Page 10 of Bewitched By the Djinn
When we pass the kids’ rooms, his steps falter.
“Keep walking.” I jab the bat into his back.
He shoots me an exasperated look over his shoulder, but keeps moving. Down the last staircase, past the quiet kitchen, to the heavy front door.
I unlock it and shove it open. “Out you go.”
He pauses on the threshold. “You know, most people offer tea.”
“Most people don’t pop out of antique lamps in the middle of the night.”
Questions throttle me, like who is he and how did he get in the lamp and what the hell is going on? But it’s better if he leaves. I don’t know him. I can’t trust him. I have a family to take care of.
He steps outside, and I slam the door behind him, throwing the locks. I hit the switch, plunging the porch into darkness, then lean against the door, letting out a long, shaky breath.
What just happened?
And what about the lamp, the object that has divided my attention all night? Now it’s silent. No siren calls coming from within the house.
Instead, curiosity gnaws at me, drawing me not to the lamp, but to the entity that was inside it. I glance through the peephole.
He’s staring back at the door, a frown tilting his lips. He rubs a spot on his chest.
I jerk away, heart lurching. He can’t see me. It’s not possible. But then, slowly, he turns and walks away, hand to his temple. He disappears down the alley, into the dark and out of sight.
I stay frozen, counting to ten before finally exhaling.
It’s over. We’re safe.
I turn away, picking up an empty bag of chips from the table and a dirty sock off the couch, my brain spinning in overdrive. Should’ve asked for a wish. Or twelve. I snort at the thought.Dear genie, grant me hot water, pay all my bills, cure my sister, oh, and do something about world peace.
Too late now.
I make it halfway up the stairs when pain lances through my middle, sharp and sudden, like something’s ripping me apart from the inside.
Chapter
Four
I’m dying. This is it.
The pain is intense, nauseating, overwhelming. It rips through me and I crumple into a ball on the stairs, clutching my stomach, desperately trying to breathe through it.
I should have known the day would end like this. It started with an early morning after Jackie had been up all night. Taking Kevin to school, dropping a check off for taxes that I hope doesn’t bounce, then hunting down the music box for my client. Then the weirdness of the lamp calling to me, being chased by the strange shadow, the broken water heater, and the goddamn full-grown man that popped out of a freaking Victorian lamp like Temu’s very own Robin Williams. Now, I’m being stabbed to death by a thousand tiny ninjas that mysteriously appeared in my belly.
“Cassie.” Mimi’s voice cuts through the haze of pain. Her palm settles on my shoulder, the warmth seeping through the cold. “Are you okay?
The pain—so intense only seconds ago—vanishes as quickly as it came, rushing out of me like water down a drain. What. The. Actual. Fuck?
I unwind from where I’ve coiled against the wall in the fetal position, my muscles stiff. “Mimi?”
She’s sitting next to me on the stairs, her face tight with concern, brows drawn. “What happened?”
I would like to know that myself. I stretch my arms up carefully, but the pain is gone. “I don’t know, but that sucked.”
“We need to talk.” Her tone is sharp. No room for argument.
I nod. “Yes. But not here. I don’t want to wake the kids. Let’s go up to my office.” I push myself up, using the banister for support, my legs shaky.
