Chapter 9
WHEN Genie next woke up and emerged from her lamp, her surroundings were completely dark, much to the djinn's shock and alarm upon waking and not knowing where she was. But she was vaguely aware she was not in the dark though. She remembered the Princess had been insistent upon Aladdin accompanying her for a stroll in the palace gardens. It took a few minutes for the fog of confusion she found herself in to dissipate.
There was always fear that she felt ever since coming here.
No holes were missing. None that she could remember anyway, and she tried to think about where her lamp might have been taken—stolen from Master, more like, he should have taken the lamp with him and kept it on him, she bitterly thought to herself.
Genie had a sinking feeling in the pit of her empty stomach that Jafar and the bird, the macaw, were behind this. She wondered what she might do to get out of this situation.
She tried to float away towards the darkened room's door, but some unseen force, magic, she could smell in the air, was keeping her from doing so and beginning her search for Aladdin and Jasmine. Something was wrong. They had to be warned. The Sultan's advisor was scheming something, she was sure of it.
She tried to float towards the door but could not, and it was only when she attempted with more force that there was a horrible sharp pain in her chest, like she imagined what humans felt sometimes.
She winced and let out a little cry but once she stopped moving, the pain in her chest subsided. She knew enough not to call for help, for Aladdin to come, and so she remained silent, determined to get out of this. As she worked to try to move and could not, she remembered the sight of the Sultan's advisor.
Tall, lanky, cold dead eyes and he seemed a cruel man with no feeling. She knew attempting to supplicate him would not work. There was no feeling behind the cruel smile that she remembered him giving more than once.
The fact that she could not even use her magic in this room, whatever it was, suggested there were other things the Sultan's advisor wished to do to her. She had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that she was about to be a slave to a new master. Why else would she have woken up after a long nap to find herself here, wherever 'here' was for her? She wondered if the bird she had seen perched on Jafar's shoulder last night had taken her lamp.
She could only hope that if serving Jafar was to be her new fate, bound by the rules of djinn magic, she would be strong enough to hold onto her dignity. What Genie thought had been a healthy amount of fear only amplified when she heard the sound of a heavy door creaking shut a mere few feet to her right. The door of wherever her captor had brought her did not exactly bang shut, but it closed with a loud thud that was almost deafening, and Genie jumped, straining her ears to hear, as it was too dark, pitch-black, to make out the features of whoever was approaching her now.
Her throat hurt as Genie considered whether or not she should say something to her tormentor, but as she considered whether or not she should even speak, she struggled to decide just how she would go about it.
As a djinn, she was not in a good bargaining position right now.
If Jafar had stolen the lamp and was now her master, by the laws of the gods and djinn-kind, there was virtually nothing that Genie could do to stop the wicked man from making his three wishes.
She wondered if she should try to talk to him, to warn him of the cost that was associated with each wish granted, or stay silent and let the man figure that out for himself.
She decided, for now, to stay silent and let the man reap what he sowed and learn the consequences himself.
There was a pause, in which she was going to speak, though there was a sound and then the feeling of a torch being thrust into her face, which caused her to sharply look away.
It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the blinding white light that suddenly bombarded her eyes, but when they did, they looked back and up at Jafar, his black eyes narrowed and still wholly devoid of emotion.
His lips curved upward as anger and fear once again overwhelmed her and the Sultan's advisor loomed over her.
Slowly, his narrowed eyes moved from hers and looked down the length of her body to her 'tail', where her body ceased to become flesh after her midsection and took on a more spiritualistic appearance.
"I…" she began, and Jafar turned his head to look at her face again, but the man only stared, the bright scarlet macaw on his shoulder gave an indignant squawk and screeched at her while flapping its wings, and spoke to her, mocking her.
"…Daft…" the bird spoke to her in a shrill voice.
When she said nothing by way of response, Jafar turned his back to Genie and walked over to a little table.
The holding cell in the dungeons she found herself in was empty. The only piece of furniture in the cell was a little table that Jafar was now standing in front of. Her stomach turned as he made to retrieve something, and when he turned around and in his hand was her magical oil lamp, Genie felt unexplainable anger and terror seized her.
"No, no, no, please…" she begged, and he raised the lamp. She continued to sputter indignantly until the cobra's head of his magical golden staff was gently placed on her lips. She fell silent but trembled even more violently now.
"You don't have to do this, Jafar, please don't make me do this," she said, realizing how stupid her words were once she said them. Of course, Jafar didn't have to. He wanted to. He seemed to emphasize this by bringing his staff closer, grazing it over her clothes, and then holding the staff close to him in one hand, the oil lamp in the other.
"Why…why are you doing this? I don't understand," she whimpered, and he placed a finger on her lips and shushed her.
She recoiled and jerked away from the embrace but fell silent, terrified of his wrath, not for her, she could handle her own but for Aladdin. She had her master, the Princess, the Sultan, and Carpet and the little monkey to think about right now. She nearly let out a cry when Jafar spoke to her.
"Djinn, how good of you to join Iago and me, I trust that your little rest earlier was…uneventful," he murmured in a low baritone with a wicked flourish. Genie said nothing, she merely floated there, staring in silence. "I do hope you won't think of trying to escape, as you are mine now and you cannot leave this room without your master, djinn," he complimented, giving his golden cobra head staff a curt bang, and she frowned as she watched the serpent's ruby eyes begin to glow.
She did not understand what alchemy and Dark magic this man dabbled in, but whatever he had done to this holding cell in the dungeons beneath the palace was serving as a barrier for him, protecting him against her magic and wrath, and it was steadily draining her ability to fight back, much less flee. She was well and truly trapped.
Moments later, the scarlet macaw flew off its master's shoulder and landed on top of her head, beginning to peck at strands of her hair viciously with its beak. The pain in the roots of her hair was enough to cause her to answer in a flat voice while shooing the mischievous bird away, "Jafar." She grimaced as she heard the haunting dread in her voice and knew that the Sultan's advisor and the wretched bird heard it too.
"I trust your time as my slave will be…" Jafar paused, looking condescendingly at Genie. "…adequate." He smirked.
Again, Gen said nothing, at a loss for words.
"Please, stop this!" Genie shouted, raising her voice, and hoping that her master, Carpet, a passing servant or guard, someone would hear her and fetch help, but she highly doubted that help would come for her. Jafar simply raised his hand to quiet her.
Her concern for Aladdin and Princess Jasmine and the rest was so great, that Genie obeyed without any complaining.
"Let's get on with this, pet, shall we?" he announced to the room, speaking more to Iago than her. "You are mine now, djinn, and you answer only to me. For my first wish, Genie, I wish you to make me Sultan."
Genie angrily gritted her teeth and clenched her fists, fighting against the urge to burst into tears and break down at weep upon hearing the man's first wish.
She felt her magic thrumming through her veins, preparing her body to grant the mortal man's horrific first wish, knowing exactly what the price would be, having seen it a thousand times before, the more recent of which had been the other night when she had received the news that Aladdin's father had passed.
If Jafar's wish was to become the Sultan, then Princess Jasmine's father would die for that to happen.
She squeezed her eyes tightly shut with regret and anger, understanding now why Jafar had stolen the lamp, using some of her magic to read the man's mind, hear his twisted thoughts and his black heart's darkest desires.
He sought to become the most powerful man in the world by whatever means necessary, even if he had to require the assistance of a djinn to accomplish that. She knew what Jafar now had planned for Agrabah, and for any in his life who he thought had wronged him, including Princess Jasmine and Aladdin.
She would beg for their lives if she had to.
"Please. Please, Master," she implored frantically, unable to conceal the bitterness in her voice or the way she flinched at the use of the word, Master, hating it and herself. "I beg of you, please wish for something else. Anything, it is yours if it is within my ability to grant it, Master." Frightened tears began to stream down her face, as she unconsciously stretched her long and slender pale blue fingers towards her oil lamp longingly, wishing that it was Aladdin's belt that her lamp was now tucked securely into instead of the Sultan's advisor's.
Desperately, Genie continued her plea, weeping. "Any wish, you—you can do anything you want to me," she begged, her breast heaving with sobs. "Not that, any other wish but that. Surely you wouldn't make me do it."
She trailed off, tears still pouring down her cheeks as she stared up at the wicked man looming over he and leering at her as he stared down his nose at Genie, now certain that the Sultan's advisor would indeed make that first wish and kill Jasmine's father as a result.
Her heart broke at the thought of knowing that her magic would be the ultimate end to Sultan Hamed.
Before she could move, Jafar's maniacal laughter filled the little prison cell and stuffed the chills down her throat, causing her to float a few paces back away from him, looking on in disgust and horror as Jafar laughed.
"Djinn," Jafar corrected after he had gotten his emotions under control and had calmed down enough to be able to answer her. "Be assured, I will do with you and your bastard little street rat whatever it is I please," he chuckled. "And you, my pet, are in no position to ask your master for anything." Jafar's tone rose to match his angry mood. Genie could only float in mid-air, trembling, at the thought of what was to come as she was not sure how much longer she could resist her body's own urge to grant the wish he wanted to make.
"Genie, I wish for you to make me the Sultan."
Genie's white eyes grew wide and round with horror, and she groped for the lamp, but he stepped back. She shook her head in horror. "No," she begged through her sobs and tried to float back towards the faraway door, but whatever containment spell Jafar had put around the room kept Genie from doing so. "No! Jafar! Please don't make me do this!" she screamed in terror as she ground her teeth in anger, tears blinding her vision. Her magic was close to bursting in her veins, and she could fight against the instinctive need to grant the man's wish no longer.
She could not wait. Suddenly, Genie drew in a sharp breath and her eyes grew wide with alarm as soft tendrils of golden light began to emanate from the tips of her fingers. She could only watch helplessly as she gritted her teeth and forced her fingers into a snapping motion, her body needing to grant her master's wish like a fish out of water needed air to survive. A straining groan rose from her throat as she closed her eyes, trying to hide from the pressure and pain that now ravaged her entire being at granting such a dark wish.
Her wailing and moaning as she could only comply with her new master's demand and grant his first wish had become an anguished hair-raising scream that split the darkness of the prison cell, startling Iago.
"Quiet!" the bird squawked in displeasure, but she did not.
Pains tore through her midsection, leaving the flustered djinn in agony, her upper half tightening and burning, her soul aching, and her spirit as broken as an Arabian horse under the instruction of a wealthy prince. Pains ripped through her chest where her heart would have been having she physically possessed one, cramping her entire midsection as her magic frantically worked to grant the Sultan's advisor's wish. She cried and begged for release from the gods, from Shaquf himself if the king of their race in the afterlife were listening to her, but she knew she would not get it.
This was a punishment, the pain she must endure for killing an innocent man and granting such an awful wish and not properly warning Jafar of the consequences. Amid her hell, she began to hallucinate, a blinding white light glaring into her vision and the image of a delightful laughing child floating across her vision.
It was a little boy, with dark eyes like Aladdin's, a head of thick straight black hair like her own, his chubby hands reaching up to her, asking to be held and comforted.
But before Genie could make the move to do so, this beautiful image in her mind's eye began to distort, and the child began to turn like a shapeshifter, a hideously malformed wretch, screeching and clawing at itself in malice.
The babe's father, Aladdin, looked at her in immense disappointment, before turning away and winding an arm around the small waist of Princess Jasmine. If Aladdin would have given her but a small chance, as a human, if she were to ever be free, there would have been so much more to her than what was seen, and all the love and compassion Genie would have been able to give Aladdin as the man's lover, maybe one day his wife, and perhaps mother to their children, should the gods see fit to bless them with any, would have finally had an outlet after ten thousand years of being alone. But that life was the life that was never meant to be, as Jafar was her master now and not Aladdin. She would never know now if the two of them would have been happy together with one another.
She swore she felt a tightening in her chest and the magic of the newly-appointed Sultan's first wish began to fade from her veins. She watched in horror as the man's black and red silk fine robes changed to an ivory white, as did the color of his turban and staff too. She grimaced and tried not to think about how the Sultan had died if someone had found the poor man's body yet, what Princess Jasmine and Aladdin would think to know that she'd had a hand in the man's death, quite literally, and what they would think of her.
"I'm sorry, Master….I'm so sorry…I….love you…" she whispered, and felt her magic begin to settle within her.
"Is…will you keep Aladdin and the Princess alive?" she whispered, her voice cracking as bitter tears streamed down her cheeks, too frightened to know the answer. Agrabah's new Sultan looked at her then, black eyes sharp, but something in his body language changed. She waited, and he nodded curtly at her once.
Genie felt a tidal wave of relief wash over her and it was enough to give her some hope, but she could not help but feel unsure. Given this man's current actions, what would stop Jafar from lying and double-crossing her?
"H—how am I supposed to know?" she asked timidly, the exertion of her magic just used, was beginning to catch up to her and make her speech tired and slow. He frowned, and then after a moment's pause, rubbed the lamp.
She let out an indignant cry as the bond between djinn and master of the lamp reignited once more, and the unseen force of the magic that bound her to whoever held her oil lamp sucked her back into the little brass object for the second time. She let out a cry as she was sucked inside and could only peek out through the little hole in her lamp.
Her stomach swooped and churned, and she felt the lamp being jostled as Jafar was carrying it around his hip and was leaving the prison cell. She could only watch in horror as they disappeared up the winding staircase of the palace dungeons and out into the palace's gardens, where she could see Aladdin and Jasmine sitting by the fountain.
She saw Aladdin twitch slightly when the Princess affectionately reached for the man's hand, and he moved his head to the side. Jafar spoke in hushed tones as he approached the oblivious couple. "Behave, and your flea-ridden street rat lives, djinn," he whispered, his hot breath wafting into her lamp and stinking up the place. "If you don't…"
He tapped the lamp for emphasis. He did not finish his sentence, but Jafar did not truly need to.
It was quite clear what would happen to Genie if she did not behave herself.
A terrified shiver ripped through her as she felt Jafar come to a halt, seemingly content to observe her former master and the princess from afar for a moment. She squeezed her eyes tight with regret as fresh tears streamed down her cheeks. She hit the inside walls of her lamp with her shackled fists, but it did no good.
She had a horrifying moment of realization as she swore she felt the man's slender tanned fingers begin to rub the outside of the lamp that he was going to show them all that he was now the official ruler of Agrabah.
She was sure she was going to be paraded about and humiliated.
And after this was all over, when Jafar had made his remaining two horrible wishes, whatever they were, she would be known as the last surviving djinn who let herself succumb to a broken heart and killed herself. She did not think she could live with the guilt of whatever the new Sultan would make her do. She had already killed a man for Jafar.
She did not like to think about what else was on the evil man's mind. She had failed Aladdin.
She only wished she could know for sure what was about to happen to the boy and the Princess. If they would be OK.
Genie wondered if she should have tried to plead with Aladdin harder not to leave her, to take the lamp with him wherever he went, but it was too late to take it back. What good could she have done for him anyway?
She had failed and now Jasmine's father and Aladdin's father were both dead. The last thing before her world went blank as she let her grief consume her and she passed out was a horrible, unending hot shame.