My Apartment

Mysterious furnishings

WHO: Mysterion the Mind Reader, 29, professional boogeyman (pictured above on a bed of nails); Tara Bursey, 23, visual artist.

WHAT: A 900-square-foot, two-bedroom apartment in Parkdale.

WHERE: Maynard and King.

HOW LONG: Three and a half years.

HOW MUCH: $893 per month, plus utilities.

FAVOURITE THING: "The location," says Mysterion. "It's close to everything I need and yet just on the outskirts."

LEAST FAVOURITE THING: "It smells like old people," Mysterion says.

THE STORY: Mysterion and Bursey's colourful apartment is cluttered with action figures, old posters and a seemingly endless number of other collectible items. Floor-to-ceiling shelves spanning the length of Mysterion's bedroom display his personal collection of over 1,200 action figures, including wrestlers from around the world, complete sets of Star Wars and Masters of the Universe figures, early '70s Megos (such as the Wizard of Oz and Star Trek figurines) and a plethora of other vintage toys from the '40s, '50s and '60s. He claims to have the largest wrestling collection in North America.

"I'm not a big dork," Mysterion says. "This is something that is almost for spite. I told a guy I'd buy them all, so now I'm going to."

In the other corner of the room -- next to a bag of tricks he takes to mind-reading shows and a wall of posters advertising past performances (many of which Bursey helped illustrate) -- is Mysterion's collection of mounted animals and creatures in formaldehyde. Beside the two-headed duckling and below the shelf displaying an albino squirrel is a "Cyclops baby pig" (two eyes, one eye socket) and Mysterion's parasitic twin -- he insists it's real and will show off the scar on his stomach to prove it.

It's here that Mysterion also keeps his collection of haunted items, including a doll that belonged to a little girl in the 1960s (whose ghost used to visit him in the middle of the night) and a last-rites kit circa 1940 from the Pennsylvania state hospital, which shut down in 1984. "The EMF rating for this went right off the bar," Mysterion says.

Mysterion and Bursey's apartment is a haven for both geeks and ghosts. "This apartment is haunted and it's not because of these things," says Mysterion, pointing to his collection. Both Mysterion and Bursey have witnessed what appears to be a woman in her late thirties wander in and out of rooms. "I want to capture it," he says, "but it eludes me." DALE DUNCAN

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PHOTOGRAPHY CATHERINE FARQUHARSON