Halloween Night

This is a Gay Adult story. It was written by me in October of 1998. This is pure fiction and none of the characters are real. Any resemblance of such is purely coincidental. While there is no sex in this story, there are sexual situations and, therefore, you must be of age in your country to read this story legally.

Any comments or constructive criticism is welcome. Send them via email to Mathis B. Rogers mathis@mathisbrogers.com

Halloween Night

By

Mathis B. Rogers

Copyright October 17, 1998

Lightening streaked across the sky in bolts that looked like long bony fingers. Thunder rumbled in the distance. A storm was brewing in the west. Standing at the old iron gate, I smiled. The old four-story house stood tall and eerie as the full moon played peak-a-boo with the clouds. The old house had been in the family for almost a century. My great-great grandparents were the last to live there. I had been tempted to move into it, but it was a bit big for just me. The old house looked just like one from an old scary movie. A warm feeling swept over me as I realized the fun I could have being there that night.

My great-great grandparents had wanted to sell the house, but I managed to talk them out of doing so. I had even tried to talk them out of moving, but they had found an absolutely beautiful chateau on the French Riviera and had moved there two years previously. No one had lived in the old house since.

Because it was Halloween evening, all of my family had gone to Jupiter. After that comet hit Jupiter a few years before, the skiing was just marvelous this time of year. However, I didn't care for skiing, I preferred warm weather and no matter what time of year it was, it was always cold on Jupiter. So I told my family that I would stay on Earth this year and look after the old house. The year before some kids had broken one of the windows in the parlor and had climbed in. Luckily they didn't do much damage - nothing that couldn't be fixed with the wave of a hand, anyway.

The old porch creaked under my weight as I stepped up onto it. I made a mental note to repair it in the morning. That creak would add to the atmosphere for the evening.

Turning, I looked back at the yard. It hadn't been kept up since my great-great grandparents had left. I would clean it up in the morning before I returned home.

I stopped at the door and examined it. I scanned the outside of the house. The door was locked and all the other doors and windows were intact, closed and locked. That was good. Without bothering to open it, I stepped through the old door. Standing in the foyer, I looked around, it was difficult to see because the house was dark. I needed to work on my night-vision. I was glad that Gramps, as we called my great-great grandfather, had left the house as it had been originally. No electricity; no plumbing. They really hadn't needed it. Grandmother had talked them into letting her add one bathroom on the lower floor for guests who might stop in who didn't know about us. It was a lovely bathroom. Grandmother had great taste when it came to everything. She had made the bathroom right off the guest room, which was on the main floor. In it she had put an old fashioned claw-footed bathtub. There was also a double sink and a shower stall in the corner for those who didn't care to take baths. She had decorated the room in a soft pink. It was very warm and welcoming. It was also the only room that had an electric light and running hot and cold water, but the utility companies in town didn't know that. Even though Gramps and Grams had moved to France, the room was still intact.

Since I was going to be alone for the night, I figured I'd better light some candles so the trick-or-treaters would know that someone was there. I stepped into the parlor. Raising my hand, light flooded the parlor from the chandelier hanging from the center of the room. Some of the candles needed to be replaced, so I replaced all of them with another wave of my hand. At the same time a fresh log burst into flames in the fireplace. It was a bit chilly in the room. I also figured I should light up the front porch. Moving the heavy drapes aside, I looked out at the porch. Since it was Halloween, I thought that lining the sidewalk with jack-o-lanterns would be a nice touch. I pointed my finger at the sidewalk and it was lined nicely with twelve jack-o-lanterns, six on each side, all facing the front gate. Anyone walking up the sidewalk would have a well-lit path to trod.

On the front porch itself, I placed two jack-o-lanterns on the rail, one on either side of the steps, and, as an added touch, I sprawled a headless scarecrow across the front porch swing. There were torches outside on either side of the door, so I made sure to light them, also.

The old house sat on the hill over-looking the small town of Hayden. Even though I had only lit up the parlor and the front yard, I knew that the townspeople would see it and the kids would make their way up the hill for the treats that I had in store for them.

"Now, what to wear?" I asked myself. I looked in the mirror on the wall. I was wearing a pair of blue jeans, a dress shirt under a pull-over maroon sweater and a pair of white tennis-shoes. My short blond hair had survived the flight from Paris without a hitch. Since it had been a beautiful evening, I had opted to fly instead of using molecular transfer - the art of snapping one's fingers and being where you wanted to be, instantly. Although I loved to fly, most of the time I used molecular transfer because it was usually more convenient, especially if I was in a hurry. Flying always took a few seconds longer. It was normally a five- second flight from Paris, France to Hayden, Vermont, however, tonight I had made the trip take a full half hour just so I could enjoy the scenery. I had even swung by the Grand Canyon in Arizona for a few minutes at sunset just to watch the sun go down. It had been absolutely beautiful.

Still looking in the mirror, I leaned my head to the right and I was wearing a tuxedo with a long cape with red lining. I didn't care for the white pancake make-up I wore though and the fangs didn't do anything to make me feel better. I liked the tux, but I was definitely no vampire. Tilting my head to the left, I almost cringed at the image in the mirror that looked back at me. I was an old-hag witch. The kind with a long crooked nose with warts on the end. The loose-fitting dress was comfortable and I thought the pointed hat was cool, but, alas, I knew that there were enough stories about the occupants of the old house that I didn't need to let the townspeople think there really were witches living there. I also knew that if the women in my family found out that I had dressed as an old-hag witch, they would have killed me. That's why they all went to Jupiter this time of year, they didn't like the mortal's portrayal of the female witches. Of course there were no old-hag witches that I knew of. However, Lady Canton, the eldest witch on the Witch's Council was a close match. She didn't have any warts, but she did have a long crooked nose. It really surprised me that she allowed herself to look that way. With witchcraft we could change our looks to anything we wanted.

I tried out Lurch from "The Adam's Family", Little Bo Peep, and even Dorothy with Toto from "The Wizard of Oz", but didn't care for any of the costumes. I got rid of Toto right before he started to bark. Just what I needed, a dumb dog to wake the dead and scare off the brats. I wanted to do that, myself.

I had just returned to the jeans and shirt when I heard water splash in the bathroom. Quietly, I walked out of the parlor and started down the hall. A board creaked beneath my weight, so I levitated myself. I didn't know who was there. No one should have been there but me. I chided myself for not scanning the house for intruders before I entered. I had only checked the doors and windows and they had been locked and when I had entered, I had heard nothing.

Gramps was always getting onto me for forgetting to do important things. I was only twenty-five; I had a lot to learn. I wasn't totally sure, but I thought that Mom had mentioned that Gramps had just turned two-hundred on his last birthday. Why did he always think that I should know as much as he did? Of course, he thought everyone should know as much as he did.

I listened closely for a second. Water splashed again. I knew someone was taking a bath. Probably my brother.

I floated into the guest bedroom. The light was on in the bathroom but the door was open. I knew then that it would have to be my brother, no one else in the family would leave the bathroom door open to take a bath, especially knowing I was in the house and I had made sure that everyone knew that I was going to be there so they wouldn't worry that I had gotten lost on my way to Jupiter. Yes, Brandon would pop in and take a bath, just to try to scare me. I started to go invisible and float in then surprise him by materializing in front of him, but, as I neared the bathroom door, I heard a cough. While that wasn't Brandon's cough, I did recognize the voice. Unfortunately, I couldn't place it, but I knew it wasn't family. It wasn't a fellow warlock either, so I had to be careful. My family had made sure that no one in town ever found out that we weren't normal people - other than being a little eccentric. Thus the reason that I couldn't be the old-hag witch for the night.

I touched down softly on the carpeted floor in the guest room and stepped just outside of the beam of light and looked into the room. Gavin Sanders sat in the claw-footed tub. We had meet in college and were pretty good friends. We had graduated from the two-year community college, but he had gone on to the university after graduation. Although I had really wanted to, and I had fallen head over heels in love with him the day we met, I had never seen him nude. It was against the law in the world we lived in for us to use any love spells or to even make a mortal want to have sex with us. Therefore, since I felt that Gavin was a straight arrow, I had never been able to tell him the way I felt about him. I had considered turning myself into a woman and trying to land him that way, but I didn't want to deceive him any more than I had to and it would have only caused problems with my family if I had. After all, I was the youngest in the family. My brother and I were the only two warlocks in this generation on my mother's side and they were proud of us. Of course, if they had known I was gay, they might not have been so proud of me. Luckily, since my brother and I were still under thirty, they weren't in a hurry for us to get married. In our world, family members didn't start pushing for their offspring to get married until they reached a hundred. I had seventy-five years before I had to start worrying.

I could tell from where I stood that Gavin hadn't used any bubble bath. If I were to walk into the room, I would be able to see him clearly through the water. Wiping my sweaty palms on my jeans, I stepped forward. Gavin had laid back and was resting his head on the back of the tub. I couldn't blame him, I liked to lay that way, too. He didn't hear me step into the room, nor did he see me because he had his eyes closed. I walked over to the tub and surveyed the room. He was alone. His muscular chest was matted with wet black hair. His cock, though limp, must have been about six inches long. I knew that it would grow to at least eight inches when erect. My own organ began to stir in my tight jeans and I took a deep breath. I knew I should go invisible and not let him know that I was there, but I couldn't. I was expecting trick- or-treaters any minute. When they knocked on the door, he would get worried and come rushing out to see what was going on.

I sat down on the edge of the tub. "Gavin?" I asked softly.

He jumped and sat up. "Shane," he said, looking around, "what are you doing here?"

"I was going to ask you the same thing. This is my grandparent's house." I had to be careful not to say, great great grandparents. Normal people's great great grandparents didn't live long enough for the youngest family members to actually know them. "I came up to house-sit for the night. Last year some kids broke in and did some damage. I want to make sure that doesn't happen this year."

To my delight, Gavin made no attempt to cover himself as he spoke. "I'm up here on a dare from some of the frat boys. They said I had to spend the night alone here. They didn't think I would."

"What do you get if you do?" I wanted to know.

He shrugged. "I get to join the frat house."

"Doesn't sound like that would be worth much, but you don't have to worry about spending the night here. There are no ghosts or goblins running around here. Of course, the frat boys might happen by and try something."

"That's what I'm worried about," he said.

"So, how did you get in here? All the doors and windows are locked."

"One of the guys is pretty good at jimmying locks. Since the lock on the back door is so old, it didn't take him much to get in. He said if they had been dead-bolts, he wouldn't have been able to get us in. I've made the rounds and made sure all the doors and windows are locked so unless James jimmies the lock again, they can't pull anything."

"I'll be sure to put new locks on the doors," I said, tilting my head to the left. A couple of dead bolts instantly appeared on the front and back doors and were locked securely. James wouldn't be getting in again tonight.

"So I guess you'll be disqualified if they find out that I stay here tonight, then, huh?" I asked as thunder shook the house. I could hear rain on the window above the tub. The kids wouldn't be showing up tonight.

Gavin pushed himself up and I moved out of the way so he could get out. He had left a towel on the toilet so I handed it to him.

"Thanks, Shane," he said, softly. "I guess so. But I don't really know how they'll find out. I won't tell them and I'm sure that this house is big enough that if they do sneak in, you can sleep upstairs somewhere and they won't find you."

My heart sank. I had hoped to sleep with him. Leaning against the sink, I watched him dry off. He didn't try to cover himself up as he dried off and continued to talk to me. "This house is pretty strange," he said. "This is the only bathroom that I found and there wasn't any running water in the kitchen. This is also the only room that had electricity in it, which I found odd since your grandparents moved out of here a couple of years ago."

"This is an old house, Gavin," I said. "Originally there was an out-house by the fence in the back yard, but it fell down when I was little." I didn't mention that I had been practicing levitation and had actually dropped it. I had tried to put it back together, but couldn't get the spell right. Dad was going to do it for me but Gramps told him to wait until I figured out how to do it myself, then it was forgotten and I never did. I made a mental note to do that in the morning when I cleaned up the yard. "My grandmother decided to put in this bathroom," I continued. I decided it would be a good idea to add electricity if he was going to spend the night there. It wouldn't hurt to modernize the kitchen a little either. I knew we'd be hungry by morning and a zapped up breakfast would be hard to explain. "There's a generator in the basement. I can't really imagine that all the lights in the other rooms were burned out, but I'll go check on them."

"I just didn't see any light switches," he said as I followed him into the guest room.

"Oh? It's right here," I said, flipping on the light in the room. Of course it hadn't been there until a few seconds before.

He frowned. "I guess the thought of spending the night here had me on edge worse than I thought it was going to," he said. "I could have sworn that switch wasn't there when I got here."

"It was dark in here, wasn't it?" I asked; he nodded. "I guess you just missed it."

"I guess so," he agreed.

I watched him put his tight jeans on, he didn't bother putting any underwear on and his tight jeans didn't leave much to the imagination. He pulled a sweater on over his head and then sat down on the edge of the bed to put on his socks and shoes.

"It's only eight o'clock," he said, glancing at his watch as he tied his shoe laces. "What do you want to do before bedtime?"

"I had planned on serving the trick-or-treaters," I admitted, "but now that it's raining, they won't come up here."

"Since everyone knows this place is vacant, would they have anyway?"

I shrugged. "As long as there's a light on up here, they'll come up. At least they did when my grandparents lived here."

"Why did they move, anyway?" he asked, leading me toward the hallway. "Did they die?"

"Oh, no. They're fine," I replied as we walked into the parlor. When I had put the generator in the basement, I had replaced the candles in the chandelier with real light bulbs. "They found a real nice chateau on the French Riviera."

"I don't blame them, actually," he said, "I couldn't imagine living here anyway."

"Oh, it's not too bad," I admitted. "I have thought about moving in here myself, but I really don't need more than just the parlor and the bedroom down here for just myself. I guess I could rent out the upper floors."

He chuckled. "I don't think you'd get any renters, Shane. I mean this place is really spooky."

I smiled as I remembered how the house looked when I had arrived that evening. He was right. "True, but if the price was right, they might take me up on it."

"Yeah, if it was cheap enough, you might get away with it," he agreed.

"I didn't realize that you were from a rich family, Shane," he added, stepping over to the window. "I knew your parents own a boutique downtown, but didn't think it made much money."

Mother and Dad had bought a boutique that sold knick-knacks and things. Mostly they zapped up the stuff and claimed they made it themselves, which they did, just not the way people thought they had.

"It's mostly just to give them something to do," I admitted as he pulled the drapes open. "I wouldn't say that we were rich, Gavin, but money has never been a problem with my family."

He frowned and looked at his watch again. "How long have you been here, Shane?"

"I was here about five minutes before I found you. Why?"

"Did you put those pumpkins out on the sidewalk?"

"Yeah. Have they gone out from the rain?" I asked, joining him at the window. I realized too late that was a mistake. If his frat friends were watching, they could see us both in the window since the lights were on.

"No, I just thought they looked neat, that's all," he said, stepping away from the window. Apparently he hadn't thought about us being seen so I didn't mention it to him.

"I guess you brought this, too, huh?" he asked, gesturing to the plastic jack-o-lantern full of assorted candies that I had left setting on the floor beside the hall door.

"Yes, I did. Help yourself. It's not poisoned."

He grinned and pulled out a miniature Snickers bar. "Thanks. I brought some beer, you want one?" he asked.

"Thank you. No," I replied, shaking my head. "I don't care for the taste of it. I brought some soda, though, so you go ahead and help yourself."

He went back into the guest room and I headed for the kitchen. I figured I'd better get it out of the ice box instead of making it materialize in my hand. I had just opened the ice box door when I heard something at the back door. I looked through the closed door - there wasn't a window on it, so no one could see in. Using my night-vision, I could see that there were two guys dressed in hooded slickers. One was trying to jimmy the door. "I don't know," he said, "that dead bolt wasn't there earlier."

"Shit. How could Sanders have put it on there so fast?" the other wanted to know. "He would have had to drill a hole and everything."

"I don't know. I'm also wanting to know where those jack-o- lanterns on the front sidewalk came from. I get the feeling he's not alone here."

"So do I," the second agreed.

"Come on, let's go around front and knock on the door."

I grinned. I didn't want to miss my chance of scaring these two guys shitless, but I couldn't let Gavin catch me doing it, either. Forgetting the soda, I dashed back through the hallway to the front door. The outside torches I had changed to lights, so they were still burning.

I noticed that Gavin was back in the parlor as I dashed by. He didn't notice me. He had moved a throw sheet from the couch and was sitting on the couch while staring at the fire in the hearth, eating the candy and sipping his beer. The drapes were still open. That was good. They hadn't seen me, but when they went by the front window, they could see that he was alone and I could get some fun in without him losing his membership.

I quickly got rid of the outside decorations and waited for the guys to get to the front door.

"Look, there's Gavin in the living room," one whispered as he stepped up on the porch. "He looks like he's alone."

"Yeah, but where did the jack-o-lanterns go?" the other asked.

"I don't know. The scarecrow is gone, too."

Using a freeze-spell on Gavin so he would stay put and not know what was happening, I turned myself almost invisible. I changed so that I had no legs or feet, but was just a bubble - like Casper and his uncles in the cartoons. If the guys saw me in town anytime in the future, they wouldn't recognize me, that I was sure of.

As the guys reached the door, I got the plastic jack-o-lantern that I had filled with sorted candies for the kids and flew through the door. "Hi, guys!" I yelled as they jumped back, startled. One toppled down the stairs and landed on his back. I was worried that he had hit his head, but he scrambled to his feet and dashed down the sidewalk, so I figured he was okay.

"Wait!" I called. "Don't you want your candy?"

The other was right behind him. They shoved the gate open and kept running.

I went back through the door and returned to my natural state, then unfroze Gavin. He had no idea what had happened.

I sat the candy back on the floor and went over to the window and looked out into the darkness. I made sure that I stayed to the right of the window so they couldn't see me. Using my night- vision, I could see they were huddled on the other side of their car, which was parked down the road a little way. I listened to hear what they were saying.

"Shit, that was a fucking ghost, James. We can't let Gavin stay there with a ghost all by himself all night."

"Calm down, Carl," James said. "I'm trying to think of a way to get him outta there. I'm damn sure not going back up to the house."

"We have to," Carl replied.

"Wait a minute," James said, thoughtfully. "That ghost wanted to give us candy. He wasn't wanting to hurt us. He thought we were trick-or-treaters."

"Yeah. So?"

"Come on. We've got to get Gavin outta there," James said, heading for the gate again.

"What's out there?" Gavin asked. I jumped. I hadn't seen him come back to the window.

"I think your frat-friends are," I replied. "I'll go upstairs; you stay here. If they think you're not alone, let them tour the house. I played in this house a lot when I was growing up and I know all the places to hide; they won't find me, nor will they know I'm here."

"Okay. Thanks, Shane," Gavin replied.

I slipped out into the hallway and went invisible. I wasn't going to miss this for anything. Luckily, I had left nothing but the candy and he would need that for any trick-or-treaters who came along.

A moment later, I heard the board creak on the front porch. I looked through the door and noticed the guys were cautiously making their way toward the door. How I wished I could scare them again, but I figured I'd better not, for Gavin's sake.

"He hasn't come out yet," James whispered.

"I guess we'd better knock, then," Carl replied.

"Yeah. Probably."

I glanced back into the parlor and noticed that Gavin had sat back down on the couch and was waiting for them to do whatever they were going to do.

Finally James lifted the heavy knocker and let it fall. The resounding thud echoed through the old house. Gavin got up and walked nonchalantly to the front door and unlocked it. He glanced back at the staircase in the hallway, then opened the door. It cried out as if in pain. I had to remember to oil the hinges; since that door hadn't been opened in several years.

James jumped back a little but relaxed when he noticed that Gavin stood there. "What are you doing here?" Gavin asked.

"Come on," Carl said, quickly in a hushed tone, grabbing him by the arm. "We've got to get the fuck outta here."

Gavin grinned and pulled away. "Have you been drinking?" he asked. "What's wrong with you two? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"We have," James said, nervously. "Come on. You passed your test. Get your shit and let's get outta here."

"What do you mean you've seen a ghost?" Gavin wanted to know. "I've been here for almost an hour now and haven't seen anything."

"Look, Gavin," Carl said, "we went back to the dorm and got some sheets so we could play a trick on you. When we got back there were jack-o-lanterns lined up on the sidewalk out here and there was a headless scarecrow on the swing. We went to the back door and it was dead-bolted. We came around here to knock on the door because we thought you weren't alone and a ghost flew out and offered us candy. Now the jack-o-lanterns are gone and so is the scarecrow. So if this place ain't haunted, where'd they go and where did the dead-bolts come from?"

I noticed a quizzical look on Gavin's handsome face as he looked out at the yard. He had seen the decorations himself. How was I going to explain them missing, now? Quickly, I got rid of the dead-bolts, just to add to the confusion. However, I knew that Gavin had unlocked the ones on the front door before he opened it.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he finally said. "I never saw any jack-o-lanterns or scarecrows. And, as you can plainly see, there are no dead-bolts on this door. There are no live-bolts either, for that matter. We can go check the back door if you like."

"No, thanks. I'm not setting foot in that house," Carl spoke up. "Just get your stuff and let's go. Okay?"

Gavin sighed. I could tell he wanted to stay so he could ask me about the decorations and dead-bolts. "Okay, fine," he resigned. "Would you at least come in and help me get the ice chest?"

"Well," Carl said, reluctantly, "I guess so."

James followed Carl in and Gavin left the door open as he lead them into the guest room. He shoved his clothes back into his bag while they picked up the ice chest and carried it out to the front porch.

I followed him into the parlor and he closed the drapes and shut out the light. "I guess I'll not spend the night here after all," he said, looking up the stairs. Since the house was so big, his deep voice echoed through the hallway and he knew that if I were on the second floor I would be able to hear him. "So all you ghosts can have it to yourselves tonight."

"Would you hurry up?" Carl called from the door.

"I was just saying good night to the ghosts," Gavin replied, stepping out the door and closing it behind him. I floated to the door and looked through it and watched them walk down the sidewalk to the front gate. Now I knew how Casper felt. It would have been really nice if Gavin had spent the night, but, alas, just by having a little fun with his friends, I had scared him off.

It was a little past ten when I finally decided that no one was going to come trick-or-treating. I cleaned up the house, the front yard and rebuilt the out-house - I'd tell Gramps when he got back from Jupiter the next day - and repaired all the squeaky boards and oiled the hinges on the doors. I also put the dead- bolts back on the doors and locked them.

I had enjoyed the storm, but it had passed shortly after the guys had left. I took a shower and decided I'd sleep in the guest room. It was the closest bedroom to the front door and I'd be able to hear if anyone tried to get in the back door, too.

After placing a couple of logs in the fireplace in the guest room and lighting the fire, I crawled into bed and yawned. It would have been nice if Gavin had come back, at least. I had really expected him to, but I figured that the guys wouldn't let him. However, I guess I was really glad he hadn't. I had no idea what I was going to tell him when he asked how I had made the jack- o-lanterns and the scarecrow disappear and the dead-bolts.

I had just sunk back against the pillow and started to close my eyes when I noticed a movement beside the fireplace.

"What are you doing here, Brandon?" I asked, sleepily.

Sitting down on the edge of the bed, he replied, "I didn't feel like spending the night on Jupiter, so I was heading home and thought I'd stop by to see how your evening went. The place looks nice. I see you finally fixed the out-house."

I chuckled. I wished that I could scan as well as he did. Of course, I had never been real good at studying when we were growing up so there were a lot of things that Brandon did better than me. "Thanks," I said and explained what had happened with Gavin and his frat-friends.

"Oh, you shouldn't have done that," he said when I finished.

"That's what I'm thinking, too. What am I going to tell him?"

"Before tonight, you haven't seen him since graduation, have you?"

"No," I replied.

"Good. If you do happen to see him again and he says anything, just tell him that you have no idea what he's talking about and that you haven't seen him since graduation. That would be your best bet."

"I think I'd rather turn time back and re-do this evening," I said.

"Well, you know that's not against the rules, Shane," Brandon said, "but the Council frowns upon it."

"Yeah, I know," I replied. "I don't really know what I'd do different if I did turn time back, except not to scare them as a ghost. But that was fun."

"I bet."

He took his shoes off and lay down beside me. "So what's the deal with this Gavin guy?" he asked.

"He's just a friend, Brandon."

"But you want him, don't you?"

"Yeah," I admitted. I sat up and adjusted the pillow behind my back. "Brandon?" I asked.

"Yeah?"

"Have you ever turned time back?"

"No. I haven't needed to."

"I haven't either. I'm reluctant to do it because I might screw something up."

"The spell is in the book," he said, pulling the large spell book out of thin air and handing it to me.

"Thanks." I held the book in my hands for a moment. It must have weighed a ton. It was about twelve inches thick and fourteen inches long. I didn't see why they hadn't broken it up like they did the encyclopedia. I glanced over at Brandon. He was almost asleep.

"Brandon?"

"Mm?"

"Would you go with me to ask Dad if it's okay if I do this?"

He yawned and stretched. "Alright. They're at The Moonbeam Lounge on Jupiter." He grinned at me as he sat up. "I'll race you."

"Deal," I replied, snapping my fingers.

The Moonbeam Lounge was packed. Most of the witches and warlocks who didn't want to deal with the mortal images of them at Halloween were already there.

"Darling, what are you doing here?" Mom asked, kissing me on the cheek. "Is everything okay at the house?"

"Not really, Mom," I admitted, looking around for Brandon. Where was he?

"What happened?" she asked, handing me a root beer that she materialized for me.

"Thanks, Mom. I made a mistake and wanted to talk to Dad about it. Where is he?" I asked.

"He was dancing with your Aunt Christine the last time I saw him," she admitted. "What kind of mistake?"

"Can I wait to tell you both together?"

"Certainly," she replied. She snapped her fingers and Dad was standing next to us. "Don't do that, Cathy," he scolded. "I was just about to dip your sister and I would have dropped her."

"Sorry, dear," Mom said, "but Shane needs to talk to us."

Dad materialized himself a glass of champagne and took a sip. "Let's go sit over here," he said, motioning to a table in the corner.

We had just sat down at the table when Brandon popped in.

"What took you so long?" I asked, glancing at my watch. "It took you a full three minutes to get here."

He blushed and looked at Mom and Dad. "You were supposed to fly, not use molecular transfer," he replied, sitting down in a chair next to me.

"No one said anything about flying," I replied. "I won."

Brandon materialized himself a bottle of beer and took a swig.

"Okay, what's going on, kids?" Dad asked.

Reluctantly, I explained what had happened with Gavin and his frat-friends. I even told them that I found him in the bathtub. Dad had a way of knowing when I was lying, so I figured I'd tell him everything.

"And what I'd like to do," I concluded, "is turn time back to when I got there so I won't put the dead-bolts in or scare the frat-boys.

"I have the spell here in the book," I said, making the book appear on the table in front of me, open to the spell I needed. "But I have never done this before and I wanted to make sure it's okay before I do."

Mom and Dad exchanged glances. I figured they were using telepathy to discuss what they thought I should do. They did that a lot.

Dad finished off his champagne and made the glass disappear before speaking. "First of all," he said, "I want to thank you, Shane, for coming to your mother and me about this before going ahead with it. Secondly, normally I do not approve of any messing with time. However, your mother and I have discussed this," - I knew they had used telepathy - "and we agree that because it could make all of our lives difficult, not just yours, we're going to let you do this."

"Thanks, Dad," I said. "Would you mind doing the spell for me?" I asked, hopefully.

He grinned at me and shook his head. "No, son. You're a big boy now, you can do it yourself. Just read it and concentrate. You'll do fine."

"Okay," I said.

I hugged the three of them and thanked Brandon for being there with me while I told them. "I'll see you all tomorrow," I promised. I placed my hand on the book, read the spell and snapped my fingers and I was standing on the front porch of the house.

I glanced at my watch. It was about seven-forty-five. It was too late for trick-or-treaters anyway. Oh, well, I wouldn't go back in time any further. This was far enough. This time I scanned the house and was just in time to see Gavin sink into the tub.

Remembering what had happened when Gavin had opened the front door, I made sure to oil the hinges. I had felt he would have asked about that when he called me the next day. Just to be on the safe side, I materialized a key to the front door and opened it and went in. The door gave me no trouble. Continuing into the parlor, I went ahead and placed a fresh set of candles in the chandelier and lit them and put a fire in the hearth. Since I knew that Gavin had already investigated the house and hadn't found any light switches, I'd be better off not adding electricity to the house.

Making my way into the kitchen, I cleaned the dust and cobwebs out of the ice box and stocked it with a fresh block of ice and some groceries so Gavin and I could have something to eat later and for breakfast. Since there was a gas stove in the corner that had only been used a couple of times, I figured I'd zap up a butane camping cook-stove that I'd seen on TV just recently. It would allow me to cook breakfast anyway.

I had just started for the guest room when I remembered that he was supposed to be alone for the entire night. The guys would be back in about half an hour and they'd see the stuff I had brought in, first. Quickly, with one snap of my fingers, I returned the kitchen to the way it had been and popped into the guest room, just outside of the beam of light from the bathroom.

Gavin was lying back in the claw-footed tub with his eyes closed. I walked in and sat down on the edge of the tub.

"Gavin?" I asked, softly.

He jumped and sat up. "Shane," he said, looking around, "what are you doing here?"

"I was going to ask you the same thing. This is my grandparent's house. I came up to house-sit for the night. Last year some kids broke in and did some damage. I want to make sure that doesn't happen this year."

"I'm up here on a dare from some of the frat boys. They said I had to spend the night alone here. They didn't think I would."

"What do you get if you do?" I wanted to know.

He shrugged. "I get to join the frat house."

"Doesn't sound like that would be worth much, but you don't have to worry about spending the night here. There are no ghosts or goblins running around here. Of course, the frat boys might happen by and try something."

"That's what I'm worried about," he said.

"So, how did you get in here? All the doors and windows are locked."

"One of the guys is pretty good at jimmying locks. Since the lock on the back door is so old, it didn't take him much to get in. He said if they had been dead-bolts, he wouldn't have been able to get us in. I've made the rounds and made sure all the doors and windows are locked so unless James jimmies the lock again, they can't pull anything."

"I'll be sure to put new locks on the doors," I said. This time I didn't go ahead and put them on.

"So I guess you'll be disqualified if they find out that I stay here tonight, then, huh?" I asked as thunder shook the house. I could hear rain on the window above the tub.

Gavin pushed himself up and I moved out of the way so he could get out. He had left a towel on the toilet so I handed it to him.

"Thanks, Shane," he said, softly. "I guess so. But I don't really know how they'll find out. I won't tell them and I'm sure that this house is big enough that if they do sneak in, you can sleep upstairs somewhere and they won't find you."

Leaning against the sink, I watched him dry off. Again, he didn't try to cover himself up as he dried off and continued to talk to me. "This house is pretty strange," he said. "This is the only bathroom that I found and there wasn't any running water in the kitchen. This is also the only room that had electricity in it, which I found odd since your grandparents moved out of here a couple of years ago."

"This is an old house, Gavin," I said. "Originally there was an out-house by the fence in the back yard, but it fell down when I was little, so my grandmother decided to put in this bathroom."

I followed him into the guest room and pulled a lighter out of thin air and lit a couple of candles that were on the mantel.

"Thanks," he said. "It's kind of hard to see in here."

"Yeah. I'm thinking about putting a generator in the basement."

"Good idea," he agreed.

I watched him put his tight jeans on, he didn't bother putting any underwear on and his jeans didn't leave much to the imagination. He pulled a sweater on over his head before sitting down on the edge of the bed to put on his socks and shoes.

"It's only eight o'clock," he said, glancing at his watch as he tied his shoe laces. "What do you want to do before bedtime?"

"I had planned on serving the trick-or-treaters," I admitted, "but now that it's raining, they won't come up here. I really think that I should have been here around five to get ready for them, but I just got back from visiting my grandparents."

"Since everyone knows this place is vacant, would they have come anyway?"

I shrugged. "As long as there's a light on up here, they'll come up. At least they did when my grandparents lived here."

"Why did they move, anyway?" he asked, leading me toward the hallway. "Did they die?"

"Oh, no. They're fine," I replied as we walked into the parlor. "They found a real nice chateau on the French Riviera."

"I don't blame them, actually," he said, "I couldn't imagine living here anyway."

"Oh, it's not too bad," I admitted. "I have thought about moving in here myself, but I really don't need more than just the parlor and the bedroom down here for just myself. I guess I could rent out the upper floors."

He chuckled. "I don't think you'd get any renters, Shane. I mean this place is really spooky."

I smiled as I remembered how the house looked when I had arrived that evening. He was right. "True, but if the price was right, they might take me up on it."

"Yeah, if it was cheap enough, you might get away with it," he agreed.

"I didn't realize that you were from a rich family, Shane," he added, stepping over to the window. I made sure to stay back in the shadows so the guys wouldn't be able to see me when he opened the drapes. Although they hadn't the first time around, I had just changed something and couldn't take any chances. "I know your parents own a boutique downtown, but didn't think it made much money."

"It's mostly just to give them something to do," I admitted as he pulled the drapes open. "I wouldn't say that we were rich, Gavin, but money has never been a problem with my family."

"It looks like it's going to be a long night, Shane," he said. "I brought some beer, you want one?"

"No, thank you," I replied, shaking my head. "I don't care for the taste of it. I brought some soda, though, so you go ahead and help yourself."

"Okay," he said, heading for the guest room.

"Oh, Gavin," I said, "I'm going to run up to my old room and check on something. I'll be back in a little bit."

"Okay," he said, pausing at the door. "Where's your old room?"

"Fourth floor. Last one on the right. It's got a great view of the west. I want to see what the storm's doing."

"Good idea," he agreed. "I'll come up with you."

"No, your frat-friends might come back, you might ought to stay down here. You don't want them to see me."

He nodded. "Good idea."

I dashed up the stairs as he went to the guest room where he had left his ice chest. Going invisible, I popped into the kitchen just as the door opened and James and Carl snuck in. Perfect timing.

Carl closed and locked the door. "Now remember," James whispered, "we don't want him to find us. We'll sneak down to the basement until midnight, then we'll come up and scare the shit out of him. He should be asleep by then."

"Okay," Carl replied, softly.

So that was the plan that I had screwed up. I had thought that eight-fifteen was a little early for them to try to scare him off. I followed them down the stairs to the basement. They had closed the door and James had a flashlight, so it was easy for them to see where they were going.

Carl carried a bundle that I soon discovered was two sleeping bags and James had a sack with two large white sheets and a blanket in it. They were going to play ghosts at midnight, it appeared.

The basement was musty. It had been a long time since I'd been down there, myself.

James spread out the blanket on the floor and Carl placed their sleeping bags on top of it, then, after removing their slickers and coats, they laid down on top of the bags and James said, softly, "Luckily he can't hear us down here as long as we're real quiet. But there's a vent right here and we can hear him in the living room if he has any guests."

That was new to me, I had no idea that vent was there. "Thanks for letting me know about that, James," I said, aloud. Of course, he couldn't hear me because I was invisible.

At first I thought I would let Gavin know the guys were in the basement, but then I thought better of it. If he knew he might spoil his chances at getting to be a frat-boy and I got the feeling he really wanted to be in the fraternity.

Snapping my fingers, I popped back up into the parlor. Gavin had moved the throw sheet from the couch and was looking into the fire as he sipped his beer. I glanced around and found the vent, then popped back downstairs to see what the boys could hear. I heard nothing. Not even the popping of the embers in the hearth. This was good. This meant that they would only be able to hear talking or any other loud noises. Returning to the parlor, I pointed at the vent and made sure they couldn't hear anything, period.

Figuring he might ask me what I saw out the window, I popped up to my old room and looked out the window. Miles of darkness stretched out before me. Occasionally lightening would illuminate the area, but basically there was nothing I could see. Of course, that's what I would tell him. However, using my night-vision the view was absolutely magnificent. I could see for miles from this window. Hayden was on the other side of the house, so I couldn't see it, but on my side there was nothing but trees as far as the human eye could see, but I could see a stream in the distance that ran through the woods. I had loved to sit up there when I was little and just stare out the window. Occasionally, I had popped up onto the roof to get a better view and sometimes Brandon and I would fly over the area.

Deciding I'd better re-join Gavin, I materialized in the hallway downstairs with a glass of soda and walked in and sat down beside him on the sofa.

"How'd it look?" he asked.

"Too dark to see," I replied. "But when it lightened, the clouds looked pretty dark."

"Hope it's not too bad of a storm, then," he said. "I wish I had thought to bring my transistor radio."

"Do the guys know you didn't bring it?" I asked.

"No. They don't know what I have in my bag," he admitted.

"Good," I replied. "I brought my portable TV. We can watch it if you want. It also has an AM/FM radio."

"Wow, that sounds nice," he agreed. "Does it happen to have a VCR and you just happened to bring some good movies to watch?"

I could see the twinkle in his eye as he grinned at me. I bit my lower lip to keep from saying, "It can if you want it to." We could have been having such a good time if he had known I was a warlock.

"No," I replied, getting to my feet. "But it is color, at least. I'll go get it."

"Where'd you put your stuff?" he asked as I headed for the parlor door.

"In the hall closet," I replied. I was thankful that he didn't follow me to see what all I had brought, since there was nothing in the hall closet at the moment.

Opening the closet door, I scanned the basement. The guys had turned off their flashlight and had actually gone to sleep. It would be so much fun to have a ghost wake them up, but I knew that I couldn't do that. I had to let their plan fall into place or they or Gavin might find out that we weren't normal. Dad might not let me turn time back again if that happened.

I decided I should put a bag in the closet so that if I needed anything else, which I would when we went to bed, I wouldn't get caught zapping it up if he was with me when I got it. I picked up the large boom-box looking TV. It had dual speakers, an AM/FM radio, twin cassettes, a CD player on top, and a nine-inch color TV right above the cassettes. The digital readout for the CD and radio bands doubled as a clock. It was pretty heavy, but I managed to carry into the parlor without any supernatural help.

"Holy shit, Shane, where'd you get that?" he asked, stunned at the size of it as I placed it on a table next to the fireplace.

"Out of the hall closet," I replied with a grin.

He had gotten up and came over to look at it closer; he glanced up at me and smiled. "It's really neat. I wouldn't mind having one of these myself. It must have cost a fortune. Who makes it? It doesn't have a name on it."

"I don't know," I replied. I didn't know if anyone made anything like it. "It was a gift."

"Wow. I wish someone would give me something like this. It'd be great to have, living in the dorm."

Well, I had blown that. If I hadn't told him it was a gift, I could have just let him have it. I could zap them up all day. "I'll see if he'll tell me where he got it and will get you one," I promised.

"Thanks, I appreciate it," he said, looking at the back. He noticed that it was cable ready and the remote was hooked to the back of it.

"Too bad we don't have cable," I said. "But it will get the local channels pretty good with just the antenna, especially since we're up on this hill."

I unhooked the remote and we sat back down on the couch as I turned it on. "Here, you do the honors," I said, offering him the remote.

"Thanks. This is so cool." He was like a kid with a new toy as he flipped through the channels. I fought the urge to make the TV pick up everything our local cable had to offer.

He finally found a station that was playing Halloween cartoons and asked if I wanted to watch them. "As long as you're sure you won't get scared, being in this house," I replied.

"I promise," he said.

"Okay." I grinned at him then looked at the screen and scanned the basement again. Our two "ghosts" were still sound asleep.

After a few minutes of watching the cartoons, Gavin kicked his shoes off and laid down on the couch, placing his feet in my lap.

"Hey, Shane?" he said softly as a commercial came on.

"Yeah?"

"Do you think there really are ghosts and goblins?"

I smiled at him and rubbed his leg. He glanced down at my hand, then back up at me. He didn't stop me. "Well, I don't know any personally, but I can guarantee you that there are no real ghosts or goblins in this house."

"But do you believe in them?" he asked again.

I frowned. I hadn't discussed ghosts and goblins with my folks, so I wasn't sure if there really were any. I'd have to ask Gramps, since he knew so much. If there were any, he'd probably know them personally. "I don't know," I finally admitted. "I guess there could be. We really don't know what all is going on in this world."

"That's true," he agreed.

"What about you?" I asked.

He shrugged. "I don't know, either. I guess there could be. Goblins at least. I'm not too sure about ghosts. I believe there are angels, so maybe there could be ghosts."

"That's a good point," I agreed, moving his feet so I could get up and put another log on the fire. I didn't know any angels either.

Keeping my eye on the "ghosts" in the basement, we watched the cartoons. Occasionally there was a weather update as the storm moved over town. By ten o'clock, the storm had passed, but we stayed up and watched the news anyway.

By ten-thirty when the news went off, I had slid down and had my head on the arm of the couch and our bottoms were almost touching. Gavin stood up and stretched and yawned. "It's probably going to be cold in the bedroom down here," he said. "I noticed there's a fireplace in there. Do you think it'd be okay for me to start a fire in there?"

"Sure," I replied, getting up. "I'll put this up."

I lowered the antenna and he took it from me and carried it back to the hallway. "Damn, this thing is heavy."

"Yeah, but it really has to be."

"I guess you're right," he agreed, setting it inside the closet. Now I was thankful that I had put my bag in there. He picked it up and handed it to me. "If you want to take a shower before we go to bed, go ahead."

"Thanks," I replied. "I do."

I followed Gavin into the bedroom and he took a deep breath as he looked at the dusty fireplace. It hadn't been used in years, but there were four logs in the bin. They were covered in dust.

"Do you think you can manage it?" I asked as he picked up one of the logs and placed it on the dusty grate.

"I hope so," he replied, dusty off his hands. "But I gotta piss first."

He went into the bathroom and turned on the light. I could hear him urinating, so I knew that his back was to the door and he couldn't see me or the fireplace. I nodded my head and the other three logs were on the grate and the bottom one burst into flames. They were very dry, so I knew they wouldn't burn long.

I sat my bag down on the floor by the bathroom door and returned to the parlor. I knew it wouldn't take much longer for him to finish in the bathroom, so I picked up the last two logs out of the bin and snuffed out the candles with one snap of my fingers.

"Wow, you work fast," Gavin said as I walked back into the bedroom. He had removed his shirt and unbuttoned his jeans.

Placing the logs in the bin, I replied, "Yeah, they're real dry so they started very easy. Unfortunately, they're going to burn real fast and these are the last two we have in the house."

"Oh," he said. "Well, I guess that means you'd better sleep down here with me, then. I don't want the guys to find you, but I'm not going to let you sleep where it's cold, either."

"Thanks," I said. "I think I can make sure the guys don't see me. I'm a light sleeper. If they come in the back door, I'll hear them and hide before they find you."

"Okay. If you're sure."

"I'm sure," I promised, picking up my bag. I went into the bathroom but left the door open. I figured he might need the light since I had only left one candle burning on the mantle. That and the light from the fire wouldn't be enough for him to read something if he wanted to.

While I was taking a shower, Brandon stuck his head through the shower door and asked, "What's going on here?"

I put my finger on his lips and we were both invisible.

He stepped into the shower. Now that we were invisible, neither of us were getting wet. Since I had been the one to turn time back, I was the only one who knew what had happened the first time around so he didn't know I had turned back time. The conversation we had had earlier and our race to Jupiter, hadn't happened.

"Now who's the guy in bed in there, naked, I might add and who are the two guys asleep in the basement? Or did you know about them?"

"Yes, I know," I replied and explained that I had arrived and found Gavin in the tub and that he had to spend the night alone so he could join the fraternity. "The guys in the basement are going to try to scare him at midnight. I'm tempted to keep them asleep all night, though, but I don't think I'd better interfere." I wasn't going to tell him that I had already turned time back once because I had messed up.

"Good idea," he agreed. "Okay. If you need anything, I'll be at home, just call me."

"Okay. Thanks, Brandon," I said as he ran his eyes over my slender body. It had been several years since he'd seen me nude.

He leaned over and kissed me on the cheek and he was gone. I felt the warm water hitting me again, so I knew he had made me visible again as he left.

After finishing my shower, I dried off with a towel that I had in my bag and went back into the bedroom. Gavin was lying on his back on the side closest to the fireplace and the bedroom door.

"Do you think we should close the door?" he asked.

"If we do, I might not hear the guys come in."

"That's a good point," he agreed.

I blew out the candle on the mantle; Gavin noticed that I was still nude, but didn't say anything. I scanned under the cover and, as Brandon had said, discovered that he was, too. It took more concentration to keep from getting an erection than it had taken to turn time back, knowing that I was going to sleep nude in the same bed with this hunk.

"Thanks for not throwing a fit when you found out that we broke in here tonight, Shane," Gavin said softly as I laid down next to him. I could feel the heat from his body and fought the urge to rest my head on his chest.

"If it hadn't been you, I would have," I admitted.

"I know."

"I'll get some dead bolts for the doors tomorrow so no one does this again. I might not be here to scare off the ghosts for the next person."

"Good idea," he agreed, rolling onto his side with his back to me. "Good night, Shane."

"Good night, Gavin. Sleep tight. I'll keep an ear to the back door so when James jimmies it, I'll get up and go hide."

"Thanks. I appreciate that."

I scanned the basement again. The guys were still asleep. I rolled onto my side with my back to Gavin and locked my senses onto the basement so that when they got up, I'd be notified.

My eyes popped open. I heard a beep. I checked the basement. Carl's watch was beeping and it read midnight. Carl moaned and shut it off, then shook James. "It's midnight, man," he said. "Let's get him."

"Okay," James said, stretching.

It was then I realized I was lying with my head on Gavin's warm hairy chest. His arm was around me.

Reluctantly, I eased out of his warm hold and pulled the cover up over him. The fire had already burned out, so I added a couple more logs to the grate and lit them. I knew the guys would be up shortly, so I snuck into the bathroom and urinated, then, snapping my fingers, got dressed and got rid of my bag, jam-box/TV and all evidence I had been there and went invisible. I floated back into the bedroom and waited for them to make their entrance.

I jumped as Brandon appeared beside me and asked, "Did you warn him they are here?"

"Don't do that," I scolded.

"You're a warlock," he reminded me. "You're not supposed to get scared."

"I wasn't expecting you," I replied.

"I know, but you're supposed to keep your senses tuned for such surprises at all times."

"Yes, Gramps," I retorted, sarcastically. "I know that, but that's hard to do when you're concentrating on keeping an eye on these two goons who want to scare Gavin."

"You don't have to get snide with me, Shane. You just need to learn how to be prepared all the time."

"I'm sorry," I replied. "No, I haven't told him. I didn't want to upset the course of the Mortal Realm. I know that if they find out that I'm here, they won't let him in the fraternity."

"It's probably for the best you didn't, then," he agreed.

"What are you doing here?" I asked as James started up the stairs to the kitchen.

"You didn't expect me to sleep through this, did you?" he asked. "Watching these guys scare the shit outta this guy is going to be hilarious."

I looked sadly down at Gavin as he continued to snore softly. He had no idea what was going to happen. I was tempted to transport him up to my room and make the guys look for him.

Brandon put his arm around me and pulled me against him. "It'll be okay, Shane," he said, softly. "I'm sure he won't get hurt."

"It's just that he expected me to wake him up when I heard them come in," I said as they entered the kitchen, "and I didn't."

"You couldn't. If he were up expecting them, they might not believe that he is alone. While they would never find you, they would just think this is such a big house that you keep changing rooms or you know where the secret passages are and stay hidden."

"That's true," I agreed, but his logic didn't make me feel any better.

"Boy, you really have it bad for him, don't you?" Brandon asked. "Did he do you?"

"Brandon," I scolded. "You know I don't kiss and tell."

He chuckled as the guys pulled the sheets over their heads. "In other words, he didn't," he said.

"No," I replied.

"Just as well. If you became a couple you'd have to tell him you are a warlock then if you ever broke up you'd have to turn him into an inanimate object and that would raise all sorts of questions in the Mortal Realm. That's why it's best we don't mess with mortals."

"That's true, but you know what the gay population of warlocks are. Zilch." I knew that I wasn't the only gay warlock, but the few others that I knew of were already together as couples or weren't interested in a serious relationship.

James and Carl headed for the hall door and Carl asked, "Do you know where he is?"

"Shh," James snapped. "This house echoes too much, he might hear us. Be very quiet. Yes, he's in the bedroom with the bathroom."

Again I fought the urge to send him up to my room so they'd have to hunt for him.

"Good, he's got a fire going in the bedroom," James whispered. Carl didn't reply. I found it interesting that James had told Carl to be quiet, but James wasn't.

Remembering the loose board in the hallway that creaked, I was glad that I hadn't repaired it the second time around. That would hopefully give Gavin the warning he needed when they stepped on it.

To my dismay, James raised his sheet up a little and whispered. "Watch your step here, remember there's a loose board here."

"Apparently they have staked this place out pretty well," Brandon observed.

"Yeah. Too well, if you ask me. I'm putting in dead-bolts when they leave."

"Good idea," Brandon agreed.

James managed to step over the board without making it creak. Carl was on his left side so he missed it completely.

I glanced at Brandon and, if we would have been sitting in chairs, he would have been sitting on the edge of his seat. His handsome face was glowing with anticipation. He was like a kid at a three-ring circus for the first time.

James stepped into the bedroom and adjusted the sheet so he could see through the holes he had made for his eyes. Carl followed him.

They raised their arms up, making the sheets appear more like they were floating. I fought the urge to make the sheets float off of them. The shadows from the flickering flame in the fireplace added the perfect effect. They really looked authentic. I was glad I had rekindled the fire.

James let out a low moan that actually sent a chill up my spine. "He's good," Brandon whispered.

Carl followed with one of his own. They had obviously either done this before or they had rehearsed a lot. As well as they seemed to know the house, I figured they had done both.

Gavin moaned and stirred a little. Carl "floated" around to the other side of the bed and moaned a little louder.

"He's a heavy sleeper," Brandon said.

I chuckled. Their plan wasn't working the way they had figured it would.

James let out a blood curdling scream that startled both Brandon and me. "Shit, where'd that come from?" Brandon asked.

"I don't know," I replied as Gavin jolted up in bed. Seeing the "ghost" next to the bed, he plunged for James, knocking him off his feet as he tackled him.

"Umph," James gasped as they went down. I quickly removed a table so James wouldn't hit his head as they crashed to the floor. The room was dark enough that if Carl could see what was happening, he wouldn't notice the table disappear.

Gavin sat up and straddled James and started punching him in the chest with both fist. "Gavin, stop! It's me, James," he cried, trying to untangle himself from the sheet and protect himself from the punches at the same time.

"Mm, your boyfriend has a nice ass," Brandon observed as Gavin pushed himself up and yanked the sheet off James.

"He's not my boyfriend," I chided, but he was right. It was a nice firm round bottom with a light dusting of dark hair. His upper and middle back didn't have any hair on it, but there was a clump of hair in the small of his back that ran down over his ass and then down his legs.

Carl had already removed the sheet from his head and he walked around to where they were. "What the fuck are you two trying to pull?" Gavin demanded. "If I'd have had a gun I'd blown your fucking heads off."

James scrambled to his feet. "It's part of the initiation," he replied.

Gavin was breathing heavy. His muscles were still flinching and I was waiting for him to hit James again. James yanked the sheet out of Gavin's hands and wadded it up. "Calm down, Gavin," he said, softly. "It's okay, we didn't want to hurt you, just scare you."

"Well, don't be surprised if someone shoots you next time."

"We had to make sure that you were alone," Carl defended themselves.

Gavin glanced nervously around the room. "Well, as you can see, I am."

"Yeah, we've been in the basement since about eight-fifteen," James said, sitting down on the edge of the bed. "There's a vent in the living room that goes down there. We can hear what's going on in the living room, but no one can hear anything we do in the basement, so it's okay for us to sit down there and listen in. Most of the guys bring a radio to listen to, we were surprised you didn't."

So they had done this before. Gavin frowned but didn't mention that we had watched TV all evening. He glanced at his watch and yawned. "Well, look guys, it's after midnight. I'm going to get some more sleep. If you want to stay here, you're more than welcome but no more stupid ghost tricks, okay?"

He had been standing next to the hearth the entire time and they could see him clearly in the light of the fire. He had made no attempt to cover himself up.

"Okay, fine," James said.

Gavin picked up his jeans off the floor and carried them into the bathroom, turning on the light. Leaving the door open, he urinated, then pulled his jeans on.

"You two can sleep in here if you want to," he said, turning out the light as he left the bathroom. "I'm going to find a quiet bedroom upstairs to sleep in. You two goons stay down here and stay out of trouble. Remember, someone owns this house. We're trespassing. If you get caught they could throw you in jail for breaking and entering, so don't tear anything up."

"What do you mean, 'you'?" James wanted to know. "You're in here, too."

Gavin grinned. "Yeah, but what you don't know is that the owner's grandson is a friend of mine. And while he would let them throw the book at you, he would tell them to let me go free."

"Ooo, Gavin's got himself a boyfriend," James teased, flicking his finger across Gavin's right nipple.

Gavin knocked James' hand away as Carl chimed in with, "Yeah, he must be fucking him good if he wouldn't press charges for trespassing."

"Of course, Gavin's got such a nice dick, I couldn't blame him," James added, seductively.

"Shut the fuck up," Gavin snapped. "I'm not fucking him. He's just a friend. Just because you two are perverts doesn't mean everyone who wants to join the fraternity are. I'm not gay so don't be pushing that shit in my face."

He stormed toward the door, stopped and turned back to look at them. "And don't get no shit on the sheets if you fuck each other tonight. And on second thought, I don't want to be in your fucking fraternity any more. Just forget my application."

Before they could respond, he turned and headed for the stairs. He hadn't gotten a candle or a flashlight so he stumbled on the first step.

"Are you okay, Shane?" Brandon asked softly as he flicked a tear from my cheek with his thumb.

"I'll be fine," I replied. "I guess I won't be letting him know that I'm gay anytime soon."

"Do you believe that fucking bastard accused us of being fags?" Carl fumed.

"Calm down, Carl," James said. "We accused him of it, first, remember."

"Yeah.

"Let's just go back downstairs," Carl said softly. "We can probably sleep better down there."

"Good idea," James agreed. He grabbed his sheet and they returned to the basement.

"I'd better get upstairs to bed," I told Brandon. "He might actually come looking for me in my room."

"Okay. If you need me, call me," he said. He kissed me on the cheek and disappeared.

I snapped my fingers and was on the second floor landing. Gavin was doing the best he could to find his way in the dark.

I glanced outside and noticed that it was still cloudy, even though the storm had passed. I moved a cloud out from in front of the moon and the landing was flooded with moonlight from the tall windows that were on each landing.

"Thank, God," he breathed and made his way up the stairs.

I had a fire burning in the hearth by the time Gavin reached my room. I had left the door open so he could see the firelight in the dark hallway.

He stopped in the door and took a deep breath, then stepped into the room and closed the door. Removing his pants, he climbed into bed next to me. "Are you asleep, Shane?" he asked softly.

"No," I replied.

"I'm glad you got outta there before those two jerks came in pretending to be ghosts," he said, pulling the cover up over us.

"I almost didn't," I replied. "I got some more firewood and was just coming out of the bathroom to go back to bed when I heard them coming toward the room. There's a loose board in the hallway that they stepped on. I ducked back into the bathroom. When you tackled James, I dashed out and came up here. Sorry I didn't have time to wake you, but if I had, I would have gotten caught. I figured you'd find me if you wanted to, which you did."

I hated lying to him, but since I couldn't tell him I was a warlock, I had no choice.

"Well, I told them I didn't want to be in their fraternity after all," he said. "I told them that they could get in trouble for trespassing and breaking and entering and they told me I could too. I told them that you were a friend of mine - of course, I didn't mention your name - and wouldn't have me arrested and they accused me of sleeping with you.

"I get the feeling that they're all a bunch of fags and they're all screwing each other. So, since I'm not gay, it's best for me not to be associated with them. Just don't want to get raped, you know."

"I don't blame you," I replied. "But you know, Gavin, you are sleeping with me."

He chuckled. It was a deep sexy chuckle that made my cock swell to full erection. "Yeah, but they don't need to know that," he said softly.

I rolled over onto my side with my back to him to keep from touching him and to keep him from knowing I was boned.

He rolled over onto his side with his back to me and yawned. "Good night, Shane," he said. "Hopefully they'll stay downstairs and won't come looking for me."

Now it was my turn to chuckle. "Too bad there aren't any real ghosts in here to go down there and scare them."

"Really, huh? If I were magic, I'd make the furniture dance around and make a sheet float around like a ghost."

Although I was tempted to do it, I knew that they would come running upstairs looking for him to get him to go home with them. No, I couldn't do that, no matter how much they deserved it. "That would be fun to see," I agreed. "Good night, Gavin."

I scanned the basement to see what James and Carl were doing. They had crawled into their sleeping bags and were lying in the darkness. "Did you notice the way he looked around nervously when I said we were just making sure that he was alone?" Carl asked.

"Yeah, I did. Do you think maybe that grandson friend of his is here?"

"Where would he be?" Carl wanted to know.

"Who the fuck knows? This house is huge. He could be anywhere and we'd probably never find him."

"Do you think there really are secret passages in here?"

"I don't know, but I bet his friend would."

"But if he were sleeping with him, why would he offer us the bedroom?"

"Maybe because he knew where his friend would have gone to and he went up there. There are four bedrooms per floor," James said, pushing the sleeping bag out of the way as he got up. He was still dressed, since the basement was cold.

"Come on, let's go find out."

"Okay," Carl said, eagerly.

I decided not to let Gavin know that they were coming. I decided to lead them on a wild goose chase they would never forget. Even though I couldn't do any hocus-pocus to scare them to death, I could have some fun. They thought they were pretty familiar with the house, yet they could find something in the darkness that had never been there before.

Not worrying about making any noise this time, they rushed up the basement stairs, through the kitchen and into the hallway. James had the flashlight, so they had no trouble seeing. "Now, be quiet," he whispered as they reached the landing. "We don't want his friend to have a chance to disappear on us again."

"Okay," Carl replied.

They made their way down the hallway. Every door was open. They checked each room, then headed for the stairs to the third floor.

After checking each room on the third floor, James was surprised to find a door at the end of the hall. It was closed.

"I don't remember ever seeing this before," he whispered.

"Neither do I," replied Carl.

I noticed James wipe his hand on his jeans before he reached for the doorknob. He slowly opened the door and let his light shine in ahead of him. It was another hallway just like the one they were standing in. I had actually mirrored the hallway, but there was a whole new world on the other side of that door.

"This is weird," Carl said as they stepped through the door.

Neither of them noticed the door close behind them and disappear as they walked through the hallway, checking the rooms.

When they reached the stairs, Carl asked, "Should we go up or down?"

"Let's go up," James replied. "We can come back down and check the lower floors, then come back and check the fourth floor on the other side."

"Cool," Carl said and they headed up the stairs.

Another closed door at the end of the hall on the fourth floor, only led them to another mirrored image of the hall they were in. Again, they didn't notice the door close behind them and disappear.

They went down the stairs and checked each room.

Sometime in the night, I finally drifted off to sleep as they continued checking rooms that had no end. Neither of them noticed that they were getting deeper and deeper into their search - a search that would become a nightmare when they decided to return to our realm.

"Shane, wake up." I opened my eyes. Brandon stood next to the bed. I was lying with my head on Gavin's warm hairy chest. It was morning but I wasn't sure what time it was.

"Morning, Brandon," I replied. I knew that he was only visible to me.

Gavin moaned and rubbed my arm; I snuggled in closer to him.

"Gramps wants us to join them for tea in London at three so you can give him your report for the night. It's eight here now, so that will give you an hour to get your friends out of here and clean the place up and get there."

"Okay, I'm on my way," I said, sleepily.

He looked at Gavin and shook his head. "Damn, Shane," he said softly. "I'm really sorry you can't have him. He's a hunk with that day's growth. Just your type."

I glanced up at Gavin and he opened his eyes and smiled at me. He was even better looking with the day's growth of beard and mustache. I blushed as Brandon said, "Don't be late," and popped out.

"Where are you going?" Gavin asked as I ran my hand through the soft hair on his muscular chest and stomach.

"Mm, I gotta go to London to see my great-great grandparents," I replied. I wasn't really coherent and didn't realize what I had just said.

He grinned at me and rolled me over onto my back. Although he didn't kiss me, he did roll over on top of me and pressed his body against me as he nuzzled my neck. "I didn't know you talked in your sleep," he said, softly. I could feel his hard cock pressing against my thigh. My own organ pressed against his hip and I ran my hands over his smooth, muscular back down to his nice firm bottom and pulled him closer to me. It surprised me that he was allowing me to do this since he had told the guys that he wasn't gay. I fought the urge to turn into a woman and let him have his way with me.

After a few minutes, he raised up and looked down at me. He grinned and flipped a strand of stray hair out of my eyes. "When you see your great-great grandparents, tell them they need to put a bathroom on the fourth floor or in your bedroom. Now we have to run all the way downstairs just to piss."

That's when I remembered what I had actually told him. "Okay, I will," I replied as he rolled over and got out of bed.

He grabbed his pants and pulled them on and crossed to the door. "You may as well come with me. I've already told the guys that I didn't want to be in their stupid fraternity anyway, so it won't hurt for them to see you now."

"The guys!" I gasped. Being held by him the way he had, I had forgotten all about them.

"Yeah, you remember them, don't you? They tried to scare me last night and you dashed up here."

"Yes, I had just forgotten," I admitted. "You go on to the bathroom. I'll straighten up here and will be down in a few minutes."

"Okay, don't take too long." He opened the door and turned back and grinned at me. "We don't want you to miss your plane to London."

"Oh, I'm not flying," I replied. I was trying to locate the guys and wasn't paying attention to what I was saying.

He frowned and shook his head, thinking that I wasn't quite awake, and he hurried down the hallway to the stairs.

I got up and snapped my fingers. The bed was made. I finally found the guys. They were twenty doors deep and had finally decided they weren't going to find anyone and started back. It was obvious they were tired and hadn't gotten any sleep through the night. Luckily, they had slept from about nine to midnight, but that wasn't enough sleep, I could tell.

"I don't know," James said. "I thought the door was here earlier."

"Maybe it's on the next floor," Carl suggested.

"I thought we'd already been up there," James replied.

"Let's at least go look. If it's not, let's give up and take a nap. It's fucking eight-fifteen in the morning and I'm exhausted. It's not like there's not plenty of bedrooms for us to choose from."

"Okay," James resigned.

They went to the stairs and made their way to the fourth floor. The sun was shining now and it was easy for them to see the door I had placed at the end of the hall.

"Thank, God!" James shouted and ran for it. I was so tempted to make it vanish right as they got to it, but figured it would be best not to. They had had enough for one night.

They stepped through the door and breathed a sigh of relief. I replaced all the doors they had passed through and popped downstairs to the guest room.

Gavin was taking a shower when I walked into the bathroom.

"I thought the guys were going to sleep in here," I said as I relieved myself.

"So did I," he replied. "But it doesn't look like they did."

"Maybe they got scared off by a ghost after all," I suggested as he turned off the water.

"Too bad we didn't get to see if they did."

I closed the toilet lid and placed my clothes on it. "I wish we had time to eat breakfast before we leave," I said. "I'm not really looking forward to going to visit my grandparents. It's not that I don't love them, it's just that I'm having a good time here with you."

He chuckled as he opened the door and took the towel I handed him. "Thanks. I'm having a good time, too. It would have been pretty boring last night without you and your neat-o boom-box."

Stepping into the shower stall as he stepped out, I made sure that our bodies touched. "I really meant it when I said I'd get you one of those," I said, softly.

He smiled. "Thanks, but you don't have to get it, just let me know where I can get one."

I took a quick shower and kept an eye on the guys. They were making progress, slowly but surely. I knew it wouldn't take them too much longer before they got back.

Getting out of the shower, I discovered that Gavin was in the bedroom, so I dried off and got dressed and joined him in the bedroom. He had made the bed and had just finished packing his bag. He handed me a soda that he had in his ice chest.

"Thanks," I said, popping the top off the can and taking a sip.

"Man I'm beat," James said, slumping against the wall as they arrived at another door. They had three to go.

Feeling sorry for them, I decided to help them out a little. I knew that Gavin didn't care if they found me, but I could make sure they didn't. However, I had to get to London and there were some things I needed to do before I left but I couldn't do them with the guys there. I knew they'd be anxious to leave as soon as they got back.

"Come on," Carl said. "It can't be too much further."

Carl helped James to his feet and put his hand on the doorknob. They were both surprised when the door opened into the basement and their stuff was still on the floor where they had left it.

"How'd we get here?" Carl wanted to know.

"Who the fuck cares?" James retorted. "Let's just get the hell outta here."

"I think I'd rather take a nap first," Carl said.

"No fucking way. I'm not staying in this house for another minute." He grabbed his sleeping bag and rolled it up.

"You can stay here if you want, but you're walking home if you do 'cause I'm not coming back here, ever."

"Good," I said to myself.

"So are you going to really try to turn this into a boarding house?" Gavin asked.

"I don't know," I replied. "It would be kind of cool. I guess I could put a couple of bathrooms on each floor in between each bedroom and let the occupants of the two rooms on each side share the bathroom."

"That would allow for more privacy than the dorms at the university do," he agreed.

"I'll talk to Gramps about it when I see him."

"This semester will be over the fifteenth of November. I know that it probably wouldn't be possible, but if you were able to get it done by then, you could get your renters from those who are going to get kicked out of the dorm who aren't leaving for the holidays.

"Well, if you decide to," he said as we heard the door to the basement burst open, "I'll move in here. But," he added, taking my hand in his, "you'll have to live here, too."

I frowned. "I thought you were straight," I said as James called "Gavin! Where are you? Let's get the fuck outta here!"

He grinned and leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. "I'm Bi," he replied. "If I hadn't needed to piss this morning, you would have gotten lucky."

"Uh, oh. Uh, they're coming," I stammered. "I don't want them to see me. I'll hide in the closet in the bathroom."

"Okay. I'll call you later."

I dashed into the bathroom and had just closed the closet door when I heard James say, "This place is too fucking weird. I've gotta piss and we're getting out of here."

Luckily Gavin didn't try to stop him from going into the bathroom, but he did follow him. "What are you talking about?" he demanded.

As he urinated, James explained to Gavin what had happened to them during the night, ending with the fact that they had wound up in the basement when they went through the last door.

"You two must have tied one on pretty good," Gavin replied.

"We didn't bring anything to drink. And I still think there is someone here besides us," James replied, zipping up his pants.

Unfortunately, Gavin glanced nervously at the closet door. I went invisible. I wasn't surprised when James noticed Gavin's look.

"There is someone else here," James said. "Hiding in the closet."

"No there's not," Gavin replied, but it was too late, James dashed for the door before Gavin could stop him and yanked it open.

The closet was dark and musty. Cobwebs clung to the door frame. It was obvious - thanks to me - that no one had been in that room in a long time. "So, where is this person who is hiding here?" Gavin wanted to know. I did notice him frown though.

"Oh, well, fuck it," James said, storming past him into the bedroom.

Gavin glanced in the closet and said softly. "Where ever you are, babe, I hope you can hear me. I'll call you at home later this afternoon."

Still invisible, I stood on the front porch and watched as James drove off a few minutes later. Gavin was sitting in the back seat, but he looked back at the house as they went down the hill.

When they disappeared from view, I snapped my fingers and the yard was cleaned up, the out-house replaced and the loose boards repaired.

Sighing, I walked down the sidewalk. How was I going to explain to Gavin where I had gone since the cobwebs had remained in the doorway? I didn't really want to turn time back again to correct that mistake.

Maybe he'd believe that I was in the shower. The shower door was pretty hard to see through and I didn't notice either of them look at it.

I really wasn't in the mood to go to London, but I had no choice. What Gramps wanted, Gramps got. Snapping my fingers, I used molecular transfer to go to London.

-- to be continued in "Hallween Night: Uncle Troy's Magical Touch".