Omar Robledo 🥁 Chaos sounds better with a backbeat 🌶🎵

He didn’t wait for me to express my suspicions though. “And if you’ve got any more questions, Amani, I live only a few steps away.” I rolled my eyes as he walked to the door. But I just couldn’t let him have the last word: “Don’t expect me to come knocking any time soon.” I saw his answering smirk.

Hesitating as he stood up, I asked: “What about my other two wishes?” He cocked his head, thinking for an instant. “You can still use them. There is no time-limit.” My mouth snapped shut as I realised that, maybe, had my first wish been different, he would have avoided answering this question.

But unfortunately, he hadn’t been lying. He knew little about this organisation. He was a minion. As powerful as he was, he was controlled by beings who were even more dangerous. The sun rose, catching me off-guard. I half fell, half stepped out of the circle as the magic barrier dissolved.

“Explain further.” I demanded. Crossing his legs underneath himself, he left his finger up in the air as he answered: “I wish I could. But I am not privy to any more information than that.” “Tell me everything you’ve witnessed or heard about. Chronologically.” And so he did.

“Was it someone’s wish?” I asked. “No. I was unfortunately tricked into a binding contract with an annoying vampire. He works for an organisation known as the Sodality.” I let my head fall, the barrier behind me probably shivering. This was more complicated than I’d originally thought.

“Now ask your questions.” He dared me. And I didn’t let myself lose face. “Tell me why you’re kidnapping people.” “Not people.” He pointed out, a finger raising in correction. “Occults. I have been tasked with that mission. They expect me to bring at least one non-human to them every other week.”

“I command you to answer fully and truthfully to every single question I ask.” My voice was shaking, but it would do. He huffed. “Well that was a waste. Next time, run it by me first.” I snickered. “I’m serious Amani. My species 𝘤𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘰𝘵 lie. And I would have told you anything you wanted to know.”

I took my time. And surprisingly, he waited in silence. I still couldn’t hold his gaze, as I schemed to use his power to my advantage, searched for the best way to word my demands. Wondered if I would trust his previous statement or if I should use my first wish to ask for protection. Then, finally:

“What kind of promise is that?” I grumbled, not even bothering to look at him. “I don’t trust you, your words are worth nothing” “Fine. It’s up to you whether you believe me or not. You also know I’m at your mercy for the next few hours.” I nodded. Three wishes. That’s what I’d won by capturing him.

He stayed on the floor while I leaned back, racking my brain for any extra instructions Myla could have given me to deactivate this damn spell before the sunrise. “Guess we’re stuck in here until the morning. Two birds in a cage.” He said, from the floor. “I won’t hurt you, I swear.”

His whispered confession stilled the air around us. The warmth from the proximity of his body reached me and broke the dazed state I was in. Both hands coming up and slamming his chest, I pushed him away. “𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐨𝐟𝐟!” I pushed so hard he hit the barrier and fell on his ass.

“Surely there aren’t that many djinn around DelSol!” I argued, annoyed at him pointing out my approximations. “You’re right.” He stepped closer, an elbow resting on the magic wall behind me. His hand rose, thumb grazing my cheek. I froze, again. “So far, you’re the only demdji I’ve met, too.”

“Surprised?” I taunted him. For some reason, he still hadn’t used his powers on me. And I wasn’t about to let him remember them. “Not really.” He answered, voice poised. “You strike me as resourceful. I’m just thankful no other djinni had bathed in there, otherwise we would have had to share you.”

Then turned around to face him. “How would you know?” I barked. “Well, you don’t know my full name, otherwise you wouldn’t need all this set up. And I don’t have children. So that only leaves the third option.” “I got some of your hair from the pool filter.” He paused for a second, stunned.

Without answering him, I walked to the other end of the circle, the point where I’d been pulled in. Tapped it a couple of times. The same barrier answered my touch. “By the way, 𝘩𝘰𝘸 exactly did you get my DNA? I assume that’s what you used.” I gritted my teeth.

I felt my face fall and my mouth turn downwards as I tried to walk away. Without success. My hands hit an invisible wall drawn where the circle on the floor ended. Panic rose. “Ah yes…” His voice, low and amused. “I think you might have mixed some of your DNA with mine when prepping your summoning?”

We both fell, our bodies bumping into each other in too many places to count. My head hit his chest and all but bounced off. As soon as I got my bearings again, I was on my feet. Ready to yell some obscenities. But before I did so, I had to get back out of the circle. His powers worked inside it.

“Selling people to human trafficking or something like that?” I kept raising my voice, my finger pointed at him. “ How can you live with yourself?!” A shiver of cold went through my fingers. And as soon as my hand was within range, he grabbed onto it. Pulling me to him in one swift movement.

Light cleared my memories of the night I’d blacked out. Of course it’d been him! Anger surged inside my chest. “How 𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐞 you?!!” If my neighbours were home, they’d hear my shouting, but I couldn’t care enough. He just shrugged. “I didn’t have a choice.” “You’re scum!”

He stopped pacing and looked at me for a couple of seconds. His gaze dropped to the animals and, in turn, so did mine. Both Rhea and Bullet were sitting down now that the smoke had vanished, looking too relaxed. “They didn’t eat me the night I had to take care of them.” Koroosh snarked.

“Not that I would want to anyway.” He started walking around within his metaphorical cage, looking around at my apartment. I wondered where his eyes had drifted first. I focused on what he was saying instead, pointing out: “You couldn’t have done anything to me while the dogs are around anyway.”

Summoning him was supposed to cancel out his hold on reality. Throw him off. “How can you still do that?” I asked. He smiled: “Within the range of these runes, I am still myself. I just can’t get out or interact with anything outside of the circle.”

“Right, first of all.” He wiggled his fingers and the plants that had been surrounding his face started slowly disappearing. “There. They weren’t doing anything anyway, so I’m sparing you some cleaning up, really.” I had to force myself not to run away. He still had his powers?!

“You know, if you wanted to see me, you could have just walked a few steps Amani. Maybe I’d have had time to put on some clothes. I’m told that’s the decent thing to do.” Instinctively, I took a step back. “That’s what you’re unhappy about? Me catching you in your boxers?”

The smoke from the incense I had been burning grew. Exponentially. Gathered at the centre of the lit up circle. And, in it, appeared my djinn neighbour: Koroosh Deveraux. Surely this wasn’t his real name, but it would do for now. He looked… unphazed. Which immediately annoyed the heck out of me.

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Finally. I was ready. Slowly, I began saying the words out loud. The dogs shuffled at my feet, as if uncomfortable with what I was doing. But I could do this. He would be at my mercy. The ring I had drawn on the floor lit up as I finished. And both Rhea and Bullet froze, staring at its centre.

Then, the second he was back in his flat, I swallowed my pride and went straight to the water filter and grabbed everything in it. Trying not to gag, I hurried back to my own flat. Dropped it into a bowl and proceeded to wash the grime off my hands and myself several times.

As soon as the sun hit and he started using our residence’s pool again, I hurried downstairs, plopping myself down at the side of the pool. Waiting. Pretending to interact with the other neighbours. That bastard stayed until night fell. If he hadn’t been such a threat, I might have napped.

As I walked home that night, I tried my best to be discreet. Now that I had a plan, I needed a few things. Koroosh’s DNA would be the hardest one to get. Yet, seeing him check on his plants gave me an idea. Spring was here now, the weather getting warmer every day. And I could take advantage of it.

“What if I want to keep ignoring it?” I mumbled. It was already hard enough dealing with a chronic illness and dark thoughts, I didn’t need to add another level of self-hate onto it. “Without using that part of me.” “There are other things that can be done!” Myla gave me a scheming wink.

“When you’re whole, you’ll be able to change form and use some tricks.” “What kind of tricks?” She smiled and only then did I notice I’d stepped closer to her. I needed more. “The kind that makes even our most powerful parent trip up. But for that, you have to accept the other half of yourself.”

“If I’m like you, a… A Demdji? How come I don’t look like that?” My mouth was dry. She looked away. “There are three stages of a Demdji’s life. Unaware, which you’re slowly coming out of. Unaligned, when you know what you are but refuse to harness it. And whole.”

Slowly but surely, Myla’s hands started to glow. A faint but clear pink line surrounding her fingers, climbing all the way up to her forearm. And when I looked up, I noticed her face had changed, too. She now had two protruding horns, coming out from under her pink bangs. My breath caught.

“You can just tell??” I asked, the knowledge I had accumulated reading myths and legends not even comparing to what this woman seemed to hold in her brain. “Yeah!” “And how am I to know you’re not just a crazy person? No offense, but this doesn’t exactly feel… sane.”

The face she made had me regretting the way I’d asked. The roughness and impatience of it. “Fine, if we can’t even have a little chat anymore… I’m half human. Half djinn. A Demdji.” I kept my mouth from falling open as she said that last word. She continued, smiling like a cat: “And so are you!”

I nodded, slightly intimidated. She was beautiful. Truly breath-taking. Pushing my hair behind my ear, I had to remember why I was here. Years ago in what seemed like an inside joke, Myla had mentioned she was the daughter of a djinni. So I asked the only question that came to mind: “Are you human?”

“Oh, don’t be silly, they can finish each other!” Myla said, walking away from the scene and into an office. I followed and whatever was happening in the other room seemed to fade away. “A caster friend of mine made this place soundproof, isn’t it nice?” The woman smiled, waving at the door.

But maybe I should have paid more attention as I seemed to have walked into… something important. “Gimme a sec, just getting decent!” A feminine voice called out at me. Then, Myla walked out of what I assumed was her bedroom. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt-” I started.

In the spring, my combing through social media brought someone to my attention. 𝐌𝐲𝐥𝐚 𝐉𝐞𝐧𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐬. And when I had DM’d her about it, she’d said to come over. All the way to San Myshuno… The train ride tired me out so badly, I didn’t overthink it when I heard a voice telling me to come in.

I struggled with it up the stairs and all the way into my apartment. Plopped it down in the studio, because that’s where all the mess always ended up. Then, later that day… I understood why Rhea had wanted me to take it. How could I have gone so long without thinking of just sitting down to paint?

On one of our early morning walks, Rhea and I came back to the residence to find a high stool that still looked pristine. She stopped to sniff it, barking at me while she eyed it up. “Shush baby, you’ll wake everyone up!” She obeyed, as she always did, but kept whining at me until I picked it up.

Life could be sweet, I knew that. The void my mother had left in my life couldn’t be filled, but maybe I could work around it. Find ways to create some happiness. Yet, still, late at night, I’d find myself obsessing over that word again. Trying to find someone else in the world to talk to about it.

His words stayed with me. Months passed, winter coming and going with it, and as the days started getting longer again, the sun warming up my mornings, I tried to leave this whole mess behind. Focused on cooking myself and the dogs fun meals, making sure I took my meds every day and trying new teas.

“Sure. Send over their specs.” “You don’t sleep much these days, do you?” Wes asked, concern on his face as he looked past his boyfriend “Are you still obsessing over these legends?” “I can’t find anything interesting about it anymore.” “Maybe you need to find someone else who’s obsessed about it.”

“So did you come here for a specific reason or just to make me feel even more alone than I usually do?” I threw at my friend, ignoring the other man as he so happily ignored me. “The city calls upon you again! They liked your proposition!” Wes smiled, proud of her. Of course this was about work.

As one of my kids’ art classes finished, Wes and his ex-now-rekindled-flame came to check on me. And ended up fully engrossed in each other as I spiralled out of my mind. Random drawings of monsters were reminding me of the tapestries I’d been looking up the night before.

As the days got shorter and the wind picked up in the valley, I also started using them as an excuse to spy on Koroosh. I was now terrified to approach him in any way. And yet, every time I felt good enough, I followed him out of the residence. I never caught him kidnapping anyone again though…

Rhea would usually be the one to shake me out of long stretches of research, letting me know I needed to tune back into the rest of the world. Bullet was content snoring next to me as I read, typed or took notes. They were both a blessing to me. Kept me alive, engaged.