Maria

Maria appeared in her room again in the blink of an eye. Gasping, she glanced around, as if suspecting the genie had also come with her. Luckily, she was alone.

Her room was extremely disheveled; all of her friends had come over a few days ago and she was still waiting for Alexis to make her maid come clean everything up. There were clothes strewn around the room, pencils and pens in one corner, a pile of instruments that had been taken out of their cases in another, and tons of books thrown haphazardly in a pile in the center of the room, pages creased and spines broken from the rough treatment.

Almost none of the items were her own. Maria had discovered joy in taking things from her classmates. Sometimes she got away with it, and they simply scratched their heads and wondered where their things could have gone. But sometimes, they knew it was her. She would bat her eyes at their teachers and principals, feigning innocence, while making faces at her victims from behind their backs. Even though Maria was a bully, she was the smartest of the group, getting great scores on tests without trying too hard. She made sure they could never find any proof it was her, and she was never punished for it. Her favorite was when she knew that her victims wouldn't be able to get another one of the things she was stealing. While her hands weren't deft enough to steal phones, which were always in pockets or in hands, she could sometimes get away with jewelry when the other girls were in the shower, and she had found out that instruments were almost as valuable.

It was a lot of fun for her, but she amassed clutter quickly. She already had filled one of the spare rooms in her house with random junk, and she was considering buying a storage locker to fit all of her things. Maria knew her parents would fund it; all she had to do was ask.

Maria pulled out her phone and tried to send a message to her friends. Unfortunately for her, it had died during the kerfuffle at the pawn shop. Groaning, she hunted around the room, searching for a phone charger amidst everything.

Picking up one of the instruments to search beneath it, she was struck by an urge to throw it across the room, likely breaking it in the process. Then she could take a picture of it and show it to the owner tomorrow at school. She wound up her arm... and couldn't throw it. In fact, she tried to lightly toss it onto the bed, and found that her arms wouldn't let her put it down unless it was gently lain down.

Maria wasn't stupid; she realized that this was the work of that damned genie. She couldn't intentionally destroy someone else's property, that was obviously a mean thing to do. So in order to search her room, she had to pick up the instruments individually and place them with care in a different spot. Cursing under her breath, she started to move everything.

After more work than she had done in weeks, she finally found a charger. She plugged in her phone, then walked into the kitchen, where she had leftovers waiting for her. She clicked on the tv to watch some drama show while she ate.

She lost track of time as she watched. This was a really enthralling episode! Someone had killed the main character's wife, and she didn't know for sure who it was, but she knew that 4 people were lying for each other. Enraged, she had tracked down and killed 3 of them in ****, and was confronting the final person now. The only weird part was, Maria thought that the main character looked vaguely familiar.

"Wh-what are you doing? Leave me alone!"

"After what you did to her?!" The main character cackled, high pitched and eerie. "I have not slept. I have not eaten. All I care about is ****. And I will have it... now!" Saying so, she lunged forwards, knife pointed... at the screen. A crack formed in the television.

Maria tilted her head, confused and a bit dissapointed.

Is this going for some weird 4th wall break?

The colors had changed a bit from the crack. A purple stripe was running down the screen now, highlighting the main character as she pulled her knife back again. Maria felt as if she was looking right at her...

She realized why the girl looked familiar a second before the screen exploded.

Her couch was knocked over backwards as a billowing cloud of purple smoke burst from the television. Maria screamed as she ran to her room, tripping on the way in fear. She slammed the door shut behind her and locked it as she panted and crouched down, looking under the crack of the door to see if anyone was coming. Blindly feeling around, she unplugged her phone and dialed 9-1-1, hovering her finger over the call button. She waited for what felt like ages, not seeing any movement. Slowly, she began to back up. Maybe the genie hadn't seen her? She should try to get out of the house quietly...

A low, sweeping tone sounded behind her. The hairs on her neck rose as she turned and saw the genie floating there, surrounded by similarly floating instruments, which had begun to play an intimidating piece.

"Maria! What a show, hey?"

Maria gave her a shaky grin.

"H-haha, yeah! I was sooo enraptured! I didn't even realize it was you!"

Al'Rinda smiled. She was rotating slowly, as if she was floating imperfectly.

"It takes a lot of work to make a production that good! You should be grateful!"

"I-I am! Thank you, genie! Um, listen, about earlier..."

"Oh, that little event? Water under the bridge, my dear! I'm more interested in what's going on here!" Al'Rinda punctuated her statement with a broad arm movement, gesturing at the clutter filling the room. "Is all of this yours?"

Maria tried to swallow, but her throat was dry.

"W-well, some of it belongs to o-other people at my school. But I, I've been meaning to return them! I realized that I should find better ways to spend my time."

Al'Rinda was upside down in midair, and gave the girl a wide, unsettling grin.

"Is that so? And what possessed you to collect them in the first place?"

"L-listen, genie, I'm sorry! I-I'll return them! I'll change!"

"Maria, I honestly don't care if you really do change. I'm just going to make sure that you get your comeuppance for the way you've behaved up until now."

Al'Rinda clapped her hands together as Maria eyed her viable exits.

"And I think I can kill two birds with one stone here! See, I've had to keep this creature locked up for ages, and it's in their nature to be unorthodox. That doesn't make it an evil creature, it's just in it's... I'm rambling. You seem to like to mess with other people's things, and I know someone else who looooves that. In the name of Al'Rinda, you may show yourself!"

As she spoke, the genie reached inside her chest and pulled out the very lamp she had been bound to, holding it at arms length in front of her. Nothing happened for a second.

"...Hello? I sai-"

Suddenly, the lamp rocketed into Al'Rinda's head, sending her careening through the air. The floating instruments all crashed to the floor as she lost her concentration. Maria couldn't help but smirk at the sudden attack on the genie.

"YOU FUCKING BITCH! I'LL LOCK YOU UP FOR- calm down. Breathing exercises."

Al'Rinda stabilized herself in midair. The lamp kept throwing itself at her, but bounced off a purple shield that had materialized around the genie. After a few moments, she spoke again, eyes closed and teeth gritted.

"This is a poltergeist. They are incorporeal creatures who possess limited telekinetic powers, and feed off of the misfortune, annoyance, and humiliation of others." She flinched as the lamp rocketed against the barrier again with a loud 'gong'. "They can manipulate objects within 10 feet of themselves. They are also protected creatures under the Astujara Legal Charter, meaning that I haven't been allowed to ki... release... this thing for eons. I am legally obligated to give it an enriching environment with lots of stimulation."

"And so! The enriching environment, will be you, Maria!" Al'Rinda said, pointing a finger at her. "With the power vested in me, and in accordance with Astujara 347 L.P. 483, I hereby bind you!"

A sound like gusting wind filled the room as Maria felt her hand inexplicably drawn forwards. An ominous purple hue was surrounding her hand, and she covered her eyes and screamed as a flash of light pulsed out. When it was finished, Maria could pull her hand back. Sitting on her hand was a silver ring studded with a small purple gemstone.

"Jesus, you sure do love to scream, don't you?" Al'Rinda said, rubbing at her ears.

Maria tried to pull the ring off. But it was stuck hard. It looked like it should slide off quite easily; it wasn't as if the ring was too small for her. But no amount of yanking or even biting would remove it.

"Okay, so, the poltergeist is now bound to that ring. The ring is also enchanted to protect you from any physical damages you may have otherwise received if it played a bit too rough. I have to say, Maria, I reeeeally don't envy you. Speaking from experience, you will never get used to this thing."

Maria shuddered. She hadn't seen any purple just then, but Al'Rinda's words had a kind of... weight to them. Like they were important.

"Holy lamp, am I glad to get rid of that thing. So, let's see you two have some fun! I want to make sure this all worked out correctly, after all."

As Al'Rinda spoke, several objects in Maria's room began to slowly and ominously float into the air.

10 feet, right?

Maria took off like a shot, running down the hallway and jumping down half the stairs. Some objects in her house began to float after her, but dropped lifeless onto the floor after she made distance from them. Sprinting to the door, she wasn't suprised to hear it lock itself in front of her. Rather than fight the poltergeist, she ran and jumped through a window she had left open. Performing a dive roll, she lost almost no speed as she ran past her car and down the street at a breathtaking pace.

Al'Rinda watched all of this, mouth agape. Turning, she spotted the gymnastics trophies hidden beneath all the other crap in Maria's room.

"What the fuck are they feeding this girl?"

Maria ran down the street, thoughts whizzing through her head. She needed to get to a place where there were no objects for the poltergeist to manipulate. Unfortunately for her, she didn't realize that as she ran, her phone was acting up...