The Genie's Possession

Festival Does Not Equate to Fun

Lindy looked absolutely tuckered out. We were watching a movie together and she had fallen asleep on the couch again. I sighed, so much for Lindy's claim that this time she was going to stay awake for the whole movie.

On the screen, Coraline had just been reunited with her parents. I knew what was going to happen next, I had watched Coraline at least a thousand times but Lindy insisted upon it tonight. I wasn't complaining though, Coraline was a good movie.

The movie finished up and the credits began rolling. Gently I pushed Lindy off of me and turned the TV off. I pulled a blanket from the closet and draped it over her. Lindy was crazy, bossy and sometimes right down irritating. But I could always count on her.

As soon as we got home from the funeral Lindy pushed me into bed and made me a delicious cup of tea. She apologized for the funeral situation a hundred times and even tried to call my doctor to make an appointment-but I stopped her on time assuring her that I was fine. Lindy was basically a smothering mother duck but she was my family, my only family.

I climbed into bed and tried to fall asleep but no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't. I felt restless. I don't know how long I was tossing and turning in bed, but finally I decided just to get up.

I turned on my lamp and searched under my bed. Finally my hand came into contact with something smooth and heavy. It was the book on jinn.

I flipped to my bookmark and began reading:

How to Identify Jinni in your Home

Since there are so many kinds of Jinn it is difficult to describe all the possible signs that a Jinn is near you. However some common signs that there is a Jinn near you is if the lights are flickering(or your electricity is suddenly not working for no apparent reason), hearing random footsteps, constantly smelling burning wood, hearing random voices, inexplicable reasons for extreme temperatures in the household are a few signs that a Jinn is in your home.

I flipped to the next page as this one only gave a listing off jinni hauntings in history. The next page seemed more interesting. It read:

Jinni Obsessions and Possessions

The Jinni as a species are not malicious and most only wish to lead an undisturbed life. As a result Jinni possessions are rare. Very few species of Jinni actually go as far as to possess a human person as possessions are dangerous and complicated for the both the Jinni and the host human. The Ifrit-

I could not make out the rest of the words on the page. Someone had spilled something on the page and the words were faded. Great, I was just about to learn a bit more on the Ifrit. I could not understand why every time I attempted to read about the Ifrit, the information was conventionally inaccessible in this book in some way.

I looked at my clock. It was three in the morning. I needed to sleep. I could do some more digging on the Ifrit tomorrow.

                                               -------------------------------------------------

"Ahhh! I have so much to do," Lindy shrieked as she raced around the apartment looking like a madwoman. I just sat back on the coach and observed.

"Nora, have you seen my phone," she asked as she furiously dug through her purse.

I sighed. "Lindy it's right next to you."

"Oh, thanks." Then she looked at me and then took a glance at my pajamas.

"Nora," she shrieked, "how are you gonna go to festival looking like that?!"

I jumped off the couch and headed to the kitchen to make myself some tea. Lindy's shrieking was giving me a headache.

"We are not doing this again Nora! It's not normal for a person to stay cooped up inside all the time."

"I never wanted to be normal," I answered wryly.

Lindy rubbed her head and looked at me as though I was a complete mystery. Before I knew it Lindy had shoved me into my room and began rifling through my closet.

"Why is it that you have nothing nice to wear," she complained.

I quickly shut my closet and exclaimed, "Hey! You can't just go through my closet!"

"You're right," Lindy replied, "You've got nothing decent in there anyway." Suddenly the doorbell rang.

"I got it," Lindy said as she threw a black dress at me and hissed, "Put that on."

I held the black dress out and realized it was the one Lindy had gotten for me on my birthday. I had never worn it, the dress was just so tight. It didn't feel right.

"Hello," I could hear Lindy saying.

"Hey Lindy," I heard Gavin saying, "Are you ready."

"Uh, pardon me but where is Nora," an unfamiliar voice said.

"Oh, sorry Kevin. Nora is still getting ready, she'll be out in a minute-actually let me go check on her," Lindy replied.

My eyes widened in shock. What the hell was Kevin doing here? As soon as Lindy stepped into my bedroom, I yanked her inside and slammed the door shut.

"Lindy, why is Kevin in our apartment?"

Lindy completely ignored me. "Nora why aren't you dressed yet? And can you please let me do your hair?"

"Lindy," I hissed, "Please don't tell me you actually invited Kevin to go to festival with you."

"Don't be ridiculous. He's taking you." Then she shoved the dress in my hands again and looked through my closet for shoes.

I grabbed Lindy's arm. "Lindy, you cannot be serious?! I told you-I don't want to go to festival and I certainly don't want to go with him."

Lindy glared at me. "No way-I don't want to hear another word. I already told Kevin you'd go with him and you can't back out now."

I glared right back at Lindy.

Finally she sighed and pleaded, "Nora please. Do this for me?"

I groaned but went into the bathroom. I barely squeezed into the damn dress. Black was not a good color on me. I was already so pale, the dark contrast did not help.

I stepped out of the bathroom and Lindy immediately grabbed me and began brushing my hair. She wrapped my hair into a smooth bun and pinned it at the top of my head. Then she began smothering me in make up. She even tried to usher me into some heels but I blatantly refused.

When she was satisfied Lindy had me stand in front of the mirror. "Oh, you look so pretty Nora!"

I stared into the mirror in front of me and the girl looking back at me was unrecognizable. I didn't feel like me at all. But looking at Lindy's face I could only smile and say, "Yeah."

"Lindy," Gavin knocked at the door, "we really need to go."

Lindy opened the door to reveal an impatient Gavin but when Gavin looked at me he looked absolutely flabbergasted.

"Woah, Nora. You look great," he finally said.

"Thanks," I replied.

Lindy beamed but then she looked at the clock and shrieked, "It's almost 9? We need to go now!"

She pulled on both Gavin's and my arm almost racing through the hallway. I almost would have collided into Kevin if he had not moved away in the last second.

Looking at Kevin's handsome face, I felt the same dread I did when I had first met him. He had the same aroma and now I recognized exactly for what it was. He smelled of cloves and Arabian spices. Kevin opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by Lindy shrieking about tickets or something.

For a second I saw Kevin glare darkly at Lindy but in an instant he beamed again at me making me wonder if I had imagined the whole thing. He offered me his hand and I had to force myself to take it. 

God, I really need some tea.