Two Wishes

"How are you holding up, kiddo?" Katherine rested her hand on the young man's shoulder. His quivering subsided for a moment. The desperate gasps of the recently orphaned boy echoed through the apartment as she glanced at her brother, an imposing man who stood in the doorway with his arms folded.

The boy didn't reply, his throat tangled in knots as he dropped into his couch.

"Finn," her brother began. "If there is anything we can do, please, don't hesitate to let us know." He unfolded his arms and reached out to the boy, but halted himself and pulled his arms back to his sides.

"What can I do now?" He choked through tears. "What happens next?"

Katherine knelt quickly and returned her hand to his shoulder with a gentle squeeze.

"You can grow up big and strong, be an artist like her." She forced a smile, but Finn didn't see it through the mess of hair and tears that covered his face. They remained there a moment, in the aftermath of tragedy as he wiped a never-ending stream of tears from his face. "You know," she began. "I know what it's like."

Finn managed to clear the snot from his nose with a rough drag of his sleeve before his reply bubbled from his lips. "Do you?"

Katherine nodded. "I lost my mom when I was your age."

He stared at her, his eyes wide and distant as she continued.

"She was strong, just like your mom. Yours might have even been stronger. She fought hard." She tensed her free hand and braced herself as she crouched down.

Finn didn't answer, he hardly acknowledged her as he laid down on the couch and closed his eyes.

"I'm tired." He mumbled, after a while. Katherine waved to Jakob who stepped away from the door carefully, so as not to disturb the boy. She sat beside him on the couch and ran her fingertips through his hair until he fell into a deep, unconcerned slumber.

She remained there while Jakob rummaged through the house, silent as he searched. Behind the soft snoring of the boy, he turned locks and popped open boxes. Drawers in the bedroom slid open and shut as Finn laid there, his tears absent for the moment.

Jakob emerged from the depths of the apartment with a small black leather book, bound with tightly wound straps and a brass buckle. He waved from the bedroom and she stood, wary of the young man as she stepped away with one eye on him.

"This is it," Jakob whispered. He flipped through the pages and inspected them carefully. "The kids got a genie. I told you."

Katherine peered around the door frame. "Just because you smelled cedar at the funeral, that could have been anything."

Jakob repressed a chuckle. "He did it, Kat."

"Killed his mom?" She rolled her eyes and braced herself on the door frame with a hand outstretched. Her brother placed the book safely in her hands.

She opened it and poured over the passages, written years before Finn, and none of it made any sense.

"It's a diary." She handed the book back to him. "Go put it back, let's leave before he wakes up. I'm not keen on explaining why we're rummaging through his things."

Jakob stepped away when a voice creaked through the otherwise silent apartment.

"Child," The first word groaned like the door to an old barn. "What have... you done with... the... journal?"

From the other side of the door, Finn woke with a shout.

"I didn't do anything with it."

"Then," Another long creak. "Why... is your mother... gone?"

Finn began mumbling, the familiar sound of sobs returned and he shouted.

"I didn't do it!"

"What... did?" The voice crackled.

"You didn't give me what I wished for," Finn replied carefully, his sobbing suddenly gone.

"I... don't grant... wishes."

Katherine pulled in a breath and peeked through the doorway to see Finn suspended by a long shadow. Thin spider-like arms held him in the air, the long fingers of the thing wrapped around the boy's chest as they stared at one another. The shadow stretched upward as it unhinged its jaw and let fall a long, wart-ridden tongue that wrapped around Finn's neck.

She jumped out of hiding and drew a small iron dagger from within her belt.

"Let him go." She stared at the thing as its pulsating tongue caressed Finn's cheeks. It slowly faced her, revealing a spiraling mass of smoke where its face should be.

"I... cannot." It replied, and retracted its tongue back into its gaping maw. Droplets of saliva dripped from the base of its hanging mouth as it placed Finn back on the couch.

"Told you," Jakob replied, rushing past with a burnt piece of cedar wood in his hands. "Genie."

The creature lurched away from his attack and wrapped itself around Finn like a tight, molding blanket.

"I am... his." It slowly creaked as Jakob swung with the makeshift stake.

The creature reeled away from Finn and into the air above him and drove itself down into his throat. Jakob reached for the boy, who fell limp in his hands.

"Get out of the way." Katherine shoved her brother to the side of the couch and took Finn into her hands. Her skin grew warm as she muttered.

"I will not let you go." She placed her open palm on the boy's forehead. She pushed down on him as hard as she could and commanded the spirit within. "Leave this boy, you are not welcome here."

Blinding light shot from her fingertips as she pressed down on him, and smoke poured from his eyes and mouth. A searing pain crawled up her arm, but in a short moment, the light extinguished. So too, did the pain, as Finn woke and scrambled to his feet.

"What are you?" He backed away from her as the shadows collected on the floor beneath them.

"Finn, I am an angel," Katherine spoke calmly. "You have no reason to believe me, but I am." She extended her hand to him, but he backed away.

"I don't believe in angels." Finn sprinted to his mother's room and slammed the door as the coalescing shadow formed once more into the monstrosity it had been mere moments ago.

"Charming..." It began. "You've broken... me from him." She paid little attention to the creaking voice of the thing as she slammed into the door. Beneath the rickety voice, she could hear Finn scrambling through his mother's room.

"I need to find her book." He repeated to himself.

"What are you?" Jakob called out to the shadow.

"I... am his... guardian."

"What are you protecting him from?"

Katherine jostled the lock as Jakob focused on the creature behind her. She shoved and managed to burst the door open to find Finn lying on the floor convulsing, the black book open before him.

"That..." the creature gestured.

Katherine dove into the room and knelt over Finn, her fingers on his neck, muttering a half prayer.

"Please be alive, please be alive."

The black book, lying on the bed, began turning pages of its own accord as the room grew colder. Katherine didn't bother waiting to see the ending and hoisted Finn into her arms. She moved towards the door as the door slammed, blocking her exit.

"Fine." She muttered. "You want the boy?" She set Finn on the ground carefully. "You will go through me."

She stared at the book as the words peeled from within and floated in the air to become something tangible. The words scrawled across the journal peeled back and wrapped around themselves as they formed vibrantly colored sinew and muscle, from the folds within sprouted a dark blue skin that stretched across the husk. The thing crawled from the spine of the book and stood before her. Where the torso of a human would have been, instead were hundreds of eyes surrounded by gnawing rows of teeth that gnashed against themselves.

"I would be happy to." A hundred voices echoed into the room at once as the thing approached. Its arms reached out in unison for her, and she stepped back, unsheathing the knife a second time.

"That won't do, I'm afraid." The mouths grinned, the eyes followed her hand.

"It's not for you." She whispered. "I know what you are."

The thing stopped in its tracks as the mouths began cackling together.

"Do you?" It folded its pairs of arms and stared still the sound of grinding teeth a dull hum beneath Jakob's shouting.

"You are a demon." She leveled with the creature's true face, hidden behind a thin layer of blue skin that sheltered another mouth and a pair of eyes, distinct from the others. Hardly visible beneath the nearly opaque skin.

"I believe..." She began. "You are a lexicon demon." She rearranged the grip of her knife. "You are born from the chaos of creativity and emotion. You feed on it." She took a step toward the bed. "You are an impostor, designed by stress."

The face sealed by skin smiled and cocked its head. "How astute of you, so, what do you want? I can be anything." It twitched briefly as it took another step.

"I wish for you to tell me what Finn wished for." She spoke carefully, precisely.

"The boy?" The singular mouth on its head produced a vile chuckle. "He wished for his mother to feel better, and their family to be free of debt."

"He was twelve, what did he say?"

It paused and grinned. "He wished for his mother not to hurt anymore, and for him to have the money to buy her something nice."

Katherine grimaced. "Disgusting." She held the knife above the bed frame and kept her eye on the thing as it crept closer to Finn.

"I disagree, madame. What is your next wish?"

"I wish that you would cease."

"Cease what?" The demon grinned. "I do so many things."

Katherine winked. "Everything."

She plunged the knife down into the bed, right where the black book rested. Then she twisted, wrenching the blade out of the journal as the demon screamed in pain. Finn woke and scrambled away as she shredded it to pieces. As quickly as it had appeared and formed into reality, the creature before them fell and returned to the page as lines of ink that dotted the book. The tattered scraps fluttered for a moment before they fell flat against the ground and bedframe. Finn rushed to her side as Jakob opened the door, and found them together, embracing.

"Thank you," Finn muttered.

"I... see... you were not a threat... after all..." the shadow passed into the room and paused behind Finn.

"This is my friend, Mr. Drift." He gestured towards the pulsating shadow that hung suspended in the air as he crossed the bedroom toward the closet. He returned with a cardboard box. He cracked it open to reveal piles of hundred dollar bills neatly wrapped and piled.

"I was supposed to use this for my mom, but..." He sucked in a breath. "You can have it."

Katherine looked at her brother with wide eyes.

"We can't take this." She shook her head. "This is yours, regardless of how you got it."

Finn shrugged. "You saved my life."

Jakob forced a smile and plucked the journal from the bed. "What is this about?"

The shadow cleared its throat and interrupted. "I believe... Mrs. Burgess was... dealing with something... sinister... she's owned that money since Finn was a boy..." He paused and inhaled a deep breath. "She summoned the... creature... to help her... escape poverty..." He cleared his throat a second time.

"Still..." Katherine began. "This is yours, Finn. If you want it." She offered him the knife.

"No thanks." Finn shook his head, a few tears slipped away from his cheek. "I'd rather use a pen."