Chapter 9

Sophie woke up the next morning alone, which was something she'd long since decided she didn't like. She generally preferred to wake up cuddling with someone, whether it was Matt, Alexis, or someone else she'd commanded into bed with her. But this morning, she was alone. Matt was mad at her, she'd commanded Alexis to go back into her lamp, and she wasn't in the mood for sex with some random person.

"Good morning Mistress, would you like some breakfast?" Sophie turned around, to see Alexis sat there on a chair, holding a tray, with a big plate of pancakes and syrup.

"Alexis?" She said, yawning. "I told you to go into your lamp."

"You once told me that you consider me your best friend," Alexis said. "Best friends don't always do as they're told."

"You're also my genie, and you have to do what I say."

"Fine, if you're going to be like that, I'll just leave, and take these delicious pancakes with me."

"No ... Alexis, I'm sorry," Sophie said.

"It's not me you should be apologising to. It's that boy you scared half to death, and the boy who had to stop you."

"Oh God, don't remind me ... I fucked up."

"It'll be fine. Now eat these pancakes I worked so hard to make."

"What, you didn't just conjure them up?"

"Yeah, but it took a lot of a sampling them to get the amount of syrup quite right."

"Swimming in it is the right amount." Alexis made the plate float over to Sophie, who started eating them.

Matt also woke up alone that morning, but it wasn't nearly as bad for him, since he wasn't as used to waking up to the feeling of nude skin touching his own. He thought of what had happened the previous day. Had he blown his chance of having a girlfriend? Perhaps, but someone had to stop her.

Matt didn't bother calling Sophie that morning. Frankly he didn't really want to think about her or the genies, so he opted to keep Lumiosa in her lamp when he went to school. He could just pretend that his "cousin" was sick.

As Matt was rummaging through his locker, he felt a hand on this shoulder.

"Hey Matt." Matt turned around, and saw Dan standing there.

"Uh ... hi Dan..." Matt said, expecting to either get beaten up, or mercilessly teased.

"Listen Matt ... I just wanted to thank you for yesterday ... For saving me from that psycho bitch..."

"Dan ... she's not a..."

"Look, I don't know what weird powers you two have, and I don't want to know. But thanks for saving me from her."

"Whatever."

Matt tried to walk away, not really wanting to talk, but Dan stopped him.

"Matt, look, I know I've never been particularly nice to you, but-" Dan said.

"Look Dan, you're welcome for me saving you, but I really don't want to talk," Matt said grumpily.

"Dan, why the fuck are you talking to this loser?" Cindy asked, walking up to them.

"Cindy, he's not, he saved me," Dan told his girlfriend.

"Look, I'm just gonna go," Matt said, walking off. "Please just leave me alone."

Matt walked into his first class, where he saw Sophie and Alexis sat in their normal seats.

"Matt, I-" Sophie began.

"I don't want to talk," Matt said, turning to leave.

"Matt, please, I'm sorry!" Sophie shouted after him, before getting up to follow him.

"Sophie, I really don't want to talk!"

"Matt, I'm really sorry for what happened! I made a mistake! I'm only human!"

"It's not just that though! We're supposed to be better than those old guys who enslave people with their genies! But you were about to do who knows what to Dan!"

"Matt, just-"

"And what about your parents? Still fucking, are they? They're basically your slaves!"

"Oh you're hardly one to talk!" Sophie shouted back. "Or have you forgotten how you made an entire girls' PE class fuck you senseless!? Or how you did the same thing to your sister, and nearly killed the two of you in the process!?"

A crowd was starting to gather to listen to the two of them loudly argue.

"Oh Alexis, make them go away!" Sophie shouted.

"As you wish," Alexis said.

"Actually, we could handle that." The three of them looked around for the source of the mysterious voice, but they saw no-one. At that point, they saw the other students in the corridor begin to fade away, along with all the walls and floors. They looked around, and saw that they were stood in an ornate living room, not unlike the dining room from before. In it, the other members of the society were sat around with their genies.

"You could have just called us," Sophie said.

"Yes, but this is so much more fun," Neil smiled. "Please, sit."

"Make this quick, I'm not in a good mood," Matt said, sitting down on an empty armchair.

"My my, what's gotten into him?" Jürgen chuckled. "Why don't you just have dear Lumiosa conjure up some fun for you?"

"Just get on with," Matt said, his mood obvious in his voice.

"Very well," Brian said. "Sophie, Matt, the time has come for you to prove your worth to our organisation."

"What, helping to uncover Alex's secrets wasn't enough?" Alexis interrupted.

"Sophie may enjoy your contributions to discussions, but I do not," Brian said to her sternly. "I would advise you to remember who is in charge here, genie."

"And I would advise you to, oh great and wonderful human," Alexis said sarcastically. "To remember that the only reason you have power at all is because of Lexia over there. You know, when I met Lexia, she was such a sweet girl. Loved making people happy. But now look at her."

"She serves me obediently."

"Yes, a little too obediently. Hey Lexia, remember Babylon? Remember showing me the gardens you built? How proud you were of them? It wouldn't surprise me if he'd wiped your memories of it. Of everything. Turned you into his mindless slave, who's only any good for granting wishes. Do you remember me, Lexia? Do you!?"

"She won't speak without my permission."

"Then give it to her! Give her some freedom, at least!"

"Sophie, your genie is being rather noisy," Sarah interrupted. "Do shut her up. I can't abide listening to her."

"Alexis, go back into your lamp," Sophie commanded her.

"Oh come on Sophie, don't pretend that you don't agree with-"

"Alexis, in your lamp! Now!" Sophie shouted. Alexis just stared at her.

"Your wish is my command, Mistress," she said in her most sarcastic voice possible, before she returned to a cloud of light-blue smoke, which was sucked into Sophie's handbag.

"Now then, to business," Brian said. "Now as you know, one of our goals is to collect genie lamps. Well, we've discovered another one. Or rather, we discovered it many years ago, but its owner refused to join us."

"Who is it?" Sophie asked.

"Jacob Larson," Brian replied. "Born in 1922, a British man living in the countryside of Kent in a very large estate. He went from being relatively poor, until, in 1950, he made a fortune on the stock market. Not long after, he married a girl named Eléni. His genie, of course."

"How do you know?"

"Because he told us, of course. He told his story to Alex's father Robert in 1952. It was at that point he refused to join us. Ever since then, we've been waiting for an opportunity to take Eléni's lamp for our own."

"And now's the time?"

"He was 93 last month. He's not got long left. And we think his time is coming very soon. Like us, he has given himself eternal youth, and he used to be very active out in public, doing things like charity work. But recently he's been seen stumbling a lot. Like he's dying. And now he's not going out in public at all. He will likely be dead soon. The job we want the two of you to do is to recover his lamp once he dies."

"But that could take 5 more years for all we know!"

"It will not. We promise."

"How do you even expect us to do this?"

"Well, for you and Alexis, we would like you to join his harem. You see, despite being happily married in public, we know that he has a rather large harem in his mansion, consisting of hundreds of girls. We figure no-one will notice two more popping in."

"And me?" Matt asked, speaking up for the first time, but still sounding annoyed.

"As I said," Brian continued. "Jacob does a lot of charity work. He has a meeting today with a man from the NSPCC, who is going to ask him to increase his contributions to them. Or he was, until, as if by magic," the rest of them chuckled at this, "he dropped down dead. So now Matt is going to take over from him, with Lumiosa as his PA."