Djinn Ch. 01

Everyone looked at him confused.

'What?' asked the doctor.

Jack swallowed and tried again.

'Is there a spare room you're not using right now? I know you want to run some tests and I need to have a talk with my Dad and...'

He broke off as he looked at Sophie, who had a surprised expression on her face. The Doctor looked at her with the same expression, as he hadn't realised that she was there.

'And you would be...?'

Sophie looked over and smiled at the doctor.

'My name's Sophie, I'm a friend of Jack and his parents. I got here a few minutes ago, apparently I missed you earlier.'

The doctor nodded and looked back a Jack.

'You're right, we do need to do some tests and it'd be easier if we didn't have a crowd in here. The last room on the left is vacant, just before the stairs.'

'Great.' said Jack, putting a forced smile on his face before pushing unsteadily past his Dad and walking down the corridor. His Dad and Sophie traded confused looks and went after him. The doctor thought about following them but they weren't his patients. He was more concerned with the woman on the bed and her miraculous recovery.

Jack walked quickly down the hall, trying to keep himself in check until he reached the room. The hall was empty, so he didn't have to worry about anyone giving him strange looks. He could hear his Dad and Sophie following behind him. He reached the empty room and almost knocked the door off its hinges in his haste. He strode into the room and stopped in the middle of it.

Sophie and his Dad walked in a moment later. Jack didn't turn around. Sophie thought that Jack was just a little confused by what he saw in his Mum's room, but his Dad was more worried about his son's already frayed mental state. Sophie walked over and put a gentle hand on Jack's shoulder, squeezing it gently.

'Jack, it's okay. I know you don't understand everything yet, but I can answer any questions...'

She gasped as Jack's head suddenly whipped around, his long hair flying, and he stared her straight in the eyes. They were blazing with a furious anger, a look of absolute thunderous rage on his face, a sight that scared her so much she took three steps backward.

'Oh, I have questions all right.' He said ominously.

He suddenly turned round and, in a few massive strides, he moved over to his Dad, grabbed him by the shoulders and pinned him against the wall. His Dad was was shocked, not just by Jack's action's, but by the surprising strength his son possessed, despite his slim appearance.

'You lied. YOU fucking lied to me.' said Jack, his voice dripping with fury.

'I wha...?'

'Don't play games with me Dad, I"M DONE being toyed with!'

Despite his rage, Jack was careful to not shout, lest someone come and walk in on them. Sophie, who was too terrified to move, could only watch as Jack pinned his father to the wall.

'Four years ago, I asked you about her but you said you didn't know. You thought I was crazy.'

'I didn't...'

'DON"T DENY IT! I saw it in your eye's, in yours and Mums! I'm not an idiot, thats why I didn't mention it after the second day! But here we are and all of a sudden you remember. After all these years you remember? Or did you never forget? I think we both know I'm not stupid enough to not connect the dots here Dad. You lied. Four years you lied to me.'

'It wasn't that simple Jack. Please, understand...'

'I think I understand better than ever. All those times I thought I was crazy, all those times it never made sense, all those nights praying I didn't lose my mind. DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT THAT FELT LIKE!?'

'You kept secrets too. What about those appointments with the psychologists?'

'Which I wouldn't have needed if you hadn't tricked me into thinking I needed them in the first place!'

'Jack I didn't do this to hurt you but it was unavoidable!'

'What? You couldn't avoid telling me you'd never heard of the girl you raised alongside me, that my best friend never existed? What kind father puts his kid through that kind of torture, huh?!'

Sophie finally recovered. She ran over to Jack and grabbed one of his arms in her hands.

'Jack, listen to him, he's telling the truth! This wasn't his fault, it was mine!'

Jack looked at her, his anger not subsiding.

'Wait a minute... how do I know if I haven't lost my mind? People don't just disappear and then show up in a cloud of...'

He broke off before realising what he was about to say. He suddenly released his Dad and took two steps back before falling down onto one knee and grabbing his head in both hands, his breathing getting heavier. He Dad rubbed his shoulders while Sophie knelt down and put her arms around Jack.

'Jack, I know your confused but you need to calm down and...'

Jack pushed her away and scrambled back a good metre or so before pointing at her with both hands.

'What did you mean when you said it wasn't his fault?'

Sophie was about ask Jack to calm down again but she realised that he wouldn't until this situation started to make sense. She put her hands up to try and keep him stable.

'It wasn't his or your Mum's fault. If you want someone to blame, blame me! It was my powers that started playing up, so I asked them to seal me in the ring!'

Jack's look of anger was suddenly replace by fear.

'What do you mean, powers?' he asked.

'Jack, there's a reason I was able to heal you're mother and create these clothes. I'm not a human, I'm a Djinn!'

Jack froze. He didn't dare move in case he fell over. The fear in his eyes got even greater.

'A-a what?"

'Listen to her Jack, it's all true.' said his Dad, who was still rubbing his shoulder.

'I'm a Djinn, a genie in modern terms. Beings with magic abilities and a strong connection to the human race. Just before I left you, my powers started playing up, so I had to seal myself away until they were back under control! Your parents didn't say anything because...'

She broke off when she realised Jack was looking at the floor, but he wasn't concentrating on it. His eyes were wide open in fear and he wasn't listening to anything anymore. He just stared into empty space, his whole body frozen on the ground. Sophie began to panic and rushed over on her knees to him, shaking his shoulders gently.

'Jack? Jack are you okay? Please say something, I can't stand it when...'

Jack suddenly regained control of his body and leapt away from her towards the wall. he was hyperventilating and seems as if he was about to throw up.

'Crazy... I really am crazy...'

Sophie was horrified.

'What?! Jack, no, you're not...'

'All those battles... catching up to me... all those years... I'm hallucinating... have to... have to go...'

He suddenly bolted for the door, and before his Dad could stop him, he ran out into the corridor and down the stair well, taking them three at a time. Sophie called to him to wait and tried to run after him but this time his Dad was there to stop her. He grabbed her arm in both hands and held on tight.

'Sophie, wait!'

'Let me go! He doesn't understand, he doesn't know...!'

'You don't have the full story either! You don't know what's happened to him!'

Sophie stopped struggling and turned to him with a confused look on her face.

'What do you mean? What could have possibly happened in the last two...'

'Sophie you need to sit down for this. It's not a two and a half years since you left, its a month over four!'

Sophie froze.

'F-four years? But were meant to give him the ring on his eighteenth. How could it have taken him that long to...?'

'I only gave him the ring six days ago Sophie! It was the first chance I had!'

Sophie's eyes widened.

'What?! What do you mean?! I don't understand, why did you wait that long?!'

'I didn't have a choice. He wasn't discharged until two weeks ago.'

Sophie was even more confused.

'Discharged? What does that...?'

'Sophie please sit down. I'll tell you everything but you shouldn't be standing when you hear it.'

Sophie nodded slowly and sat down in one of the rooms two chairs. Jack's Dad moved the other one next to it and sat down as well. He held Sophie left hand in his and took a deep breath.

'Do you remember how all those Asian countries declared war on us a few months before you left?'

Sophie was puzzled by the sudden change in topic.

'Um... Yeah, I remember now. There were all those reports on how the politicians were going to resolve it diplomatically to stop the fighting. What does...?'

'A couple of months after you left, they launched a surprise attack on our troops off the coast. Our boys managed to push them back but... it came at a heavy cost. All negotiations stopped after that.'

Sophie was horrified.

'Our government decided to use a strategic drone campaign to force the Asian countries to surrender. But they needed more troops, including members to fill their new commando ranks, to assist the drones and interfere with enemy operations. So they introduced a conscription lottery and lowered the age minimum from 18... to 15.'

Sophie was confused for a second. Then her eyes widened.

'No...!'

But the look in his eyes was all she needed to know for sure. By the time he'd finished explaining the events she had missed, she couldn't stop the tears of horror from free flowing down her face.

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Jack ran for his car. The rain was really thundering down now, he was absolutely drenched when he reached his car. The lightning was biblical and the thunder deafening. But Jack wasn't paying attention to that. He needed to get away, away from that hospital. He fumbled his keys out of his pocket and jumped into the driver's seat of his SUV.

He started it up and hit the road. He didn't know where he was going and he didn't care, as long as it wasn't that hospital. A part of him wondered why he was acting this way. Maybe there was something to that whole 'genie' story. I mean, how else could you explain what had happened in his Mum's room. But that part was drowned out by the roaring in his ears that it was all crazy and he had to get away,

Jack drove and drove, the sheer feat of driving in this weather helping him to stop thinking about it. The adrenaline rush started to subside and suddenly he felt exhausted. The only thing keeping him going was the storm and the air-con at this point. Just as night was beginning to fall, he suddenly realised he was driving along the coast, towards one of his favourite beaches.

He knew there was a look-out point up a hill, near the beach, that was sure to be deserted now. He could stop and have a rest. Sure enough, the turnoff was soon in sight and he carefully but quickly drove up to the look-out and stopped right in the middle of the car park. He turned off the engine and just sat there for a few moments, catching his breath.

Then Jack climbed over and put the rear seats down, before moving the front ones forward and angling their backs forward as well, maximising the room in the back. Jack grabbed a spare jumper from the boot area and folded it into a pillow, before lying back and putting his head on it, resting his feet on the centre console.

For the next twenty minutes Jack just lay there, listening to the rain rattling on the car's roof, trying to figure out what had happened. Somehow, for the second time in his nineteen year old life, his entire world had been flipped on its head, again. Jack couldn't make sense of it. The ring, his Mum's sudden recovery, the weird smoke.

And Sophie. That was the hardest thing to accept. Jack had convinced himself that she'd been something he'd imagined during the war, a way to handle the stress and keep going. But it had seemed so real and he had always had a nagging suspicion he hadn't really made up those memories.

And now he knew. Despite what he had thought, he couldn't deny it. Sophie was real, and, for good or bad, she was back in his life. But what he'd seen and heard... it just wasn't possible. Things like the glowing ring only happened in dreams, sci-fi or stupid magic shows.

Magic. Thats what Sophie and his Dad had kept mentioning. What had Sophie called herself, a djinn? And she had claimed he had access to magic as well. But magic was just a fantasy, stories told to entertain kids, or at best a cheap trick or a well timed optical illusion. And stuff like genies or djinns, that was just old folklore and legend from places in the middle east.

And yet Jack couldn't help acknowledging that what they had been saying did make a sort of sense, even though it was so outlandish. Not even the most imaginative child would have considered it plausible. But if what he had seen today was to be believed, it did a least give a way to explain Sophie's disappearance.

Jack closed his eyes and tried to calm himself down. He was getting a migraine from thinking too hard. No, it couldn't be true. There had to be a rational explanation. Jack couldn't believe his parents right now, not when he didn't know what they had said was truth and what was lies. They had made it clear when he was fifteen that they hadn't known Sophie and now they were acting as if she'd never left! And as for Sophie herself, Jack wasn't sure if she was even real or not.

Suddenly, he heard a tapping noise that definitely wasn't rain. Jack opened his eyes and saw Sophie standing outside the right hand door, one hand on the glass. Despite the rain she was perfectly dry, the rain seemingly disappearing before it touched her. Her cheerful demeanour had been replaced by a look of worry and nervousness, her eyes studying Jacks face for any sign that he'd start yelling again.

Jack just stared for a second, unsure what to do. Then he sat up and unlocked the door. Sophie opened the door and climbed in, while Jack backed up against the back left corner of the car. Despite letting her in, he still wasn't sure if he could trust her yet, or maybe he wasn't sure if he could trust himself.

Sophie closed the door and sat back against it, pulling her knees to her chest, squashing her massive tits with her knees. Any other day of the week and Jack would have found that look incredibly sexy, but he wasn't staring at her jugs right now, he was looking at her face, trying to figure out why she was there. She was looking back at him with the same look of trepidation, trying to decide on what to say.

'You...You're Dad told me what happened.' she said a last.

'Which part?' asked Jack, still wary.

'Everything. About the war, the commandos. And how you've been different since you got back.' she replied. It was pretty clear she was holding back tears.

'Why'd you come here?' asked Jack. There wasn't any anger in his voice, just tired confusion.

'To... to say I'm sorry. To say how sorry I am that all that happened to you.'

'Why? Me getting conscripted wasn't your fault.' He didn't mention Eddie or the other jerks, because he wasn't entirely sure the she wasn't at least inadvertently responsible for that.

'You don't know that. If I had put off the sealing a little longer, I could have used my magic to protect...'

'STOP!'

Sophie froze mid sentence, a terrified look on her face. Jack closed his eyes and took a deep breath. His hands had raised in the 'stop' gesture but now he used them in the 'calming' one. He hadn't meant to sound so harsh but this was almost too much to bear. What the hell was she talking about, magic? And how could she have stopped him getting conscripted?

'I'm sorry but... I just need to know. Are you really here?'

Sophie was shocked.

'Of course I am. Why would you say that, you can see me can't you?'

'I haven't been able to trust myself at all these last few years, especially not my eyes! They're the easiest thing to trick. If I hadn't convinced myself you weren't real, that I just made it all up, that the best years of my life were just something I created to cope with the worst, I never would have made it to see the end of that goddam war!' cried Jack, four years of frustration starting to boil to the surface.

Sophie just stared in shocked silence.

'I tried to put it all behind me at the start. I thought it was some kind of mental breakdown I was having because of stress at school, but when I got to Asia I used those memories to keep me going, trying to keep me from doing something crazy. But then the war dragged on and I started seeing things, things that didn't make sense or did but shouldn't have.'

'I thought I was going mad. I tried to focus on those thoughts of you, of us with Mum and Dad but when I that, I remembered the look the gave me when they said they didn't know who you were! Eventually I figured that that was why I kept seeing things. Because I was holding on to those memories, those delusions, I kept making more. So I let go, never thought about you again. And it worked, mostly. I made it through. And then today happens and everything just... collapses.'

Jack stopped and tried to catch his breath. He had never spoken about the war or how he'd dealt with it, even to his parents. He didn't know why he was baring his soul now. Maybe he was delusional, maybe he was crazy, or maybe he was creating this so he could deal with that trauma. That thought managed to calm him down and he closed his eyes as the exhaustion hit him again.

Sophie had one hand over her mouth and her eyes were open wide in shock. She had known Jack would be badly affected by his experiences, but she'd never imagined that his memories of her would have been such a big part of that. She'd wanted him to treasure those memories, not have them turned into something that hurt him.

And now that she was back they were hurting him again. His Dad had told her that, even before the war, he'd been to see doctors about his mental health. The war had just made his condition worse. But now she was free, she wasn't going to let him suffer anymore. She had to help him.

She knew that despite what had happened at the hospital, Jack was scared out of his mind and when somebody was scared was when they needed other people the most.

She could see the turmoil in his mind about wether to accept or to deny what was happening. What he needed was someone to show him which was truly correct. And she knew just how to do that, how to get her Jack back. Sophie carefully crawled across the car to where Jack was siting in the corner, his eyes still closed.

Sophie knelt over his outstretched legs and moved till she was holding herself up over his lap. She gently took both his hands in hers and moved then around her waist. Jack, startled by the contact, opened his eyes to meet Sophie's green ones. Their faces were only a few inches apart from each other. Jack was enthralled by the girl he was now gently holding. She looked amazing, every detail of her appearance was flawless.

Without breaking eye contact, Sophie gently moved her hands up Jack arms, over his shoulders and finally coming to rest with her left hand on his neck, and the right cradling the back of his head, gently caressing him through his dark brown hair. For a few seconds they just stared at each other, Jack equal parts terrified and hypnotised, Sophie trying to make every moment as pleasurable for him as possible.

Then Sophie slowly leaned in, closed her eyes, and kissed him.

Jack was stunned. The second her lips met his, his brain short circuited, not believing what was happening. Sophie was kissing him. She was kissing him! And it was even better than he had imagined when he was fifteen.

After a moments hesitation, he closed his eyes and started kissing her back, melting into their lip lock. Her lips were so soft, so tender and the kiss had nothing but love fuelling it on her end. As it intensified, Jack hugged her closer to him and Sophie grabbed his hair to pull him further into the kiss.

When they finally broke for air, Sophie was panting slightly but Jack was taking huge gasps of breath, the kiss so tremendous it had caused him to lose the last of his stamina. He was completely exhausted, the emotional battering he had endured finally overcoming him. Sophie smiled and kissed his forehead.