I Died The Day My Husband’s Girlfriend Did A Magic Trick. Chapter 01
On April Fools’ Day, my husband Caius’s close friend, Josephine, was performing a magic act at a talent show.
She called me onto the stage by name to help her with the box for the sawing-a-person-in-half illusion.
“Meredith, all you have to do is lie down inside. It’ll be over in a second.”
I didn’t want to go, but with Caius and our son, Leo, watching from the audience, I walked onto the stage anyway.
It was only after I lay down inside the box that I realized something was wrong.
The knife wasn’t a prop.
It was real.
I had just opened my mouth to scream when the first blade came down.
Agony tore through me.
Josephine stood beside the box, laughing into the microphone.
“Meredith is such a good actress. It looks so real.”
Laughter rippled through the audience.
Caius’s irritated voice carried from his seat.
“Meredith, stop it. Don’t embarrass yourself.”
The second cut came down, then the third.
Soon, I could barely make a sound.
Blood seeped through the cracks of the box, dripping onto the stage drop by drop.
Someone in the audience remarked, “That fake blood looks so realistic.”
My son Leo sat in the front row, clapping and laughing.
“Mom is acting so well. This is fun!”
Then I heard Caius talking to a friend beside him.
“She’s always like this. Can’t stand seeing Josephine get any attention. She always has to steal the spotlight.”
I looked at them, and all that was left in me was terror.
I wasn’t acting.
I was really going to die.
…
When I became conscious again, I was floating above the stage.
My body was still inside the box. My head was outside of it, my face pale, my forehead slick with sweat.
When Josephine saw I wasn’t moving, her smile faltered for a moment.
But she recovered quickly.
She lifted the microphone.
“Everyone, doesn’t our guest look incredibly convincing?”
“Meredith, come on. Say hello to everyone.”
Of course, I couldn’t move.
Josephine’s expression shifted slightly, but she kept the smile plastered on her face. “Looks like Meredith is a little upset with me.”
Caius and Leo’s expressions immediately darkened.
Sitting in the front row, Caius lowered his voice and hissed, “Meredith, what do you think you’re doing? Get up and cooperate with Josephine.”
“You’ve ruined the whole mood.”
Leo chimed in.
“Mom, get up. Josephine is talking to you.”
I screamed at them, “I’m not angry. I’m dead!”
But no one could hear me.
Josephine made an apologetic gesture to the audience.
“I’m sorry, everyone. Meredith doesn’t seem to want to continue right now. Let’s take a short break and move on to the next act in a little while.”
With that, she called over two stagehands and had them carry the box backstage.
Caius and Leo followed as soon as it was behind the curtain.
The moment Josephine saw Caius, her eyes welled with tears.
“Caius, today was awful. I invited so many friends to see my performance, and now it’s turned into this.”
Caius frowned, his gaze fixed on the box.
“Meredith, did you hear that? Get up and apologize to Josephine. What are you playing at?”
Leo joined in.
“Mom, you ruined Josephine’s performance. Apologize already.”
He punctuated the sentence with a kick to the box.
My corpse shifted slightly inside.
Floating beside them, I tried desperately to explain.
“I’m already dead. Look at me. Please, just look at me.”
Caius stared at the box, and a flicker of unease finally crossed his face.
He hesitated, about to step forward, when Josephine grabbed his arm.
“I know what this is. It’s April Fools’ Day. Meredith must be pretending to be dead to scare me.”
That faint trace of unease vanished from Caius’s face.
He gave a cold laugh.
“Fine. If you want to pretend, I’ll let you.”
Then he told someone to bring over a basket of small, nonvenomous snakes used in another act.
He knew I was terrified of snakes.
A stagehand brought over a large basket filled with tiny, writhing snakes.
Caius held the basket and glared at the box.
“Meredith, this is your biggest fear.”
“If you get up now, I’ll let this go. If you don’t move, I’m pouring them all in.”
I looked at the snakes, my ghostly form trembling with a phantom fear.
“Caius, I’m really dead. Just look at me. Please, just look.”
He still couldn’t hear me.
When I didn’t respond, his anger mounted.
“Fine. Keep pretending.”
He dumped the entire basket of snakes onto the box.
The snakes quickly slithered through the cracks.
They crawled over my face, into my hair, across my body.
The blood inside the box made them writhe even more wildly.
When Caius saw I still wasn’t moving, his voice turned to ice.
“Good. Then you can stay like that.”
With that, he kicked the box again and left with Leo.
I floated there, watching their backs as they walked away.
I’m already dead, Caius.
When are you going to realize that?