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Isen took one last glimpse of himself in the mirror as Crow wandered behind him, rummaging around the prop room for something unknown.
“Where are the treats?” he asked at last, seemingly having given up the search.
“You know the rule. Over here, we only do the tricks. Treats are for posers,” said Isen, adding the last touches to his makeup with a small brush.
“Ah.” Crow sat on the old, low sofa near the mannequin, leaning back to get comfortable.
Their cabin was located in a somewhat isolated area. While the boys had opted to spend Halloween with their families, Isen and Crow had decided that it was from here that they would be expecting to receive visitors on this day.
Isen had dressed as a dark wizard, with his black cape, military uniform, and bullet belt, which—admittedly—was not too different from his usual stage attire, minus the bones. He pulled on the black dragon mask, which covered the upper half of his face, and turned to look at Crow, who was dressed in a similar outfit but with a crow-shaped mask on instead.
The first ring came just as he was adjusting his boots.
“Showtime,” said Isen, as he stepped away from the mirror. He went to a nearby model of a large grizzly bear and pulled something out of its hollowed-out belly cavity. He handed the full basket to Crow as he got up off the sofa.
“I thought we weren’t giving out candy,” said Crow, with a small smile.
“I expect a lot of posers tonight,” said Isen, leading the way to the front door.
_
They had decorated their house on the wayside with minimal splendour. It was creepy enough of a place by itself, situated away from other houses, like a witch’s cabin at the edge of a forest. It helped that they had a prop room full of oddities that could be borrowed for this purpose, such as a skeleton which they hung off the branch of a neighbouring tree. They had jack o'lanterns with the traditional, as well as special, blue electric-candles. There were fake spider-webs hanging on the windows, with fake spiders tangled inside. And of course, there were the hosts themselves, whose imposing look by itself, Isen knew, was capable of scaring many a child.
Crow was to hand out the candy, while Isen was going to do the tricks.
He had up his sleeves a variety of mini-illusions which he liked doing as part of his off-stage amusements. On this day, he had decided to try out some of them on the unsuspecting Trick-Or-Treaters.
One of them he called ‘The Feather of Pain and Knife of Pleasure.’ It involved touching someone with a feather, while causing them to feel concentrated pain where it grazed lightly on their skin. By contrast, the knife part involved making thin lines on their skin with the very tip of a sharpened knife, while the participant was wrapped in a pleasurable sensation which made them want more…
Another one, called ‘Face Your Fears,’ involved hypnotizing the participant and projecting disturbing images into their minds through the power of suggestion.
Not exactly your usual ‘family friendly’ bag of magician’s tricks.
Isen knew this, but he didn’t care. If they were going to come to his domain, to his lair, then they should be prepared for what he had to offer. It was optional, after all… And for enduring it to any extent, he gave them an extra special treat: a free ticket to his show.
People came and went without incident. Isen mostly stuck to performing his tricks on teenagers and the older crowd, choosing to spare the younger ones. Not many people took him up on his offer, but the few that did gave him quite a thrill.
_
The night was growing old, and their supplies almost depleted, when Isen said to Crow, “I think that’s all.”
But Crow pointed up the street to their house, where they saw one last visitor strolling towards their porch.
The guy took his time walking up to them, dressed in a winged black-and-silver cape, and a matching Death’s head moth mask. He was slim, tall, and had long blond hair. Crow emptied the last of the remaining candy into the basket he held out, and said “Happy Halloween.”
“Would you like a Trick to go with your Treat?” asked Isen, as the boy was turning to go.
The visitor nodded silently. Isen gestured to a chair opposite the one he was sitting in, and began his routine.
First, he did the sensory trick. The stranger bore it well, his arm extended to take the pain and pleasure both, without squirming. He watched without flinching as Isen’s drew on his skin with his knife, the thin cuts filling with blood, in a way that made Isen wonder where, and what kind of pleasure he felt.
It was only when he got to the hypnotism portion that he was a little thrown off.
The boy, who he guessed was about his age, though he was taller, stared into his eyes, green against steel blue, refusing to shut, but being affected nonetheless by the pendulum motions of his stop watch on a chain.
During his trance state, he said nothing, but his eyes remained open, staring out brightly.
Before he knew it, Isen was there again, in that place where he had been brought during a show he and Crow had attended once, where he himself had been the one being spellbound.
Isen stared with wide eyes, unable to stop the visions, or break the magnetism of the other’s gaze, until Crow came up to them and snapped his fingers in front of their faces, bringing them both back to reality.
The stranger was rubbing his head, while Isen tried to calm his rapid heartbeat with slow breaths.
Crow suggested he go inside, and helped him stand up. He was leading him to the door, supporting him with a hand on his shoulder, and the stranger was about to leave, when he told Crow to stop for a moment. Isen moved his dragon mask aside to take another breath.
He owed him a ticket to his show. But there was something else too…
“You,” he said to the boy, and the stranger turned to listen. “I want to talk to you a moment.”