Kiss by FeferiAndTheDiamonds on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

A long overdue commission for Moviebuffmel90

Accompanied by a story written by Moviebuffmel90

A Magician’s Secret
By
Morgan Leger

The stagehand poked his head into the dressing room. “You’re on in five minutes, sir!”

With weary eyes, Shade just sat there. The lamps in his room were not enough to lighten his mood. His room was big enough for a small party. He was the only in there along with posters of past acts. Highlights included “THE SPIKED BED,” “THE BLOODSTAINED BUZZSAW,” and most famous was “BURIED ALIVE.”

However, he was not the only in all of them. No matter where he was, she was always there. Turquoise colored hair that matched her eyes, white fur with ice blue stripes and always gave a look of confidence. And wrapped around her neck was a silver locket in the shape of a heart. Oh, how much he missed her, his…angelfish…

“Did you hear me?” coughed the stagehand.

Finally giving his attention, Shade faced the impatient character with a sour frown. “I heard you the first time. Now, bug off! I hate to be disturbed at this hour.”

Griping a glass cup of water, he tossed it and the shattering shards missed the stagehand’s head. His widened eyes noticed the quivering lip of Shade’s face. He figured it was his cue to let him be until the act.

Once he closed the door, Shade turned back to the gallery of posters. He was still lost in his thought. No matter where he looked, she couldn’t help but see her. It was all that was on his mind. Especially, after that moment when-

“What the hell is going on here? I turn my back on you for 15 minutes and I get news for Jerry that you tried to assassinate him with a glass of water.”

It was the theater manager, W.F. Aries. Shade turned around to find the boss dressed in his usual attire. A long winter overcoat, purple suit and matching jacket, along with an orange vest and golden cufflinks he claimed were crafted from his father’s golden teeth.

“I can’t help it, my old friend,” the weary magician said. “It has been exactly one year since-”

“I know,” Aries replied. “And it has been one year since you performed here. Could you at least give some respect to my workers?”

“It’s just…she was everything to me. Gekko was more than a magician’s assistant. You might as well say that I was the performer and she was the planner. Every trick she crafted, I was game to play…expect one….”

Aries lowered his head and gave a soft sigh. “Ah yes…the Devil’s Bathtub…”

At the instance of his words, Shade observed the year old poster on his desk. The image showed a red skinned devil dipping the magician into a tank of water. While in the tank, the magician in the illustration was wrapped in chains and dressed in a strait jacket. Next to that was her…arms held out in display…

“If only it was me, instead of her,” Shade sighed. “But, no…she wanted a turn…”

“Well, she did really well with the bullet trick…” Aries added.

Shade shook his head. “This was different. The last time I ever saw her was when she went into the tank wrapped in all of that…I draped a black cloth over the tank and concentrated…My hope was to transport her out of the tank…How you ponder? I can’t say. It’s a magician’s secret…and by the time I removed the cloth, all that was left in the tank was chains and the strait jacket…One year to this day, I never found her….”

“And what of your intentions to pull this act?”

With a deep sigh, Shade replied softly, “It’s our anniversary.” Perched on his middle finger was a golden ring. Ever since he said “I do” to her, he never took it off. It was all he had left of her.

“Look, if you don’t want to go through with it-“

“No!” Shade growled. “I must…In her honor.”

Without protest, the illusionist grabbed the nearest robe and placed it on. He walked out of the dressing room barefoot and moved to the side of the stage. A piano was playing “A Bicycle Built for Two” as Lucy Craven belted the tune on stage. She was never flat, nor was she perfect. On the other hand, that lass was well in tune for the drunks in the back row to join in. Shade didn’t sing along. He didn’t want his concentration to break.

After the applause erupted, Aries walked out and waved his hand in the air for a moment of silence. “And now, we come to the moment you have all been waiting for. It has been one whole year since that tragic performance cost so much for him. Tonight, he plans to rectify what was lost in memory and honor…”

That was the signal. At the grim notes of the orchestra, a glass tank full of water was wheeled out onto stage. Tons of ice swirled around in the tank, but didn’t spill out.
Aries continued his introduction. “I have before you a tank full of ice cold water. Cold enough to almost be straight from the Atlantic. Only those with a true warm sense of courage are either foolish or brave enough to endure The Devil’s Bathtub!”

The audience began to murmur in fear. They never thought they would see the day this act would be attempted again. Even Harry Houdini wouldn’t be crazy enough to try such an act. However, only one person was…

At the pounding drumbeat, Shade slowly walked out on stage and dropped the bathrobe he was wearing. All he had on him now was his black trousers and the suspenders holding them. Once he stood by the tank, a group of stagehands walked out, carrying a layer of danger for the act.

The tightest strait jacket was forced onto him with Shade’s arms tied behind his back. Two more stagehands wrapped his body in the heaviest chains anyone could imagine. Two locks where set in on the front, but one held down in the back.
Knowing there was no turning back, Aries slowly reached out of his front pocket the only saving element. “This key you see before you…is the only thing that can undo these locks.” Without a smile, he turned to the glass chamber of ice and water. Not even blinking, he tossed the small key into the tiny sea, much to the gasp of the audience.

“Wait!” Shade cried out. “Before I go in to my possible death…I want to raise the stakes a bit more. I know you have seem illusionist search for these things in the light…so, I will try and search for this key in the dark.”

On cue, a stagehand tired a black blindfold around Shade’s eyes. All that Shade could see was darkness now. Aside from the continuing gasps of the audience, the heat from the fires on the stage was all he could feel. Behind him was the cold mist from the tank wrapping around his neck.

Aries gulped, “Now…we all guarantee and hope for our friend’s safety. As you know, one year ago, his lovely assistant Gekko attempted this same danger and was tragically lost. Without any help from us or the audience, we shall see if Shade can survive.”

With some guidance from the stage hands, Shade slowly walked up the ladder behind the tank. As the cold sensation from the tank growing closer, he could almost feel his heart beat slower and slower. In every breath, he tried to remember any last memory before the plunge. Instead, he cried to the nervous viewers, “If this is to be my last breath of life, know these last words well. To die…will be an incredible adventure…”

Not sparing a breath, Shade dived into the tank. He couldn’t hear the screams from the audience. He couldn’t see the gasps and opened mouths watching on with fright.
Blindfold on tight, Shade could feel the icy cold water wrapped around him. Bubbles escaping from his mouth, a loud slam was heard from above. It meant the stagehands closed the tank. There was no way out, except for his only chance. The metal key hidden among the floating ice chips.

Sparing no time, Shade lifted his shoulders up and tried to dislocate them. It was his only chance to try and loose one of his arms. Even if he attempted it, the cold temperature in the tank was getting to him. Every freezing second was starting to chill his heart. Struggling around, all he could do now was bang his back against the tank’s glass. There had to be a way to break the glass and get out.

There was no other way. Hope was lost. All he could do now was sit at the bottom of the tank and wait. He felt almost every bubble escape from his breath. The end was almost close to his lips. But on the last burst of air, Shade did feel something.
A warm feeling that touched his lips. He felt his mouth fill with air and he slowly accepted it. Within the kiss, Shade could feel oxygen enter into his lungs again. A pair of warm hands untied the blindfold revealing his savior at last.

Her turquoise eyes that glowed in the waters matched the hair on her head. Her fur was white, save for some blue markings on her face and arms. She was dressed in a black leotard with a black suit jacket and stockings covering her legs. Her face returned a loving smile to him. It was Gekko, his angelfish.

There was no response of words he could say. If anything were to slip from his lips, all air would be lost. Instead, the only thing Shade could do for her was smile back. A warm welcome smile that was missed.

With no time to spare, he watched the feline swim about and grab the silver key from the floor. She unlocked all the heavy padlocks and slipped the chains that gripped his body. This last part she didn’t need to do for him. Shade popped his left shoulder and moved his dislocated arm out of the strait jacket’s neck hole. He slowly untied the knots behind him and removed the jacket off. He was finally free.

Rewarding him long at last, Gekko removed the silver locket around her neck and placed it on him. The silver heart now dangled from Shade’s neck. Missing her dearly, the illusionist placed a hand on her heart. It was beating steadily for him. With much joy in their sight, they locked lips and only thought of themselves amidst the escaping bubbles…
CRASH!

Once the glass was broken, a gush of water and ice flooded onto the stage. A good bulk of the lit candles in the front stage got hit. Some of the musicians and patrons in the front row were soaked up to their ankles.

In a gasp for breath, Shade slowly stood on his knees and arms. He coughed for air while water vomited from his lungs. Seeing the shards of glass on the floor, Shade slowly stood up. The chains and strait jacket were gone.

Everyone focused away from the water running and saw the marvelous sight. Their fellow illusionist was alive and well. With joy ringing through the stage, everyone applauded and cheered on at the wonderful act.

Shade, however, was not celebrating. He looked frantically around the stage to see where she was. “Ge-Gekk-Gekko? Gekko?”

The curtains slowly closed. The stage hand, Jerry, tossed the ax aside and ran right over to the confused magician. “You alright, sir? I kept telling the boss to shatter the tank earlier, but he saw you were getting free. He had this hunch you would make it out and-”

“Did you see her?” Shade demanded. “Was she in there?”

Jerry blinked. “Her?”

“My assistant! She was in there!”

The stage hand shook his head. “Nah, sir. I was watching you from the side. All I saw was you and a bunch of ice water in the tank.”

Shade started to huff in anger. “This has to be a joke! I swear, she was in there! She helped me get loose! She helped me, I tell you! She helped me!”

Hours passed and all was silent. The damaged cage was set behind the rest of the contraptions rubble. The audience went home happy, not knowing the drama afterwards that pursued. Aries sat in the dressing room, now all torn and slashed. He was slowly applying stitches to his cut cheek.

Delivering a soft knock at the door, Jerry poked his head in. “Will you be ok, sir? I must say, that Shade fellow gave you quite a fight.”

Aries sighed while trying to finish the stitches. He was constantly heating the needle up by candle light. “I don’t know what got into him. He just kept babbling on like a lunatic. And when I tried to calm him down, he attacked me.”

“Well, that’s unlike him,” Jerry replied. “Maybe the cold just got to him. Or perhaps, you should have tried to talk him out of doing the act in the first place.”

After finishing the final stitch, Aries sighed, “He wanted to. One year ago tonight, his assistant Gekko died in that very tank. I did all I could to convince him otherwise, but he wouldn’t let up. The least I could do was pay for the hospital bill by means of charity. Oh, well…we’ll pay the damages from his salary.”

“Or, we could try and hawk this off?” Jerry suggested while holding a silver locket in his hands. One that had a heart on it. Aries spotted it and looked immediately to a nearby poster. It was of Shade’s assistant who was wearing that same locket.

“Where did you get that?”

Jerry shrugged. “It fell off him during the scuffle. I guess he had it on him as some form of good luck charm.”

Aries shook his head. “No…his neck was bare when he entered the tank. I saw him…Quick! Check to see if there’s anything inside!”

Gently, Jerry opened it up to find a small piece of paper inside. Curiosity fueling, Aries took the note and unfolded it. Scribbled on it were the words:

“Happy Anniversary,
From your Angelfish…”