The show had been going great. An amateur magician was performing with the help of is lovely, leggy, blonde assistant. The assistant brought out a box that was covered with black cloth.

"I will now require the assistance of a volunteer from the audience. I'm sending my assistant out to select one." The magician said.

The assistant picked out a young lady from the fifth row. She was almost 20 years old, 5'6" tall, had blue eyes, and was wearing a yellow t-shirt, blue jeans, and had on a pair of white flip flops. She had her strawberry-blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail. The audience applauded as both the assistant and volunteer walked on stage.

"What is your name?" Asked the magician.  "Na... Natalie." The young volunteer replied nervously.

Natalie was clearly nervous. She had always had stage fright, and was known for being shy. Standing up in front of people was not her thing.

"Thank you for agreeing to volunteer for this, Natalie." He replied.

"It's time to reveal the next trick." He said.

The magician pulled off the cloth, and handed it to his assistant. Underneath the cloth was a box with a sign behind it that said "SAWING A LADY IN HALF." This made Natalie even more nervous.

"Before we continue, Natalie, I'm gonna need you to sign this." He said.

He handed Natalie a clipboard with a fake waiver. This got a laugh out of the audience and a nervous laugh out of Natalie. She signed it, and handed it back to the magician, who handed it to his assistant.

"Please lie down in this box, Natalie." The magician said.

Natalie climbed in the box, and laid down. The magician placed a board under her lower legs, and closed the hinged foot stock. He closed the lids of the box and placed another stock around her neck. He was then handed an electric jig saw, which he turned on, and used to saw through the box. He then placed a metal blade, and moved it from side to side in the box before removing it. He then lifted the lower half the box to prove that Natalie had seemingly been sawn in half.

The audience applauded.

He then moved the box around, and moved the sign back and forth to further prove it. He then lowered the lower half back in place, removed the neck stock, opened the lids and the foot stock, and removed the board under her lower legs. He gave Natalie a hand, and helped her out of the box.

"Let's hear it for Natalie!" The magician said.

Natalie took a bow and went back to her seat to a round of applause.

Later that night, she did an online search and found out that the illusion was called "audience dismember." She searched further and soon found out about natural body magic or NBM. She had been fascinated by magic since she was a little girl, but this opened a whole new world to her.

The end