She vanished just as the year ended.

"She vanished just as the year ended"

She vanished just as the year ended, fireworks were going off, music was playing and the audience where in uproar at the fantastic magic they had witnessed as the clocks had struck midnight. Everyone was oblivious to the magician's confusion as he stood atop the raised stage, looking out over the crowd.

    They would be expecting him to bring her back into the glass box that she had stood not two minutes before; little did they know that the magician was looking at the still-closed trap door beneath the glass box wondering why it was still shut. It should be open, and his assistant should have used it to slip downwards into the hidden covered area under the stage, where the big finale would transpire after all the celebrations had died down.

    Things hadn’t been great between him and his so-called glamourous assistant for quite some time, but he never wished she would disappear completely. Now that would be a bizarre outcome, especially as she had chosen the most important night of his magical career. Performing in front of the royal family had been a dream that he never thought would come to fruition, but here he was, standing on top of a stage looking over the gardens of Buckingham Palace.

    The King and Queen respectfully clapping in the new year, whilst the staff and guests joyfully embrace each other and enjoy the seeing in of a new year. It had never been done before and had been his career's crowning achievement (excuse the pun). He had invested everything he had into the show, practicing every hour under the sun. He had thought that Charmaine was just as excited as he had been, but the fact she had genuinely disappeared had put him in a bit of a kerfuffle.

    The crowd was settling back down, slowly taking their seats again. The panic was rising in his thoughts, he felt sweat running down the side of his face, his hands felt clammy and he couldn’t think clearly. If he couldn’t pull the situation back from the abyss his career was over, he would be laughed at by every other magician. He would be known as the man who failed catastrophically in front of the royal family.

    Now, you might be thinking that to magically make someone disappear is the greatest trick of all time, but you would be mistaken. The punchline of any good disappearance trick is to bring back whatever has gone, or it isn’t magic, you have just hidden something out of the eyes of the audience. The biggest response by anyone watching a magic trick is the punchline, the unexpected. Everyone expects the girl to vanish, but not to then turn up in a different place.

    His only option was distraction, to try and make them forget that the trick hadn’t been finished, that they were still waiting for his punchline on the glamourous assistant disappearing.

    ‘Welcome back your majesty, ladies and gentlemen. Happy New Year’. A big round of applause and cheering rose from the audience in front of him, a tingle went through his whole body, this is why he loved to perform, the accolades, the confirmation of his worth in the world.

    ‘I need someone from the audience to come up on stage for my next trick’. He acted like he was looking around the audience deep in thought, but he knew who he was going to choose.

    ‘How about the big burly security guard standing there’ as he pointed out to the crowd who he was looking at.

     The crowd all clapped and cheered at the idea, but the guard stood there shaking his head. He looked worried at the idea of being taken away from his post, but with a bit of cajoling and persuasion from the crowd he slowly made his way to the stage.

    ‘Hello mate, what's your name?’ he asked once the man was up on the stage.

     ‘Dave’.

     ‘Hello Dave, you're a bit of a bruiser. No wonder his majesty employs you to look after him’. This brought an uproar of laughter from the crowd.

     He couldn’t believe it was working, the crowd seemed to have forgotten about the trick before the chimes of midnight had rung out, maybe he could get away with this after all. But he had an ulterior motive for asking Dave on stage, as they did know each other.

    The magician faced the crowd, his confidence building. ‘I am going to do a card trick with big Dave, it's not your normal card trick, it is a trick that is going to blow your mind’.

    As the crowd muttered between themselves, he leant into Dave’s ear and whispered, ‘Did Charmaine come to you, you were supposed to escort her to the king and queen's stand?’.

    ‘No mate, she never turned up. We were all prepared to sneak her up for the big finale, but nope never saw her’.

    The magician was deep in thought when his subconscious started to pick up noise from the crowd, it started to get louder and louder. He turned around to face them and they were all standing up, shaking hands and booing at him.

    Big Dave leant across to him and said ‘You do realise your microphone is still on?’.

    The penny dropped, and he stood there dumbfounded, planted to the ground, his mouth seemingly stapled closed. The one thing a magician should never do has happened, the secret of his magic had been broadcast to thousands, if not millions of people.

    He saw movement out of the corner of his eye towards the exit, he slowly turned his head to get a better look at what he thought he had seen, but that couldn’t be possible. Standing there, by the exit gate was Charmaine. She was wearing two things, a long jacket that covered her sequined outfit and a big smile. She waved, turned around and left the show.

    Revenge had been served in the most spectacular way.