I’m at my little sister’s birthday party right now. Definitely not where I wanted to be when I could have been hanging at the mall with my friends, but to see my sister happy is kinda worth it.

She’s sitting on my lap currently, clapping her hands together for the magician that has only been doing novice tricks so far. He looks at my sister with a gleam in his eyes and asks, “Patricia, this party is all about you! My next trick will feature you, if you’re willing!” He smiles at her and she springs off of my lap and jumps onto the stage, surprising me with how high she can jump without injury.

I zone out for a moment, wondering if I could slip away for a moment to get another bag of crisps. “Emma! Emma!” My sister yells to me from the stage. “Mister man pulled money out of my ear!” She says happily, waving a five-dollar bill around.

She jumps down and plops herself back down on my legs, denying my craving for more snacks. I’d wanted to be the magician for the show, since I’ve been practicing all sorts of tricks since I was little. But noooo, our parents just had to spend another hundred dollars on some sideshow clown that couldn’t even do the card trick right earlier.

I would have at least looked cooler than this dude, who thinks a purple jumpsuit is the best way to alert people that you’re a magician and not an actual clown. “Hey, Pat? Wanna go get some donuts?” I ask her quietly as the magician does a trick with a hanky. 

“Can I have cookies instead?” She asks.

“Yeah, just bring me something.”

“Alright!” She says happily as she runs away. Ah, it feels good to have someone do my bidding. Especially when it's food related.

As she leaves the room, the magician pulls out a large box with wheels. I already know what this one is. “For my next trick, I will saw a person in half! Can I have a volunteer from the audience?” He asks with an odd tone.

A woman happily raises her hand and runs up the stairs to him. I try not to scoff. Doesn’t she know how these tricks work by now? Besides, let one of the kiddies do this trick. They don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes.

He gestures for the woman to get inside the box with a wide smile. She lays down inside of it, closing her eyes and grinning. She’s having the time of her life right now. Lucky her.

He quickly saws down the box, and as he does I notice something: he never put the fake legs in. “Wait! Stop!” I yell as the box fully splits.

“And for my next trick, I will disappear!” He proclaims as he throws a smoke bomb at the floor and runs off. I cough and wave the smoke away.

Gasps and gags were heard from the audience as I climbed on stage and looked at the woman’s lifeless eyes. Blood trickled down onto the floor and stained it, causing me to gag.

I should have never let my parents hire some random man. I watch as Pat skips back into the room, holding the cookies. “What happened?” As she looks at the stage, her eyes widen. “Emma! I wanted to be the person cut in half! I wanted to be the volunteer!”