Hocus-Pocus Horror

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Hocus-Pocus Horror
Tagline	Now you see you, now you don't!
Author(s)	R.L. Stine
Cover artist	Craig White
Publisher	Scholastic
Media type	Print (Paperback)
Release date	April 1999
Pages	137
Number of endings	24
Series	Give Yourself Goosebumps
Series number	35
Previous book	Elevator to Nowhere
Next book	Ship of Ghouls

Hocus-Pocus Horror is the thirty-fifth book in the Give Yourself Goosebumps gamebook series. It was published in 1999.

The cover artwork shows a demented, furry green creature wearing a magician's top hat. The creature had a magic wand in between its teeth, and both ends of the wand had snapped off.

Blurb

NOW YOU SEE YOU, NOW YOU DON'T!

The magic show is about to begin! The Great Mysterio will now choose two volunteers from the audience: your friend Zack — and you! That means you're in for some major danger. Why? Because Mysterio is an evil magician. Right now he's giving electric shocks to a puppy to make him bark on cue! And you could be next!

If you go on with the show, you'll face a deck of razor-sharp cards—thrown right at you! If you decide to steal Mysterio's bag of tricks' you'll get to play with some cool potions like Disappearing Powder. But spill some on yourself and you may never reappear—except as a monster!

The choice is yours in this scary Goosebumps adventure that’s packed with over 20 super-spooky endings!

Plot

You attend a magic act with your friend, Zack, which stars the great Mysterio. Zack is enjoying the show, because he thinks magic is real. However, you do not, but you have a motive for attending. You want to stop Mysterio from harming any animals in his act. Soon Mysterio performs a standard magic trick, and asks for two volunteers, causing Zack to volunteer and you are chosen, despite not wanting to do it. After the trick you notice that the Civic Centre looks rundown and old despite how new everything was earlier.  You also notice that Mysterio looks different. He is ghost-white and more evil looking!

Mysterio performs an act which involves him electrocuting a puppy, while asking him various things. This disgusts you but before you have a chance to act, Mysterio introduces his volunteers, adding that you will both remember this act for the rest of your live, which may not be that long...

Story A

You and Zack decide to run away, but a puppy named Ralph stands in your way. It does not take you too long to realize he wants to escape. Mysterio begins to shout at you and Ralph. Ralph hops into a suitcase, but when you look inside, you cannot see him anymore. But you can see a box of “Disappearing Powder”, which actually causes invisibility, not a disappearance. You then take the case and run away. Upon looking at the suitcase, you see the following words; “MYSTERIO’S BAG OF TRICKS. DO NOT OPEN! DANGER!!!”.

This concerns you and Zack, since you worry about Ralph, if you close it. But you really cannot ignore the warning, and what happens, if Mysterio decides he wants his suitcase back...?

Story B

You and Zack decide to hide, but the only place available is behind the curtains, but when you do, you are eventually forced to peak out slightly for some air. However, this gives you your first look at Mysterio’s audience, and you do not like what you see. Everyone in the audience is a phantom! You return to your hiding place, and overhear Mysterio shout that he wants his “guinea pigs” on stage as soon as possible and you realize you're actually in an alternate dimension! Zoltan, Mysterio’s assistant finds you, and informs you that you are to be part of Mysterio’s act, and if you do well you will be allowed to go home, but if you disappoint him, you’ll become a phantom and be forced to watch his show for eternity.

Side story C

You decide to run from the magic act in Story B, but in an ironic twist, it becomes just an extended method of getting two bad endings, and there are only two choices to make.

List of endings

There are eighteen bad endings and six good endings.

Bad endings

• You run away from the magic show, but decide not to take Mysterio's suitcase (which you think might have Ralph in it.) You're then attacked by Ralph, who has turned invisible - he is angry that you planned to abandon him. Since Ralph is invisible, you're completely defenceless, and it's likely he kills you.
• You have turned invisible from blowing Disappearing Powder on yourself. Being invisible also makes you unheard by Zack, who failed to see what happened to you. Mysterio appears from the theater causing Zack to run off, but the magician turns his attention to you, somehow being able to see you. He summons a breeze that blows you into the sky, and you drift away like a balloon, because being invisible makes you weightless too.
• Attempting to hide in a alley leads to Zack tripping over a garbage can and breaking his ankle. Cornered, Mysterio summons a "deadly attack rabbit" to finish you. As it bites your throat, you realize Zack's injury has also doomed him as he can't escape or go for help. (There are two ways to achieve this ending.)
• Upon making Ralph visible again, the dog mistakes you for an enemy and attacks you. Willing to risk Ralph's well-being to defend yourself, you use Mysterio's wand; but this transforms Ralph into a demonic monster. It's implied he rips your throat out.
• You dig through Mysterio's bag for something to undo Zack's invisibilty, and find a can of "Jiffy Spell-Off" to be a promising solution. It releases a genie who challenges you to a literal spell-off to receive a wish or else be his eternal servant. However, you don't quite hear the word he challenges you to spell and completely misspell it, prompting your enslavement. 
• You spell the word correctly and earn your single wish. Tempted to make the most of it, you wish for "a ton of gold" rather than making Zack visible again. Your wish is granted and a basketball-sized orb of gold appears right above you. The literal one ton of gold then falls on your head, killing you.
• You and Zack have both turned into giant monsters. Mysterio promises to help you, so you give him the suitcase back. But instead of turning you back to humans, he captures you both to use as an act in his magic show (and you inadvertently helped him catch Ralph again.)
• When you give the suitcase to a masked impostor (thinking it's Mysterio), the real Mysterio appears. He sends you into an empty dimension and provides you a list to replace all the items that were stolen in his bag. You have no idea how to make anything appear in this dimension, and no way of paying for the items.
• You and Zack agree to go with a police officer, but he takes you to be put on trial for crimes against magic (stealing from Mysterio.) You're told your punishment is to be put on probation with Mysterio, but it will take an eternity, because you're now in another world where time passes more slowly.
• A witch turns you into a rat because you refused to give her the suitcase.
• Mysterio forces you and Zack to take part in a trick where he will chop Zack's head off. But Zack panics and leaps out of the way, so the wooden block that had his head on it gets sliced in half. A fragment from the block hits you on the head and knocks you unconscious.
• You knock out Zoltan and plan to run for help whilst Mysterio is still on stage. But Mysterio catches you and turns you into a phantom. You're stuck as part of his audience forever.
• During Mysterio's card-throwing trick, you heed his directions to stay still, trusting him not to hit you. One of the razor-sharp cards accidently curves however. Narrowly missing your head, the card slices through a rope behind you, dropping an enormous sandbag from above that crushes you.
• Mysterio performs a act where he causes you and Zack to see each other's cards you're holding. The trick reveals that he instead causes you both to switch bodies, therefore being able to literally see each others cards. But Mysterio hasn't mastered the trick yet, so when he attempts to switch your bodies again, you end up in Ralph's body and vice versa.
• Mysterio makes you take part in a trick intended to involve him cutting your hand off. But you sneeze and move your head, and end up getting decapitated instead. 
• Refusing to take part in Mysterio's act, you and Zack run from Zoltan to the exit. However he makes the door disappear and spawns a snake pit where it once was. You decide to push and ride a nearby dolly carrying a coffin to barrel past Zoltan instead. But just when you get past him, the coffin opens and the skeleton hiding inside it strangles you and pulls you in with it while Zoltan captures Zack.
• Alternatively, you choose to run through a pit of snakes, believing they're just an illusion. But they're real, and a giant diamond-back rattler bites your leg, injecting you with a painful venom (Zack, who didn't dare get into the snake pit with you, is also captured by Zoltan).

Good endings

• You throw the box of Vanishing Powder over Mysterio, which makes him and his bag of tricks diappear forever. Then you go home and take Ralph with you.
• After you and Zack turn into monsters, Mysterio appears and threatens you. But you're big enough to overpower him and force him to turn you back into humans.
• You have been cornered by Mysterio, and you use his magic wand to wish for him to go away. He vanishes, and you're back with Zack, who has no memory of anything happening. Since he thinks you missed Mysterio's show, you agree to go again tomorrow night. (This is presented as a good ending ... even though you would have to have a death wish to want to get involved with Mysterio again.)
• You're trapped with a witch and a magical police officer, who both want Mysterio's bag for themselves. But they argue, and fight each other with magic; causing an explosion which destroys them and Mysterio's suitcase. You go to look for Ralph, and find to your delight that he's visible and perfectly safe.
• You and Zack escape the magic show and then find that Ralph followed you home. It turns out Ralph is magical and can speak. He teaches you and Zack to do magic, and you eventually become rich and famous magicians.
• Mysterio is so angry that you and Zack ruined his trick, he turns you both into clowns and throws you out of the show.

International releases

No.	Book	Country/Language	Translated title	Release date	Publisher
35	Hocus-Pocus Horror	United Kingdom English	Hocus-Pocus Horror	November 16, 2001	Scholastic
35	Ужас фокус-покуса	Russia Russian	Horror of the Focus-Hocus	2004	РОСМЭН-ПРЕСС

Artwork

Cover artwork by Craig White.

Trivia

• The character on the front is actually the reader's character but only in one instance during this story.
• The prologue of this book seems to imply that both the reader and Zack are fans of magic shows, but the book clearly states the reader is not.