Madeline fidgeted with the cuff of her sweater as she clutched the microphone and ran through her questions for the upcoming interview. She still couldn’t believe she had been sent off to interview Morris the Magnificent, a touring magician who had become controversial recently for adding audience members into his acts, usually beautiful young women, hypnotizing them or involving them in escape acts. However, some of these women would occasionally go missing with the only common link being that they had attended one of his acts. Despite questioning from police and the FBI, there was nothing they could link Morris to the disappearances and he continued on his tour. Now that he had come to town, her boss had tasked her with securing an interview with him.

Dressed in a turtleneck sweater, leather skirt, stockings, and knee high boots, she now patiently stood outside of his hotel suite after knocking. Her cameraman Ken stood beside her with his camera over his shoulder. Finally there were footsteps and the door opened. Morris the Magnificent was a tall man, dressed in a blazer and matching pants that had a galaxy nebula pattern of purple and blues with glitter sparkles that looked like stars. His eyes were sharp and his face was triangular, ending in a goatee. Madeline found herself caught off guard briefly before recovering. “Hello Morris, I’m Madeline from TTV News, we had an interview scheduled for today?”

“Ah yes, please do come in. I’ve been expecting you.”

He stood aside and welcomed them into the room. “Please excuse the mess, preparations and all that.”

Madeline entered and immediately surveyed the room. Morris and Ken seemed to be having a conversation behind her but she didn’t pay much attention as she looked at the piles of costumes, magicians items, some bondage equipment she noted off to the side such as a straitjacket and hood, and then she turned to face the man that was the focus of this interview. “Is there a place we can be comfortable for the duration of the interview/”

“Oh yes.” He said and indicated a couch. “Please, take a seat.”

Madeline got settled and the interview began. It was a pretty standard interview, a lot of questions about his past, rise to fame, his current tour, and then some more pressing questions about the recent controversy and disappearances. “I can assure you, I am assisting the authorities in every way possible to find the missing girls. While they all disappear after attending my show, I can assure you I am in no way linked to the girls.”

Despite his assurances and performance, Madeline had interviewed enough people to notice that his guard had gone up. When she had taken this story, she did some more digging and asked some sources and it revealed some information that the authorities had not released publicly. “So you are saying that despite some eyewitness accounts that some of the girls never left the theatre after your performance, or that one was picked up outside the theatre by someone that is known to be travelling with you instead of her Uber, it is fully a coincidence that these girls are disappearing after your shows and before you leave town?”

He seemed exasperated. “Yes, that is exactly what I am telling you. The girl that was picked up by my associate had won a giveaway prize which included transportation to and from the theatre to her home. I assure you the security tapes will show that she arrived back home safe and sound.”

She pressed him with a few more questions until she could tell he was almost about to storm out of the interview altogether and for the sake of keeping her subject, she pulled back, returning to some of the easier questions. Then he countered with a question of his own. “Miss Madeline, do you believe in magic?”

The question caught her slightly off guard. “I do not.”

“And yet you are here.”

Madeline wasn’t sure where this was going. “I am.”

“Would you like to participate in a demonstration that could make you a believer? I believe I will be able to teach you a lesson.”

Madeline was conflicted. On one hand, she had no interest in any of his magic or anything, on the other hand it could be more insight for her story and so she relented. “Alright, let’s see what you’ve got.”

She set down the microphone as Morris the Magnificent stood and walked over to one of the large cases around the suite. Opening it up, he withdrew a large mass of black that clinked and Madeline realized it was a straitjacket. “Whoa, you said demonstration, you didn’t mention that I was about to be all tied up.”

He looked surprised. “You’ve looked into me enough that you should know all my demonstrations with audience members involve escape  and disappearance acts?”

Madeline hesitated. “Well yes, there has to be some type of trick to it since you’re not even demonstrating it yourself.”

He held up the straitjacket, which was now open and facing her. “I can assure you this is a fully real straitjacket. No tricks or anything involved here.”

She still didn’t believe it but she nodded. “Alright, buckle me in.”

Ken was off to the side still filming and she suspected this was going to be some very interesting footage for the station but she felt a spark of excitement as well as the leather sleeves were drawn up her arms and her hands met the ends of the sleeves, rendering them useless. The rest of the jacket was pulled up onto her torso and buckled behind her back, the straps being pulled tight enough that the leather was tight against her body and made her feel like she had been zipped up into a skintight jacket, which is essentially what had just happened. “Ok now the arms.”

Allowing him to guide her arms into a self hug, the straps on the end of the sleeves were pulled behind her back and strapped tight, trapping her arms against her body. Two final straps, one under her crotch that caused her to yelp when it was pulled tight, forcing her leather skirt up and rubbing in a rather unwelcome way and the other went around her arms on the front, trapping them against her stomach. “There we go, all buckled tight and ready.”

Madeline took a step and struggled against the straitjacket. True to his word, it seemed to be a legitimate straitjacket, keeping her heavily bound and helpless as she strained against the leather. “And now.” He said from behind her. “I will demonstrate true magic to a non-believer.”

“What.” She asked. “You’re going to make this straitjacket disappear?”

“Oh I’ll do one better than that.” His voice had gotten softer and now had a menacing undertone. “I’m going to make you disappear!”

He snapped his fingers and Madeline suddenly felt something around her booted ankles. Looking down, she saw a set of leg irons had now appeared around her ankles with a short chain between them, severely hobbling her as she tried to get away from this crazy magician. “Ken? A little help here?”

Except that her cameraman didn’t move a muscle to help her. Instead, he was still filming but both of his eyes were open and glazed over. “Ah, yes he is under a little bit of a spell. He won’t remember what happened in this room, nor will he be capable of moving on his own for a while.”

Realizing Ken was not going to be helping her anytime soon, she opened her mouth to scream for help and unfortunately that is exactly what Morris was waiting for as he stuffed a white rubber ballgag between her teeth to muffle her shout. Shaking her head back and forth, she tried to prevent him from buckling the strap but he didn’t even need to try. Instead he snapped his fingers and the straps secured themselves under her hair, pulling the ball deep into her mouth. “Wwwa fffmmm fuu” She groaned behind the gag.

Another snap and her booted ankles were drawn together and forced side by side, the manacles were now gone and instead she saw leather straps buckled and padlocked around her ankles, boot tops, knees, and thighs. “Since you’re so curious and snooping around to discover what happened to the girls along my tour, why don’t I give you a firsthand experience?”

Morris cackled as he secured a leash to the collar of her straitjacket and pulled. Faced with the possibility of faceplanting on the ground without her arms to break her fall, Madeline had no choice but to hop after him, struggling to maintain her balance with the heels of her boots and the fact her feet were tied together. He led her over to where a stack of cases that you might see bands use to carry equipment was and shifted one so he could unlatch the lid. With a performer’s flourish, he threw back the lid and Madeline stared in horror at the contents within.

Inside, side by side and bound into tight compact balls, were two young women. Strict bondage in the form of armbinders, leather straps, and full hoods and collars rendered them completely helpless and additional straps secured them into tight ballties, crushing their breasts against their thighs and feet against their butts. From the pitiful moans she could hear from beneath the hoods, both girls were likely heavily gagged as well. One was naked, while the other was clothed in boots, jeans, and a tshirt. Blonde hair was visible peeking out from the bottom of the hood but without seeing the face, Madeline could not identify either woman. “The rumours are indeed true.” He said with a grin. “I do indeed hypnotize the girls that come onstage for my acts, and then they present themselves to me and my crew at a time where no one knows where they have gone and we spirit them away. I keep some of them, I sell others, there’s always plenty of girls. I even cast a spell on them so they no longer need food or water or go to the bathroom. Absolutely perfect for keeping them in tight bondage.”

Madeline felt her knees go weak as she realized how much trouble she was in now. “I gave you two lessons for free today.” He said as he pulled another black leather hood out from another crate. “One, magic is indeed real, you can no longer deny the truth in front of you. Second, never let men tie you up. Especially if you’ve just pressed them in an interview about suspicions and your own research revealing some holes in our operation. You’re just a fool, but a pretty looking fool I suppose.”

With that, he pulled the hood down over her face. There were no holes except for two for her nose, which he lined up with her nostrils before tightening the laces. It made her head feel like it was in a vice as the leather squeezed from all angles and pressed against her face. Unable to see, speak, and her hearing now muffled, Madeline panicked and struggled as much as she could as the laces were tied off. Unfortunately, nothing she did prevented Morris from picking up her bound body and carrying her over to another crate, this one being empty. More straps slithered around her body, curling her into a tight ball and buckled themselves tight enough to indent her flesh. “I hope you learned your lesson.” Morris sneered and closed the lid of the crate. “Goodnight Madeline.”