Michael picked up the basket containing Abby and Clare’s decapitated heads, and put it back onto the cart.
”Now that that’s all sorted, send in the next volunteer!” He proclaimed.
A woman with dirty blonde hair walked in. She was wearing a bluish mini dress, skin tone stockings, and matching heels, and her hair flowed down and around her shoulders.
“Welcome, your name is?” He asked.
“I’m Paige,” she answered.
“Well, Paige, I hope you haven’t been too discouraged by what happened to our first two volunteers,” Michael said as he gestured toward the basket. “As you can see, they aren’t in the most ideal of shapes.”
“I… think I’ll be fine,” Paige replied. “I’m a big girl; I can handle anything!”
“I like your spirit,” Michael remarked. He then picked up the big sack of heads. “Shall we begin your challenge?” he said as he opened the sack for Paige.
Although undaunted by the prospect of being beheaded, Paige seemed reluctant in getting her hand near the contents of the sack. Eventually, she pointed at one sack, and Michael plucked it out. Putting the big sack back on the cart, he placed the chosen sack mouth end up, ready to reveal whose head it contained.
“Paige, you’ve chosen…” Michael began, pulling down the sack down and around the head inside. “Rachel!”
Rachel’s short brunette hair stood out prominently. Her eyes were closed, and a white cloth served as a cleave gag which kept her mouth slightly open. Apart from the blood stains in the gag, her face was quite clean. Michael raised Rachel’s head from its sack, showing it off to the audience. Despite a little blood dripping from her neck, it was remarkably clean as well.
“Okay, Paige, here you go,” Michael said as he came over to Paige, handing her Rachel’s head.
“Uh... thanks,” she replied.
Paige awkwardly handled Rachel’s head, shifting it from one hand to another, and vigorously shaking her free hand of any blood that got on it. Eventually, she got to Rachel’s neck wound and found the paper she needed to retrieve. With much panic and with her eyes closed, she slowly managed to pull out the paper.
“Euugggh, finally, I got it!” Paige exclaimed, with a hint of disgust in her voice.
“What challenge did you get?” Michael asked.
“Oh, uh, I got ‘DUEL’?” As she read the piece of paper, she almost forgot that it was soaked in blood, and she had been holding it for a while. She dropped it immediately upon realizing it.
“You got the DUEL challenge!” Michael exclaimed.
“Duel? Does that mean I have to fight someone?” asked Paige.
“Well, not necessarily, for our purposes at least, it means you will have to compete against someone,” explained Michael. “Simply put, you’ll be competing against the next volunteer in her challenge.”
“Send in the next volunteer!”
A black-haired woman walked onto the stage. Her hair was in a braided ponytail, and she was sporting a beige long-sleeved crop top, a matching short skirt, and a pair of knee boots.
“All right, Jessica, it appears you’re going to face off against Paige here, so you can keep your head,” Michael said. “Given the fates of the first two volunteers and the fact that you’re up against someone, I wouldn’t blame you if you were somewhat discouraged.”
“Oh, no, I’m not at all discouraged,” Jessica rebutted. “Frankly, I’m kind of excited. I love your shows, and I’ve been wanting to participate in a trick or two.”
“I’m glad you enjoy our shows,” he responded. “However, regardless of your enthusiasm, I am obligated to reiterate that this isn’t a simple audience participation—this is the real deal. If you fail this challenge, you’re going to lose your head, and it’s going to hurt.”
“I don’t mind,” she replied. “I’m not wasting this opportunity.”
“Very well,” said Michael, picking up the sack of heads, “if you’ve made up your mind, choose a head, and let us finally begin this challenge.”
Jessica, averting her gaze, touched a sack, and Michael pulled it out. He placed it on the cart and quickly revealed its content.
“Jessica, you’ve chosen… Athena!”
Athena’s expressionless face was accompanied by a ring gag that kept her mouth agape. Her long blonde hair was a bit of a mess, save for her bangs. They combine into a single curl that looked more like a single helix really and go off to the side. Dried blood had dripped down to her chin.
Michael raised Athena’s head up for the audience to see. He then passed it on to Jessica, who wasted no time getting the paper from Athena’s neck.
“What does it read, Jessica?” probed Michael.
“It, uh, says ‘KNIFE’.” Jessica replied.
“You got the KNIFE challenge!” he triumphantly proclaimed. “Well, both of you get the challenge. Jessica, Athena’s head, please.”
Jessica handed back Athena’s head to Michael, who placed it back on the cart.
“The Knife challenge would have had Jessica testing her calm against a bunch of knives being thrown at her,” Michael explained. Jessica visibly gulped at the prospect of being thrown a knife at. “However, since Paige got the Duel challenge, they must engage in something else instead—involving knives, of course” he continued. “Before I explain everything, any questions so far, ladies?”
“None,” said Page.
“Nope,” said Jessica.
“Good, good, now, let’s get the challenge set up.”
A male stagehand appeared holding two buckets, each filled to the brim with knives; Michael repositioned Leia’s legs and the cart further back; and Paige and Jessica took their positions in the middle of the stage. Michael adjusted them to be about twelve feet apart and facing each other. Paige was on the left, and Jessica was on the right.
“All right, I think I can now formally address everyone about the specifics of this challenge,” Michael said. “Let me explain.”
“This is the Duel challenge. The Duel challenge pits you against another volunteer to fight for your head, using a two-person variation of the latter’s would-be challenge. Take note, in a Duel challenge, only one person will lose and, subsequently, lose their head. This means that the other person is guaranteed to come out victorious.”
At the prospect of a guaranteed winner, the audience became a collection of oohs and wows. Paige and Jessica looked at each other and at the buckets of knives the stagehand put down by his feet.
“In this case, Paige got the Duel challenge, and she must face off against Jessica in a Knife challenge. The modified Knife challenge goes as follows. Each volunteer has an unlimited number of knives that they must throw at each other.”
“What!?” Paige and Jessica exclaimed in unison.
“Now, now, there’s no need to be alarmed,” Michael said, producing a knife out of thin air. “These knives are magic knives. No matter how much force you put behind them, they will not hurt.” He pointed the knife into his arm and stabbed. He did not react, but the knife seemed to sink into his arm, stopping at the handle. “If the blade touches you, the blade disappears into you, and the handle will stick to you.” He pulled out the handle, the blade reappearing behind it. “If the handle hits you, however, it will bounce of harmlessly.”
Michael put the knife between his hands, each end of the knife touching one of his palms, and he pressed his hands together. The knife disappeared.
“Each knife has a hit detector, which our system backstage automatically tallies. Each hit is worth one point. To win this challenge, you must hit your opponent with more knives than she does to you, all within one minute. Any questions?”
The volunteers shook their heads.
“All right, Simon, please hand each of them a bucket,” instructed Michael. He then instructed more stagehands to bring out some fake walls, positioning them about a foot behind each volunteer. The timer from the previous challenge was also brought out, set to one minute.
“Don’t worry about the walls, ladies,” Michael said. “They’re just hear to keep our staff offstage from being hit by stray knives.”
Once all that was set up, Michael addressed the volunteers, “Are you ladies ready?”
The two women readied themselves.
“The Knife Duel challenge starts… now!” Michael retreated to the cart to let the ladies duke it out.
1:00… 00:59... 0:58…
Paige and Jessica opened fire at each other. Paige put her bucket of knives behind her, grabbing from them one by one. Her throws were slow in between. Meanwhile, Jessica did the same with her bucket, but instead of one by one, she opted to carry a few knives in one hand and throw with the other, letting her move and dodge more easily. This netted here easier hits.
“It looks like Jessica has the early lead!” Michael commented. Leia’s legs seem to be indifferent to the action around her.
0:47… 0:46… 0:45…
Seeing how better Jessica’s strategy was, Paige decided to copy her. However, she turned her back while collecting knives in her hand, which gave Jessica a few free hits.
“Can’t turn around like that!” shouted Jessica, reloading herself.
Paige just grunted in response.
0:33… 0:32… 0:31…
“Thirty seconds left, ladies!” Michael announced. “Looks like they’re both about evenly paced now, but Paige still has more handles on her,” he remarked.
0:24… 0:23… 0:22…
With their paces about the same, Paige and Jessica reload their hands at about the same time. However, Jessica thought of something clever.
“Hey, cheap shot!” Paige yelled at Jessica. Since they reload at the same time, Jessica thought to get free hits by instead of getting knives, she immediately threw them at Paige.
“Gotta keep your guard up, dude!” Jessica said with a smirk.
In exchange for the free hits, Jessica took longer to reload. Paige didn’t get any free hits on her, though.
0:12… 0:11… 0:10…
“Ten! Nine! Eight!” Michael began counting down.
“Seven! Six!” The audience counted along.
“Five!”
“Four!” Jessica suddenly tripped. Paige wasted no time getting free hits.
“Three!” Jessica got up again.
“Two!”
“One!”
“And that’s time!” Michael announced. Paige and Jessica were panting, spent from a minute of running around throwing knives. Each woman had quite a number of handles stuck on their bodies.
“Come over to the middle, ladies,” Michael said. “While the boys fix up the stage, let’s inspect the damage.”
Michael brought the cart and Leia’s legs back to their original spot. The two women stood beside him downstage. All three of them faced the audience. Many stagehands came in, removing the walls and the picking up any knives on the floor. A stagehand refitted the timer to a score display, showing 0-0.
“Hmm, judging by the new… accessories on our volunteers here, I think it’s quite apparent who won, but let’s go to the official tally,” said Michael.
After a short moment, the score display updated. It showed 17-28.
“Let me just confirm that the scores correspond to the side which the volunteer resided…” Michael said. Two stagehands came out, each with a bucket, and plucked off all the handles on the two volunteers. They signaled a thumbs up to a third stagehand offstage, who made a thumbs up to Michael. They then disappeared back offstage.
“All right, it’s official. Jessica, you won the challenge!” Michael proclaimed. The audience clapped and cheered, while Jessica herself was a little speechless. Paige didn’t look so joyful either.
“Holy moly,” said Jessica, “I knew it was kinda close, but wow, those free hits actually saved me.”
“Indeed, they did,” Michael repeated. He went over to the cart and grabbed Athena’s head. From his pocket, he produced a white cloth and proceed to wipe off all the blood on Athena.
“Ah, all spick and span, well, relatively speaking,” Michael remarked. “Congratulations, Jessica, you’ve won Athena’s head.” Holding Athena’s head in both hands, he presented it to Jessica.
“Thanks, I’ll be sure to take care of her!” Jessica happily took it, and she and Michael shook hands. He leaned in closer and whispered something to her.
“Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Jessica!” Michael clapped and saw her off. The audience applauded as Jessica waved back and walked offstage. Paige begrudgingly clapped along.
“Well, now that that’s done, Paige, how are you feeling?” Michael asked.
“I’m disappointed that I didn’t get the win,” Paige answered. “I got to hand it to her; she strategized on the fly and beat me good.”
Michael gently patted her on the back. “Don’t feel too bad,” he said. “In terms of suddenly putting you in a knife throwing showdown, I’d say you did pretty well.”
“Thanks, I guess,” Paige said.
“However, you did still lose the challenge,” stated Michael. “Therefore, that means you will also lose your head.” Paige visibly gulped.
On cue, a square platform was wheeled in. On it was a set of semi-circular steel braces, positioned near the middle. Marking the middle of that was a wooden upright, positioned nearer to the edge, with its own pair of steel cuffs attached at the top on either side.
“After you, Paige,” Michael invited. “No backing out now.”
Paige, wearing a nervous smile, reluctantly kneeled in front of the post, her legs a bit apart and her knees a little open. Her ankles were first locked into the braces, before Michael instructed her to sit down on her legs, pulling her dress’s skirt out before doing so. Her wrists were then secured into the upright’s cuffs. He rotated the platform so a front corner was facing the audience at an angle.
“Paige, I need you to slowly lean forward as far as you can.” Paige nodded and leaned forward until her wrists met their cuffs’ resistance. Her body was angled about 40 degrees to the platform.
“All right, that should do,” Michael said. “All nice and tight in there, Paige?”
“Yeah, apart from my shoulders and tugging on my arms, I can’t really move much,” Paige remarked. “I think my legs are starting to cramp, though.”
“That means I should hurry on with the beheading,” Michael reasoned. He produced a white cloth from his pocket and went behind Paige.
Paige began to speak, “By all means, take—ugh!” Her thought was interrupted by Michael, who used the cloth as a cleave gag. He tightly tied off the cloth behind her neck, under her hair.
“LUDE!” Paige exclaimed, looking annoyed at Michael. With the gag in her mouth, her speech was a bit distorted.
“All right, ladies and gentlemen,” Michael addressed the audience. “Paige lost her challenge, so it follows that she must now lose her head.”
“Nuh-uh! Nuh!” Paige shook her head.
“Since she lost a knife challenge, I think it would be fitting to also cut off her head with a knife.” Michael produced a special knife from his coat. It was way bigger than the knives used earlier, and it had a wooden handle and a guard. Paige’s eyes went wide.
“I had this knife custom made; it’s more of a sword, really,” Michael chuckled, “but I think it’ll do the job just as well. Are you ready, Paige?”
Paige visibly gulped again and put her head down.
“I think I’ll take that as a ‘yes’.” Michael positioned himself beside her, perpendicularly, to get a good angle.
“All right, Paige, I need you to lean forward again like earlier, and I also need you to keep your head straight,” Michael instructed, “well, at least until you lose it.”
This didn’t comfort Paige, eliciting a whimper as she followed his directions. Michael also moved her hair, making sure no strand was in the way of her neck.
“Okay, I’m aiming right in the middle, so that means you won’t be able to talk later,” Michael explained. Paige whimpered again.
“On the count of three,”
“one,” Michael lined up the knife in the middle of her neck.
“two,” he did a practice swing, making sure the arc was straight.
“and three!” Paige closed her eyes and clenched her fists as Michael swung with all his might.
Tensile forces pushed Paige’s head slightly forward as Michael’s knife cut clean through the middle of her neck. With a thud, her head landed nearly a foot in front of her, a few inches away from the edge of the platform, facing away from the audience. Her body jerked once before blood began to pour from its neck stump onto the platform, wetting her stockings. Her head’s neck stump also oozed blood, drenching some of her hair in it. Her body remained still, heaving in breath ever so slowly. The audience was stunned into silence.
“That went better than expected,” said Michael, breaking the silence, “but before we check on Paige, I think we should bring back Rachel first.”
After returning his custom knife back into his coat, Michael went over to the cart and picked up Rachel’s head. He cradled her head in his arms, doing bouncing motions as if he were actually holding a baby. He continued this as he slowly turned around. With his back fully turned, something seems to have appeared behind Michael’s legs. Spinning back around, Michael’s movements slowed down to more of a dance, as it was revealed that he was no longer alone. In his embrace was a woman, wearing a long-sleeved bright-colored turtleneck sweater, black pants, and black shoes.
“Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Rachel!” Michael announced as they transitioned to a sideways hug, hands on their waists and heads slightly leaning toward each other. The audience roared in applause. Rachel took of her cleave gag, and holding hands, they both did a bow.
“All right, Rachel, you know what to do.”
Smiling, Rachel went over to Paige, whose wounds had stopped bleeding, though with the occasional dripping here and there. She picked up Paige’s head by her hair and faced her to the audience, and then to Michael.
“How are you doing, Paige?” Michael prodded her. Paige’s head was indeed still alive; Michael’s query having snapped her out of her post-decapitation trance. Her eyes told feelings of pain and distress, her face wincing every so often. Her body had begun to move again, her arms twitching, trying to bend her elbows, and her hands clenching and unclenching. She was trying to find even an ounce of relief from the pain.
“All right, Rachel, take her away,” ordered Michael.
Rachel obliged, putting Paige’s head back down onto her platform, but upright this time. Paige tried to shake her head, but only her body’s neck stump twisted. Doing so made her face wince once more. Rachel sat down on the platform, carefully avoiding the pool of blood, and tied Paige’s hair into a bun, even though half of it was coated in blood now. She then unfolded the cloth that was her cleave gag and put it over Paige’s face. It was not that big, but it was big enough to cover Paige’s head from her upper lip upwards. The only thing Paige could do to protest was to rattle her cuffs.
Rachel made sure to tie the cloth neatly around Paige’s head, making sure that her features were somewhat defined through the cloth in front and keeping all the knots at the back. With that done, she picked up Paige’s head and threw it over to Michael, who promptly caught it no problem. She then stood up and, holding on to the upright, began pulling Paige’s platform offstage.
“Ladies and gentlemen, let’s give another hand to Paige and Rachel!” Michael invited. The audience once again applauded as Rachel and Paige’s body made their exit. Paige’s body continued to struggle, while her head was moving its mouth in Michael’s hands as he put her head to sleep and placed it into the basket along with Abby and Clare’s motionless heads.