Alessia’s instincts screamed at her and told her to run from the bleeding man behind her, as well as from the lamp and her eternal servitude. Unfortunately, the man with the gun and glowing knife stood in the only exit out.

She knew the man standing in front of her from from before she was bound to the lamp. His name was Francesco he was one of Carmine Salvatore’s top thugs, and he kept the bosses prostitutes in line. Francesco himself had once tried to recruit Alessia to the whorehouse. He smiled, and his grin showed his cracked and yellowed teeth.

“So you’re Mahreen’s heir?” He said, brandishing the knife and stepping closer to Alessia and the man behind her.

“I don’t know who you’re talking about.” She felt small standing against Francesco. He had over a hundred pounds and a gun on her. But she had magic. Alessia had to have magic, or what was the point of any of this? But the new genie had no idea where that magic was, or how to use it. Still, Francesco didn’t know that.

“Leave right now before turn you into a toad.”

The man cocked his eyebrow, “That’s not how Genie magic works, bitch. You can’t use magic unless your Master allows it.” Then, Francesco’s arm moved and the thunder crack of his gun echoed in the alley canyon. Alessia started to shout. And then everything, even the lead bullet screaming through the air, froze in place. The male voice from before, one of the two that imprisoned her in the lamp, spoke in Alessia’s mind.

الدفاع عن سيدك. الدفاع عن المصباح الخاص.

“Defend your master. Defend your lamp.” Something warm blossomed within the genie. She saw as a swirling mass of gold and violet in her mind’s eye. Alessia smiled. She had found her magic. She looked back to the dull bullet, cutting through the air, and saw its path heading straight for the man who held the lamp. The way it spun was almost beautiful, like a dancer on her toes. But the genie knew the gruesome end to the bullet’s dance.

Alessia reached out her hand and let go a small portion of her golden, smokey magic. The bullet deformed, its body lengthening and reshaping itself into a long green stem. The tip split open in four ways and unfurled into yellow and white petals. Her magic retreated back into her body and time resumed its natural speed.

The flower hit the air and lost all the speed and deadliness of its past incarnation, and floated to the ground at Alessia’s feet. Francesco cursed and stared at the flower as a cocky smile grew on the Genie’s face.

“How does Genie magic work again?” Alessia stepped forward, and Francesco, who had more than one hundred pounds and a gun on her, stepped back. He tried to hide his fear, but Alessia saw it. And she reached out with her magic and she felt his fear like it was a tangible thing. But Francesco’s training and his violent nature were strong enough to force these feelings down.

But the Genie turned her magic into a thought, which she then buried within Francesco’s mind. Alessia started stalking toward Francesco and raised her hand which she let turn back into its smokey form. He took a step back.

“What’s the matter, Francesco? Are you scared of the one little girl who can fight back?” The thought Alessia planted in Francesco’s mind exploded like a bomb.

Still connected to his mind, Alessia felt his panic and fear tremble through his body. She saw it in the way his stepped backwards more quickly and his feet were less steady. She saw it in the sweat that started to bead on his forehead and dribble down his face. And she saw it in the way he lowered his knife and his gun.

But as the threat against Alessia’s Master waned, so too did her magic. She could feel the power waft back into her. But Francesco didn’t need to know that. “Leave. Now.” She said. The thug spun around and ran back into the dawn and the free world outside. It was a place too good for him. Why should he get to be free, while she was she bound to serve?

She wanted to chase after him and fix her mistake of letting him free, but a moan nearby reminded Alessia why she was here. The Genie turned to look down at the man who held the golden lamp. He curled around it like a scared child, and his warm red blood of his life spilled out in a steady river onto its surface.

Alessia took halting steps toward the man, her curly toed slippers light on the ground. He was a young man, probably a few years older than her, with hair that was long for a boy, almost down to his shoulders. It had a light curl in it. His blue shirt and jeans were covered in blood and grease from before that, and his brown boots were loose on his feet.

“Oh, God,” Alessia breathed, dropping down to look at him. She had never been this close to a person this close to death. He moaned and pushed out a barely audible call for help.

Alessia eyes went wide. “I can fix this.” She said, her voice shocked and light. The Genie reached into the well of power she had felt before. The well that felt like a shimmering golden light.

It wasn’t the fount of limitless energy she felt before, and was more like a puddle drying out in the heat of the noon sun. But it was there, and Alessia hoped it was enough. She put her hand on the wound in the man’s stomach. Her pool of energy started to grow, and she didn’t know why. She didn’t care why.

Alessia pushed a portion of that magic through her heart and her body, forcing it into her the man’s own weakening flesh. At once, she felt connected to him in a way she could never have imagined before. She saw the way his organs and his muscles were meant to be, and the way they were now. She could feel the rhythm of his heart, his lungs, and the very cells that made him. Alessia’s golden magic did the rest. It dove through him, pulling, pushing, and teasing his body back into shape.

Alessia’s magic finished its work and dissipated into the world, leaving with not a sound except the tinking of metal. The genie furrowed her brows and looked down to the black asphalt. The now gleaming and perfect bullet that had tried to kill her the man glinted in the shadows, an unexpected result of healing him.

The genie stared at the small lead object. She had seen bullets before, and she had seen their results; it was an inescapable part of living on bad, gang ridden, streets.She used to run from them and leave their targets bleeding on the sidewalk. They weren’t her friends, and she couldn’t help them. But now . . . now she could.

The man suddenly coughed. It was a horrible, almost choking sound. “Wh-what happened?” He looked up at Alessia with wide, dark eyes.

“You don’t remember?” The Genie asked. “There was a man -- Francesco -- he shot you. I scared him off.”

“You?” The man asked, looking Alessia over with a confused and weak eyes. His look lingered a little on her breasts, and the Genie crossed her arms to make them a little less noticeable.

“Yes, me.” Alessia looked away from his gaze and saw that her lamp, her golden prison, had fallen from the man’s hand. It was still close to him. Still, if she moved quickly, if she could grab the lamp, this nightmare of hers would end.

But as she contemplated her escape, the man leaned forward and clasped his hands around Alessia’s lamp. She felt something tingle throughout her body.

“Are you an actual Genie?” He asked, “Like, real magic, and real lamps. And real . . . wishes?”

Alessia’s mouth dried and she gulped before she gave her answer. “Yes, Master. I am your Genie” She stared at the golden lamp in his hand as she spoke. “I am a humble servant of the Djinn. You own my lamp, and so own me. Wish upon me three desires and I shall make them true.”

The Genie put her hand to her mouth and looked to her Master, her eyes wide from shock. She hadn’t meant to say any of that; it had just come out. And the thing that surprised her the most was how true it all was.