Wish for Something Better (closed)

[DrStein]

Sam finished off his sandwich and pitched the fast food bag into the wastebasket by his desk. He'd spent the entire morning going through nothing but paperwork and his eyes were starting to hurt. Not good since he had still more artifacts to restore. A shipment of recovered jewelry from Iraq believed to be from the rule of the Abbasid dynasty of the Caliphates. He got up, drew the blinds and turned off the lights. He sat in his chair and just sat in the darkness to let his senses return to normal and wonder just how he had gotten so burned out.

After a half-hour he knew he couldn't put it off any longer. Standing up he went to go check out the shipment at his worktable downstairs. He went through the artifacts one by one, finding mostly the usual fair, nothing out of the ordinary. It would be quitting time soon. But then he came to a ring. The tag indicated that it had been found in Baghdad but was otherwise unfamiliar. What intrigued Sam was the print on the front. Abbasid rings typically featured a gold coin, but this one appeared to be stamped with a seal. One he had never seen before.

He must have spent ten minutes turning the ring over in his fingers. There was some dirt caked into the seal and Sam took out a small dental pick to delicately extract it. He brushed off the last of the dust and held the ring under a magnifier. His fingertip traced the border of the seal and he started, dropping the ring to the desk when it began to softly glow of its own light. A moment of panic set in, but he had no time to act on it as a bright flash of light and a loud whooshing like a gust of wind blinded him. He reflexively pulled backward causing his chair to tip and sending him crashing to the floor where he cracked his head on the cement.

A loud groan of pain slipped form Sam's lips once the lights behind his eyelids faded. He rubbed the back of his head, feeling a lump forming there already. He experimentally opened his eyes and soon forgot the pain he was in. The most beautiful woman he'd ever seen was sitting on his workbench watching him.

 

[Mayu]

Emily watched this strange human as she smirked at him, she had been in prison for five hundred years. Her dark brown eyes scanned the room, and her blond hair lay relaxed over her shoulders. Standing up she was in modern clothing, pair of black pants and a black shirt that was like a tube top. "I have been stuck in that prison for five hundred years, I am Emily and I am your genie" She smiled at him, looking around and didn't know where she was. 'What year is this master?" She asked very curious, looking down to her "prison" And sighed a bit. Running her fingers over it, closing her eyes for a moment. Relaxing and enjoying the feel of being so free.

 

[DrStein]

Sam was silent, staring in slack-jawed awe at the woman in front of him. Finally he groaned and covered his face with his hands as he lowered his head back to the ground, trying to avoid the lump. "Oh Jesus... I must have hit my head harder than I thought. Now I'm hallucinating!"

He took a deep breath to calm himself and moved his hands so that he could look at the workbench again. Sure enough, the woman was still there. Could you make a hallucination go away by trying to disbelieve it? Or did that only work in the movies?

Sam struggled to his feet, a hand to his head as his skull started pounding. He leaned on the workbench for support and contemplated calling an ambulance.

 

[Mayu]

She was trying to figure him out, tilting her head to the side as she carefully watched him. Thinking for a moment, she got off the bench and walked up to him. "I'm very much alive master" She said a soft smile started to warm her face. Slowly reaching out for him, she placed her hand on his cheek. "See...i'm real.." She said simply. Stroking his cheek, then removing her hand. Crossing her arms, she wasn't to sure what to do right now.

"But if you prefer I can go away, but I'm very much alive. I'm walking, talking. I do everything, but you are my master and I am to grant you wishes. Well that's if you ever get out of the state of shock your in" She laughed softly, and sighed a bit, sitting down waiting to see what he would do.

 

[DrStein]

Her touch was real enough. Sam was starting to wonder if he really was witnessing the supernatural or if he had just completely lost his mind and could no longer tell fantasy from reality. "You're... going to have to give me some time to process this." And now he was talking to his psychosis. Great. He looked at the clock and saw it was time to leave.

"Look... I have to go home now. If you're real, would you be able to appear when I call you?" Not exactly a scientific test, but it was the best he could think of with his head hurting and his reality shattered.

 

[Mayu]

Emily looking at him and sighed a bit but just nodded. "Call my name I'll be in my prison. "Take this with you, rub it and call my name and I'll appear. Since I'm bound to it and you" Smiling some she turned into a purple smoke and went right back inside the object. In her home, she just laid down and waited for when she would be called. Yawning some she just closed her eyes and took a nap.

 

[DrStein]

Take the ring home? Sam was going to steal from the museum to test a theory over whether or not he was going crazy. There was no way to say that without coming across as absolutely fuck nuts. Worse yet? He pocketed the ring and made his way back to the office to sign out.

Half an hour later, he was back in his home, a simple ranch house, tastefully decorated and a bit lonely. He took the ring out of his pocket. His livelihood was on the line, so this had better be real. He rubbed the ring with his thumb. "... Emily."

 

[Mayu]

Emily had been sleeping, when she heard her name being called. Standing up off her couch she appeared before him, she brushed her hair out of her face and smiled at him. "Hello Master" She said kindly, he seemed to be relaxed or perhaps not. "Your wish is my command master" She said. She had never been human, though she wished she could be. It was possible, but no master ever had ever wished her to be free.

 

[DrStein]

Sam stared at Emily for a moment before collapsing onto his couch. "Okay, so the possibility that I'm sane is looking better. I think." He looked over at Emily and gestured for her to sit beside him. "Could you take it from the top for me? Who are you, what is going on with this ring, and... how?" At this point, it was the best he could do. He resigned himself to the idea that either he was staring at a genie or he had completely lost his mind.

 

[Mayu]

Emily looked at him and softly smiled at him. "Well my name is Emily, I have no past really. Ive been a genie for five hundred years. The ring captured me many years ago, it's magical. And who ever has the ring can use me to do there bidding. I make the impossible, possible" She said simply.

 

[DrStein]

Sam leaned back against the couch and tried to process all this. "Five hundred years, you said? Emily doesn't sound like a Persian name. In fact, I think it's Roman. But you don't look either Persian or Roman. You look Germanic, in fact. And... why are you dressed in modern clothes?" There was still a lot of this that didn't make any sense. He was trying desperately to pull it all together but he had so many questions.

 

[Mayu]

She looked at him as she sat back and relaxed on the couch and pointed to him. "Your clothing, Ive observed your own clothing. And got a vision in my head about what is warn in this time. But what year is this? Last time I saw sunlight it was the sixteen hundreds" She looked around seeing everything in his apartment, it was beautiful yet lonely. Sighing softly she looked back at him. "But you can wish anything you like, if you want to be popular or you want a beautiful woman that will adore you"

 

[DrStein]

"It's 2012," Sam replied. But that just raised further questions. The ring was obviously from the time of the Abbasid caliphate, but that dynasty ended in 1258. She was bound to the ring 400 years later. It just made his head hurt again.

"Well, to start with, could you do something about this lump on my head? It's hard to think when it feels like my head is about to split open."

 

[Mayu]

She looked at him kindly "Your wondering why I'm only four hundred when the ring is much older" She said simply. Placing her hand over the lump and a warmth could be felt from her hand, the lump slowly got smaller till it was gone and so weren't his head aches. "There was a genie before me, but she was freed by her master. It's possible to be freed, but the master has to wish it. Though it makes the genie a normal human being"

 

[DrStein]

Sam marveled at the way his headache just vanished along with the lump. He touched at the space where it used to be and it was gone like a forgotten dream. He listened to Emily's explanation and sighed. "So... where did you come from before this? Were you a person first?"

 

[Mayu]

Emily looked at him "Honestly? I don't know. I don't remember being human before this, but being a genie makes you forget things so Ive been told. So knowing my luck, I'm sure I was a human long before this. It's lonely being what I am, having masters who don't give a damn about you or anyone around yourself" She sighed.

 

[DrStein]

Sam leaned forward with his elbows on his knees, fingers laced, and resting his chin on his knuckles. He stayed quiet for a long time in deep thought. She had offered to grant him any wish he asked for and he was surprised to discover he couldn't think of anything. At first he thought it was just the prospect that when offered unlimited possibility you couldn't narrow it down. But it soon became clear that he just plain didn't know what he wanted out of life anymore. The rut he had been in the last several years was starting to make sense. Somewhere along the way, he just plain lost all sense of what he wanted. He had been spending three years of his life on auto-pilot.

The genie clearly had some desire for freedom. She knew what she wanted. What did he want? An idea came to his mind. "You say you'll grant me any wish I ask? Is there a three wish limit or any sort of restriction I should know about?"

 

[Mayu]

Emily listened to her new master, and saw the way he looked at her. Thinking about it she shook her head. "No there is no limit, though there is one kind of wish I cannot make, and that's having you rule the world, or make someone fall in love with you. Anything else though is fair game" She said simply. "There is nothing you want? Someone wants something, that's how you humans work. Though all my masters have been very selfish, you i have a good feeling about master" She said happily.

 

[DrStein]

"I don't know what I want," Sam answered honestly. "If... If you're free, would someone have to take your place?" That was the only thing left he needed to know. It's not a fate he would necessarily wish on someone because it seemed like such a lonely existence. To say nothing of how he wouldn't want to spend an existence in abject servitude to others.

 

[Mayu]

She looked at him "If I was free id be human, id no longer have magic id just be normal like you. And would someone take my place?" She thought about it for a second. "Honestly? I don't know" She was being honest she had no idea, and she certainly wouldn't lie about it either. She may want her freedom but she was no lier, she was always open and honest with people. "And it is a lonely existence, I should know I'm a very lonely woman" Looking down she sighed.

 

[DrStein]

Sam thought about the situation a minute. His whole world, such as it was, had been turned upside down. He mulled over the information and came to a decision. "Tell you what... I need to figure out what it is I want out of life. While I do that, I'll see if I can find some way to free you without having someone take your place. If there's a cycle, I want to break it. If you can help me get out of this rut I'm in, I'll pay you back by freeing you. Sound good?"

 

[Mayu]

She looked at him, now that was something very new. Her eyes looked at him and smiled a bit nodding to him. "Alright" She said with a proud look on her face. He was special she could see that, but why was he in a rut? She was curious about him. "Why are you in a rut?" She asked curious.

 

[DrStein]

Sam heaved out a sigh and looked over at Emily. "Well, you told me I could wish for anything. And I honestly can't think of a damn thing. I have no idea what I want out of life anymore." Saying it out loud made it seem that much more depressing. "I've just been coasting through life since graduation. If a doctor told me tomorrow that I had six months to live, I wouldn't know what to do with that time."

 

[Mayu]

She looked up at him and smiled, something about him was sad. He wasn't sure what he wanted, she looked into his eyes. "You will know in time what you want, what's your name?" she asked kindly, she wanted to know what was going on with what is going on. Sighing softly, she sat back crossing one leg over the other. A soft look seen on her face, Emily didn't know what to say to them.

 

[DrStein]

"Sam." He almost sighed his name. "Sam Crane." He wasn't quite sure what to think of the fact that his name sounded alien in his own ears, like he was referring to a stranger. He tried to get his mind onto a more pragmatic track.

"First thing's first, though. I wish the record of the ring you're... bound to?... was erased from the museum's records. If they knew I had it, I'd lose my job and probably end up in prison." He had to take care of that now before anyone noticed the damn thing was missing. His stomach clenched just at the thought of it and it was only then that he realized how utterly insane his plan of taking it home with him had been at the time.