houdini

He groped for the wire.

When he was six, he'd tried to make a pencil disappear with a rubber band. It panicked and flew into his thumb instead. It took a week before his body expelled the lead, and a year before the rod-shaped crater closed up.

He shivered a bit as the wire slid out his pant-leg.

_Come on now. Thirty seconds._

The wire and pick and him, they were a team.

_Come on, we can do this._ He felt it tense up nervously. _We've done this before,_ he offered. The compartment was silent but for the water.

The handcuffs snapped open with a dull click.

_Good boy._

_One minute._ He wondered if anyone would hear if he screamed. _Or do anything other than applaud and move on._

He reached for the door handle and pulled.

_Jammed._

_All this magic bullshit_, he thought, like the time he locked himself in a room and had to wait till his parents got home, _it wasn't worth the five seconds of attention_. The only ones who were there for him were his tools.

The door seemed to understand, and gave.