Chapter 3: You Awoke Me
Rachel Gitzlaff was an old friend of David and Kristine's, who had a job working in a lab as a studious worker with jewels and gems and other exotic stones. David had once been attracted to her, saying that her fiery red hair reminded him of the holy fire of God, even though she wasn't as much into spiritual things as he and his sister were. His polite advances were gently brushed off, however, when she informed him that she was a lesbian, and had already gone through several girlfriends. He was a little sad, but was also grateful that she warned him ahead of time, unlike his absent mother. In fact, Rachel had taken an interest in Kristine once, herself, but Kristine insisted that she didn't practice gay relationships, and when she married, she wanted to marry a man. Nonetheless, brother and sister and best friend got along well with each other, and they were always ready to help each other when in need.
The previous night, David and Kristine had closed the gold boxes, put them back in the cases, locked them, and left them and the keys exactly as their father had left them. They reasoned that they couldn't leave any evidence of their excursion in the basement after their discovery. It wasn't yet time for Howard to find out about what they did. Then, the next morning, after they saw their dad off to work, they took out the hidden gems and drove over to Rachel's office.
As he drove the car, David was wondering about that pretty face he had seen in the sapphire. What would a girl or a woman be doing in a gem? He wondered this and numerous things along the way, and he was sure his sister was, too. Suddenly, while they were waiting at a red light, David experienced a vision of the sapphire and the "woman" inside, and he heard a melodic voice say, "You awoke me."
Startled out of his wits, he accidentally hit the car horn. The red light was still on, so the driver ahead of him naturally assumed that David wanted him to run the red light. "Can't you see, man?" he said, "The stoplight's still on! You know I can't start driving again yet. Have some patience!"
David waved apologetically, feeling a little embarrassed. Kristine asked him, "David, what's the matter?"
"I don't know," David admitted. "I thought I saw the sapphire in my mind's eye, and heard a voice say to me, 'You awoke me.'"
Kristine frowned. "That's strange. But you did say that you thought you saw a moving person inside that jewel. Still, it spooks me, too."
The driver behind them hit his horn. "Will ya wake up already?! The light's green, moron! I don't wanna be late for work!"
"Whoa," said David, "I didn't know time could fly when you're being confused!" He put the car in gear and drove on.
About two minutes later, while driving a short distance on the highway, Kristine was hit with a similar experience. She saw the fire opal up close even though she wasn't looking at it, and a voice that sounded almost demonic intoned, "You awoke me."
"Aaahhh!" she yelled in alarm.
"What's the matter, Krissy?" asked David, looking at her. "Did you just have the same picture I had, or something?"
Another car honked a horn at them. "Watch it, ya dumb bastard!" a middle-aged man yelled from his Ferrari, "This is my favorite car! You almost crashed into it! I'll find out who you are and sue if you do that again!"
"Ah, sue this, jerk!" Kristine shouted, shaking her fist at the man.
"Ah, sue this yourself, broad," the driver shouted.
"Don't intimidate him, Krissy," said David, "This isn't a good time for us to get in trouble with the law."
"Yeah, you're right," she admitted, "But he's still a jerk. Anyway, yes, I did experience a vision like yours, only I saw the opal instead of your jewel, and the voice that said, 'You awoke me,' spoke in a deep growl."
David looked thoughtful. "Now I know we have to get more knowledge about these gems from Rachel," he said. For the rest of the drive they had no more near-accidents.
At the lab, Rachel, dressed in a white lab coat with the sleeves rolled up over her regular clothes, was intrigued by the gems, and was as astonished as they were at the size of them.
"You said you found these in two gold Persian boxes shaped like stars your father dug up in the Middle East?" she asked them.
"Yes," said Kristine. "Our curiosity got the better of us and we decided to examine the findings ourselves, although dad made us promise not to. Now we want to find out what sort of amazing things are inside those jewels so we can say we had a good excuse for taking them and examining them."
"You mean 'stole' them, don't you," said Rachel. It was not a question. "Really, I love you guys as best friends, but you should know better than to mess around with things like this at your age. And now that you're involving me in this, I could get in almost as big trouble as the two of you."
"You're right, Rachel," admitted David, "You're absolutely right. I guess we just weren't thinking about the word 'steal' when we took them from dad and betrayed his trust. Now we just have to hope and pray that things turn out for the better."
"I don't know if I'll pray for it," said pragmatic Rachel, "But I will hope for it. Not that it'll do a lot of good. Fate can be cruel sometimes, you know that."
Just then, David and Kristine were simultaneously hit by the same epithet they heard before, "You awoke me," one in a melodic tone, the other in a growling snarl, and they saw visions of the close-ups of the gems again. They spaced out for a second and almost fell on the floor.
"Guys?" Rachel asked as if from far away, "Are you all right?"
David shook his head to get the dizziness out of it. So did Kristine. "Yeah, I'm all right, Rachel," David confirmed. "I, uh, just spaced out for a minute for some reason."
"Me too," said Kristine, rubbing her eyes.
"A minute?" said Rachel. "It was more like twenty seconds to me."
"Whatever," said Kristine, "We're fine now. But it's getting late in the morning now," she said, looking at her watch, "David and I have to get to our classes before we're counted as tardy."
"Yes," agreed David. "We'll see you later, Rachel. We'll check with you later today."
"Bye, guys," said Rachel, waving.
"Good luck with those gems," offered Kristine.
David and Kristine piled back into their car and drove to the university.
After they left, Rachel decided now was as good a time as any to take a look at those gems. "All right, let's see what we've got here," she said to herself. She decided to examine the sapphire first, putting the opal aside for later examination. Putting it under a lamp and a microscope, she took a look at the magnified gem to see what was so special about it.
At first, she couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. The gem was dark, but not so dark that it couldn't be seen through. It also was a pretty shade of blue, the sort of shade that would be tremendously expensive on the open market.
"Hmm," she mused, "It's sure big for a gem, but apart from that I can't see anything special about it." She was about to look for another means to investigate it, when suddenly, she saw something move inside it. A lovely young woman seemed to be inside it, and she was looking up at Rachel's eye through the lens! Rachel was startled by this, to say the least, but she continued to look. The woman seemed to be imploring her for something, as if she wanted release from the gem. Then, the natural sunlight from a nearby window shone on the jewel, reflecting bright light into the lens. Rachel recoiled, briefly blinded in one eye by the brightness.
Then, as the sapphire became even brighter, there were cracking sounds, as if the gem was splitting open. Indeed, it was, for a moment later, the gem seemed to explode, and a blue light shone through the lab. The force of the explosion tore through tables, smashed beakers and vials, broke other tools, and in the chaos, Rachel was badly injured by a combination of flying debris and being thrown off the chair and against the far wall.
Needless to say, the pain hurt like hell to her, but Rachel's head soon cleared. And when it did, she was shocked and alarmed by what she saw next, so much so that she almost forgot her pain.
A beautiful, radiant, youthful woman was kneeling on the floor, breathing hard as if trying to regain lost strength. She wore a blue, translucent dress and gray shoes, and her hair and eyes were as dark as midnight. She looked weak at first glance, but somehow Rachel could tell, possibly from the bluish-white light shining through her, that this person was much stronger than she could ever hope to be. She gasped in alarm and tried to wriggle away from the woman. "No! Whoever you are, I didn't mean anything by prying with that gem! Please don't kill me!"
The woman looked at her mildly. "I am not here to kill you, young lady," she said, and she meant it. "Not unless, of course, you wish for it."
Rachel blanched. "Why would I wish for my own death? I'm in pain right now, but my life isn't exactly in shambles right now!"
The woman gave her a small smile. "It is good to hear that you do not desire death right now, even with your evident injuries. But I am not a human woman, and I have unimaginable powers that can be used to help anyone receive what they wish for."
Rachel frowned at her. "I must be dreaming," she said to herself, then to the supernatural woman, "How can this be so? I don't believe in any damn spiritual stuff! I respect people who do believe in it, but I have no use for it myself! You can't have unspeakable power!"
"My dear," said the woman patiently, "I am a djiniri, a female djinn. My origins are from a combination of Islamic spirituality and Arabian folklore. I can grant a wish to anyone who asks for something. And I can sense that you are in distress right now, and not just from seeing me. You are bleeding and in pain from the sapphire's explosion. Surely you would wish for me to heal your wounds and ease your pain? Most people do not enjoy suffering, even if they go through with it on purpose."
Rachel was almost at wit's end, and her loss of blood wasn't helping matters any. "Well, now that you mention it, yes! I want this pain to go away, and for my cuts to be bandaged or sewn shut or something! I'm not ready to die just yet!"
The djiniri smiled again and bowed her head. "As you wish," she said. Then she moved forward and began to touch Rachel on her head and chest.
"What are you doing?" Rachel demanded.
"Fulfilling your desired wish," the djiniri said blandly. To Rachel's amazement, she actually felt her pain rapidly decreasing, and her wounds closed, and she felt like the blood she lost was being restored to her veins and arteries. Soon, she was feeling just as fine as she had before the gem exploded.
She looked at herself in astonishment. All she needed to do now was wash off the blood that still remained on her healed skin. "Thank you so much," she said, blushing in embarrassment at her doubting the djiniri before. "I don't know what to say! Wow, David and Kristine would be so amazed to see this for themselves!"
"There's no need to thank me," the djiniri said, "But I must thank you, and one of your friends who was just in here, for awakening and freeing me. I believe the one who freed me was the friend named David, because he was a man. I was stifling in that prison Zoroaster put me in so long ago."
"Zoroaster?" Rachel asked, "As in Zoroastrianism?"
"Sort of," the djiniri confirmed, "He was a wizard who did not approve of any of the race of djinn walking the face of the Earth. He locked me in that sapphire after I almost offered three wishes to a Persian king who loved wonders and magic."
"Uh, slow down a little," said Rachel, "This is getting a little too deep for me. So, what are you going to do now, grant me another wish?"
"I am afraid not," said the djiniri, "I must find David, for I have pressing business with him, and I must power up my sapphire cell with selfless and generous wishes from other people besides yourself. But before I leave, you must know that every wish, even the most noble, comes with a price, for things received through supernatural wishes are always better deserved when achieved through work and deeds rather than just speaking a desire to one like me."
"A price?" asked Rachel, suddenly a little nervous again, "What sort of price?"
"Well," said the djiniri, "I must go out into the world to find people who have wishes to offer me, and to do that I have to take the shape and form of a human to blend in, for I could sense when I emerged from the jewel that this era in the world is much more pragmatic and secular than the time I originally came from, and they will not believe their eyes if I look like what I truly am."
"You're…you're not thinking of taking my form, are you, ma'am?" Rachel stuttered.
"No," said the djiniri, "A good djinn can shapeshift through his or her own power and will. They do not need to kiss a person like a neutral djinn would, nor do they have to skin a person's face and put it on over their real one like an evil djinn. But you have seen me for what I truly am, and for that, I am afraid I cannot let you leave this building, at least, not yet."
"What?" exclaimed Rachel, "You intend to lock me in my own lab? I can't go through with that! I had plans for later today! Some of my girlfriends and I were going to go down to the local bar and have some drinks with the guys. I can't let them down!"
"Sorry," said the djiniri, "but that's the rule of asking a djiniri like myself for a wish. I will allow you to leave when I deem the appropriate time has come for you to do so. And I will leave you food and water and something comfortable to sleep on while you are here."
"Food and water? A bed?" Rachel asked suspiciously, "Exactly how long do you intend to keep me sealed in here, anyway?"
"I know not yet," said the djiniri, "It could be half a day, it could be a whole day, it could even be as long as a whole week."
"A WEEK?" Rachel exclaimed even louder. "You goddamn bitch! You can't do this to me-!"
The djiniri rounded on Rachel with an angry flash in her eyes. "Yes, I can do it. And how dare you speak such blasphemy in the face of a holy one! I am certain your parents taught you better manners than that."
Rachel had recoiled at the djiniri's rage, but then she said, "Why shouldn't I say it? Almost everybody in the United States of America talks like that at least sometimes these days! My God, you really are living in the past!"
"NO MORE BLASPHEMY IN MY PRESENCE!" the djiniri intoned in a loud but controlled voice that reeked of righteousness to Rachel. "Now, I must go, for it is evident that you are less grateful for my healing than before, and I must be on my way. In the meantime, I'd suggest you relax your jangled nerves and meditate on what it is to show respect to an all-powerful djiniri." With that, the djiniri retrieved the sapphire, saying something about needing it for her personal business, and then walked out of the lab without another word, and without ever looking back, and walked outside the office building. There, she put on the raiment of an attractive young woman not too dissimilar to her true form, and was on her way.
Sadly, in her concentrating squarely on Rachel, she never noticed the demonic fire opal Rachel had laid aside in another part of the lab, and thus wouldn't know about the evil djinn until after he learned of her presence.
Back in the lab, Rachel sulked. It wasn't fair. A generous spiritual being takes away her physical injuries and her disbelief in the supernatural, and for it, she got locked in her own lab until God knew when!
She had tried every outside door. None of them would open for her. She tried opening a window, but they wouldn't open, either. Not that it mattered a great deal, because her lab was on the second floor. She had even tried her cell phone to call 911 or one of her friends, but discovered that the line was entirely dead. She couldn't even contact the operator. And no one besides her was in the building at the time, so no one was present to help her.
"Fuck this!" she growled to herself as she sat down in her lab again, dejected. She had found the food, water, and bed in another person's office, so at least the djiniri told her the truth about that. But this was definitely going to be a long and boring wait until the djiniri returned.
Then, she noticed the fire opal on the counter where her shattered microscope was. "Well," she reasoned, "I suppose that as long as I have to wait, I can spend some time getting acquainted with the other gem David and Kristine left me. Then they'll have all the answers they want. Besides, maybe this opal has another so-called djinn or djiniri in it who can help me escape this mess."
Her lamp had been destroyed in the explosion, so she got a flashlight out of a drawer and used it to investigate the red stone. It, too, seemed to have something tiny moving inside it, but without the microscope, it was hard to tell exactly what it was. She picked at the gem with a chisel, wondering if she could break it open.
Then, it too started to make a cracking sound as if it was going to burst. This time Rachel was ready for it, though, and managed to take appropriate cover by the time the explosion occurred.
She looked out from her crouched position. Her lab was an even bigger mess now. She wasn't sure how much more of this she could take. It'd cost hundreds, if not thousands, to replace all these pieces of equipment! But what she saw crawling on the floor took her breath away again, but this time with a feeling of revulsion and disgust.
A hideous man that looked like he was half-beast was crawling around, trying to grow to his own natural size and strength. He had horns and snakes protruding from his head, and he wore some sort of dark red armor, or maybe that was his hideous hide instead. His fingertips ended in sharp claws. As he stood up to his full height, he picked up the opal and gazed at it for a moment, and then he set his sights on Rachel.
"Hello, young one," he said in a deep growl, but there was almost a kind of seductive reasoning behind the growl, almost as if he was just as generous as the djiniri who had been in there before.
"Are…are you, another djinn?" Rachel asked nervously.
"Yes, I am a djinn," he confirmed, "But how did you know? And what do you mean by 'another djinn?'"
Rachel briefly wondered if she had made a mistake in her choice of words, but she had to proceed now, she knew that. "I released a female djinn called a djiniri, a little while earlier. I got injured in the sapphire's explosion, and she said she could heal me if I just wished for it. So I did, and the pain and bleeding stopped."
"Hmm, fascinating," mused the djinn, "Where is this sapphire, out of curiosity?"
"She took it with her when she left," said Rachel.
"Oh," said the djinn, sounding disappointed, "Do you know her name? I might like to have a word with her."
"She never told me her name," Rachel said. "But she said that for wishing for an end to the pain, not to mention keeping her presence a secret in this world, I'm locked in my own lab until she sees fit to release me. She thinks the modern world can't handle the mysticism of supernatural beings. I probably can't even see my friends David and Kristine again until she releases me!"
"Kristine," said the djinn in satisfaction, "She must be the one who woke me."
Rachel felt a twinge of guilt. Had she just gotten her best friends in trouble they were unprepared for?
"Ah, yes," said the djinn, "So, she healed you. And for that, you are trapped in here until who knows when."
"Yes," said Rachel impatiently.
"You know," he said reasonably, with a smile, "since I am a djinn, too, I can also grant you whatever you desire. Just name it, and I will grant it. And I think I have an idea of what it is already. You don't want to go stir crazy in this place anymore, do you?"
"No, I don't," said Rachel, "I've had enough of being subject to some holier-than-thou bitch who wants to have her own way with the world!"
The djinn briefly reflected on the irony of that statement, and then, "Then speak your wish. You must say it aloud, and then I can grant it."
Rachel composed herself. "I wish to escape this broken lab and go outside where I can be free again!" she said.
The djinn grinned evilly. "As you wish," he said in a pleased snarl.
A second later, an unseen force suddenly grabbed Rachel by the front of her shirt and lab coat, and it hurled her throughout the lab repeatedly. She crashed into a wall where a framed painting was hanging. Then she was flung to the floor, hard. The pain had returned, more intense than before, and she had almost broken her back on the solid floor. It tossed her up to the ceiling, where she crashed and made a dent in it, as well as breaking her nose. Then she was thrown near the broken tables, flying through broken equipment and shattered glass. She was now bleeding worse than before.
"What are you doing to me?" she screamed at the djinn.
He said casually, "Looking for a place where you can successfully escape the building."
"No, NO! I take it back! Stop this, please!" she begged.
"Too late, little one," he said, "I cannot undo a wish unless the wisher is allowed more than one wish, and you, unfortunately, are not." He looked triumphant.
Rachel was tossed about a few more times. Blood started to spatter in several parts of the lab. Finally, she screamed in fear and despair as the djinn's power flung her toward an outside window in the back of the building. She sailed right through the glass, which broke and cut her everywhere, and finally, she fell to the ground, where she broke her neck and died.
The djinn looked quite pleased with his handiwork. Carrying the fire opal, he safely jumped out the window and floated softly to the ground. He held out the opal, and pulled Rachel's soul from her body, trapping her in one of his cell's torture chambers.
"Now it is time to find my Waker," he muttered to himself, "as well as that upstart djiniri who has the nerve to encroach on my territory." He could still recall how to transform into his first human form, as the handsome and seductive Nathaniel Demerest, and he did not want to take Rachel's form at a time like this, so he re-shaped himself into Nathaniel, complete with his expensive suit, tie and shoes, and went out into the world to grant more wishes and wreak more havoc.
