Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise.
Another sort of disclaimer – the main OC is a genie. Genies are Islamic (it's said that Allah made angels from air, humans from earth and djinn from fire). Therefore, this story will reference religion more than a fair bit. I'm trying to tread lightly around it so no one is offended, but please feel free to send me a PM or review if it doesn't work.
And now for the prologue, in Daniel Bennett's POV! Enjoy!
(Also I think the art book or something said that Jamie had a single mother, but I changed it because why not? Maybe they were just split up at the time of the movie.)
Dan was not having a good week.
No, scratch that. He wasn't having a good month.
"Okay, Sophie, come on," Dan grunted, trying to peel the toddler off his shin. His daughter wasn't having any of it.
"Puppy!" she cooed in her childish little lilt as a stray dog crossed in front of them. "Puppy!"
"You already have a puppy, Sophie- wait a minute, where's your brother?"
Helen was going to kill him. Not even five minutes into their walk and he had already lost their son. Could he do nothing right?
"Dad!" Jamie hollered from the doorway of a shop, frantically beckoning for Dan. "Dad, come over here! Quickly!"
Dan tried his best to waddle over with a three year old stuck to his leg, but it wasn't fast enough if Jamie's impatient wriggling was anything to go by. Dan felt a little sting of annoyance. If he had ever shown such insolence when he was a kid, his father would have – (and Dan stopped that train of thought before it became too obvious he was reaching his Best Before date).
"What is it, kiddo?" Dan grunted, trying and failing again to pull Sophie off his leg. Jamie's grin widened in excitement.
"I need money, dad! I was looking in this shop, and they had issue 47 of Greatest Mysteries Uncovered – you know, the one that Abby chewed up – and it's almost new, and-"
"Just put whatever you want on the counter," Dan sighed wearily, taking out his credit card. He flinched when Sophie finally detached herself with a shriek of excitement and hurtled into the aisles of the shops.
"Tough to be a dad," the old shopkeeper joked later when he was ringing up the stack of items on the counter.
"You," Dan said flatly, "have no idea."
Helen's going to be furious.
The thought occurred to Dan later as he was putting away Jamie and Sophie's purchases in the toy boxes (He and Helen had bought it when Jamie was little in hopes that it'd bring a much-needed sense of organisation to the house. It didn't work. It was mainly used for joyriding down the stairs or occasionally through the snow during winter. They still put away the toys there though; Dan supposed it made them feel like they were accomplishing something.)
Forget furious, she's going to string me up six ways from hell.
Dan leaned heavily against the wall, closing his eyes as his heart wrenched at the reminder of his wife. Maybe she would have forgiven him for spoiling their kids last year, but ever since Dan had lost his job at the bank, money had been tight. Helen – whose highlights of her days were watching the kids – had to find another job, one that gave more pay but kept her at the office longer.
She was working tonight. She told him she'd be staying late, so she'd sleep in her office. Wasn't the first time she had done so. Of course, Dan understood. She had to support the whole family now. It was no surprise that she'd have to work longer hours. And yet…
Dan shook away his doubts, whipping his head like a dog shaking off water. He picked up the bag again and resumed packing away the toys. A Loch Ness Monster plush toy was tossed into the box. Soon a picture book of aliens (with squeaky pages – no surprise there considering who chose it) joined it. Dan slipped his hand back inside the bag, then jerked his fingers away in surprise when he felt something warm.
What the hell?
Dan pulled the object out, staring at it in surprise. A brass oil lamp hung from his fingertips. How on earth had Jamie managed to sneak that past him? What would Jamie even want with an oil lamp? And why was it…warm?
Despite Dan's better judgement, he inspected it closer. The outside was rather sooty. His fingers were coming away dark and smudged as he turned the lamp over in his hands. Dan rummaged in his pockets and pulled out a tissue. Without even thinking, he began to rub the lamp.
Back…and forth…and back-
Shoom.
With a noise like a storm of cyclonic proportions, air and smoke and glitter began whipping out of the spout of the oil lamp. Dan yelped and dropped the lamp as it burned so hot that it scalded his hands. He watched in horror and morbid fascination as the sparkling emerald smog spun like a tornado, arching up above him. A body – caramel skinned and lithe – began to unfold from the storm of haze and glitter. Jet black almond-shaped eyes edged in flowery henna designs opened, peeking through tendrils of dark hair. Then…
"Ah, crap, not again," the girl complained in annoyance as she glowered down at Dan. Dan felt his jaw drop as he stared in bewilderment up at her. "How did you find my lamp?"
"I – but you-" Dan stuttered. The girl sighed and rolled her eyes.
"Well, no matter I guess. Okay, here's the drill. The name's Ghazal – call me Gazzy. I'm a genie, or a jinni – a jinniyah if you want to get technical since I'm a girl, but you humans never do – or a djinni. Silent 'd'."
"A genie?" Dan yelped, his heart feeling like it was about to stop in his chest. The girl – Ghazal – continued on as if she hadn't heard him, drumming her fingers impatiently on her arm. Dan could see flashes of a flower inked in henna on the palms of each of her hands.
"You get three wishes, but there are restrictions. It's all basically the same deal as the genie in Aladdin." When Dan continued gawping at her, Ghazal elaborated, "You know, the Disney movie?"
"I know what it is!" Dan snapped before his mind could catch up. He was the father of two kids. "It's just…a lot to take in. Genies don't exist!"
"Oh great, here we go," Ghazal said, rolling her eyes. She gestured to a nearby seat – a tiny little thing meant for kids Sophie's age. "Pull up a chair, this is going to take a while."
Dan shakily sunk into the chair, so stunned he didn't even react to the creak the chair gave. He stared up Ghazal, who was arching a condescending eyebrow at him.
He had to be going insane. He just had to be. That was why he just saw a genie appear in his kids' playroom.
It also had to be why the only thing that struck him as wrong was the fact that Gazzy still lacked anything waist-down. The glitter and smoke still swirled around her legs in an emerald tornado.
"Why don't you have legs?" Dan blurted out stupidly. Ghazal's eyebrow got – if possible – even more condescending.
"Because, master, you haven't given me permission to walk."
"Oh," Dan said eloquently. Then he fumbled uselessly with his hands, then gave up. "Would you like your legs back?"
Ghazal rolled her eyes. "Thank you." With that over and done with, the tornado dwindled down, revealing slender legs with terrifyingly high stiletto heels on her feet. Dan was a little disappointed at her outfit, which – aside from the henna tattoos inked up and down her legs – seemed more appropriate for an office worker than a genie.
"I thought genies wore those…puffy pants?"
Ghazal cocked an eyebrow at him as she bent down and picked up the oil lamp. Even the backs of her hands and fingers were inked in henna like lace gloves. "Why would we wear those? You know what those are? Concubine clothes. Why would we dress like sex slaves?"
Dan hesitated a moment too long and Ghazal's expression turned to disgust.
"You sick, perverted bast-"
"I wasn't going to ask!" Dan said hastily, holding his hands up in defence. Ghazal surveyed him, then nodded and turned away when she realised he was telling the truth. She busied herself with positioning the oil lamp on top of a cabinet.
"Well, good. You can't wish for that anyway. I had a friend once who had to pretend to be her master's date. Didn't go so well for him. You don't force second base on a jinni without getting third degree burns."
Dan had stopped listening to her story and found a more pressing matter – the need to breathe.
"Oh, great, now you're dying," Ghazal said in disgust as Dan began to hyperventilate. She settled back and watched him. "You know, if you die without using your wishes, I'm free."
"I'm not dying!" Dan wheezed at her, bending over until his head was between his knees. "Just in shock."
Ghazal sighed impatiently, tutting. "Humans. Tell you what, go ahead and give me your first wish if you still don't believe this is real."
Well, that was easy. "I wish I was rich."
Ghazal didn't even hesitate. "How do you want it – cash, cheque, lotto tickets, gold bars…?"
Dan blinked at her, bewildered. Then he threw all caution to the wind. What the hell, he might as well, right? "Gold bars. Stacked in a pyramid."
Ghazal flicked her fingertips at him. A sudden blaze of emerald light made Dan throw his hands up to protect him from the glare. When it settled down again, layers upon layers of solid gold bars were stacked on top of each other in the most luxurious pyramid Dan had ever seen. There was also a scarlet red line tracing down the column of Ghazal's throat, something he was sure wasn't there before.
"Holy shit," Dan said blankly, leaning back. Something occurred to him and he frowned and looked up."Hang on, if you're making money, won't that crash the economy?"
"I don't make money," Ghazal said as if the very idea was stupid. "I take it from someone else."
This was going to be a very long day.
And there's the prologue! The rest of the story will probably be from Ghazal's POV.
Okay, first of all. Ghazal's outfit. I was always really confused as to why genies dressed like concubines in popular culture. Genies are Islamic. I don't know if you've noticed, but there were pretty strict clothing laws for women in Islamic culture. So when she's on a job, she dresses like a secretary – you know, pencil skirt, work blouses, high heels etc (which I thought made sense because genies are basically magical secretaries).This would have changed throughout history depending on what was worn as business attire at the time. Basically the only thing about her appearance that marks her as a genie is her henna tattoos. I've always loved henna tattoos, and I thought it fitting that jinn would wear them. All the henna tattoos I was inspired by are on my profile. Check them out, they're beautifully done :)
(But she does have leisure clothes, so if you really want you can imagine she dresses more exotically in her free time.)
Second of all. I'm going to be using the terms genies, djinn and jinn pretty interchangeably. Though djinn are generally the male genies and jinn are the females. I'm doing a lot of research into constructing the djinn, but I am using artistic license. That being said, please still feel free to point out any inaccuracies because I might not have realised it and was just being stupid.
Bunnymund shows up in a couple more chapters. Does anyone want me to put a glossary of his slang at the end of each chapter he's in? Or does everyone think they can figure it out?
Please review!
(P.S. I need a cover art. Who wants to do me one?)