I felt the blade press firmly against my neck. It was razor sharp and the pressure was enough to make me swallow involuntarily. My heart skipped a few beats. After a second or two which seemed to last a lifetime the pressure increased and I felt the blade push through my skin and then slide smoothly through the flesh of my neck, parting skin and muscle like they were play dough.

It's hard to describe the sensations. My head was telling me that I was about to feel horrific pain. A part of me really was waiting for the hot sticky sensation of blood escaping as my arteries were severed. Although I knew the magic would keep me safe it was impossible not to think that way. Sure enough there was a pinch, a crushing feeling then a sharp sting as my soft skin yielded. But then it all changed. A deep sensation of well being seemed to radiate out from the edge of the blade which intensified to something more pleasurable with an intense erotic edge. I found myself wishing there were  more blades to come...

                                                                    .............

It had been a most unusual day. The days leading up to the show had been a blur. I had glided through work barely paying attention and spent the evenings on an obsessive beauty routine and practising the make up i had settled on for the show. Each night I would go to bed and fail to sleep. Such a heady cocktail of emotions, filling my head with contradictions.

I was excited. Excited like a kid on Christmas eve. Years of fantasies were coming to fruition. To appear on stage as a magicians assistant. And yet those fantasies and ambitions seemed furtive, dark even. I was secretive about it, there would be no friends in the audience. Somehow I was a little ashamed of my hidden desires. And conflicted. Surely I should dismiss the very idea of a magic show as archaic misogynist nonsense.

After a light breakfast and a couple of coffees I started to get ready . Again this was ridiculous. I didn't have to be at the night club until 6pm! I tried on the outfits, paced around, practised some poses which i thought looked good for helping with the slight of hand portion of the show. But what was driving me crazy was not knowing how the show would end. Lisa had explained she often had no idea what the showcase magic tricks would be and she seemed to have given Matt some sort of carte blanche control over her, and indeed apparently loved the results. 

But I am not Lisa and not knowing what was in store was messing with my inner control freak. And I didn't even want to get my head set off on the direction of why someone who loves order and control fantasised about being locked in a box. 

I arrived at the theatre about an hour early. As I suspected Matt was already there, unpacked and waiting with his soft smile radiating calmness. He was so assured that it didn't seem at all strange to trust him, even with my life. After a few reassuring words he ushered me into a tiny changing room and with a deep breath I got into my first costume.


                                                                ................

The slight of hand section was a bit of a blur . All I had to do was fetch and carry and provide some eye candy, which I enjoyed way more than I would admit. In what seemed like a matter of moments I was taking a bow and dashing back to my little cubicle to swap out of the harley costume. Its replacement was if anything even more revealing. A simple red bikini. So simple to be borderline non existent actually. Just some small triangles of fabric joined with laces which tied at my back, neck and hips. I glanced in the mirror. Somehow the flashes of red seemed to accentuate how much skin I was showing rather than cover much of anything. Deep breath a final check of my hair in the mirror and I dashed back out on stage.

My eyes were drawn immediately to the box taking pride of place in the centre of the stage . The box which no doubt I would soon be occupying. I was almost hypnotised by its simplicity. A plain white finish decorated only with an art deco outline of a curvaceous female on the front. I could hear Matt explaining that he liked to take a classic trick and turn it on its head and that although the audience might think they know how the trick is done by the end of the show they would be utterly convinced that they didn't. But I wasn't really taking it in. 

My initial thought was that a mismade girl illusion was a little tame. One of the easiest of the old classics to see through. But then I remembered that this was very unlikely to be a "normal" mismade. I took a better look as my pulse settled a little. The box was much smaller than normal, it looked like it would be a pretty tight fit for me. Plus it seemed to have five doors rather than four . My inner magic geek leapt for joy. The way the mismade and thin model sawing boxes ignore the reality of female proportions has always bugged me.

Before I knew it Matt had extracted a couple of volunteers from the audience. I still wasn't taking everything in but it seemed they were to ensure everything was above board. They were a couple who I guessed were a similar age to me, the guy clearly worked out and the girl was petite with a blonde bob. 

So it was that I found myself backing into the box. As i had suspected it was as if it had been made to measure. My shoulders and hips brushed the sides and my head was only three or four inches from the top. Matt left the doors open and spun the box around. Its a strange sensation being paraded around. For entertainment. And to be honest for titillation, the magician never saws the ugly guy from accounts. 

As the dimly lit audience returned into view Matt was explaining the usual method for this illusion, and how he intended to demonstrate that that wasn't what we were doing this evening. The next thing I knew the guy, who was actually really attractive, was kneeling in front of me. At a half heard prompting i shuffled my legs a little wider and felt the cold embrace of a metal cuff on each ankle as my feet were shackled into place in the bottom of the box. Matt produced another pair of metal bands, this time a little larger. 

The next sensation was the guys hands running up my legs and up to my thighs, surprisingly close to the scrap of cloth covering my modesty. Just. His hands felt as warm as the metal did cool. My heart was thumping against my chest, so I barely caught the explanation that I could not now slide down inside the box. I wasn't sure I could have anyway. The cool bands fitted tightly around each thigh, each being locked to the side of the box.  The next addition was another pair of manacles trapping each wrist to the side of the box in front of my shoulders. I smiled and wiggled my fingers in a kind of jazz hands way as I was sealed in, trying to look like a confident assistant not an over excited amateur.

Matt's style was un fussy as usual. No awful dancing, pointless padding out of the routine or teeth grating jokes in the patter. I guess he could afford to let the magic do the talking. You really can't see much of the audience from inside a magic box, even before the doors are closed. I was straining to see some audience reaction, craving some evidence that my skimpy outfit and bondage where having an effect. 

And here we had a conflict again. I dress conservatively at work, avoiding any attention based on my looks. So why was it such a thrill to be the object of the crowds attention now? Why was I craving it in fact? I couldn't answer that and anyway my musings were cut short. 

I hadn't been paying attention to Matt. Now the guy was standing in front of the box holding an object which shocked me. I had played about with handcuffs before but this was something I had only seen in pictures. A gag, round and red and in the middle of four straps. I tried to hide my shock and opened wide. A few moments later the red ball was jammed tightly into place held securely by straps going behind my head and over the top, meeting at the back. The finishing touch which I definitely wasn't expecting was a lock holding the harness to the top of the box. I sure could not duck down now. 

As I was revolved around once more I shimmied and wriggled to show I was still there and securely bound. Smiling was rather out of the question but I did feel deliciously helpless. Once I was facing front and centre once more there was an inevitable snap as the first door was closed covering me to just below the knee.My heart was racing now. The second quickly followed  reaching to the top of my thighs, next I was enclosed to my waist and finally my neck. Then it went dark.

In truth the inside of the box wasn't pitch black. From inside it was clear that it was really a tube made of 5 boxes. All the better to dice me into bits within. And each layer let in a chink of light. I panted heavily around the gag, trying to remember the sensation of the blade from my previous time on stage. The thin walls of my enclosure did little to muffle the sounds from the show in reality and I could hear the clang of the metal blades being knocked together. They sure sounded solid and I could hear Matt explain that the blades in this case were definitely the full width of the box . 

It turns out that the sensation from blades depends a lot on which part of you is being divided. The first blade pushed firmly into the front of my long legs, a little below the knee. A pinch of skin then a odd grating sensation of bone being parted. As it exited the back of my calves the sensation become softer and more pleasurable. The second blade was a gentle tickle in comparison, benefiting from the work done by the first.

That second set of blades took me well up my thighs, and was a much much more pleasurable experience. I found myself biting my lip as the initial nip gave way to a wave of erotic stimulation that had me wishing the blade was a couple of inches higher. I felt flush and was glad the box was hiding my reactions. In short it felt bloody amazing!

Set three were lined up with my waist right above my belly button. By now the sensations were quite overwhelming, if  I wasn't locked in the tight fitting box if I might have fallen over. I whimpered as I felt the blade parted my spine easily . By the time this pair were slotted in place with a smooth thud I was kind of wondering what the highest number of blades a girl could take might be before a gentle scrape alerted me to the impending arrival of the first blade at my neck.

I was certainly not in any need of proof that I had been divided into five parts by Matt's four sets of blades. Although I could still feel each part of me in every section I had felt each and every blade and was aware of them now as a presence that is hard to describe, like a weight inside me.

Clearly the audience did not have the benefit of the amazing sensations Matt's magic had generated so needed to be satisfied for themselves that I had indeed been cut into pieces. Nothing can prepare you for the sensation of your head being lifted away from the rest of you. I could feel movement, and that was it. It was slightly dizzy making, a bit like being on a baot in the dark. I could feel my chest moved next, a tell tale jiggle in my unsupported breasts and a sway of the box. I could picture Matt un stacking the sections of box in the time honoured way and wondered in what order the re stack would be. Freed of the need to use the normal method for the illusion I was certain Matt would do something to hammer home the fact impossibility of my situation.

Sure enough a second round of movement followed. And then a draft on my hips, then my feet , tummy then  chest. Finally i blinked a couple of times as the door in front of my face was flipped open leaving me with an odd view of the audience and the back of Matt's ankles. You get a strange view from stage, the bright lights contrasting with the dim audience area but I could see people in the gloom sitting at their booths and tables in the nightclub, clapping, cheering or just staring open mouthed. It was obviously clear from the non typical way the boxes had been rearranged that Matt had done something impossible. With my head in the bottom box there was no way I could be crouching regardless of the extra bonds holding me in place and given my skimpy outfit there was no way the other boxes contained fake body parts.

I was revelling in the attention now, loving how every eye in the house was locked on to me. It was the second thrill of the evening after the pleasure of the blades. I was loving every moment, every admiring glance, smiling around the gag. Wriggling. Waving. Drinking in the applause. 

In hindsight I should have realised that Matt was unlikely to finish the trick in a traditional way. I thought back to Matt's final words when we first talked about the night. "Quinn don't worry, I promise you will be going home in one piece" . Not quite as reassuring as it first sounded looking back. But at the time I was expecting the doors to be closed and my various pieces to be re arranged back to the normal order. 

I was therefore totally confused by the appearance of five more pairs of legs in front of me on stage. Female legs in high heels and seemed stockings. As it dawned on me they were the waitresses from the club I felt my hips being moved once more, then each of the other boxes in turn. As Matt bent down to pick up the box containing my head and move it I finally saw what was going on. The waitresses were dressed in their normal outfits of heels stockings and suspenders, briefs and a corset type top all in black. Each was in front of a small trolley , comprising wheels on slender legs and a waist high platform. And fitted perfectly on each platform was one of the boxes containing a part of me. The fitted perfectly to complete the top of each trolley. There was a click as my head was lowered in place presumably onto the last trolley.

"Ladies and Gentlemen during the interval Quinn will be helping the girls serve drinks... " 

I was so shocked I could barely take it in. Me. Reduced to parts of a trolley to be gawped at. Helpless. Displayed. And then my building excitement fought back the initial anger. Oh god. What was happening to me. How did he think of this stuff ? 

By the time I had calmed down a little I was able to watch Matt take the front and the back off each box to make sure everyone had a great view of my separated, bound and almost naked parts. It was so freaky, shrugging my shoulders for example and seeing the disembodied shoulders mounted on a trolley twenty yards away respond. What was possibly more amazing than the fact i was in pieces was my reaction. I was about as objectified it was possible to be, used as both a humdrum piece of equipment and an object of entertainment. Lust even. I should be appalled. 

But I have to tell you I wasn't. I was loving every minute. The feeling that it was me that had everyone in that room under my spell, rather than Matt. It was me they couldn't take their eyes off. Plus the helplessness was alluring. It was a heady mix. The gag made it worse, or was that better ? When someone did ask if I was ok or if I knew how it was done all I could do is smile or mumble incoherently around the gag. Any attempt to rationalise the situation neatly avoided. Inevitably as the drinks flowed and people got a little braver it wasn't long before people were having a little feel to make sure which ever part nearby was really real. 

By now I was all over the place. The erotic glow from the blades, the excitement of being on display and the effect of the gentle fingers were taking their toll. I wondered if I actually wanted this to end. As the lights dimmed once more I figured I would be wheeled back onto the stage and restored. Once again I was wrong, instead i found myself wheeled into one corner by the stage, all 5 trolleys in a random cluster. I was a bit surprised to find myself annoyed to be out of the spotlight so to speak. What was happening to me? 

"Ladies and Gentlemen during the interval the lovely Kim here confessed she would love to help in a trick" I watched as the blonde who had helped box me came back onto the stage. "Which trick would you like to try ? " I felt a pang of jealousy.

"I know it's silly but I always like the trick where the magician pretends to flatten his assistant in a roller and then replaces her with a cardboard cut out. But you don't have the prop or a picture of me and I don't have a costume........" the blonde blushed as her request tailed off

"We can fix all of that...easy one first, you can borrow Quinn's costume"

I took a few seconds before the words sunk in. Borrow what ?  No way! But by then the pretty blonde had walked over to me moved the trolleys around a little to make space and after loud encouragement from the audience was untying my bikini top! Oh my god, I hadn't agreed to this. I hadn't imagined I would be stripped completely. A few weeks ago I could never have imagined myself wearing such a tiny bikini in the first place . But. I am ashamed to say that I found myself relishing the cheers and wolf whistles. Seconds later the bottoms had followed and she vanished back stage to emerge a few moments later clad in the red outfit.

And so it was I was left on display, bound naked and quite helpless to watch the next trick. First Matt had the girl's sheepish looking friends sign her tummy and back with a marker pen. Then Matt had her lay on an ordinary looking table and with a flourish he covered her with a large black cloth. It settled showing her outline. Matt clicked his fingers and the cloth sort of sank slowly until it became flat on the table as if the girl had vanished. As I suspected, when the cloth was pulled away Kim was indeed gone, apparently replaced with a life size double sided two dimensional representation of the volunteer in the red bikini. I was certain that she had been flattened of course and as Matt held up the paper thin girl to show how perfect the likeness was and confirm the presence of the signatures much of the audience must have wondered too. The look of blissful surprise on the girls face only added to the effect . One of the waitresses brought Matt what looked like a oversized picture frame except that it was see through on both sides . It opened up a bit like a book and I watched as the flattened girl  was fitted into the frame and handed to her bemused boyfriend to huge applause. I suspect I was still jealous, wondering what she could still sense. 

I was wheeled back to the centre of the stage . Matt made short work of restacking  me , in the right order this time then replacing the missing panels. On the way out blades feel different again . A softer less intense but still intoxicating sensation. A sort of afterglow I suppose. The doors were flipped open and my various bonds quickly released and almost without realising it I found myself smiling broadly and taking a bow savouring the crowds reaction and pretty much forgetting my costume was otherwise engaged.

"Ladies and gentlemen the amazing Quinn! And now folks, the last trick of the night .."

I wondered if any one in the audience knew the finale would be at least as much a surprise to me as it was to them. I took a deep breath and smiled confidently, wondering why I didn't have the urge to run and hide. I realised I definitely didn't want the show to end