The Third Wish

by Simon Archer

  “I want to see it!” I yelled.

  Again, the crowd erupted in agreement.

  “Who here has the link?” I kept a straight face and looked around the crowd as if I was seriously waiting for somebody to send me the link to the video. I got more and more dramatic about my search by looking from person to person, with questioning eyes. After it was clear nobody could send me the link to the sex tape video that they were all certain existed, I stood up straight and stopped moving.

  “So, is there no link?” I asked the crowd.

  The people started mumbling and shrugging their shoulders. I nodded my head slowly and looked disappointed for a minute. Then I looked out over the crowd.

  “I have a surprise for you,” I told them, finally. All eyes were on me, and I prayed my strategy would pay off. “Since none of you sent me a link to a rumored sex tape that we all wanted to see, each of you will receive a fifty-dollar gift certificate to Genhill’s Sandwich Shop.”

  My guests clapped and cheered. I winked at Katie and Red, who were together once again. I waited once more for the noise to calm down.

  “Now, here’s a little secret,” I started, sounding as mysterious as possible. I left a dramatic pause and then started chuckling into the microphone as if laughing at a joke that was so funny, it was hard to tell with a straight face. “I wanted to give away some stuff tonight, so I started the rumor about the sex tape. There is no sex tape of Tobin Keene.”

  A buzz emitted from the throng of people before me. They started looking at each other quizzically. When they started to get louder, I threw my arm back up in the air.

  “And all of you just got a fifty-dollar gift certificate for not spreading rumors!” I hollered. “Don’t believe everything you hear! Am I right?” I put the mic down to my side and prayed the humor wasn’t lost on the crowd.

  Everything went quiet for a long moment, and then someone started clapping. Then a few more people started clapping, and another one whistled. Soon, everyone standing in my beach yard was laughing, clapping, or hollering in celebration of their own ‘moral high ground.’ I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, and my heartbeat slowed considerably. Disaster aversion seemed to have worked. I felt a tug at my left arm and turned to see Vila standing beside me.

  “Brilliant!” she whispered in my ear. I winked at her and handed the microphone back to the guitarist it belonged to.

  “Thank you. It was the best I could come up with him on short notice,” I replied. She walked with me back into the house. Lottie, Andi, Katie, and Red arrived a moment later.

  “Do you realize you just bought four-thousand dollars-worth of sandwiches?” Katie called out as she walked up.

  “Is that all?” I laughed. “Call Tobin and tell him to start spouting some more dumb shit, and I’ll double it!”

  The six of us busted up as the rest of the party went on.

  Some people decided to filter back into the house where the food was, while others remained outside enjoying the fire. Nobody seemed to remember anything about Tobin’s newscast at all, but they were all very gracious in thanking me for their gift certificate. Katie and Red stayed another hour, and it felt like we had our own separate little party with just the six of us. I thanked Katie for her support once again when we walked them out. It was another two hours before the last of the guests would leave to go home. Lottie, Andi, Vila, and I collapsed into loungers outside by the fire once the house was empty.

  “Whose idea was it to throw a housewarming party for the whole town?” Lottie asked sarcastically.

  “I don’t know, but what an idiot!” Vila shouted, laughing.

  “Ouch! A little harsh there, don’t you think?” Lottie yelled back at her, feigning offense.

  “An adorable, sexy idiot?” I added, feeling mischievous.

  “That’s better!” she chuckled. “Great job with the monkey-see, monkey-do act to get that news asshole off the minds of our guests, by the way.”

  “Just happy it worked! If so, it will be worth the four thousand dollars in lunch meat we just paid for,” I laughed.

  “Do we have to clean all this up?” Andi changed the subject out of nowhere.

  “Oh, hell, no!” Lottie answered. “The company will come to take care of it tomorrow.”

  “Not too early, I hope,” I added. Sleeping in sounded amazing at the moment.

  “I told them not to come until ten, so you could get your beauty sleep,” she said sweetly.

  “Good. Thank you. Not all of us have time for the spa, you know!” I replied haughtily.

  “Someone’s going to need a doctor, not a spa, here in a minute!” Lottie sniped humorously. I winked at her, and the four of us spent a few minutes looking at the stars as the fire died beside us.

  Lottie rubbed her upper arms, trying to create heat with the friction. I crossed over to her and crouched down behind her. I sat down in the sand and pulled her close to me so I could wrap my arms around her. The heat between our bodies crackled as I felt her breathing against my chest. Her heartbeat quickened, and goosebumps appeared on her skin in response to my touch.

  I started at the top of her bare shoulders, rubbing my hands along her arms, up and down in slow sensual touches. Lottie curled up against me, leaning against my chest, her head falling back against my shoulder.

  Her neck twitched in time with her pulse. It was long and languid, and the dimming firelight hit it with the right amount of glow. I leaned down and pressed my lips against her, unable to resist the temptation any longer. She was right there, relaxed and comforted by my presence.

  A purr vibrated in Lottie’s throat as my lips trailed up and down her neck, ascending up to nibble on her earlobe. Her muscles tightened against me and pressed into my hips. My cock hardened as her ass rubbed against me, in time with the nips I gave her ear.

  A pleasurable shiver running up my spine nearly distracted me. I pulled away for a second to see that Andi had crawled over to join us. She had transformed into her genie shape, letting her mist slide up my shirt. It danced along my spine, tapping each vertebra with a shocking sensation. My own head rolled back, forgetting Lottie’s neck as I relished in the tingles zinging along the surface of my skin.

  It was alright, though. Lottie wasn’t left unsatisfied because Vila stepped in to take my place. She sat on all fours, perched between Lottie’s legs. She leaned forward, pushing her breasts up with her arms, as her lips met Lottie’s. The two of them made out in my lap while Andi brushed featherlight and captivating touches along my back.

  “I didn’t know…” I stuttered, but Andi’s continued strokes kidnapped my words, locking away my rationale. My dick throbbed at the thought of her mist wrapped around it, giving me more intense pleasure.

  As if she knew my desire to be touched, Lottie wrapped a hand around her back and rubbed my cock over my pants. As much as I would have liked to think she was a mind reader, she probably was just reacting to the large, pulsating bulge against her back. I responded in kind, needing to do something with my twitching hands. My palms found her breasts, and I cupped them tightly as Andi tickled the back of my neck.

  Lottie’s moans sounded luxurious in Vila’s mouth. She licked the lines of Lottie’s lips as she vocalized her pleasure. Vila and I stayed in sync with one another as she bit and pulled at Lottie’s lower lip while I flicked her hardened nipples, prominent even beneath her loose shirt.

  The four of us sat in a line on the sand, Lottie and I sandwiched between the two genies. The foreplay charged the night air, generating more heat than the nearby dying fire. I lost myself in the feel of the three of them surrounding me as we focused on nothing but pleasuring each other.

  I thought my cock was going to burst through my pants as it grew under Lottie’s rubbing. As much as I hated to, I pushed back from the group so I could lay flat on the sand, intending to wiggle out of my clothes as quickly as possible. But the women didn’t stop when I stepped aside. Instead, they continued the spectacle, giving me the most
delicious show.

  Lottie sat in the center and pushed out her chest, feeding her nipples to Vila’s mouth, which toggled them with her tongue and fingers. Andi used her own mouth to kiss Lottie’s pussy. First, it was over her pants, but the genie quickly undid the button, the pop resounding in the night over the roaring ocean.

  At the sight of Lottie’s clean-shaven pussy, a drop of cum slid down the tip of my free cock. It was a glorious sight, and it nearly killed me to have to sit on the sand and wait my turn. But I didn’t want to ruin the beauty of the three women caressing each other.

  So I wrapped my hand around my cock and pleasured myself while I watched Andi’s misty tail gently rub Lottie’s clit. Her head snapped back, and her eyes closed at the intensity of the sensations coursing through her body.

  “Let it out, Lottie,” I said, encouraging her from my vantage point. “There’s no one here but us. Show us how much you--”

  I didn’t get to finish because her delighted scream escaped just then, seeming to reach the stars above. Vila cradled her head as Lottie’s body shook, the vibrations taking over. Andi didn’t relent and gave Lottie a second orgasm by slipping her mist into her.

  Vila caught my eye as I watched Lottie come, my own hand insufficient for the level of arousal I displayed. The genie rested Lottie’s body on the sand as she came down from her high and floated over to me.

  “And what do you think you’re doing over here, all by yourself?” Vila said as she cocked an eyebrow.

  “Watching,” I answered honestly, never losing eye contact. “But I’d much rather be a participant.”

  “Well, why didn’t you say so?” she said with a wicked smirk.

  Then she flattened herself atop me, slowly sliding her body along mine. Her mist separated into two so that it could wrap up each of my legs. I jittered in anticipation as I felt the warmness of her magic ride up my thighs and encircle my groin.

  When she finally touched me, electricity shot through me. I thought I would lose control right then, but I stayed just on the edge. I refused to let all this come to an end. Not yet. I wanted this to last as long as possible. I needed to drink her in and savor every drop.

  Vila’s mouth met mine, and her tongue made circles around mine, the exact same motion the swirling mist of her tail did over my cock. It was warm, spinning pressure around my shaft. I was unable to think, I could only feel.

  My hips thrust up, meeting her as the friction increased. The weight of her atop me, with the visions of the three of them in my inner eye, while the warmth of her magic surged around my cock, brought me to completion. I wrapped my arms around her back and pulled her onto me as I growled my pleasure at the peak of my orgasm.

  I slid down the other side of bliss, as though I was floating along a lazy river. I drifted with my eyes closed, riding the natural waves of my body. I felt the other women close in around me, cocooning me with their bodies. I opened my arms and welcomed them in.

  Our labored breaths eventually synced up, and our limbs tangled with each other until we could barely tell whose was whose. Both genies had traded their mist for legs so that the weight and warmth of our bodies could comfort them, too. It was a moment of togetherness that the four of us shared, our secret with only the evening sky as our witness.

  I blinked my eyes open briefly and happened to catch a shooting star fly across the sky. Instinct told me to wish for something, but at that moment, with my body smothered by Lottie and the girls, I had all I wanted. We laid there for nearly an hour before Andi gently prodded us to go inside so that we didn’t end up sleeping all night on the beach again.

  9

  The following morning brought a refreshed and excited feeling. I’d slept until moments before the catering company showed up to clean up the house. Since Lottie was busy directing them, and the girls were helping, I decided to look into the spell book’s history that I hadn’t seen yet.

  I would accompany Lottie to her new office space after the house returned to normal, so right then could’ve possibly been the only free time I had for the day. I retrieved the book from a panel I’d hidden it behind in the old projector room in the theater. I’d figured that since nobody seemed to know the room was there, that would be a safe place for it. I returned to the bedroom and sat on the bed.

  The stones had showed me the growing evil power of the book, and I found myself not even wanting to hold it. In order to see the history, however, I needed to. I laid it on the bed and slowly unwrapped the cloth that was around it. I stared at the tattered cover and wondered how old it really was, and how it could’ve survived as long as it did without disintegrating. In the end, I supposed it didn’t really matter. I reached over, picked the book up, and closed my eyes.

  The images immediately started flashing before my eyes. Just as with the other object histories I’d seen, the pictures were too fast for me to focus on as they came. They planted themselves in my memory. I held on as the flashes continued to come. It seemed as though it was taking longer than any other history I’d seen. Perhaps I’d stopped all my visions of history at points where I had retrieved information I felt useful? That was a question I would worry about answering later.

  Just then, feelings started to well up in my chest. I’d never felt anything emotional while receiving a history before. Dread flowed through me, followed by a dark power that ebbed and flowed. I dropped the book, no longer caring if I’d seen everything. The emotions faded but left me stunned. I ran to the shower and got in. I had to get the feelings off of me, away from me, and a shower was the best way I could think of. I was so focused on ridding myself of the terrible feeling that I didn’t access the memories I’d gained until I had calmed down, finished my shower, and returned to the bedroom. The experience had been exhausting, and I never wished to repeat it, so I wrapped the book up as quickly as possible without touching it, returned it to its hiding place, and went back to my room.

  I sat down on the bed and took several deep breaths, trying to relax. It was time to see what I’d learned. I closed my eyes and accessed my memory. I started at the point where Andi’s uncle had accidentally cast a piece of his soul into the book, killing himself in the process. The book gained power from him. Then I saw the book traveling through the hands of several other men with evil intentions, each ending up in the book in much the same way.

  Each man was trying to turn himself into a warlock and gain the book’s power, but it seemed that the book was not designed to grant that type of magic to a human. The process and the failures repeated over and over until finally, the visions changed. I saw a man shaving wood and binding the book together. I had remembered all the way back to the book’s creation. As soon as the man had the book bound, the words showed up on their own.

  That was when the feeling of dread returned. I knew I’d have to suffer through it if I were to know any further information about the book, so I bore the evil. The man shaved the wood for the book a large, twisted tree in a hidden meadow. The tree itself looked decrepit, dark, and surrounded by weeds and vines. I recognized some of the foliage around the tree. There was poison oak, poison ivy, mushrooms that cause hallucinations, giant hogweed, hemlock were among them. In fact, everything in the field seemed to have the ability to cause harm.

  Then I saw people trying to enter the field. Each one died that tried to get close to the tree. It was as though the foliage was there to keep people away from the tree.

  Finally, I saw a man, the one who put the book together, walk right through the foliage and up to the tree. He cut a huge branch off of it and carried it away. He had made the book out of the tree. The evil feeling and malice that flowed through my body intensified when he removed the branch, but I fought through it.

  Suddenly, I saw another book, very similar to the one I had. It was colored a bit differently, and the writing was different, but it said the same thing. I watched as someone I couldn’t see buried it and then it decomposed within the ground. The ground carried the remnants of the decompose
d book through the bacteria and bugs that ate it. They each soon died, and a poisonous plant grew in their place. Where the book was actually buried, a tree grew. When the process was done, the meadow I’d seen previously had formed a twisted, ugly tree, and its poisonous layer.

  At that point, I opened my eyes and stopped the memories. The dread and evil faded quickly, unlike when I was actually holding the book. A moment later, I was back to normal and had much more complete knowledge about how the book came about and stayed present in the world. I had to let Lottie and the girls in on what I’d seen, so I got up and peeked my head out the bedroom door to see how long it would be before the catering company would leave. I was in luck because the last cart was just being wheeled out, and all three ladies were closing the front door behind it. I hurried down the stairs and stood in front of the three of them.

  “I have something to tell you,” I told them, hurriedly. “I know we have to leave for the office soon, so let’s make this quick.” I immediately turned and headed for the kitchen. The girls followed, and as soon as everyone sat at the island, I started explaining what I’d seen.

  “There are at least three dozen soul pieces in that book, and all of Dave,” I started.

  “What do you mean?” Andi asked, looking confused. I had to back up a bit.

  “I looked at more of the spell book’s history,” I filled them in. All three looked disapprovingly at me. “Before you get all upset that I did it without you, I took advantage of the fact that I may not have time for the rest of the day. No whining about it.” After a moment or two, their faces returned to normal, and I knew I was out of scolding-danger.

  “Okay, so what did you see exactly?” Vila asked.

  “I saw all the people, men actually, who continually tried to turn themselves into warlocks with the book. They would come into possession of the book by inheriting it and go about beginning to learn the dark magic inside. They’d perform horrible spells, and eventually, every one of them tried to become a warlock, failed, and gave a part of their soul to the book, then died,” I recounted my vision.