Jeremy the Magnificent and the Rabbit Crown

He flicked the wand again but the hat remained an empty hat. Jeremy groaned as he started twisting the top off the wand and dumped out the batteries. Giving them a quick glance, he then hesitantly licked the positive side. He twitched and jerked the battery away. Still a charge in there. He gave the wand another shake and there was only the slight noise of the ball bearing inside moving and clicking against the switch. The wand was working so maybe the hat was the issue.

He leaned over and checked the latch on the inside of the hat. It was secure and when he shook the wand, batteries now back inside, the latch opened briefly, yet the trap door inside of the prop hat didn’t open. It had to be stuck. He set the wand down and started to move his fingers along the rim of the trap door, sliding open the latch in the process. He held the hat up as he started to pull on the trap door and was surprised with how easily it sprung open and out slide a small wade of fur.

Jeremy dropped the hat as he caught the little fuzz ball. The magician was surprised as he looked at the bunny. He hadn’t loaded the hat with a live animal. In fact the only thing inside was some playing cards and he looked around the stage to see if any of them had dropped to the floor.

No, just the rabbit in his hands.

Puzzled, he went back over to the hat, scooped it up, and set it back on the table. He looked from it to the rabbit and wondered. The rabbit found itself back in the hat and Jeremy grabbed the wand. With a wave, the rabbit vanished, looking as if it had been sucked down. Jeremy turned the hat over, flipped the wand, and then picked the hat back up. The rabbit had returned.

Looking down at the hat, he decided to try and pry the trap door open again. On the table next to him the rabbit sniffing at the wand and started to try and bite into it. A gentle nudge and the wand rolled, falling off the table, knocking onto the floor, and the slight sound of the ball bearing knocking against the switch clicked.

He tried to get it off him, but the hat pulled against his arm. Up to his arm an observer would say as his entire left arm was sucked into the hat when the hatch opened. Jeremy pulled against the stage but couldn’t find a grip. The pain against his shoulder was agonizing. Then he heard and felt the snap as bones gave way to the suction.

It was over quickly after that, as the hat seemed to work harder at consuming it’s new rabbit.

Jeremy The Magnificent and the Rabbit Crown by Justin Diehl is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.