Creepypasta Loquendo - "No se permiten magos"

Plot Summary

The narrator’s hatred of magicians begins with a disastrous eighth-birthday show. A performer’s clumsy finger trick and dropped coin leave the children bored and his father furious. Before his next birthday, the narrator hangs a homemade sign outside: “No magicians allowed.” His mother persuades him to give one more magician a chance.

The new performer, the flamboyantly dressed Mr. Baktu, is nothing like the first. His tricks seem genuinely impossible: he pulls huge animals from his hat, cuts himself into four pieces, and flies around the room scattering candy. For the grand finale, he invites the birthday boy into a mysterious magic box. The boy panics in the darkness, then emerges to applause—and notices a girl in the crowd whom he doesn’t recognize.

That girl, Esmeralda, becomes his closest friend. In their awkward first conversation, he makes the ridiculous claim that his crooked nose came from fighting off bullies. To his surprise, she finds the story brave. They bond over games, anime, and teasing each other about their rival Sega and Nintendo consoles.

Years later, their friendship becomes love. They confess their feelings at the same time on a beach, share a first kiss, and eventually build a life together. The narrator even buys an engagement ring, planning to propose when their finances are steadier.

Then, one rainy afternoon, reality turns grotesque. The sky begins to melt in burning, colorful drops; buildings and the narrator’s car dissolve; and Esmeralda transforms into a horrific mass of flesh. As he embraces her, the two of them seem to merge with the room itself. The narrator is suffocated by the collapsing world—until he suddenly wakes to applause.

He is back at his ninth birthday party, standing beside Mr. Baktu’s magic box. The terrifying life he experienced appears to have vanished, but he is shaken enough to collapse. His mother is alarmed when he asks where Esmeralda is. The magician disappears, and the family later hears that the police have arrested him.

Years afterward, the narrator finds an old report identifying Mr. Baktu as Grant Vincent, who was convicted of abducting and killing a five-year-old girl named Esmeralda Winston. Vincent claimed his magic came from a supernatural pact and that Esmeralda vanished when he tried his unfinished box trick on her. He later died in prison, while Esmeralda’s body was never found. The narrator suspects his experience was more than a hallucination: perhaps he and Esmeralda were thrown into another reality, where they lived a whole life together.

Eventually, he remembers that Esmeralda had also been his childhood companion at the park. She stopped coming after she disappeared, and his mother had known her all along.

The narrator is left grieving the life they shared in that other world, keeping an engagement ring and an empty place in his bed. He tries to move on, holding on to Esmeralda’s advice to persevere—even after getting kicked in the head. His final verdict on magicians remains unchanged: they are still not allowed in his house.

Notable Humor and Reactions

The story’s warmth and comedy come through in the narrator’s deadpan account of the first magician’s terrible act, his annoyance at his mother interrupting SpongeMan, his absurd excuse for his nose injury, and his mock-serious joke about the console rivalry. The humor fades as the story turns toward horror.

Key Characters

• Elias — The narrator, whose childhood birthday experience shapes the story.
• Esmeralda — His childhood friend and great love.
• Mr. Baktu / Grant Vincent — The mysterious magician.
• Elias’s mother — Tries to explain his childhood hatred of magicians and later reacts to his memories.
• Elias’s parents and school friend — Appear during the birthday and early friendship scenes.