The Amulet

Alex Bennet was always the textbook definition of a nice guy. He helped out anyone he met with little thought of his own reward. Although truth be told as he grew older he became bitter at the fact that he did all the work and someone else reaped the benefits.

And now on this ordinary spring day, Karma pays back a long overdue reward.

Alex was heading home looking forward to a long lazy weekend, when he discovered the old man on the park bench. After watching the steady rise and fall of the senior's chest, Alex leaned closer and asked "Sir? Are you okay?"

"As well as I can be, for someone not long for this world." He said pleasantly.

"Oh." Alex said somewhat dumbly. "Do you know..."

"Doctors said I was probably measuring in hours instead of days." The old man cracked open one eye and jangled the wrist with the plastic admissions band on it. "So that's why I'm playing hooky. I want to remember the feeling of sun on my skin and smell fresh air for a while, not antimicrobial soap."

"Can't blame ya there." Alex said. "You mind if I share your bench?"

"Now why on earth would a young man like you wanna spend time with a crusty old fossil like me?"

"I'd like to think that nobody deserves to die alone and forgotten."

"Think maybe you're right there." The old man gestured to the bench and Alex lowered himself down. "You got a name, young blood?"

"Alexander Bennet, but most everybody calls me Alex. What about you?"

"No sense in learning a name today that they'll be carving into a stone tomorrow. Call me Pops. It's as good a name as any."

"All right pops. You ever have any snot nosed brats who thought they were too good to listen to their old man?"

"Did I ever! Ah, the stories I could tell..."

"Why don't you then?"

Pops sat up a little straighter. "Well there was this one time, back in... '46 I think. My daughter Lucinda..."

And so Alex and Pops spent a pleasant few hours celebrating life.

"You know, Alex." Pop's said at length. "You're a good kid. A rare breed these days."

"I hear that quite often." Alex laughed bitterly. "Usually as someone is reaping the fruits of my labor. Even when someone tries to set the record straight I'm usually just brushed aside. Until they need something again."

"Bet you'd like something back? Maybe a little control" Pops asked.

"Certainly wouldn't be objecting to that." Alex replied.

Pops nodded and reached into the pocket of the jacket he wore. "I suppose I wasn't completely honest when I said why I came out here. Years ago, a man in the twilight of his life gifted this to me. Now the sun sets on my time and I think perhaps I may have found one to pass this on to." Pops opened his hand to reveal a golden amulet with a triangle cut sapphire set in the middle and strange runes circling the outer edge.

"What is it?" Alex asked breathlessly

"What is it? A magic amulet. What does it do? Allows you to manipulate the mind and bodies of anyone you want, anyway you wish." Pops cracked a smile. "The only limit is your imagination."

"Sound pretty farfetched." Alex said skeptically.

"And just like when the amulet came to me, the moment of disbelief." Pops gazed around the nearly empty park before spotting a woman jogging. "Watch the woman in the tank top." Alex nodded and split his attention between the amulet in the old man's hands and the young jogger. Suddenly the young woman's breasts began to swell going from her started B cup to a ridiculously comical G cup. Pops just smiled at the dumbstruck expression of his young companion. "Wait a minute, kid. It's about to get better."

"How?" Alex gasped as the altered jogger veered towards them. Pops just nodded towards her as she came to a stop in front of them.

"Excuse me, gentlemen? I was wondering if you could do me a huge favor please?"

"I don't see why not." Alex said cautiously. "What do you need us to do?"

The jogger smiled and pulled the tank top down to her waist. "Could you please fondle my breasts to see if they're real?"

Alex nodded dumbfounded as he reached out to stoke and squeeze the massive mammary. "Oh yes. This one is quite undeniably real." Pops nodded his agreement from the far side of the other one.

"Oh thank you so much." She said pulling her top back up into place. "See you around!"

Alex stared in dumbfounded awe as Pops reversed the breast growth. "How did you do that?"

"One of the most basic uses of the amulet. I put the thought into her head to come over here and ask about her boobs. Be warned, it helps to use the first person when using that trick, because if they're thinking 'I want' and you're thinking 'you want' it'll cross wires so to speak. They will obey the thought you implanted, but there will be a conflict and the resulting turmoil could knock somebody out or worse."

"You say that like I've already chosen to accept the amulet." Alex said.

"Can you look me in the eye and honestly say you're not?" Pops challenged. Alex shook his head. He knew the old man was right, and that he'd be going home with that amulet today. "That's what I thought. So I'm offering the amulet of my own free will. Do you accept it of your own free will?"

"I do." Alex said with complete confidence.

"Of free will given and of free will claimed." Pops said pressing the amulet into Alex's hand.

"Oh hell!" Alex grit his teeth as the palm of his hand exploded in pain. And just as swiftly as it came, the pain was gone. In the middle of his palm a strange rune lay in a brilliant golden color, and Alex had just enough time to give it a cursory glance before it seemed to melt into his skin. "What was that?"

"Protection rune." Pops said. "It keeps you from getting hit by your own whammy. Of course on the down side you can't alter your own body, because the amulet is protecting you from all its effects."

Alex nodded and let a portion of his mind work around that matter. "So can anybody use this then?"

"Nope. The rune is also a mark of ownership. It'll only work for you, even if someone else is holding it. Good fun to be had by remote, as it were." Pops sighed and levered himself to his feet. "Would you do me a solid, young blood, and help this old fossil back to the hospital? I think I'm all through on this earth, and now I just want to get comfortable and let it end."

"Oh." Alex said, allowing Pops to lean on him. "I had questions, about the amulet."

"So ask 'em. I'm not dead yet." Pops grinned.

"So... how do I make it work?" Alex asked. "I mean, you were just holding it when you changed that jogger."

"Focus and will, Alex. Just focus on what you want to happen or what kind of effect you need and will it to happen and it will even if you don't have the amulet with you. It's just that easy."

"Oh, okay. So what kind of mind control things can I do?"

"Anything you want. My sister in law was a royal bitch until I finally got fed up with her. But anyway, she had some gorgeous long legs, and wearing high heels only made them better. So one day I take the amulet and I zap her favorite high heels. She put em on and dropped into a trance faster than you can say pennywhistle. If you want to zap a satellite in orbit and have it beam down a hypnotic signal with the local news, you can. If you wanted to change the water in a bathtub into a mind control gel, you can. All you need is your imagination."

"Awesome." Alex said as a number of fantasies crossed his mind's eye before he sobered. "I guess I should probably do something like end global war or something noble like that."

"Fuck that noise, as the youngsters say these days. I spent my first year with the amulet chasing ass and my second chasing cash. Caught a lot of both too. You use the power for whatever the hell you wanna use it for. Nobody judged me, and I sure as hell ain't in the position to judge you, so I won't."

"So there's no right or wrong way to use it?"

"Nope. There's only your way. My time is passing like the sun." Pops gestured towards the setting sun. "I had a good run and I have no regrets whatsoever. Do what you will with what you have and as long as you can say the same at the end of the day, I'd say you did good."

"Is this the only Amulet like this?" Alex asked.

"I don't know. It's kind of hard to backtrace something like this, because all the ones who had it before are dead. It's the only one I've ever encountered but there are seven billion people on this planet, and a lot of space to hide a needle."

Alex nodded thoughtfully. "So what about the people you used this on?"

"When I die, it will all be undone." Pops said. "New master, new world."

"Is there anybody it won't work on?"

"Ah hell no." Pops said, waving his hand in a dismissive gesture. "Everyone is fair game. Even better, they'll follow your commands whether they want to or not, unlike hypnosis."

"Any side effects I should know about?" Alex asked as they reached the hospital doors.

"I noticed some moral slippage but I don't know if that was the amulet or the absolute power." Pops gave a wry grin as they walked inside. A moment later the hospital staff swarmed him chastising the old man and thanking Alex profusely for bringing him back.

"Take care of yourself, Pops." Alex gave a jaunty salute which the old man cheerfully returned as Alex walked back out the doors.

It was well past dark when Alex returned home. Judging from the lights he wasn't home alone tonight. Alex rubbed his chin as he pondered who it could be. His biological mother, Sherry, was a former stage hypnotist's assistant. She lived with his hypnotherapist father, despite the fact they never married. Rachel was his father's wife whom he met a hypnotherapy convention, and she brought her daughter Megan. It was unorthodox to be sure, but they made it work.

He let himself in and headed in search of the house's other occupant.