Kenny and Jimmy looked at the trashed evidence room in shock. It felt like no time had passed, but when they had looked at the clock, two hours had gone by and Max and the lamp were missing.
"Something happened to her," Kenny said. "She wouldn't have stolen it."
Everything pulled off the shelves, the cage destroyed, the walls water damaged, Jimmy thought. "She couldn't have done all this."
Kenny felt his blood run cold. Something bad happened here and it happened to Max. "We have to find her. Now."
Max landed with a large oomph in the lamp on a pile of pillows. She sat up slowly, her heart racing as she studied her new home. No, not my home, she thought, as a blinding headache hit her as she denied it. Grabbing her head, she realized she couldn't even cry at the pain as she sat back down. No tears. No denying what I am, she thought, looking at her hands adorned with golden rings that were attached to her wrist cuffs with chains. This can't be happening, I'm not a genie, she thought, as her head hurt again. Gritting her teeth, she stood up slowly, her surveying her surroundings. Piles of pillows, ornately carved furniture, golden arches and silver walls, Max thought, pacing the space. It looks like a harem. Where my ancestors…no…ow…my genie ancestors lived? Looking at herself in the mirrors, she gave pause to her reflection that she caught a glimpse of before she was sucked into the bottle.
Wow, Max thought numbly, just wow. That can't be me, she thought, as another blazing headache ripped through her. No, okay, it's me, she thought, touching her face. My new and younger face, she thought, looking at her refined features, golden skin, with her emerald eyes. How…I'm in a lamp. My lamp, she thought, looking at her golden cuff bracelets again. Running her fingers over them, she gave one a tug and yelped in pain as it pulled her skin. She held up both of her hands, and studied her bindings. Fused to me, she thought, they bind me to my lamp.
"Welcome, Genie."
Max froze, looking for the voice in lamp. "What?"
"I am the lamp. We are connected, Genie. I know you have questions. You are the first new genie is 2000 years. You needn't be afraid, Genie."
Genie, Max thought. "It's…it's a lot to take in. He…he called me Genie too. Is that my…. are all…"
"You don't accept what you are?"
"That I was transformed into a genie?" Max deadpanned, looking at her reflection again in the mirrors. "It's…something out a movie or book…it can't really happen."
"Yet it did, Genie."
"Are all genies called Genie? Or is it just because I'm…new here?"
"You are the Genie of the Lamp. You will choose your new name when you are ready, Genie."
Max gulped at that. Genie…I feel it. This can't be real… "What is going to happen to me?"
" It has already happened. You are a genie. The lamp has been taken from him and you are safe. You are awaiting your first master."
Max shivered at that. "Then what?"
"You will grant him three wishes as you see fit."
"As I see fit?"
"You are a genie, a trickster, you will know what to do."
A genie, Max thought again, smoothing her harem pants with her adorned hands and looking at her reflection again. I can't look like this, my face, hair, these clothes, all the bracelets, belly chains, earrings, on top of my bindings. Oh, ankle bangles too. "Why do I look like this?"
"You are lovely, Genie."
Genie, she thought again. "What…What do I do now? Am I really in a lamp? Do I really have...magical powers?"
"You will learn. I am here to guide you, Genie. You live in this lamp now, you are bound to it."
"What happens to me now?" Max asked. "If I'm really...a genie?"
"How do you feel, Genie?"
Not scared, she thought, looking around her new home and finding it oddly pleasing. "Confused. I don't know why this happened to me. I remember how, the mist and him...I said yes, I told him to change my life and I had sex and I changed. When the mist cleared, I...I was this."
"Yes. He freed himself by creating you. You were very willing, Genie, I sensed it when you were in the shop with us. You wanted a change from your human life. You will be a very powerful genie."
The shop we raided in a drug bust, Max thought blandly, I offered to sort the evidence... Genie. I'm a freaking genie in a lamp.
"What is that?" Jimmy asked, looking at the man cloaked in shadows carrying the golden lamp out of the station. Max never left the evidence room, but he did, with the lamp. "She didn't leave that room."
"That's a magic lamp," Carter Pike said. "What? I know my legends. A magic lamp, with a genie inside."
"Oh, come on," Kenny said. "That isn't real."
"Time stopped. Max never left. He did."
Kenny felt a tingling in his skin. The cameras…they went fuzzy down there after she dropped that lamp and… "Genies aren't real."
Carter nodded to the man vanishing into the night. "Then where is Max?"
"Max is not a genie."
Max hugged her knees to her chest, doing her best to ignore her nagging lamp. Her cuffs burned, making her gasp. How long have I been here? What happens when someone finds me? Will I really grant wishes? Trickster…Genie.
"Genie."
Max looked up, her head bounding in her constant denials. "I'm resting."
"You need no rest now."
I don't, Max thought, or food and drink. I merely exist in my lamp. Oh, how is this happening?
"Ask me your questions, Genie."
"How can I be something that doesn't exist?"
"You are very real."
Max sat up slowly, looking around her lamp. "I didn't…how do I change back?"
"The only way is to create a new genie to take your place."
To trap someone like I am, Max thought, I can do this…I can be a genie. I can be a good genie, not a trickster. "How…what do I do?"
"Are you a genie, Genie?"
Max paused at that. "Why do I need to say it? Ow."
"Your cuffs burn?"
Max nodded. "Why?"
"You have been here three months in your human timeline."
Max paused and stood still. "It feels like hours…But I don't sleep, eat, I just exist here."
"You are different now."
I am she thought. I'm a freaking genie, trapped in a lamp. "I need more time. Ow! Stop it!"
"Genie."
Max screamed as the cuffs glowed red. Gathering her magic, she threw a beam of light at the walls of her lamp making the whole thing shake. "Stop it!"
"Genie."
Max screamed in frustration, as she shattered the mirrors and burned the curtain panels, desperate to damage the lamp that was burning her. "I command you to stop!"
"Genie."
She fell to the ground, feeling her power swell in her, filling her in a way she didn't know she could be. Rising to her feet, she felt everything she was now, all the power of being a genie and a history that went back before a record began, when she was a mere spirit in the air. "I, Hala, Genie of the Lamp, command you to cease!"
"Very good, Hala."
Max smiled, as her full powers rushed through her, her understanding of history, languages and worlds filled her mind, as the burning stopped. "Don't burn me again, Lamp."
"I won't, Hala, Genie of the Lamp."
She flicked her wrist, restoring her home to its former glory. "I am the genie of this lamp and you are my vessel."
"Yes, Hala, Genie of the Lamp."
Hala, Max thought, it's who I am now. I am a freaking genie, immortal, powerful, and I'm trapped in this lamp.
"Genie's aren't real."
"That lamp has a history," Carter said, sliding the papers. "Its records date it back to ancient Egypt."
"Genies."
"Look at where it traveled, people prospered suddenly, civilizations grew."
"Max was not kidnapped by genies."
"Then where is she?" Carter asked. "Where did he take that lamp?"
"We cleared the video," Deputy Thompson said, looking pale and sick. "You need to see this."
"What the hell?" Kenny said, looking at the mist surrounding Max that poured out of the lamp. "What is happening to her?"
He averted his eyes as she fell into the man's arms and began to have sex. Oh, god, something is happening to her…
"Genie," Carter said, watching the show, as Max's writhing body slowly took on her genie traits. "Look at her."
Kenny could just stare at her new body, as the man spoke to her and Max stood there entranced before she swirled in a cloud of golden smoke into the lamp. "That didn't…Where the hell is she?"
"We need to find that lamp and we'll find Max," Carter said. "If she's still, Max."
Max felt her world spinning as she swirled into a golden smoke and was pulled from the lamp. Gasping, she felt oddly calm, as she arrived in the world almost a year after her transformation. "Yes, Master?"
"You're real."
Max smiled and nodded. "You didn't think I would be? I am the Genie of the Lamp, and I am here to grant you three wishes."
"A genie?"
"I am a genie."
"But…you aren't real."
"Oh, I am very real," Max smiled. I was forced into existence, I know how I real I am like this, how powerful, will he set me free? Her wrists burning at that, she smiled, I do enjoy it. My magic has taken me on mirage journeys, I'm immortal and gorgeous and want for nothing. Being a genie isn't that bad. "What is your first wish?"
He wiped the drool from his chin. "You are for real? What happens after my three wishes?"
Max smiled. "I go back in my lamp and await a new master."
"So, if I don't make any wishes, you'll stay?"
"You're my master. I'll do whatever you say," Max said. "You do want your wishes?"
He nodded. "You're very beautiful."
The smoke, Max thought, it infects them, makes them accepting of what is happening like it did to me. Magic is grand. "Your first wish?"
To Be Continued as the Genie Hunt Begins