No Such Thing As Magic, Right?

There’s no such thing as real magic, right? At least that’s what so many people believe. Everything we see on the stage or on T.V. is nothing but smoke and mirrors. But there are some rare exceptions where even the most stubborn of doubters would second-guess this so-called “fact”.

One of the main examples of this is the highly popular and talented magician Marcus Samuel. For two years he had been considered one of the greatest, if not the most, talented magician of his time. From card tricks to impossible escape artistry to even doing the incredible of making the entire Statue of Liberty disappear. Even the best debunking experts could only guess how all of his magical feats were done.

Among the mysteries about Samuel are rumors about his assistants, and how he would never have the same assistant for every long. Somehow he managed to burn through assistants throughout the years. A few months or so would go by before a new assistant appeared, and the previous one was never heard from again. There was no evidence to suspect foul play or sexual harassment, and all Mr. Samuel would say on the matter involved the same story: that he fired them or they quit. Everyone was bound by a non-disclosure agreement. Many choose to overlook the matter, but others not so much.

While performing in San Diego four weeks ago, Marcus was on the hunt for another new assistant. He would be honest and say how all he needed was someone to stand and look pretty while helping him look good. To his luck he was approached by a beautiful girl named Amanda Berks.

Amanda was only twenty-seven years old, Marcus being thirty-six now. She had long blonde hair and soft brown eyes. She was practically the picture-perfect example of a magician’s assistant. But that wasn’t to say she was like all the other girls Mr. Samuel had hired. The truth is that Amanda was an investigative journalist on a personal mission to find out what happened to all of Marcus’ assistants. Yet this was turning into one of her toughest cases.

Amanda was no stranger to working undercover. She made sure to keep herself well hidden in case Marcus tried to do any background searches, even using the alias “Maggie Page” to be hired for the assistant job. Yet during the time with Marcus she had not found anything. Marcus always dodged the subject by giving the same excuses he’d given the public - something Amanda wasn’t satisfied with.

They both toured for a while, “Maggie” always doing what she needed for Marcus and being the beautiful assistant he needed. Eventually the tour made it's way back to Marcus’ hometown of Red Bank, New Jersey. Marcus explained that his tours would include a hometown performance for the people who’d helped get his career started. Marcus’ home was one of the larger mansions in town. He explained it had been in his family for many generations.

They both carried luggage and equipment from the huge touring van they’d driven, while “Maggie” kept probing. “Hard to believe the famous Marcus Samuel started as a small town street magician.” She smirked.

Marcus chuckled as he opened the door, “Don’t most of the greats start out that way?” With a final turn he said “Got it!” before pushing the door open with his arms full of baggage.

Both of them hurried in and dropped everything on the floor of the main room. They took a moment to catch their breath before laughing a little.

Amanda/Maggie leaned against the entry, “This is why you should hire more assistants.”

He looked back and said, “What? And pay for more hotel rooms?”

They shared another laugh before he said “Come on. We need to get everything in before getting ready for tonight.” As he walked back to the van he explained “The homecoming performance is tonight at the theater.”

She looked at him and asked, “And when were you going to tell me?”

Without looking back he said “Actually right about now, in fact.” He then looked back and gave her a look before asking “That a problem?”

She huffed before making her way back to the van. “Only that I wish I’d known earlier. You realize I need to shower and get dressed, right?”

He stopped and looked back, “Good point. Tell you what, go ahead and get yourself ready. I’ll handle the rest.”

With a questionable look she asked, “Really? You’re okay with that?”

Ordinarily Marcus would have the hired help, Amanda included, doing all the heavy lifting while he would get himself together before a show. It wasn’t exactly often that he would say he would do it himself.

Marcus lead her back towards the house while saying, “Yeah, really. Go ahead. Nothing I can’t deal with.” As they came back into the house he said, “The bathroom’s up and on the right, second door. The towels are in the cabinet next to the shower.”

He led her to the stairs and gave her a quick tap on the bottom before walking back to the van. She looked back and gave him a cross look for having touched her ass but said nothing of it. If anything she was too distracted by how odd he’d acted just then. Still she had to keep this up, anything to find a way of incriminating Marcus for all those missing assistants.

With no other choice she walked upstairs and to the bathroom, looking into each of the other rooms as she did. Nothing out of the ordinary. She was also checking for any hidden cameras Marcus might have had installed. With nothing unusual found, like the rest of her investigation, Amanda sighed before getting the shower ready.

Within the hour Amanda was dressing herself up for the performance. Using the room Marcus gave her for privacy, Amanda was dressed and ready, and putting on the finishing touches of makeup and doing her hair.

The costume she wore was what you’d expect of a Magician’s Assistant : a white bassiere that carefully exposed the top of her chest and cleavage, a white bowtie around her neck, a black tailed coat buttoned at the bottom that exposed her brassiere, wide-mesh fishnet stockings, black panty bottom and black high heels. This was topped with glossy red lipstick and smoky eye shadow and blonde hair flowing over her shoulders. "Maggie" was ready for another performance, and hands-on investigation of Marcus’ secrets.

As she came down the steps she saw that there was a door open in the foyer, one she’d barely noticed right across from the front door under the staircase. She could hear someone inside, and realized it likely lead to the basement because of the footsteps of someone coming up the stairs. She retreated back up the stairs a few steps and waited before seeing Marcus emerge from the door. Without being seen she watched as he turned and locked the door behind him, pocketing the key right afterwards.

Marcus called “Maggie? You ready yet?”

She sprung to action and started walking down the stairs and acting as if she’d seen nothing.

Seeing her he nodded and said “Looking good as always, babe.”

She rolled her eyes as she reached the bottom before commenting “I keep telling you not to call me that.”

He gave a quick “Sorry” before saying “Look, I need to run into town for a bit. Got to say hi to a few old friends and pick up a few things for tonight.” As he said this he was funbling with the keys to the van and getting his coat while making sure he looked good. “You okay waiting here for a bit? You can help yourself to anything in the kitchen while I’m gone.”

At first Amanda wanted to question where he was going, but she remembered the locked door leading downstairs. If he was gone for a while, that would give her the chance to investigate what he was hiding down there, possibly what she needed to incriminate him. She nodded and said “Sure, I’ll wait. Just take your time.”

He nodded and hurried off.

Amanda watched as he got in and drove off. She waited until he was out of sight before turning to the door leading to the basement. Now was the time to do some real investigation. Amanda ran back upstairs and searched through her bag before finding a set of lock-picks she’d used on prior investigations, hoping they would work on getting the door open.

When she returned she was lucky enough that on the second try managed to undo the lock. The basement now open and exposed for her to dig around in. Given how dark it was, Amanda was careful when walking down the steps, especially while still in heels. It became darker as she went further down. She held her hand out in front of her as she guided herself onward. Eventually she felt a string that she pulled to turn on the light. The entire room was now lit up for her to see.

This basement was smaller than she thought, yet big enough to hold an old couch and a large wardrobe in it. There was a small window in the back of the room that was covered, and a few boxes of old things piled all around. The thing that did stick out however was the large standing mirror that was between the couch and the wardrobe.

Walking closer, Amanda saw the mirror's wooden frame had carvings that looked like letters and words of some ancient language. It made the mirror seem really old, yet the glass was clean. In fact there wasn’t any dust on it at all, she discovered by sliding a finger across the surface to confirm.

As she looked loser at the mirror she felt odd, as if something wasn’t right. She kept looking at the quality of the glass and her reflection, putting her hand against it. She had a feeling of being being pulled toward it. For a moment she admired her costume, seeing how she looked really good as a stage magician’s assistant. Then something unexpected happened.

Amanda’s reflection lifted it's other hand towards the hand she held against the mirror. Amanda realized she wasn’t doing that. The reflection was moving on its own. She even felt the contact of the fingers of the hand in the reflection before withdrawing her hand with a scared gasp. She took a step back and saw the reflection was standing differently than she was.

“What the hell is this?” she said. “This…can’t be real.”

She was even more shocked when the reflection asked “Why can it not be?” with her own voice as well.

Amanda was utterly baffled and stuttered, “Who….what are you?”

The reflection smiled and said “Who else could I be? I’m you, Amanda.” Then the reflection said, “If I wasn’t, How could I know about your first dance at the prom with Howard Grayson? When you mother and father died just after you graduated college? How you work hard to gain the truth for your newspaper? How you fooled Marcus into thinking your name is Maggie Page? And how you are desperately trying to find the truth about those women who went missing?”

Amanda was stunned into silence. There was no way Marcus could’ve known all that. And if this was a trick, there is no way any stranger would have known either. There was something else about her reflection, or whatever this was. And Amanda was almost frightened to know. She took a small step forward and asked “You….you know what happened?”

The reflection nodded before saying “I can show you. All you have to do is accept the truth.”

As Amanda took a step closer, the reflection took a step closer, and another, then literally walked out of mirror itself. It passed through the glass and stood there before Amanda. And neither Amanda nor the reflection were shown in the mirror at all - only the basement as it appeared.

Amanda recoiled and took a step back.

The reflection reached out and grabbed her wrist, pulling Amanda forward as the reflection moved closer until it wrapped its other hand around Amanda's waist. Her reflection gave her a shush noise before whispering in her ear “Don’t be afraid. Everything will be alright. You just have to accept it.”

Amanda whispered “Accept what?”

The reflection said flatly, “The truth….” Before turning and kissing Amanda.

Amanda's eyes went wide at the odd sensation. She wasn’t just kissing another woman, but kissing herself? But for some reason she began to feel a dizzy sensation come over her, as if any question or concern or desire to flee or fight left her mind. Instead she just accepted this as normal and kissed back.

The kiss became more intense as their tongues pushed between each other's lips. The reflection’s hand slid down and pressed its fingers under Amanda’s ass. She could feel the fingers teasing at her crotch from behind. Amanda stopped kissing and moaned a little, allowing the reflection to start kissing up and down her neck as she exposed it. The reflection kissed along Amanda's collarbone while it's hands worked their magic on Amanda’s body, the one still rubbing her ass while the other began to unbutton the jacket before cupping her breast over the brassiere.

The reflection pulled off Amanda’s black jacket, and used both hands to squeeze at her breasts in the white brassiere. Amanda moaned with delight and briefly noticed the reflection’s eyes change from brown like hers, to golden, like a cat. But Amanda could not bring herself to stop or try to pull away. She closed her eyes as she felt the brassiere pulled down to her waist and her breasts bared, as the reflection began licking and sucking slowly at her nipples. It trailed its tongue around her nipples before completely enclosing them with its lips and sucking firmly.

The reflection trailed its lips back up Amanda's neck and kissed her again as it lead her backwards to the couch in the room. Gently the reflection pushed until Amanda sat back on the couch. The reflection then began to caress and feel her legs, moving from her hips down to her ankles and all the way up to her thighs, carefully rubbing her stocking covered skin as she did.

The feeling was so erotic that Amanda found herself squeezing her own breasts and rubbing her nipples. Amanda could now see the reflection’s skin glisten like the scales on a snake. Another aspect that Amanda didn't seem to care enough about,was  the odd sensation mixed with the pleasure she was feeling win over her commonsense. The reflection moved its hands from Amanda's thighs to her hips and then over the black panty bottom of her costume. Amanda’s head tossed back as the reflection rubbed her mound through the satin fabric and moved its thumbs down to push the material against her womanhood, adding to the sensation. She could feel herself growing warmer and getting a little wet at this point.

After enough of this preparation, the reflection began pulling off Amanda’s bottoms, sliding them down her legs and even sliding her high heels off in the process as well. Then the reflection moved it's hands back up to Amanda's knees, and spread her legs wide. With nothing but the fishnet stockings covering her crotch, the reflection leaned down and used a fingernail to make a hole which it then ripped wide enough to expose Amanda’s naked pussy.

The reflection wasted no time after that before shoving its tongue inside Amanda. She moaned loudly with pleasure at how it felt. Her hand went to the reflection’s head and held it as she felt it's tongue push between her labia and then penetrate her further, a bit more than anyone else could.  Her toes curled and her head went back as she moaned louder and louder. The tongue went so deep, it almost felt like a cock, yet she knew it was the reflection’s tongue somehow pushing further and further into her.

Amanda couldn’t hold back anymore and, in one final gasp of delight, climaxed. She arched her back as her pussy clenched and she squirted on the reflection's mouth and chin. By the time the climax diminished Amanda felt far too exhausted to move. Literally. It felt like even the smallest movement was too much for her, all her muscles going limb and numb from the experience.

The reflection lifted its head and, much to Amanda’s shock, it did have a very large tongue. And the reflection used it to lick Amanda's juices off it's face. Then it smiled a devilish smile before leaning in and kissing her. The long tongue pushing past her own and almost went down her throat.

Withdrawing the long tongue, the reflection stood and Amanda could now see her hair begin to change, becoming long and dark instead of blonde like hers. This changed along with the sudden growth of two small horns on her head. Amanda starting to realize what she’s just lain with. But she couldn’t move. Something had happened, something caused by this demon that had done the same trick of wooing her into submission.

The creature laughed before cradling Amanda and picking her up into it's arms, holding her like a damsel in distress from a horror movie. It hissed, “Now you’ve learned one truth. Time to discover another my lovely.”

The demon began to carry Amanda towards the mirror. She was not able to do anything but give small mumbles of protest. There was nothing she could do. Amanda was being taken. With each step closer towards the mirror she began to accept that she would not be returning, and realizing what must have happened to the other women.

As they reached the glass, Amanda felt herself crossing an energetic threshhold and entering into some other world within the mirror. The only question that raced through her head was simply, Why?

Marcus returned an hour after he’d left. By the time he entered the house he could see the basement door was open. He had a worried look on his face as he rushed over and called below for Amanda.

When there came no answer he felt the need to walk down and check for himself. The lights were out as he’d left it, but when he turned them on he could see signs that Amanda had been there. Her costume jacket and shoes and brassiere and bottoms were discarded on the ground. All of them. Seeing this he shook his head before kneeling down to pick them up, his back to the mirror where his reflection looked back at him when he wasn’t.

As it stepped out of the mirror, his reflection quickly changed into the demonic female creature. She slowly crept up on Marcus while he was still gathering up the clothing before he finally turned and saw her.

He jumped a little before saying “Dammit, Lilith! You know I hate when you do that.”

The demon made a coy chuckle before saying “Come now, Marcus. I thought you delight in surprising people.”

Marcus only shook his head before looking at the clothing in his arms. “I really hate to lose another one so soon. How did she even get down here? I locked the door and I thought Maggie didn’t even see.”

“Then you’re more of a fool then when you first found me, Marcus.” Lilith hissed. “Her real name was Amanda. And she wasn’t just trying to be you assistant, she was trying to find out what happened to all the others. And now I’ve given her what she wanted.”

Marcus sighed and said “Dammit, I should’ve known better. Maybe she deserved it then.”

Lilith hissed angrily at him, making Marcus jump a little more, before she said “Careful what you say, human! I rather liked this one. It’ll be a long time before you find one as…..delicious as her.” She chuckled to herself before saying “Now why don’t you run along. I believe this little girl is enough to suffice for letting you keep your magic a while longer. Just be sure to have the next one ready.”

Marcus only nodded before making his way back to the staircase, as Lilith walked back towards the mirror.

She stopped and called “Oh, and Marcus. How does that expression go again? Oh yes: Knock them dead.”

Marcus shuttered a little while Lilith only laughed her way back into the mirror.

As he readied for his performance, now without an assistant, Marcus reflected on the deal he’s struck with the demonic creature in the mirror and how many lives were lost because of it. Yet he felt that the payoff of real magical abilities outgrew the price. As he drove to the theater he began to think of where the next best place would be to pick up a new assistant, one that would please both himself and Lilith when he was done.

The End