Trick or Treat

by BluRider

PART 1

Still bearing the scars of having been recently vandalized by neighborhood children, the house had an abandoned, derelict feel to it, despite the lights glowing inside. It glowered darkly up a lightly wooded incline, large black stickers on the windows casting shadows in the shape of beasts... but every frightening Halloween lawn-ornament, ghost silhouette and fake cobweb placed outside it promised just one thing to the eager young minds of trick-or-treaters: that all had been forgiven, and that candy lay within for those kids brave enough to seek it.

Three young boys edged up the darkened driveway, shying away from the touch of eerie screaming statues in the shapes of kids as they all hurried to the door. Once there, lawn ornaments forgotten, each one held out a little sack, banged on the door and yelled out: "Trick or treat!"

Nathaniel made a show of shuffling slowly over, letting his shadow fall across the boys, and ponderously turning the deadlock bolt. The door opened up to reveal the squirming little monsters: a small werewolf, vampire and zombie, each costumed kid attempting a puny roar. Nathaniel's face assumed a mask of abject terror, focusing a little ways behind the startled kids, upon a point in space. Lifting one finger slowly as if pointing, he reached out with his other hand to push a button. The boys began to turn. A dark shape dropped. An ear-splitting scream rent the night. Burning lights lit skull-like eyes. A writhing medusa-head came screaming out of the darkness like a bat right out of hell! Its red skull-eyes blinking, it shook like a thing possessed.

The little boys took to their heels like startled rabbits, tripping and scrambling down the garden path. Their shrieks and whimpers echoed as they fled.

Nathaniel chuckled to himself and chalked up another 'trick'. He hadn't had to give away a treat to even one of these grubby little kids all night. As far as he was concerned, not one of them deserved his chocolate until the little creeps who had destroyed his home's facade had been properly punished.

He was pushing the medusa-head back onto its spring and sliding back the bracket, when he saw them: a small group of girls filtering up the driveway. Their costumes were more cute than scary: an adorable young witch with a short skirt and pointy hat, a blonde little girl dressed in the diaphanous silks of Disney's Princess Jasmine, a taller girl who looked about thirteen years old wearing a cheerleader outfit, and finally a sweet little brunette with piercing green eyes who wore a form-fitting red catsuit with small devil-horns, a tail and pitchfork.

The young man hurried quickly back inside, put on a novelty hat full of fake bloodstains, spiders and snakes, and waited at the door. Their knock came, as expected: "Trick or treat!"

This time, when Nathaniel began his shuffle, the girls knocked on the door again, insistently. He grimaced in annoyance, opening the door, to find them already holding out their bags for him to fill with treats. Undeterred, he started twisting his expression into a look of fear, fake blood encrusted in his features.

"Your garden is very nice, sir, and scary," murmured the blonde Arabian princess in polite confusion, before following his gaze with hers.

"But don't even try the medusa-head trick," the little devil added impishly, her short brown pigtails bouncing as she cast a meaningful glance up into its corner. "We already saw you hiding it there." She grinned, shaking her sack meaningfully. "Now, let's see the treats!"

Nathaniel tossed aside the little remote-activator and frowned at the little girls, who began to giggle back at him.

"I wouldn't look so smug if I were you," hissed the tall young man. He pointed at the little statues of petrified children in his garden, glowering darkly. "Those kids there are the ones who giggled!"

The children only giggled louder. The brunette lowered her bag, arching an eyebrow. "You're not going to scare us away like that, you know," she said. "We aren't babies."

"Yeah," squeaked the tiny princess, with a stern expression. "Those kids aren't real."

Sourly, Nathaniel picked up a large blue bowl of assorted candies. The bags were thrust back up, each child perking up immediately. Then suddenly, he had an idea. It was something he hadn't done for years, but he had rehearsed it many times back in college. Once, he'd thought he might become a professional, except that he had never managed to get much of an effect out of it... but even so, it might be enough to teach some annoying kids a lesson about giggling at him. And anyway, he decided, he could use the practice. Slowly rifling around in the candy-bowl, he tried to remember the sequence he'd tried out so many times before.

Holding a huge, thick candy-bar out before them, the largest in the bowl, just out of reach, Nathaniel coaxed them into a line. "Okay, one by one, that's better." He was left facing the pretty young redhead in the witches' hat, with the short-skirted little outfit that resembled a school uniform. Her eyes were fixed on the big candybar, hoping to claim it for herself.

"Hi there," said Nathaniel, holding out a hand for her to shake. "I'm pleased to meet you."

"Hi," she offered quizzically, taking his hand.

"What are you? A witch?" he asked, turning her hand over and just holding it.

"Yep. I'm a student wi-" she started to reply.

"You want this, little witch?" he snapped, dropping the candy-bar in his left hand down towards her.

"Yes, please, sir!" she said, raising the candy bag in her remaining hand.

Quickly, he asked, "Can you do magic?

"Yes, I can!"

"And you're a student?"

"Yeah!"

"Would you like to answer my magic Halloween quiz, to win the biggest candy bar?"

"Yes, si-"

He held the bar before her eyes. "You know what a medusa is?"

"Uh-huh," the girl replied.

He tilted his head to set the snakes on his hat writhing. "What do you do when you meet a medusa's gaze?" he asked, using the chocolate bar to pull her eyes toward his.

For a moment, she had to think. "Turn to ston-" she began. He dropped the candy from his hand, toward her bag. She moved to catch it. He pulled her off-balance with his other arm. He commanded her to "Sleep!"

Her eyes dropped with the candy-bar. Her body fell forward. Her head drooped. Confusion made her stagger. All within half a second.

The other girls made startled noises as Nathaniel whispered quick, rapid-fire instructions in her ear, holding her up. "As you hang there listening to me, feeling the weight of your body pulling you down, notice how your breathing makes you feel relaxed and fall asleep. Deep, deep asleep, and every moment that passes you fall deeper. Every breath your heavy, tired body takes brings you down deeper and deeper into relaxation. Good girl, and the deeper you go, the better you feel. Good, good girl..."

It was over in seconds, and the other girls gathered around in confusion. "What happened?" one asked suddenly, and soon they were all talking over one another. The little witch didn't move at all, seemingly asleep in Nathaniel's arms.

He grinned, amazed that it had worked. In all the years he'd practiced this, he'd never gotten such a perfect result. Suddenly conscious of her little body pressing against him, he cleared his throat and held her out. She slumped heavily in his arms. "She has looked into my medusa-gaze... and now she has become a statue!" he proclaimed. For the sleeping girl's benefit he whispered a series of instructions in her ear, "Deeper and emptier, just like a plastic doll. Deeper with every breath, an empty and rigid little doll. Rigid and immobile, your limbs like hard plastic. Feeling me arrange your arms and legs as you go deeper and deeper. The deeper you go, the more rigid and immobile you become. The more rigid your body, the better you feel. Deeper and deeper."

Her friends watched as he posed her limbs, whispering in her ear all the while, and the little witch remained frozen in place, completely still. "I told you, this is what happens to kids who giggle," he warned. Picking up the rigid, unmoving little girl by her torso, Nathaniel placed her on his lawn with a small grin. As he withdraw his hands, his fingertips brushed against her shirt, and he felt her nipples through the thin white fabric, hard and rigid like the rest of her. He looked and saw them standing up clearly against her little uniform. Despite himself, he began to feel aroused. Perhaps it was the sexy little fake school uniform that she was wearing, or perhaps it was her nipples straining visibly against it, but the sight of the obedient, rigid little girl standing there perfectly motionless with a blank expression on her face made him feel suddenly short of breath.

"Anna?" called the youngest, the blonde little princess, in an innocent, high-pitched voice. She brushed past Nathaniel, reaching out to shake her friend's shoulder.

In one practiced movement, suddenly filled with confidence, Nathaniel tripped her up, grabbed her hand and inverted it across her eyes, ordering her to "Sleep!" The little Princess Jasmine sank down easily into the grass like a Raggedy Ann doll, going completely under in an instant. He looked down at her little form, amazed. He'd heard that children went under hypnosis much more readily than adults... but to be getting such incredible effects with just instant inductions made his fingertips tingle and the blood rush in his head. He couldn't suppress a sudden grin.

"Wha- how are you doing that?" the taller girl dressed as a cheerleader stammered, and Nathaniel seemed to see for the first time her toned, athletic body, smooth and slender legs, soft, shoulder-length auburn hair, her tight-laced bodice, and the cleft between her round, soft, budding breasts. Intent was all it took. Intent and focus, the example of her friends, and an instant induction that made the beautiful young girl go weak at the knees. She slumped into a trance and fell into a subservient position in the soft green grass. Nathaniel left her there as he advanced upon the little devil who, fascinated despite herself, backed slowly away and avoided looking in his eyes.

"Nuh-uh," she said, "I won't look at your eyes! I'm no- oof!" She squealed in surprise as she backed up against the porch of the house. He caught her in that moment of distraction, clicked his fingers, and said, "Sleep!" She wobbled unsteadily, her eyes opening wide in an attempt to stay awake.

"Good girl, falling deeply asleep," he commanded without missing a beat. "Feel how easy it is to let your eyes stare unblinkingly forward, staring deeply at a point in space as you lose consciousness completely... Going deeper and deeper... Letting your eyes fall slowly shut at your own pace as you listen to my voice, and the sound of my voice and your own breathing makes you more and more relaxed as you feel yourself falling deeper and deeper asleep..." He massaged her little body to relax her as he soothed her with his voice, and let her sink down in his arms into a deep hypnotic trance. Her eyes fell slowly shut as he continued whispering suggestions to relax. As she let go, her body fell into his arms, and he didn't even try to cover the motion any more as he began to run his hands all over her small form. Her warm, softly rising and falling chest felt heavenly beneath touch, sheathed only in a light red spandex as she slept, practically naked in his arms. The devil-girl felt like soft putty as he posed her, and so did her beautiful little friends as he positioned them as statues in his garden. Staring blankly into space, they let him move and manipulate them all he wanted, allowing him to hold and grasp and pull and pose their little bodies until he had got each hypnotized little schoolgirl's pose just right, and left them standing as cute, life-sized statues in his garden.

Nathaniel's heart was pounding wildly, watching the entranced little girls. He was tempted to leave them there, or try commanding them to do something else, or put them completely to sleep and try to strip off all their garments, or to kiss them on the lips... but he knew he couldn't chance it, particularly when their subconscious was convinced that they were playing a Halloween game. He was still out of practice, and if he pushed himself too far too quickly, he might make a mistake and have them come out from under his control. Instead, he told the girls that in a few short minutes, they would awaken all-together, and retain no memory of this adventure. He placed a few of his candies in their bags, and told them to remember nothing except that they'd received some candy and the proprietor was very nice.

At that point, leaving them upon his lawn as living statues, he returned inside his house with many a lingering backwards glance. For the next several minutes he trained his camcorder on the beautiful and blank-eyed little girls upon his lawn, a little amazed even himself when they stood completely motionless for several minutes, as commanded, before one of them began to stir and suddenly they all came out from under his hypnotic spell.

Confused, a little dizzy, and massaging their small limbs, the girls took a quick look inside their candy-sacks, smiled happily at the sweets contained within, and headed back down the small hill together to continue with their rounds. Cheerfully giggling, they suspected nothing. Nathaniel bit his lip, marveling at his power over them... and all the work of a few moments. He knew that he probably could've gotten away with even more without awakening them. They had gone deeper than he'd dared to think was possible. With a bit of practice, he could get even more impressive results. Nervously, he shut off his little camera, and then went looking for his tripod and a shiny old pendulum before returning downstairs. He didn't know how long it would be until the next group of children came up to his house, but as soon as he found it he tucked the little infra-red medusa remote away in his hip pocket. He wouldn't need it next time: he was no longer interested in tricks. Not now that he'd discovered this new treat.

He attached the little pendulum above his doorframe, and with a flick of his fingers set it spinning back and forth.

Perhaps it really was true that magic was at its strongest at Halloween.

If so, he didn't intend to waste the night.