For a Djinni, Use a Green Candle

"It doesn't matter," Simon said angrily as he tried to twist out of Will's grip.

"You said you wanted Hallowe'en, so we can have it," Will said gently. "Isn't that what you wanted?"

"Yes, but you think it's a stupid idea!" If they had Hallowe'en and Will thought it was a silly thing to do, all it would do would make Simon feel foolish.

"That's not what I said." Will let go of Simon's wrists, his way of silently saying the taller boy could go if he didn't want to keep talking to him. It had been one of their 'signals' that had formed when their relationship started.

Simon scowled. "What, so now you don't want to talk to me?"

"Sigh, stop overreacting."

"I'm not overreacting, Fitzwilliam." Simon couldn't help but grin; he always found Will's real name hilarious, no matter how many times he had heard it before.

"Oh God, don't call me that!"

"Well, don't take the Lord's name in vain then." Simon crossed his arms and stuck out the tip of his tongue, grinning cheekily at his boyfriend.

"He's not real, Sigh," Will said, looking up at Simon, who was at least a foot taller than him.
"Is so!" Simon pouted.

"We're getting off the subject..."

"I'm not having Hallowe'en with someone who thinks it's dumb."

"I don't think it's dumb, love. I only said it was a bit... American."

"It's Irish!"

"Whatever!" Will grinned, Simon didn’t grin back. "Does it really matter anyway?" Will sighed and put a hand to his head, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Well, it's like saying that being Australian and English is the same thing, so yes, yes it does."

With that, Simon stormed out of the room, swinging his arms, then Will heard him slam the bathroom door. Simon always liked to sulk in the bathroom, Will had no idea why. He had a suspicion that it had something to do with the new towels they had bought – they were extremely fluffy; Simon loved fluffy things.

Will sighed and slumped himself onto the couch. Simon always overreacted to the most insignificant things, like if Will ate the last yoghourt, or if he accidentally left the toilet light on in the middle of the night.

"Sigh, are you alright?" he called out after a while of silence from the bathroom.
"Don't talk to me!" Simon yelled back angrily.

"Okay!" Will grinned to himself; Simon's mini-tantrums were always amusing. "You still wanna have Hallowe'en?"

"No! Don't you understand English? Don't talk to me!"

Will laughed. "Alright." He paused. "Do you need anything? Cuppa tea?"

"No!!! Leave me alone!"

"Rightio then," Will said quietly so Simon couldn’t hear, raising his eyebrows.

Around an hour later, Simon emerged from the bathroom. He began to walk back to the lounge where he had walked out on Will, but as he turned the corner, he found that all the lights had been switched off, leaving the lounge in pitch-black. "Will?" There was no reply. "Willy-woo?"

As he got nearer, he heard a match strike the side of its box, and Will's face was illuminated. He grinned slyly at Simon, beckoning him to sit down beside him. Simon did so slowly, and Will lit the green candle standing next to him.

"Wanna summon a ghostie?" He grinned slyly, slowly turning pages in his magick book whilst still staring at Simon.

Simon stared at him. "You said you gave up all the magick stuff," Simon began, "because it was too hard, and you could never do anything."

"Yes, but..." Will paused dramatically, "it's Hallowe'en, so that must mean something special... or... something," he finished rather lamely, ruining the mysterious atmosphere surrounding the two boys.

Simon rolled his eyes. "Alright, summon a ghost. I bet you can’t, though."

"Can so." Will opened his magick book and began to read off of one of the pages. It was in some language neither of them could understand.

"How do you know if you're saying the right thing?" Simon asked when Will had stopped chanting.

"I, um, don't." He grinned. "I have a hunch."

"Don’t you need to draw a pentagram or something?"

"Dunno," Will shrugged.

"What about special herbs or plants?"

Will shrugged again.

Simon groaned. "Some sorcerer you are."

"I'm not a sorcerer... I think I'm a magician."

"Or a wizard?" Simon’s eyes shined with amusement.

"Or a witch," Will grinned, winking. "Dunno what it is technically."

A few minutes ticked by.

"Isn't something supposed to have happened already?" Simon asked.

"Yeah... maybe I lit the wrong colour candle or something..." Will opened the magick book, flipping through the pages.

"Fitzy, how are you supposed to know if you lit the wrong candle or not if you can't read the book?"

"I can read it," said a new voice, tapping Simon on the shoulder.

"Jesus fucking Christ!" Simon swore as he jumped to his feet in shock.

"Who's taking the Lord's name in vain now?" Will said quietly as he stood up next to Simon, taking his hand as if it could somehow protect him from the thing in their lounge room.

"Are you two going to keep staring at me all night?" the thing that had tapped Simon's shoulder said.

The two boys gaped at the creature, not knowing what to say. It was a greenish, tubby, humanoid-shaped cloud of... ghost?

It sighed. "I suppose that's a yes, then."

"So... so... wow! I actually summoned something! Cool! So... er... What's your um, name?" Will finally spoke. Simon continued to stare, his mouth hanging open.

The thing snorted. "What's my name? That's what you summoned me for?" It chuckled. "If that's all, can you release me then? I've got things to do."

"I didn't think it would work," Will said apologetically, "otherwise I would have thought of something for you to do, I s'pose... sorry."

The thing continued to laugh. "You're a funny one, human."

"Are you a ghost?" Simon asked quietly.

"Yeah, I'm a ghost," it said sarcastically. "No, idiot. Ghosts aren't real. I'm a djinni." The djinni started to mutter to itself, something about the ignorance of young ones these days.

"So, um, what do we do know?" Simon whispered to Will.

Will had no idea, he’d never expected to summon anything, let alone a djinni.

"Do you want to um, watch a movie?" Simon asked timidly.

Will stared at him. "A movie?" he asked incredulously.

"Sure," the djinni said, nodding its green head.

"You want to watch a movie?" Will looked from the djinni to Simon, back to the djinni.
"Aren’t you supposed to be some sort of powerful monster type thing?"

"Well, I can have a break once in a bloody while, you know," the djinni said. "Being summoned to go and kill people isn’t as fun as it sounds, you know."

Will couldn’t help but think this was a fair point.

As dawn came along, the djinni had to go. Will said that it was getting harder to keep him there, as if it were a conscious effort to keep the djinni on Earth.

"Well, I s’pose you’re glad we had Hallowe’en, then," Will teased Simon.