(455 words. 3 minute read time.)

I once saw a magician disappear on stage and never re-appear. As a private investigator, the magician’s trick piqued my curiosity. After the police were called, I decided to join them and listen in to their questions. The performer, Gordo the Illusionist, wasn’t anywhere to be found. His assistant, Rhyme—who knew the trick inside and out—had no idea where he went.

Everyone looked for him in the theater, but with a little research, I found he had a cabin in the woods nearby. If he did escape, he would likely head there. Still draped in her sequined dress, Rhyme asked to accompany me. She was worried about Gordo. I drove to the cabin, entombed within gnarled trees’ thick branches. My car breached the barrier, and we arrived.

A rustic, wooden cabin with a gray tiled roof sat in a clearing. Rhyme and I broke in and examined the front room. Rhyme suggested we split up, and she would search the other rooms. I noticed a journal on the table, sat down, and leafed through it.

The first part was Gordon’s notes on his tricks. Then, I noticed it turned more personal. Entries on his obsession with a vanishing trick was soon followed by his succumbing to a mysterious virus. Gordon was growing more and more weak. I turned to the final page when Rhyme screamed.

She had picklocked a small room in the cabin’s rear and found, lying on a small cot, Gordo the Magician. Clearly dead for days, his face had a blue tint. I covered my mouth, grabbed Rhyme, and hurried back to the main room. Who was it we saw at his performance?

Back in the main room, a figure appeared before us. Gordo! Dressed in his magician’s garb, he told us we were trapped. His body started to fade and he floated to a window. Pointing outside, I watched the trees bend and lift my car twenty feet about the ground. They wrapped their solid limbs around the cabin. We were trapped.

Gordo laughed, and explained that, as a ghost, he pulled off the greatest of all disappearing acts. With us trapped here, he would make us vanish, too!

Sprinting, Rhyme left the room while Gordo cornered me. She returned with a chainsaw and fired it up. It had no effect on Gordo, but I understood her plan. Rhyme used the tool to cut through our wooden prison. Soon, she had made a small hole, and we darted outside. Rhyme continued to cut through the trees and to our safety.

Yes, Gordo the Illusionist had executed his greatest illusion. Trouble was, it was no illusion at all.

Dice: Detective, Cabin in the Woods, Virus, Chainsaw, Split Up, Ghost, Escape.