Kingsbury Harbor, ch. 24: Presto! (pt. 1) (Patreon)

*** This one's going longer than anticipated, so I'm going to post it in two parts instead of trying to rush things. ***

Adam leaned over to the brawny blonde next to him, keeping his voice low so the dapper man at the front of the room wouldn’t hear.  “Aren’t these things supposed to have strippers?”

“For most people, yeah.  For you? No way,” Zack said, rolling his eyes.  “Your head would explode.  Can’t have that right before the big day.”

Adam couldn’t help but grin.  His friend knew him well.  The lean brunette had never been the kind of guy who hung out at strip clubs, and having a random woman show up at his bachelor party just to get naked only would have made him uncomfortable.  “But a magician?  What am I?  Five?”

“You sound like it with all the whining,” Zack grumbled.

“I’m not trying to complain, it’s just a…bold choice,” Adam said, immediately feeling guilty for questioning the work his friends had put into his bachelor party.

The blonde hunk clapped him on the back and nodded towards the large, ornate box the tuxedo-clad man had just entered.  The towering crate was made of jet black wood and was covered in a dizzying array of golden hieroglyphics.  At first glance the intricate carvings appeared to be in the classic Egyptian style, but upon closer inspection they were just slightly off.  They still depicted geometric shapes, rudimentary figures, and strange beasts, only the supposed beasts were like nothing anyone in the group had ever seen before, and the other shapes and symbols made them dizzy if they looked for too long.  “Dude’s supposed to be good, so, as hard as I know this is for you, just try to relax and enjoy the show.”

Adam nodded.  If it had been up to him he wouldn’t have had a bachelor party at all, but his friends had insisted, planning the weekend getaway to the odd, seaside town of Kingsbury Harbor.  The small, historic port, with its unique locals and picturesque setting was a far cry from the usual trips to Vegas or Florida these parties normally took, and though the fit young man had been doing his best to play along all weekend, he hoped the others wouldn’t notice that his heart wasn’t in it.  As his wedding day approached, that hope was rapidly expanding to encompass his entire relationship with Stephanie.  Forced to confront the thought of spending the rest of his life with his bride-to-be, Adam had finally come to realize that, as much as he loved her, he wasn’t IN love with her.  He doubted that he ever had been, and the more he’d been mulling it over, the more that doubt began to creep back towards all of his previous girlfriends.

Given his lean, chiseled frame, charming smile, and impressive endowment, the handsome brunette never lacked for female attention.  Girls would eagerly throw themselves at him, and he’d always just gone along with it.  It was expected.  He did what his dad, coaches, teammates, and friends told him to do, never stopping to think about whether or not it was what he really wanted.  Now, at twenty-four, he was about to get married to a woman he loved as a friend, but who didn’t come close to making his body vibrate the way the muscled blonde next to him did.

It left him feeling trapped and guilty.  Adam knew it wasn’t fair to Stephanie to go through with the wedding.  Their sex was lackluster at best, and it was only a matter of time before his real desires began to outweigh his sense of obligation.  He’d just started to let himself acknowledge his true longings in the first place, and already he was having nightly fantasies about all the things he wanted to do to Zack’s sculpted frame, trying to pretend it was his friend in bed with him and not his impending wife.  Adam was having a hard enough time sharing a hotel room with his friend.  He tried not to stare when Zack sauntered naked out of the shower, and he did his best to maintain his composure when the other man woke him up by throwing his boxer-clad frame on top of him in the morning.  They’d been friends long enough that Adam was familiar with the sight of his friend, but now that he recognized his true feelings things were starting to change.

Still, he was glad, if not a little disappointed, that it was just the two of them in the room since they at least had their own bed.  If they’d been sharing it with their other two friends, Adam would have had the added pressure of Dane’s rippling, ebony physique and Troy’s towering bulk, all while having to share a bed with Zack.  In his fantasies, it would have been a dream come true.  In reality it would have been a frustrating nightmare, mocking him with everything he denied himself.  Adam debated whether or not he should bring up his concerns, but there never seemed to be a good time.  He told himself he didn’t want to ruin the trip for his friends, not that he was worried about their reaction.  If he kept telling himself that, he was convinced that, sooner or later, he’d start to believe it.

For the time being he’d keep his mouth shut and try to relax the way Zack told him, though the dated, grimy surroundings made that difficult.  Instead of watching Preston the Great in an ornate theatre like the magician’s name suggested, his friends had rented a space for the performance at a local hall, leaving them seated on rickety folding chairs in an old gymnasium.  The space felt cavernous with just their small group, adding to Adam’s persistent, uneasy feeling.  He leaned over to ask Zack when the show was going to start, wanting to get the proceedings over with as soon as possible, but he was cut off by a booming voice from the intricate trunk that echoed throughout the empty space.

“Ladies and Gentlemen!  You are about to witness miracles beyond mortal comprehension.  Let me take this moment to promise that everything you are about to see is real, and to ask for your trust.  No one will be harmed, and everyone will leave the show happier than when they entered.  When Preston the Great makes a promise, he…” the booming voice trailed off, and the four young men spun in their chairs when it picked up again at a normal volume from behind them.  “Well this just won’t do at all.”

Adam blinked at the well-dressed figure standing in the doorway at the far side of the gym.  Despite his reluctance, he was already impressed.  The trunk sat in the middle of the room, nowhere near any convenient curtains or walls.  He’d watched Preston don his top hat and step inside just a few minutes prior, yet somehow the man had made his way out of the room without any of them seeing.

There was a moment of awkward silence, broken only by the clacking of Preston’s black-and-white wingtips on the linoleum floor as he made his way back to the center.  He smiled at the group as he passed, locking eyes with Adam for a brief moment before turning around to complete a flourished twirl next to the trunk.

The young groom-to-be took the opportunity to size the man up, wondering at Preston’s age as he eyed the impressively athletic build filling out the immaculate tuxedo.  The charismatic man was dressed like he’d stepped out of an ad from the 1920s.  His sharp features were smooth and unblemished, his raven hair without a trace of grey, but there was an aura of age about Preston that made Adam pause.  He watched as the magician smiled and bowed, giving an exaggerated wave of his arm before the room erupted in applause.

Adam yelped and jumped, feeling dizzy as he looked around.  No longer empty, the gym was instead suddenly filled to capacity, leaving the four young men seated in the middle of an impossible crowd.  The newcomers were all well-dressed in the same antiquated fashion as Preston, and as Adam gawked at the recent arrivals he saw men and women of all shapes, sizes and ages.  He thought it had to be a trick, a projection of some kind, until he reached over and prodded the leg of the man next to him.  Not only did he encounter solid flesh, the man shot him a dirty look and swatted his hand away, shaking his head.  He turned to ask his friends if they knew what was going on, but the other three were smiling and clapping along with the freshly-sprouted crowd.  Adam settled back in his chair, trying to keep as far from the stranger next to him as possible.  When he’d touched him, the man had been ice cold, and he couldn’t help but wonder if the same was true for everyone else around them.

“Much better,” Preston said, his handsome half-smile sending a shiver through Adam despite the young man’s growing fear.  As if sensing the reaction, he turned and looked directly at the him, giving a slight nod.  “Now, I understand we have a bachelor party present, yes?”  There was a murmuring in the crowd, and Adam wanted to crawl out of his chair and hide when the noticeably pale faces began to follow Preston’s gaze and turn in his direction.  He kept trying to convince himself that it was all just an illusion of some kind, but there was a growing pit in his stomach that told him otherwise.  “Never fear!  You’ll have all the bawdy entertainment one comes to expect from such things.  Starting, I think, with my lovely assistant.  I’ll need a volunteer for this one…” Preston trailed off and made a show of scanning the crowd, causing Adam’s heart to start racing when his green, luminescent eyes came to a stop in the anxious hunk’s direction.  “You there!  Dane, is it?  Step this way, please.”

Adam’s tried to tell Dane not to go as the room erupted with applause, but the words wouldn’t come.  He opened his mouth, and he could feel his tongue and throat moving, but there was no sound.  He even tried to reach past Zack and grab his friend, but the blonde just shook his head and pushed his arms down, giving him the same dirty look that the stranger next to him had.

As the chiseled Dane smiled and waved, weaving his way through the crowd to the front of the room, Preston’s smile faded once more.  He sighed and made a show of shaking his head, gesturing to the dark-skinned hunk’s jeans and t-shirt.  “No, no, no!  This won’t do at all.  You’re somehow under AND overdressed all at the same time,” he said, eliciting a round of laughter from the horrible audience.  Dane played along, spreading his sculpted arms wide and flashing a bashful grin as he shrugged.  Preston responded by tapping the side of the box, the door opening by itself.  “Luckily, we can fix this.  Step inside, please.”

Adam tried to yell at Dane not to enter, but his voice was still absent.  Not knowing what else to do, he attempted to get up and head for the stage, only to be blocked by the stranger next to him.  When he went to pass, the man’s frigid body was like a boulder, and though he appeared to have a slight build he shoved Adam back into his seat with ease.  He gave Zack and Troy a pleading look, but his friends had the same glassy expression and broad smiles as everyone else.  Adam’s stomach sank as he watched Preston seal the trunk and give it a spin, his earlier feelings of being trapped becoming all too literal.

“That should do it,” Preston said, bringing the trunk to a halt.  He tapped the side of the trunk and the door opened again, a cloud of fog spilling forth as Dane stepped out.

Even if he’d had a voice, Adam’s scream would have been drowned out by the thunderous applause as the Dane that emerged was impossibly different than the one who entered.  Instead of his jeans and t-shirt, the muscled hunk came out in a silver, sequined teddy, trimmed with gold fur.  A pair of matching garters were stretched tight around his muscled thighs, the adjoining fishnets trailing down his legs to the heels that had replaced his sneakers.  Dane’s deep-brown skin appeared to shimmer under a layer of body glitter, and his statuesque face was covered in an expert coating of makeup.

Though as jarring as the changes to his friend’s outfit were, the changes to his body were even worse.  The teddy accentuated Dane’s prominent pecs and highlighted his trim, tapering waist as it clung to his ripped abs, but there was a conspicuous absence where the ebony adonis’s churning balls and long, thick hose should have been.  Instead of a girthy package, Adam stared at the small, barely covered mound between his friend’s legs before Dane turned to give the crowd a view of the ample cheeks that hung free as the bottom of the teddy slipped between them.  The altered man’s eyes were wide, but he had a bright, exuberant smile as he paced back and forth, his heels clicking against the floor.

“Much better!” Preston clapped as Dane took up a spot next to him.  “Now we can truly begin.  How about starting with a classic?  Has anyone seen a rabbit pulled from a hat?”  Dane’s steely arms flexed as he reached up and removed Preston’s top hat, holding it out in front of the other man.  The magician closed his eyes and started to wave his hands but stopped, his brow furrowing when he opened his eyes and looked around.  “What am I thinking?  I can’t do this without my wand…but where did I put it?”  He tapped his chin thoughtfully before holding a finger in the air.  “Ah, that’s right!”

Adam’s stomach both fluttered and turned when Preston reached down and pushed the front of Dane’s teddy aside, briefly revealing the other man’s impossibly feminine slit.  His friend had a reputation for both the size of his equipment and the skill with which he used it, but that appeared to be a thing of the past as Preston slipped a pair of fingers into the buff man’s new opening.  Adam watched Dane’s ruby red lips purse ecstatically as the magician pulled them back out, bringing along a classic, white-tipped wand.  The crowd roared as Preston slowly inched the baton free, causing Dane to gasp and spasm when he gave it a few jerks back and forth.  The glittering, dark-skinned hunk just grinned, wagging a finger and making a tutting sound as he adjusted the teddy to cover himself once the wand was fully extricated.

“Now, where were we?  Ah, yes, the rabbit.”  Preston closed his eyes and made a few passes with the wand over the upturned top hat before reaching inside.  Adam watched the magician’s arm disappear up to the shoulder before his attention was pulled to the massive hand descending from the ceiling above him.  He had just enough time for a silent shriek, throwing his arms up to shield himself as he was lifted off the ground.  The terrified young man had a brief sensation of being weightless, and there was a rush of blinding cold as the lights were swallowed.  When his vision cleared, Adam found himself seated in a chair next to the trunk, blinking at the clapping audience while the scantily-clad Dane smiled and gestured towards him.  Up close his friend’s alterations were even more prominent, and Adam searched the other man’s terrifyingly cheerful gaze in vain for any sign that the handsome stud knew what he’d lost.

“Don’t be scared, little rabbit,” Preston said, his tone calm as he watched Adam make a futile attempt at getting out of the chair.  “Nowhere to run, rabbit,” he laughed, shaking his head.  “Remember what I said at the beginning?  No one’s getting hurt.”  Adam wanted to shout at the man that Dane probably thought otherwise, but he couldn’t so much as open his mouth.  “Your friends are the ones who organized this show, after all.  Speaking of…I think it’s time for our next volunteer.  Zack?  Could you join us up here, please?”