Maybe five-foot-five or so.”

“Did he go straight for the deck of cards?” asked Cael, “or did he linger around the shop?”

“He didn’t wait around. In fact, he bought two items from me that day.”

“What was the other?” asked Cael.

Stuart Baggs fell silent for a moment. His eyes darted upwards and to the right. Cael recognized that he was recalling a visual memory.

“Oh my God,” he said.

“What was it?”

“He brought a Golden Box.”

“A what?”

“The box you place around an assistant when you saw them in half.”


16

 

 

One of the major principles of magic was that the magician should never show their audience their secret preparation. To prepare for this trick, he had carved five two-meter long wooden stakes, sharpened at both ends. Even his assistant wasn’t aware of what was coming.

After half an hour, the drugs began to wear off. First she began to shout. Then, when realization of her situation had set in, her screams turned to cries. Her box-coffin hopped along the floor as she tried to escape but there was no way out.

He leaned down to her box and pushed it along the cold stone floor. He felt her kicks against the walls of the box, occasionally making contact with his body. She needed a lot more than that to stop him.

“You’re going to exhibit a fine performance,” said the man. He placed the box at the very center of his theater. “I hope you’re curled up in the right position. The blades are coming.”

In all Indian Basket tricks, the weapons were only shoved into pre-determined areas of the assistant’s box. However, he wasn’t a magician tonight. He was something else entirely. This was no illusion.

He picked up the first stake from the floor. He closed his eyes as he projected it directly through the center of the box.

Deafening screams came from within. The stake had gotten stuck in the middle, likely on the girl’s ribcage. He pushed the stake harder, attempting to penetrate her flesh, bone and muscle. The harder he pushed, the louder she screamed.

Eventually, success. The stake pierced through whatever part of his assistant he had hit and popped out on the other side. Almost instantly, the underside of the box became soaking wet with thick residue. The musty air acquired a copper-like scent.

The second stake came at a 90-degree angle. Through her neck, maybe. Her next cry was only half the volume of her first but this time the stake pierced her flesh without issue.

The third stake came at the opposite angle to the second. This time he felt no resistance until he reached the far-inner side of the box, meaning he had likely pierced her leg or hands.

The last two stakes came at opposing angles, forming a sort of three-dimensional X pattern. Her final resting place jittered as the once-beautiful girl succumbed to the intense pain he had inflicted upon her. She took her last breaths.

Magician’s assistants were usually hired for their beauty and their silence. One had quickly turned into the other.


17

 

 

“Do you have any CCTV of this guy?”

“Nope.