Short Stories

The Illusion (rewritten) - Short Story 10

"Finally, after a whole month of waiting! I can't believe it's here!" my younger brother Jeremy squealed as we pulled into a parking lot in front of a theater. We were going to watch Russel Blink, a famous magician and hypnotist. He was doing a Holiday Spectacular show, with holiday-themed tricks. After only a few minutes of sitting inside, the lights dimmed, and a man came onstage.

"Hello, ladies and gentlemen!" he spoke, "welcome to my show! First, I'll begin with a simple trick," he began. He showed us a Thanksgiving turkey, then make it disappear. He continued doing holiday related tricks for about 45 minutes.

"Now, for my last trick, I will need a volunteer," he declared.

"Hmmm..." he thought, "who shall I choose? Aha! How about you, young lady, who doesn't seem very happy to be here." He pointed a finger at me. Jeremy pushed me forward.

"What is your name, young lady?" Russel asked.

"M-my name is R-Rose," I babbled.

"So, Rose, how would you like to be hypnotized?" he challenged. I gulped. I wanted to say no, but I didn't want to look like a chicken in front of the audience.

"O-ok," I stammered.

"Great!" He turned to the viewers, "what should we trick her into think? Something that involves the holiday season." Several screams began at once, but one was louder than the rest.

"Make her think it's snowing inside!" Soon the audience was changing their minds and chanting about snow. Russel nodded in agreement.

"Rose, I want to you look into this spiral." Russel pulled out a spiral began to twirl it.

"This isn't going to work," I muttered but did what he said.

"You are getting very sleepy," he said. "You will go to sleep when I snap my fingers."

Snap! I closed my eyes. I was in a weird state, halfway between sleeping and being fully awake.

"When I snap my fingers again, you will wake up, thinking it's snowing. When I clap my hands, you will go back to normal." I heard Russel's voice say.

Snap! My eyes shot open. All of a sudden, I began to shiver. I felt very cold all of a sudden. Then, for some reason, it felt like it was snowing. I felt dizzy.

"Why it so cold?" I panicked. I looked up at the audience. They weren't panicking. In fact, they were laughing. I was super confused.

Clap! I felt like I had just woken up, after being just half awake. I looked up. The crowd was laughing and applauding. I had just been hypnotized.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Rose!" The audience clapped.

"I hope you enjoyed my show!" he finished, "make sure to come see me again, but until then, happy holidays!"

--

Note:

I'm falling behind on all of this writing, and I'm really sorry. I've been super busy and haven't had much time to write. As an apology gift, I will be publishing TWO stories this week: the regular Friday story and another one sometime before that.

I also feel like I haven't been thanking you guys enough. So here it is: I CANNOT believe this collection has over 100 reads! I know it's not a very small number, but I couldn't believe even getting one read! I am so thankful that my work is getting noticed.

If you have any suggestions, story ideas, or anything that will improve this account, PLEASE PLEASE let me know.

So I decided to rewrite an old story and make it more holiday related since the holidays are fast approaching. I really hope you liked this rewrite, and if you did, please be sure to vote and give me a follow while you're at it.

If you haven't been reading all of these short stories, you really should! You can also read the old version of this story to see the changes that have been made.

That's all I have to say for now. Again, I am sorry that I haven't been updating that much, and thank you all of your reads!

xoxo, Emma