twenty-five: the summoning bracelet
(this one is not my best writing but it's fine)

"Um, hi?" Frank heard and looked up at a boy—no, a man who looked around twenty. As he stared up at the stranger, he leant back into the tree his body was curled against.

"Are you alright? A kid your age shouldn't be alone out in the woods."

"I'm seventeen," Frank spat, crossing his arms across his chest as if trying to shield himself from any pain or harm the stranger meant.

"Um alright?" the stranger said, smiling slightly. "That's alright then, I'll just..."

He seemed to be contemplating something as he glanced at the curled figure of the boy. Frank's lips were spread into a thin line, gazing unashamedly back at the stranger. His eyes were alight with fright and bravery as if daring the stranger to do something.

"If you're gonna kill me, you know," Frank said, finally breaking their silence. "Just do it."

"No, I was just um... taking a walk. Plus, you're cute. I don't kill cute guys I find in the forest."

Frank smirked. "Do you kill cute guys you pick up at bars or do you just roofie them?"

"Watch it, kid."

Frank shrugged and took a few moments to lick his cracked lips, looking down at his crossed arms. Then "What's your name?"

"Gerard," he replied casually, pushing blond locks away from his eyes and squinting to see Frank better. "You?"

              "Frank."

"You gonna tell me what a cute guy like you is doing in the forest alone at night, Frank?"

"First of all, you gotta stop calling me that. It's not making you very scary."

"You think I'm scary?"

"I just said you weren't."

"Just..." Gerard began, trailing off. "What are you doing out here?"

"I got kicked out," Frank said nonchalantly, gesturing to a bag packed full of what was probably clothing hiding in the dark next to him. "My old man found out my deep dark secret."

Gerard chuckled, sitting down across from the curled seventeen-year-old on the ground. "What's this dark secret?"

Frank felt his heart flutter at Gerard's eyes glinting dangerously in the moonlight. He was tall, average weight and had blond hair. Frank didn't like blond hair, but Gerard's seemed to be bleached, which he was beginning to think quite suited him. The whole taking a walk in the forest at night was also a little scary and mysterious, and if Frank was being honest, it made Gerard all that more attractive. Frank smirked to himself.

"Oh, trust me, you don't wanna know, old man."

"I'm not an old man," Gerard said and actually laughed.

"You're older than me," Frank shrugged, shrugging and keeping his arms crossed. "But not too much older than me."

"I'm twenty-one."

"And I'm seventeen, but who gives a shit anymore?"

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know," Frank laughed. "I think I might be a little crazy. Are you even real, Gerard?"

"I think so? I don't really know though. Is anything real?"

"Shut the hell up," Frank scoffed, grinning up at the older man anyways. "I'm tryna be serious."

              Gerard smiled. "What's your secret? Because I think... I think we might have it in common."

"I know. You're so gay. Don't think I haven't noticed, creepo."

Gerard grinned. "That's not... That doesn't have to be a deep dark secret you know, Frank?"

"Whatever. Why do you care?"

"Well because I just stumbled upon a cute guy in a forest who just lost his house. Don't you think someone like me would wanna help out a kid like you?"

"To be honest, not really," Frank shrugged, giving the man a once over. Why was he out in the forest this late at night? Don't trust strangers, this was common knowledge. It was good advice, but this stranger was a few years older than him, cute, and also kind of a creep. He was just his type. Besides, now that this stranger knew a secret he'd been guarding for the past few years within a few minutes of knowing him, it didn't seem like a bad idea to follow him home.

Unspeakable things might happen, sure, but they also might not. Besides, Frank thought, if he got killed, he probably wouldn't care too much. He didn't really have much of a will to live. So he shrugged, smirking up at the stranger.

"Is that an offer?"

              "Sure, kid."

              "Don't call me kid. It makes you calling me cute weird."

              "You called me an old man," Gerard shrugged and smiled softly.

              "Touche."

"C'mon, let's get you some food and a bed. How long have you been without a home?"

              "A couple days," Frank shrugged. "No big deal. My old man will come looking for me when he realises what he's done. It always happens like this. This time though, he figured out the ultimate secret."

Frank grinned and his teeth shined eerily in the moonlight along with his eyes.

              Gerard frowned, getting up and extending a hand to Frank. "That's not good."

              "You think I don't know that?" Frank chuckled, taking the hand and being pulled up. "Everything always resolves itself though. Like look, you're here helping me. That's something to be thankful for, a stranger trying to help me. I don't even know if I'm walking to my death and I'm trusting you. This is crazy."

              Gerard shook his head and chuckled again. "Yeah, but you already said you were a little crazy. Besides, if you want to you can just trust me and know that I'm not going to kill you. The worst thing I would do was turn you in to the police."

              "God, I'd rather you'd kill me. I don't wanna go home."

              "I won't kill you."

              "Whatever," Frank grumbled and picked up his bag. "So where are we... hey, did you lose a bracelet?"

              Gerard shook his head, taken aback. "Uh, no. I don't wear... woah, that's really pretty."

              The older man picked up the bracelet and stepped towards the younger, holding it under the moonlight to inspect it. It rested in his palm, glinting in the light, and both boys were drawn to it even though there was a certain cold feeling that was crawling up Gerard's arm where he was holding it. It was made of a shiny black kind of metal, a chain of tiny little round beads. It was pretty, simple. And also kind of shiny.

              Gerard ignored the feeling creeping up his arm and smiled at the boy before him.

              "Hey," he whispered, bringing a hand up to Frank's cheek. "You want it?"

              "What?"

              "What do you mean, what"

              "It's so pretty, why don't you keep it for yourself?"

              Gerard shrugged, gently taking Frank's hand away from where it was clenched around one of his backpack straps. "Here," he mumbled as he slipped it onto the boy's wrist.

              Frank smiled up at Gerard, leaning forwards. "Thanks," he whispered.

              "For what?" Gerard asked, smiling a little.

              "For..." Frank bent away and began coughing. "Oh my god, my chest," he croaked, hands coming up to clutch his chest. "It hurts s-so bad."

              "What the hell?" Gerard cried, panicked. He'd finally made a new friend and he was about to have a heart attack and die in the woods. He sighed, pulling Frank's body towards his and started stumbling in the vague direction of his house.

              "Gerard, let g-go," Frank said, coughing up a dark liquid and spiling it all over his shirt.

              "Oh, my god, take that goddamn bracelet off," Gerard said, his eyes widening as he tried to tear the thing from the younger boy's wrist. But it wouldn't budge. Gerard stood in place, tugging at the metal but it didn't move, in fact, it seemed to be sinking into Frank's skin. Gerard hooked a couple of fingers under the boy's chin, bringing his face up and was horrified to find that the boy's eyes were the exact same colour of the stones that were slowly sinking into his wrist.

              "Frank!" Gerard yelled. "Oh my god, what the hell."

              He held the boy's body to his as he felt him go limp and staggered to a nearby tree. He didn't let go of him even as wisps of black smoke started enveloping the pair and sheilding them from the foresty setting that they were surrounded in. Gerard choked on the air, feeling it tightening agaisnt his throat, and tried to cry out, but his vocal cords seemed to have stopped working or been ripped out.

              By the time he could speak again, the smoke was clearing, and he could see a glowing figure leaning weakly against the tree across from the two of them. The glow wasn't bright and it wasn't very apparent at first glance, but since it was the same colour of the fog, it settled around the figure and outlined him. Gerard held Frank's body closely to his own and thanked whatever god was out there for the little trembles that coursed through the younger boy, signlling that he was still alive.

              As the rest of the fog cleared, Gerard looked down at Frank, sighing in relief when the boy's eyes opened.

              "How did you... how did you roofie me without giving... dude, what the..." Frank stuttered, pushing me away weakly. "Go away, creepo, I knew I shouldn't have trusted a random friggin' stranger in the woods..."

              "I didn't roofie you, Frank, you put on a bracelet and it did some crazy shit to your eyes and you passed out... and see that thing over there? It kind of just appeared," I whispered, cautiously gesturing to the creature. But it wasn't really a creature. It had a human form and looked relatively normal.

              It obviously wasn't though, since it had just materialised in front of my own two eyes. I sighed as Frank put on a face of distrust.

              "Look, Frank, if I had roofied you, you'd have been out cold for a while and you would have woken up with a headache or your body would hurt."

              "Yeah, well, maybe you're just that good at roofing...roofying... whatever... maybe you're just that good at doing that to people."

"I'm not. I've literally never roofied anyone."

              "Then how do you know what it feels like?" he asked, raising an eyebrow, and I sighed, waiting. His eyes changed and I knew he'd figured it out. "Ohh," he drawled.

"Yeah, it ain't fun. But that's not the point. That thing looks like it's about to wake up."

              "What thing?"

              "Use your eyes, kid, look over—"

              "Don't call me a kid!" he cried, and I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. We both looked up to see a boy who had completely grey skin and black eyes and an annoyed expression on his face.

              "Why the hell would you do that?" he growled.

              I swallowed, looking down at Frank who looked paler than he had before. It looked like he couldn't talk, but I felt like I was tripping on acid.

              "Do what?" I asked meekly.

              "Summon me? You guys were doing great on your own, now the kid thinks you roofied him. You don't need me. Send me back, now."

              "What?!" I exclaimed and the grey boy put his hands on his hips.

              "I'm a demon. You summoned me. I was just about to kill a very important victim, one that Satan's had me chasing to the ends of the earth and now I'm just here because two guys don't know not to touch something that isn't theirs!" he huffed, his tone merging from annoyed to anguished very very quickly.

              "Look, man, I'm sorry you're here because of this idiot, but what can we do to fix it?"

              "Send me back!"

              "How?" I asked.

              "Take the goddamn bracelet off and give it to me," he said simply, extending his hand. "That's the thing that brought me here. So just..."

              Frank nodded, relieved and pulled back his sleeve, but it wasn't there anymore.

              "Damn your skinnny wrists. Why can't someone fat summon me?"

              "Hey, that was rude!"

              "It literally wasn't!" the demon yelled, crossing his arms. "It's the middle of the bloody night and we're gonna have to find the bracelet."

              "We can wait until the sun rises," I suggested, shrugging but the demon shook his head.

              "I need to find it as soon as possible. Besides, it disappears in daylight hours."

              "And why don't you have it again?" I asked.

              "That's unimportant!" he snapped back at me.

I raised an eyebrow. "Alright. Let's get searching."

---

              "You've gotta be kidding me," the demon rolled his eyes, sitting back on his heels as the first few rays of sunlight peeked out from between the leaves all around us.

              I sighed, rubbing my eyes and felt Frank lean against me, his head resting on my shoulder.

              "We can keep searching tomorrow night—oh my god, I found it!" I cried, making both of the other boys jump. I snatched the bracelet from off of the ground and both the demon and I lunged towards each other.

              "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" he cried out, fastening his arms around me for a hug. "I've gotta be going now, but I'll visit from time to time, I promise."

              He let out an evil smirk before disappearing in the same thick cloud of fog he appeared in.

              "Alright, what the hell?" Frank breathed. "I wanna sleep so bad, can you lend me your couch?"

              "You can have the futon, it won't hurt your back," I sighed, smiling a little. "Come on, let's..." I paused to yawn. "Let's go home."