"Of course I don't believe you can do magic!" Lisa exclaimed. She stared at Tim as though trying to tell if he was serious. "It's all just done with mirrors and stuff - I've seen the exposure programs!".
Tim looked at his friend Mark. "You're right, she doesn't believe me." Mark was going out with Lisa, and an old friend of Tim.
The three of them were sitting by the pool at Mark's large beach house, having just had a dip and were drying off in the sun.
"I guess we'll have to convince her." Mark smiled at the thought, looking at Lisa's skimpy, strapless bikini top and imagining her in one of Tim's props.
"You'll have to trust me." Tim stated.
"I trust Mark, and if he trusts you that's fine." she replied.
"Then follow me!". Tim headed indoors.
"You sure this is going to be OK?" Lisa asked Mark anxiously.
"No problem. I've seen Tim perform - it'll be great!"
They followed Tim inside and upstairs into a large well-lit and airy room. White partitions screened one end of the room.
Tim disappeared behind the screens and returned pushing a long table. "OK Lisa, jump up here." he told her. Lisa, looking somewhat apprehensive, sat on the table. She noticed several manacle-like restraints, and two sets of handles on the sides of the table.
"So, what are you going to do?" she asked, mockingly, "Saw me in half, I guess?"
"Something like that." Tim answered. "Now, lie down, head up this end, and let us lock you in.". Lisa looked at Mark, who nodded. She lay down.
Lisa lay on the cold metal table as Mark and Tim manacled her down, Mark closing manacles around her ankles, and Tim first closing a collar over her neck, then guiding her arms so they were "above" her head on the table, and closing the restraints around them.
Lisa realised she was breathing harder and told herself to calm down. She reasoned that the charade would have to end soon and the boys would unchain her. Once again she sort out Mark's eyes. He grinned at her, his excitement at having her chained to a table in a skimpy swimsuit clear. She shivered involuntarily under his gaze.
Feeling she should reestablish her authority, Lisa spoke up. "Why don't we make this more interesting?" she asked.
"How?" Tim asked.
"Let's have a bet - if you guys can't convince me that magic is real you both spend a day as my personal servants."
"And if we can?" Mark asked.
"In that impossible event," Lisa answered, feeling more confident as she saw the worried looks on the boys' faces, "I'll do something for you for a day - cook or clean or whatever."
"Two days." Mark stated, "After all, there's only one of you!"
"All right." Lisa agreed. She watched Mark's grin broaden, and started to feel less confident again.
Tim and Mark left her and went behind the partitions. She moved her arms and legs and confirmed that she really was firmly secured to the table.
The boys returned. Mark carrying a large box, and Tim pushing a small covered tray.
"Ah, the famous magic box!" she mocked. Mark ignored her and carefully placed the box over her. It fitted around her legs about 8" below her bikini pants, and finished about 2" below her neck, leaving her bare shoulders visible.
Tim removed the cloth covering his tray, revealing a rack of wood-handled steel blades. "Any last requests?" he asked.
Lisa shivered again, looking at the 3'-long blades. Tim pulled one out of the rack and held it up, hitting it to demonstrate its' solidity.
"Notice the razor sharp cutting edge, and the fact that it's at a 30 degree angle to the perpendicular." Mark spoke, almost pedantically.
Lisa was breathing hard, trying to convince herself that nothing was really going to happen, and that her defenseless body wasn't really going to be meeting that blade. She felt a feeling almost like arousal as she watched Tim place the blade gently into a slot in her box, just above her bikini pants.
"Ready?" Tim asked. Lisa nodded wordlessly.
As Lisa watched with painfully wide eyes, Tim pushed the blade smoothly down through the box.
"How did that feel?" Mark asked her.
"Fine." she answered. "A bit tickly, but nothing else." She began to feel confident again.
Tim picked up a second blade and quickly slid it down next to the first. He then picked up another pair, and to her surprise, slid them into a slot just above her bikini top and below her arms. She giggled as the tickling sensations returned.
The fifth and sixth blades Tim inserted just below her top, and the seventh and eighth just below her pants.
"Now, if things are as they appear, you are currently in six pieces." Tim explained. "Your head,", he tapped her shoulder, "your upper torso," he tapped between the first set of blades, "your tummy,", tapping between the second set, "your lower torso,", tapping between the lower set of blades, "and your left and right legs."
"Of course I am." Lisa replied. "That's why I didn't feel a thing!"
Tim frowned in mock exasperation. "I can see we're going to have to try harder." He walked to the side of the box and undid several clasps. "Mark, give me a hand here?".
Mark nodded and took hold of the handles on either side of her hips, while Tim did the same to the box on either side of her breasts.
Lisa suddenly realised what was about to happen, and let out a low, shivery moan as the two men gently lifted the boxes containing her hips and breasts from the table, leaving an empty wire framework behind.
"How do you explain this, then?" Mark asked her. She simply stared at him.
The men placed their boxes on the smaller rack where she could clearly see them.
"It's some sort of trick." Lisa said, desperately. Tim shook his head and wheeled out a tall mirror, in which Lisa could see her table.
From below the box Lisa's legs and feet were still visible, and above the box her arms, shoulders and head. Tim undid and removed the cover from her waist, revealing it to be still present (and rising and falling with her breathing). Between, however, there was just empty space.
"Oh my God!" Lisa exclaimed. She gasped again as Tim removed the covers from first her top and then her bottom sections. "Oh God!" she exclaimed again as she watched her breasts rise and fall with each breath.
"I guess she's a magic believer now?" Tim asked Mark.
"I guess so." Mark replied.
Lisa nodded, too stunned to talk.
Tim replaced the covers and the two men put Lisa's hips and top back into position and removed the blades. Mark lifted the box of Lisa, leaving her once again manacled to the table.
The two men stared at her body briefly, as she examined herself in the mirror. Her body was unmarked where the blades had so recently been.
Tim and Mark unmanacled her and she sat up.
"I hope you enjoyed that." Mark told her. She looked questioningly at him. "After all, we do have you for two whole days now - and I think we'll be spending them in here!"
Lisa shivered with a strange mix of emotions at the thought, and the two men began to tidy up and prepare for her next "illusion"...
To be continued?