"I can't make just anyone a spirit bearer. It's kind of a big deal. I want to see something really interesting in exchange if you want to be a spirit bearer."

"What kind of interesting?"

"So many things are interesting, but this has to be special. Something I can't see somewhere else. Human children don't kill human parents very much. And you hate them, don't you? If you kill your parents in interesting ways I will give you magic powers. Or I could try to think of something else and come back later if I do."

"I don't know enough about genies to know what you will find an interesting way."

"The burning powder tubes and the blades on long sticks are boring."

"...So as long as I don't use a gun or a knife it's okay?"

"Poison is also boring. And fire."

"Gun, knife, poison, fire. Okay. Should I assume a blunt object like a lead pipe or a candlestick is also boring?"

"If that's all you use, probably. Use your imagination! Like those 'novel books'!"

"I just want to be really sure I'm not coming out of this with a murder charge and no magic."

"Oh, fine, fine, fine. Pfah, planning and forethought. Tell me when you have a plan and I'll warn you if it's boring."

"Okay. I'm going to have to inventory the house, first. How do I find you to tell you?"

"I'm in the house with holes in it. I probably won't leave for a few days. Houses are interestingly different from prairie."

"Okay. I'll be there in a few hours. Tomorrow at the latest."

The dust-figure disappears with a sudden gust.

She goes home. She does inventory. She tests some stuff.

In a few hours she goes to the house with holes in it.

"You're not a construction human... Oh, you're the one I offered the deal to."

"Yes I am."

No response except another dust-figure forming, this one larger than before.

She describes her plan. Two plans, actually, one for each parent. An incompletely sawed-through chunk of their bedroom floor/the cellar ceiling, and a tripwire across the stairs to the cellar; either one isn't guaranteed to kill on its own, but it should at least incapacitate them enough for her to finish the job. She has several possible job-finishing options to suggest in case any of them are boring. A few of them involve normally-boring implements employed creatively.

"These are interesting plans! Do these things and I will make you a spirit bearer... And then I will leave very quickly."

"Fair."

He's only going to be around for a few more days; she can't wait for the best possible opportunity. She waits until her foster father is at work and her foster mother is out visiting a friend before she takes the saw in the garage to the floor, working as quickly as she can lest she be caught unawares by her foster mother's return. The tripwire is comparatively easy.

She had been expecting to get them in close succession, one trying to enter the bedroom and the other intending to charge down the stairs to help. That isn't how it goes; her foster mother does get home early, but not so suddenly Anna-Seraphina doesn't have time to hide the saw--but it doesn't matter, because she brought home unexpected jam from a friend who's trying to learn to make the stuff, and wants to put it in the cellar.

Anna-Seraphina puts the tripwire back and finishes the floor, after. Better to have two chances to get her foster-father than just one.

There are unaccountable breezes, rapidly shifting inside the house, during the exciting parts of this.

Probably the genie, then.

"Hello?" she says when she's done.

"Hello?"