Chapter 9

As soon as I walked through the front door I knew something was wrong. My mother came rushing over from the kitchen, hugging me tightly and sobbing. "Oh my god I was so worried!" She told me. "I thought you were dead! Why didn't you call? The police should have let you make a call. The news didn't say anything about you."

"Mom!" I yelled, shocking her out of her panic. "I haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about." News? Why would the hospital have involved the police? I could see why the miraculous recoveries would come to the attention of the news, but I had trouble believing it could have happened this fast.

"You don't know?" She was stunned, and her surprise quickly turned to anger. "I thought you were going to work!? You're still grounded, you know. You skipped work and ran out, and had me all worried over you!"

"I went to work, but Haller told me to take off early." I interrupted her ranting. "I stopped at a buffet on the way home." I lied.

She started crying and hugged me tight again. "I'm sorry Jason, I'm so sorry." She told me. "Haller is dead. He was murdered at the shop, and it was a really nasty thing. It's been all over the news. I thought ... I thought you were there too, and I thought you ... I thought you were dead too." She sobbed.

For half a minute I didn't say anything. Haller was dead. The old man had done a lot for me over the last two years, and he was at least indirectly involved in getting me the genie. I owed him a lot more than I could ever have expressed with words. He was like a surrogate father to me, replacing the one that I never had, and filling a role that Kenny never could.

"Mom, I need to go down there. I need to find out what happened." I told her, using my power to force her calm down and let me go.

"Yes." She said, breathing deeply and sniffling. "I suppose you need some closure. He was a friend of yours." She patted me on the back. "Be strong, and make sure you talk to the police. You should stop at the station on your way, and tell them everything you remember."

"Don't worry mom, I will." After that she let me go, and I walked back out of the house.

As soon as she turned away, I moved myself to the store. There were still police everywhere, but I stepped outside of time the moment I arrived, and everything stopped. Walking through the open door, I saw signs of a struggle. Merchandise was thrown around and broken, and there were several busted chairs. I walked into the back room, stepping around the statues of several police officers and one man in a suit.

The archival study was a mess. There was a chair in the middle of the room, and it looked as though Haller had been tied to it and tortured. There were blood stains all across the floor; whoever had done this was one sick bastard. There were sharp tools and other implements of pain spread neatly across the table in the center of the room. Many of them looked as though they had been used.

I felt myself going cold inside. I felt for the fabric of time and grabbed the threads tightly in my grip. With a powerful twist I spun the universe. With my thoughts singularly focused and reaching out for that moment when this terrible thing had happened, I never noticed that the odd sense of being watched had returned. All of a sudden the moment was upon me, and I stepped back into time.

The blood was missing from the room, although the tools were already laid out on the table. Most importantly, Haller was alive and whole, though he was tied down to the chair and gagged with a rag. I ran over to him, working the gag out first and then reaching for his bonds. As soon as the gag came free he started shouting at me to leave. "Get out of here now! He's after you; this whole thing is a trap! I'm just the bait!"

A new voice spoke from behind me, and it was the darkest thing I had ever heard. Every syllable it spoke was filled with malice and hatred. "It's much too late for that, old man."

I spun to face the thing that spoke, and saw a dark haired boy. He was leaning against the door frame, glowering at me with hazel eyes and a wicked sneer. "Who are you!?" I growled as I turned to him. This wasn't a question, but a command. I had forced all of my power into it, compelling him to answer me. To my shock, he simply laughed, shaking his head.

"Mortal, you know nothing about the game you have entered. Your abilities mean nothing against a power like me. I would be happy to put you in your place." He told me, slinking forward and sliding towards me with a single step that seemed to glide him across the distance. "But where would I be if I ended your existence so soon?" He smiled as he answered himself. "I want to enjoy my new plaything for a while, before I break it."

During his speech, I was desperately trying to use my powers. Every effort I made met with no result. It was as though I was back to being a normal person.

"None of that, now." He told me, tracing his finger along my side and pressing it against the spot where my recent wound had been. "I see you've visited your genie again. The abilities he endowed upon you were almost too powerful for me to suppress. I had to call in a few angels to help contain you. Such a nuisance."

"You talk too much." I told him. Despite my apparent disadvantage, I was still cold inside. I had few emotions within me, and I was totally unafraid. Calm had descended upon me and left me without even anger. My lack of desperation did not go unnoticed, and the entity became increasingly frustrated with me.

"Are you too ignorant to understand?" He grinned again at his own cleverness. "Then I will have to teach you a lesson." With that, he brought his arm up and pointed his index finger at me. I was suddenly unable to move, and even breathing was an effort. There was a small spark that flickered at his fingertip, and without warning a bolt of the purest energy shot into me, throwing me across the room. I was bloody and bruised when I staggered to my feet. There was also a charred scar across my chest, where the lightning had instantly cauterized the wound it made as it ripped through me.

My heart was beating erratically and my balance was unsteady, but I stood straight and narrowed my eyes in cold resolution. "Is that the best you've got?" I taunted. "You'll never carry out your boasting if you can't do better." I don't really know what I was thinking, trying to piss him off like that, but it seemed to be the right thing to do. Besides, I wasn't angry enough to make any kind of outburst; I wasn't angry at all.

"Impudent mortal." He said, the grin vanishing from his face. "I am a craftsman who has made the greatest of your kind, and just as I have made you, I can destroy you. You are nothing to me, but a toy to play with. But as pitiful as your existence is, you are still far too interesting for me to destroy so quickly. That was why I wanted so badly to meet you. No, I think I'll play with you for a while longer. But your friend has outlived his usefulness." He stepped forward and in one smooth motion stabbed Haller through the ribs with his bare hand. Even as I watched, he tore open his chest and ripped out his heart.

I started screaming. I was still screaming when he waved his hand and sent me hurling through the universes. I flew across existence, until I finally settled upon a region outside time and between dimensions. It was a long while before I could pull myself back into reality. It was a long while before I could see through my tears.

I'm not sure where I finally landed. I clawed my way into reality, but I was still in some sort of crossover limbo. I was babbling incoherently to myself and sobbing uncontrollably. I was hardly aware of anything around me. I had failed my friend when he needed me the most. Even with all of my powers I had failed him. I wanted to die, but some primal instinct forced me to keep breathing, no matter how much I wanted to cease the efforts of my lungs. I cried to myself for an eternity.

Al'Karab saved me.

He found me, drifting in that place limbo. He came to me and embraced me tightly, holding me against him as I poured out my tears. I tried to tell him what happened, tried to explain things. He held me tighter. "I know." He murmured. I started begging him, pleading with him to give me one more wish, so I could set things right, so I could save Haller. "I can't." He told me, his voice shaking. "I can't break the rules, even for you." I looked up at him and saw the tears on his face. He was crying for my loss.