Sonya steps into the center of a ring, looking around. The spotlight on her makes it hard, but she can see enough to realize the surroundings are painfully familiar. This is her stage, in her circusâŚOr a damned good replica. Honestly she doesnât care, the sight is enough to comfort her, and she flies into her normal routine with a smile and a bow. Time for one last show. The greatest show on earth.
Except this show is like none other. Sonyaâs tricks, which usually come to mind as naturally as breathing are faltering. She drops her playing cards and they swarm around her, slicing into her skin and clothes. She pays it no mind and continues to smile, trying to keep a brave face on. Sheâs gotta do this, for them. Itâs hard to tell with the spotlight but it almost looks like sheâs smiling through tears.
She moves on from the cards, and tries to pull a bouquet of paper flowers out of her gloves, but the flowers catch alight, and she drops them in a panic, stepping back from the burning mess. She quickly gives another bow to the imagined audience, apologizing for her failure.
It continues on for a while, each trick she tries failing at her hands in one way or another, until a large box drops behind her with a clang, and robotic sounding booing echoes around her. Sonya eyes the box, recognizing it, and knows what she must do. She walks up to it, and turns to the fake audience one last time and bows. âFor my Final Trick!â She calls out, brushing tears away from her face. âI shall, as most magicians do! Make myself disappear! It is quite a featâŚâ She laughs and gestures at the box, shaking with the effort to keep from sobbing. âIâŚI am sorryâŚâ she says, though whether itâs loud enough to hear is questionable and with a wave, steps into the box.
As soon as the door closes on her, swords, knives, spears, all manner of sharp objects start to pierce the box flying in from all sides. Itâs a deadly, deadly trick, but thereâs no way a Super Highschool Level Magician wouldnât be able to handle it right? It all goes silent as the last sword pierces the boxâŚ.Blood seeping out from the the holes in the box. And then, slowly, painfully slowly the boxâs door swings open. To revealâŚ
That Sonya Ivanov, Super Highschool Level Stage Magician, had failed her final trick, and had been executed.