Monica took a tentative step into the darkness. She couldn't see or hear a thing. Not since that magician had placed that hat on her head.

There had been a magician performing at the local nightclub she liked to go to and her boyfriend had encouraged her to volunteer.

It was a small stage, so she expected small tricks and it was like that for a while. Flowers appearing and disappearing, coins coming out of her ear. All the standards.

And then the magician placed his top hat on her head. It seemed a little large for her, so she held on to it to keep it steady as he turned her to face the audience.

He then told her to place her hands to her side as he reached up, grabbed the hat, and in one swift motion, pulled it down.

And her world went black.

She could still feel herself teetering in her heels. Usually, she didn't teeter this much, but her balance was off. It was hard to stand. She tried to move her arms for balance, but they were hard to move, like they were squeezed and bound tight against her.

All she could feel was the movement of air across her nylons and the feel of her feet in her heels. She tried to stick her toe out to feel more. Trying to shuffle a bit to get a feel for where she was and what was happening.

She struggled with her arms, her body, now feeling so tight and bound. She tried to push, to gain space, and she felt something move up her legs a bit.

The hat. It had to be the hat. She pushed again and felt it slide up her nylons an inch or two. But her struggling was no use, she couldn't raise it more than that and certainly not enough to release her.

Her feet stumbled against the box that was on stage. She vaguely remembered it, a black wooden box. Knowing it wasn't much larger than she was now.

The magician then lifted the hat, but rather than the hat raising up and releasing her body, her feet left the ground. She kicked them back and forth as the magician held out the hat to the audience, showing off her truncated body. She felt a heel drop, and then another, and then it was just her nylon covered feet kicking back and forth, trying to reach something for stability. Wanting to be put back down.

The magician flipped the box open and lowered the hat and her feet into it. She could feel the edges, kicking against them as he closed the box and attached a padlock, locking her in place.

While Monica knew she was now in the box, she didn't know that box was now locked and the key was being gifted to her boyfriend. And while she continued to kick against the box, she didn't realize that box was now sitting on the table she had sat at only a short while ago.

Her boyfriend placed the pair of heels on top of the box sitting on his table. They wiggled every now and again as his girlfriend kicked her feet against the box, trying to escape that hat and the box. He knew she wouldn't get anywhere. Even if the hat would release her, she was under lock and key until they got home.