Young Writers Society

“And now for my final trick...I will make someone disappear!” declared Merlin the Mystic, “But first I need a volunteer.”

I watched as a sea of hands shot up into the air like rockets. It was surprising how many sensible people could be fooled by these dime-a-dozen conmen. Beside me Mandy’s hand rose with the rest of them. I rolled my eyes. For a girl who claimed to get straight A’s on her report card she could be pretty gullible, especially when it came to these magic shows.

“What are you doing? You know you’re not gonna get picked, right? He has a plant in the audience and he’s going to pick her,” I said as I watched Merlin sweep his eyes over the crowd presumably looking for his assistant.

“How do you know?” she asked defensively.

“Because it’s what they all do.”

“No they don’t,” Mandy argued raising her hand higher and waving it.

“Yes they do and this,” I said as I mimicked her action,“won’t help you.”

Mandy slump into her chair, defeated. I felt kind of bad for the kid but she needed to learn the ways of the world someday. And I think that these lessons should be passed down from one sister to another instead of spread cruelly on the school yard. I remember when I was “taught” that magic isn’t real (ok maybe it was more clobbered into me but you get the point) and I sure would appreciated a reality check before reality “checked” me.

“Lisa, Lisa, Lisa.”

“What is it now?” I moaned.

“Lisa he picked me! He picked me!” Mandy exclaimed as she went up to join the enigmatic man.

“What!?”

Well this certainly not going to help her overactive imagination. I think his name should be Merlin the Maddening instead of Merlin the Magnificent. It would sure suit him better; he is defiantly making me mad. Does he realize what kind of monster he has created? He probably doesn’t as he won’t be the one dealing with it. Merlin the Maddening began his speech about how he was going to make the young dame disappear…blah, blah, blah. He then ushered her into a small wooden box that was painted to look like some kind of enchanted machine. Oh this’ll be good, Mandy is afraid of small spaces. To my astonishment she still stepped into the container. She was a little jittered but her bravery was commendable. He flicked his wand and spun the box around. Oh no, not only is Mandy claustrophobic but she also gets motion sick. Hopefully he has already made her “disappear”. He opened the contraption and voila no more Mandy. The audience gasped and burst into an uproar of applause. Jeepers, don’t they realize that she’s in a secret panel? I mean, I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist to figure it out. After waiting for the noise to die down the magician closed the front hatch of the box.

“And now I will make her reappear,” he announced as he waved his wand and spun the box around a second time.

BZZZZZZZZZZ!! I looked down at my phone to see a message from my boyfriend Andy; finally something interesting. I began to respond: Haha, these magic shows r so boring! The audience just gasped at Mandy’s reappearance. It’s like she DIDN’T reappear or something…

“This young child seems to be an even greater magician than I but no one can beat Merlin the Magnificent!”

Haha stupid magician can’t even work out his own… WAIT! Did he just say that Mandy was a better magician than he is? What’s going on? I looked up to find Merlin standing in the middle of the stage trying to control the frantic spectators.

“Where is Mandy? Where is my sister? What have you done with her?” I screamed as I ran up on stage.

Two men appeared and held me back. I kicked and yelled at them before crumpling to a pile on the ground. Oh god what has happened? What have I done? The world was collapsing around me. Tears welled up in my eyes drowning me. I gasped for air. My body went numb and then the whole world went black.