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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/Jegg33 on 2026-08-15 03:38:44+00:00.

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The title is strange, I know, but I'm hoping a post about it will help me get my feelings out and clear up my head as well.

I'm a bartender at this real fancy joint.

Every day, they have bands, acts, and other interesting performers while people chat about the good old days or what's on the agenda for tomorrow's meeting.

Recently, there has been a man performing known as “Mystical Monte.” He's very quiet offstage, mostly keeping to himself or practicing. Sometimes he'll get a drink to take home with him.

But onstage, the man is an eye-catcher. People love his grandiose and mysterious nature.

No one's ever seen his face, either. He hides it under a happy theater mask and top hat.

I liked him pretty well, especially since he's also helping me get more tips by bringing in more people.

Until recently, he's started to follow me home.

He walks the majority of my walk home, sometimes near me, sometimes like he's hiding.

One time, I looked behind me quickly, and I saw his top hat duck into an alley.

I came around to confront him, but like the Houdini he is, he disappeared.

I decided to look him up, but it seemed people online know as much about him as I do.

Masked, mysterious, and famous.

I decided to confront him and tell him that shit didn't make me feel very fucking safe.

He seemed confused.

“What? Excuse me? I haven't been following you.”

After he said that, he stopped, almost like he realized something.

He left early that day and said he didn't feel good. Most likely, he didn't feel good about me calling out his freaky bullshit.

The next day, when he came in to do his act, he seemed very distraught.

He kept giving me glances, and he didn't come for his drink at the end of his show.

That night is when it happened.

My route home is shady. I'm the type of person who, at the end of a shift, just wants to get home as fast as possible. I take a lot of back routes and alleys. Sometimes I even cut through the park.

For some reason, I decided to cut through the park that night as well.

It was normal until I started hearing a clack behind me.

Small, rhythmic taps.

I looked behind me to see Monte with his signature cane coming toward me.

Being tired, I turned to face him fully.

“What the hell do you want now?”

He was quiet. He softly let his cane fall onto his foot, kicked it up, and, using his cape, made it vanish.

“Ha ha, very neat. Is that all?”

He put his finger up, and he softly pulled out a deck of cards, fresh and sealed.

He peeled open the wrapper, dumped the cards out into his gloved hand, and I listened to them swiftly fly between his hands as he shuffled.

I stared at him, tired, confused, and very annoyed.

“I gotta go to bed. I ain't staying for a card trick.”

When I turned around, the cane he had made vanish stopped me in my tracks. It was out sideways, like it was stopping me from leaving, floating in the air.

“There's no fuckin' way you set up wire in the middle of the park.”

I laughed as I ran my hand along the top of it to bump the wire. My laughter stopped as I hit nothing.

I turned back around to look, and he stood there, cards out, ready for me to pick one.

Tired and now a bit scared, I just decided to bite the bullet, and I pulled a card out.

Two of clubs.

“Do you wanna see it? Or what?”

He shook his head no as the cane came around from behind me and back into his hand. He motioned for me to fold up the card, so I did, and he took it and put it into a little bag.

He shook it around, and then opened the bag. When he tried to get the card out, nothing was there.

I clapped. “Okay, good. You did your trick. Now fuck off, and stop following me home.”

He bowed, and I thought he was going to pull the card out or something, but he put the cane under his arm and left.

I did the same. I opened the door to my house, everything was completely normal.

I didn't notice anything strange at first, so I went to my bedroom and pulled the blanket back and laid down for sleep. Right as I got comfy, I felt something.

Pulling back the blanket, I looked down, and there it was.

The two of clubs, in my bed. The same one from the deck, because I saw the folding marks I had made.

I was amused and I was very tired. I put it on my bedside table as I laid there, wondering what kind of way he did that trick.

Then I realized, to put that card here he had to have come into my house.

Opening my eyes, I saw his masked face in my closet.

He saw me notice him. I stared. Neither of us moved.

If I ran, I knew he would catch me before I could make it out the door. I sat there, waiting, trying to think of something, trying to keep my breathing calm.

“That's not my card.”

I was shaky when I said that. It was the first thing I could think of to try and throw him off, like I was bluffing in poker.

I saw the mask tilt in confusion.

I took the card and softly threw it in the direction of my closet.

“That's not the two of clubs.”

I saw the cane drag the card into the closet, and I watched the white mask look down to check the card.

I booked it for the door and out of the house. I heard his footsteps behind me.

I ended up running back through the park. I didn't know where I was going until I realized I was close to work.  I had a way into the bar, and there's a gun there.

I ran back to the back door, grabbed the key from under the mat, and busted my way inside.

I grabbed the gun and waited, and waited.

He never came.

I told my boss about it in the  morning when he came in. He seemed worried for me and told me to take the next day off, and that he would talk with him.

Fucking talk to him!

“Hey, pal. Sorry, but you can't break into your coworker's house. This is just a warning. Don't make me write you up next time.”

That's some bullshit.

I've decided to stay with a friend for the time being, an old pal of mine from college.

I'll make another update once I talk to the bastard. Gonna get my lawyer and the police on this as well.

Let's see if he can disappear out of the jailhouse.

Any other ideas or tips would be real fucking helpful. This is the first time I've made a post like this, but I needed to just talk about it.

Thanks for reading.