the tank. “Ok, on three! One, two, three.” They rolled the trussed magician into water, both stepping back to avoid being splashed.

As Verity went under the water the twins, Davina and Angela pushed the lid on the tank back into place. While they were putting the padlocks in place, Verity touched the bottom and began to float back towards the, now sealed, lid.

Once she was sure that the lid was in place, Amy took a run up and vaulted onto the top of the tank. It took her a few moments compose herself into a reclining with one hand resting on the crystal ball. “Curtains, ladies!” she called.

The waitresses bent down to lift the curtain that would surround the escape attempt. Once all the participants were hidden by the curtain from all sides, Amy began to count. When she reached ten, the voice that spoke that number was not hers, but Verity's. The curtain fell, to show that Verity was now reclined on top of the lid alone outside the box.

The audience applauded. They doubled their applause when they noticed that box was full of people, but the water had disappeared.

The magician dismounted the box. “I have one final thing to auction, then I'll let these lovely people out. So what am I bid for an evening of my services as a magician.”

The bidding quickly reached three times what she usually charged. She presented the winner with a card with the magic words 'A free evening with Verity' hastily scribbled on the back. She run to the wings and returned with a set of keys, which used on the padlocks and pulled the lid back.

She helped the participants out of the packed box, and re-presented them to the audience; each being back to the way they were before they had been involved in the magic, with the notable exceptions of Francis, who was still in the snakeskin catsuit and Cheryl who was wearing the wedding dress. Each non-assistant was presented with a card with the words '10% off an evening with Verity'.